Jeff and I are hearing from nonprofit professionals who worry themselves sick about whether they should be asking the donor for a gift.
Richard Perry
“There is no way I can succeed, because all the people I depend on to give me resources are not doing their jobs!”
The main thing I have learned is that hardly anything in life is really solely about me, even as much as I want it to be.
There is no doubt that your job as a major gift officer can be difficult. There are a number of threats to your psyche that come from either the organization or the donor. But there is a group of internal threats that you face as well.
The content of many fundraising and major gift consultants is often about strategy or messaging, which it should be.
Almost every day, I am kindly interrupting a conversation and asking: “What’s the problem?”
At almost every junction on the road of your life, both personal and professional, you have a decision to make.
We are constantly asking directors of development to encourage and thank their major gift officers.
The relationship started like any other. The donor wanted to give to a specific program. The organization was very happy to help her.
I was at a conference and was asked the question: “What do you think about the trend to blend planned giving and major giving jobs?”
Donor assets are like pure gold for an organization. If you were to place a value on each one, the resulting number would shock you.
A major gift officer’s journey is never a straight and narrow line.
The African proverb speaks to the need for nonprofit managers to be aware of how their actions affect those they manage.
Resistance to change is a regular occurrence in our work with major gift officers. Most often, it is the director of development or the major gift officer who, on the front end, has difficulty with our work.
You’ve landed the job. You are the new major gift officer. Hopefully someone gave you a different title to use externally, because you should not use MGO as your title.
