Major Gifts

There is a major nonprofit that — I know if you heard its name, you would, by all accounts, say, “Wow, what a great organization that is doing such amazing work.” But, internally, the nonprofit has a leadership mess and toxic environment.

Managers and authority figures do not understand that spending the money to give their MGO admin support is the best investment they can make. The fact is that the cost of providing admin support to an MGO actually increases the return on investment (ROI) of the major gift effort.

Almost every good business book over the past two decades has at least one chapter devoted to company culture and making sure you have staff buy-in to the overall vision of the company. But, it's been difficult for nonprofits. Here is how you get there.

Donors want to know that their giving made a difference. That one question alone captures a huge problem in fundraising — a problem you can address in your major gift program.

Your donors probably each has at least five other organizations trying to capture their attention and another 10 to 15 organizations wanting to start relationships with them. So, what are you doing to stand out in your donors' minds, capture their heart and have them always take your call?

If you are in this situation with a caseload filled with non-responding, uninterested donors, then you are wasting your precious time. That is a fact.

If you’ve never done this gut-check exercise, I urge you to do this immediately. Even if you have 150 donors in your portfolio right now — the maximum number of donors in a qualified portfolio — my guess is that over half of them would not pass the gut-check test.

The average tenure for a major gifts officer is sitting at 16 months with replacement costs sitting at more than $127,650. What is causing MGOs to burn out? Think about what you can do to deal with the very things that, if they continue for you, will literally rip the spirit right out of you and cause your revenue to go down.

Alex Trebek and other celebrity nonprofit ambassadors can have a profound and lasting impact on the causes they choose to support. While not an easy relationship to cultivate, it can be well worth the effort. Here's how four nonprofits have benefited from the generosity of the late game show host and "Jeopardy!" guest hosts LeVar Burton and George Stephanopoulos.

I hear too many speeches, sit in too many meetings, and receive too many communications (written and electronic) where the author starts off by building the case and then finally gets to the reason for building it. This tactic will confuse your major donor.