Have you ever been responsible for the creation or expansion of a major-gift club at your institution? If so, you understand the importance a gift club can play in the life of any organization.
Many individuals use a passive approach when dealing with a major-gift club. Typically, if a donor gives the amount to qualify for membership, he or she is sent a token of appreciation in the mail. In fact, many gift clubs not only send a thank-you letter, but also send a certificate of membership via the mail. If you received this in the mail without any human contact, would you hang the certificate on the wall, provided it included a frame for hanging? I do not think so.
When I became major-gift director at St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis, I was charged with expansion of a major-gift club. One month before my arrival, my boss hosted a dinner for approximately 30 people to welcome them in a major-gift club called the Seton Society. Elizabeth Seton was the patron saint of the Daughters of Charity. Donors who attended the dinner received a beautiful glass-inscribed bowl with the hospital logo on it. These individuals had given or pledged $10,000 or more to the hospital, and they were, in effect, a charter class of members. My new role was to build the membership of this new gift club.
I loved the challenge of creating a new gift club. I decided to create a new Seton Society Committee consisting of Seton Society members. This committee would meet for one year and was divided into four parts representing the four functions I established for the committee. I purposely kept the committee membership to 12-15 members and always sought to recruit new members from the newest Seton Society members. I found that brand-new donors were always the most excited about the organization. The four-quadrant theory represented having one activity each quarter during the fiscal year that would appeal to various Society members.
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- Major Gifts

Duke Haddad, Ed.D., CFRE, is currently associate director of development, director of capital campaigns and director of corporate development for The Salvation Army Indiana Division in Indianapolis. He also serves as president of Duke Haddad and Associates LLC and is a freelance instructor for Nonprofit Web Advisor.
He has been a contributing author to NonProfit PRO since 2008.
He received his doctorate degree from West Virginia University with an emphasis on education administration plus a dissertation on donor characteristics. He received a master’s degree from Marshall University with an emphasis on public administration plus a thesis on annual fund analysis. He secured a bachelor’s degree (cum laude) with an emphasis on marketing/management. He has done post graduate work at the University of Louisville.      Â
Duke has received the Fundraising Executive of the Year Award, from the Association of Fundraising Professionals Indiana Chapter. He also was given the Outstanding West Virginian Award, Kentucky Colonel Award and Sagamore of the Wabash Award from the governors of West Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana, respectively, for his many career contributions in the field of philanthropy. He has maintained a Certified Fund Raising Executive (CFRE) designation for three decades.