Major Gifts

We conduct feasibility studies to provide the research on what we will face in a campaign. It is invaluable. When it comes to someone’s potential, life happens and other commitments and priorities are in play. Someone may have a health or family situation that no one knows about that is impacting their giving. They may be in a very different position in a few months or a few years. Let’s keep honoring our donors and prospective donors, and building long-term relationships that transcend campaign timeframes...

The California Institute of Technology has announced a $100 million endowment gift from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation—to be used as the Caltech leadership chooses. To strengthen Caltech for generations to come, the institute's president and provost have chosen to dedicate the second-largest gift in its history to funding fellowships for graduate students. Caltech…

There are significant debates about the role of philanthropy and modern trends in philanthropy. Often philanthropy is viewed as the elitist activity of the rich in their attempts to raise their profiles, build power or show off their wealth. It can be done in a paternalistic and charitable manner that results in an imbalance of…

The Special Olympics has received a $25 million donation, the largest single private gift in the organization's 47-year history. The donation comes from the philanthropic foundation of Thomas Golisano, the founder and chairman of Paychex Inc. The Rochester, New York-based company is a payroll processor and human resources services provider. Officials with the Golisano Foundation…

The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) in La Jolla, Calif., has announced two grants totaling more than $4.5 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help develop a vaccine against HIV/AIDS. The grants, awarded through the foundation's Collaboration for AIDS Vaccine Discovery program, will fund new tools in TSRI's High Resolution Electron Microscopy Facility…

We were sitting in the main conference room high above the city doing some major gift training with a fantastic group of major gift officers. The training was about asking for the gift—a session we regularly conduct with our clients. The MGOs sitting around the table were a mixture of seasoned professionals and employees newer to major gifts. Part of our session had been the day before, where we were dealing with the reasons MGOs do not ask donors for what they could give.

After a record year of private gifts, Clemson University is closing in on its $1 billion fundraising goal for its “The Will to Lead” capital campaign. Private gifts to the university totaled $136.6 million for the 2014-15 fiscal year, bringing the multi-year campaign’s total to $934 million. Clemson is entering the “home stretch” of its…

Colorado State University has announced a $10 million gift from the Helen K. and Arthur E. Johnson Foundation to build a new teaching equine hospital, promote equine medicine, and provide specialty care for horses. The gift will support construction of a 180,000-square-foot-facility on CSU's Fort Collins campus, where 27 equine clinicians will care for approximately…

In recent weeks, a number of people have approached me with questions, all variations on a theme: effective solicitation. The minister who shies from asking his parishioners to support an important project because he wants to preserve his role as a counselor, the board members who don’t always want to be the ones out asking, the executive director who just plain feels awkward approaching others for money.

Paul Smith's College in upstate New York has announced that the State Board of Regents has approved its request to add Joan Weill's name alongside that of the school's founding family in recognition of her longtime support. Pending approval of the name change by a New York State court, Joan and Sanford Weill have pledged…