Just answer one short question. In the “Comments” section of this post, answer this question:
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?
(If you’ve already taken the course, instead tell me how it’s helped you raise more money or how it has benefited you and your organization.)
Winners are NOT selected at random!
This isn’t a random drawing — my team and I will personally read each comment and award each scholarship accordingly. The more compelling the entry, the better the chance of winning.
On Friday, June 21st we’ll announce and congratulate our two recipients.
If you’re one of our winners, you’ll get complete access to the membership area of Mastering Major Gifts. Then, over the course of 7 weeks, you’ll learn the secrets of raising major gifts right from the comfort of your own home or office.
I’m eager to read your entry and hear what you have to say. So, don’t delay … enter your comment now!
Habitat for Humanity is a leading nonprofit, worldwide organization. For the past five years, I have had the privilege of working at the Habitat affiliate covering East Central Ohio. I am currently transitioning into the position of Director of Development. We are blessed to work in an area that has a philanthropic community. However, I do believe we have plateaued in our fundraising. Meanwhile, our need for affordable housing continues to grow. We are only limited by our capacity. There is untapped potential in our region for more partners to work with us. In an effort to learn and grow, a scholarship through Mastering Major Gifts would be fruitful for our organization to help more families in our community. Thank you for providing the opportunity.
We have an incredibly strong brand, and success in many areas including corporate sponsorships. Our individual giving income has not been as strong as it can be, and there is significant opportunity for Major Gifts in our chapter. Our potential has not been realized as of yet, but with insights from your course, I am certain that both our revenue, and our list of donors fully aligned with the our mission will grow. With growth in the Major Gift area, we will be able to provide safe, decent, affordable housing for even more families!
On Oct. 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael devastated Bay County Fl.. As you can imagine, our small local Habitat for Humanity had to step up and become a major player in our recovery. I was hired to assist in developing and administrating the local long term recovery group. One of my many responsibilities is to assist the Executive Director to find the needed money for our local affiliate to “ramp up” our capacity to accomplish this daunting task. I have plenty of administrative experience, but very little fundraising experience. This has been a difficult task for both the Executive Director and myself. The scholarship to your course would be a game changer in our ability find the needed finances to increase our capacity and play a huge role in rebuilding our devastated community. Please consider me. I promise to be your most attentive student as it is life and death for our communities survival.
The first rule of preparing for any job is to have the right tools, and the second is having the right person for the job. I believe Mastering Major Gifts will give me the right tools to raise money that is much needed for our mission, and make me a more valuable member of our team. My journey to fundraising was not following an educational path but rather my heart for Habitat for Humanity’s mission to end poverty housing, led me away from a business career to devote my time to work that would have lasting value in the lives of others. Many of my life’s experiences and skills translate into fundraising work, and I always trying to learn from others in order to be more effective. A course of study like Mastering Major Gifts can give me an opportunity to learn and grow in ways I’ve not been able to in the past. Thank you for considering me for the scholarship.
This year has been a complete re-boot. I hired 4 people in 6 months – in a TIGHT market. Mastering Major Gifts will provide the techniques our new team needs to become confident architects of the ask. More calls, more visits, more asks, means more mission!
I am on the brink – need to dive into major gifts. It’s where I need to lead my organization, and I want to be equipped with the best tools and strategies to start off on the right path. I’ve seen Amy speak at conferences, and know that this course will be both practical and inspirational.
The Mastering Major Gifts course would be transformational for our organization. We recently lost a $150,000 annual gift that made up roughly half of our fundraising budget. With this enormous deficit we are now scrambling to make ends meet and find donors who can help us fill the void. As neither myself nor my Executive Director, or even our Board for that matter, have any major gift experience we feel lost in the giant ocean of major giving. Simultaneously we are in the middle of an endowment campaign of 2 million. This will be matched by the same donor who stopped giving the $150,000 but only for a short amount of time more. We really need to get our butts in gear and have tools that will enable us to really make an impact/.
The opportunity to win the scholarship to attend the Mastering Major Gifts would be life changing for the Boys & Girls Club of Manhattan. We will celebrate some significant milestones in the next several months 25 years in our community in July, serving 3,000 kids next school year, and having over 1,000 attend per day in the fall. Our challenge is staying top of mind for our community and what it is we do. In the past week I had two instances where the feedback about our Club was- from a business- we don’t need to market to them because their families can’t afford it, and then a grandmother sharing that our programs were too expensive. We clearly aren’t clear to what it is we offer, and how people can get involved in supporting us. This would change our Club giving in the way of increasing our individual and corporate donors. We currently rely on Government and Community Grants. At anytime if this was not available, we would be in need. Our goal is to even out where our finances are coming from, and our opportunity is from individuals in our community.
With a very small staff, I constantly feel that it is all up to me. Part of that “all” includes donor cultivation and fundraising. I don’t have a development staff member. I don’t currently have anyone on my board who is good at fundraising. I became Executive Director of this Habitat for Humanity affiliate because I believed in the need for affordable housing. Since taking the position 3 years ago, I have listened to all the fundraising podcasts that I could, read books, watched webinars and Googled article after article. But I still feel unprepared to raise the money necessary for my community, especially in wake of the tornado that demolished part of our town three weeks ago. I am hopeful this course can give me the knowledge and skills to increase our donations to help more people!
I’ve been in major gifts work now for the past four and a half years (have done annual giving and alumni relations prior). I have been successful in raising gifts for the university, however, I’m hitting a slump. I know exactly where everyone in my pipeline is, and have been trying to visit with potential new donors, however, the current leadership is focused on other areas that they cannot get into the weeds. Therefore, it’s the directors that work together to assist one another in the next steps. With this course, I hope it will provide additional tools in order to grow the pipeline, make the second ask, and encourage others to take this course.
Amy- I have been the ED for a Symphony Orchestra for over 11 years. I am a one-person employee, with a robust BoD who love the organization, but do not understand the art of fundraising, or why they are necessary for our Development success.
I have managed to maintain our growth, but with a recent change in Board leadership we have lost our primary Board Ambassador who focused on Development with me. I am in need of help. plain and simple. I realize I can no longer just “wing” it by reading a few books or blogs, I need a plan, a functional plan – but more importantly – accountability! I need to be able to check in with someone who will know how to assess my progress, provide feedback, redirect my efforts from just “spinning” my wheels. I just don’t have the bandwidth, nor the understanding from the Board. I need to use my time more effectively – and I believe this is the class to help me with this. I am frustrated that I am not able to pay for this, and since my Board doesn’t understand the process, they have not approved the expense either.
Help me, help my organization, and help me feel confident that I can do this!
Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money by giving me the step-by-step guidance needed to move a prospect from an initial meeting to solicitation. I am great at getting to know people, listening well, asking questions, and learning about the philanthropic priorities that excite them. I am not afraid to ask for money. But it’s the in-between part where I need to build my tool box — building trust, identifying a number that is a reach but not a turn-off, and painting the picture of what their gift can make possible. I have just completed my first year at a new organization, so I’ve laid a strong foundation and am ready to bring my A-game!
A lifelong learner, I am open to learning new things to improve upon my existing skills set. This course sounds in-depth enough (as opposed to the 101 type courses offered at conferences) to enhance my knowledge base. With the increase of my knowledge, I would be able to better support the team of major gift officers I support with greater confidence.
Major Gifts is my weakest skill area. I think having a structured process and accountability system is what I need. I really need a step by step, fundamental program for major gifts. I’m not afraid to ask for a gift, I’m pretty good a relationship building, what I don’t have is a foundation in major gifts. My career in Development has always been “figuring it out on the fly.” That isn’t working for major gifts. I need the basics. I need a system. I’ve always found Amy’s sessions super helpful. Not I need to specialize. My organization needs a development team that can grow our individual gifts piece of the “pie” and if I can take this class and then take what I learned back to my team and my board, we will be more effective fundraisers. As we enter into a new strategic plan and potentially a campaign.
I have been a professional fundraiser for over 10 years. I am currently the Executive Director of a national organization, and also recently launched my own consulting firm after listening to Amy’s session at AFP ICON in 2018. So many people look at my resume and assume that I know it all and don’t need any more more, but I know that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I have been successful in major gifts fundraising before, but I still feel like I’m ‘winging it’. I’m looking forward to taking this course because in an industry where there is very little formal education (let’s be honest, no one gets a Master’s degree in fundraising), these classes are the best way to develop professionally. I’ve secured 6-figure gifts before, but always in a team effort. I’m looking forward to learning what I’m doing right, what I’m doing wrong, and what I didn’t even know to do in the first place!
Why take Mastering Major Gifts? I am part of a very small shop, where the Executive Director and I do all the fundraising, from grants, to annual giving, to events, to major gifts. On top of that, I also do all the communications for the organization. As anyone in that situation knows, it is so easy to do everything but major gifts, because they have deadlines. If I do not get appeal letters out by early December, I am missing out on funds. Events are planned and must be carried out. But major gifts can be ignored. If I said I was going to call a donor, who would know if I didn’t? And on top of it all, major gifts are hard. Am I doing it right? What if I make things worse or miss out on a big donation by asking for too small a gift? That is why I want to take Mastering Major Gifts. For me, procrastination comes from a feeling of not being able to do something well, so it’s easier to not do it at all. I want to feel prepared, and by feeling prepared, I (hopefully) won’t be able to put off doing what needs to be done to raise major gifts, and therefore more money for my organization!
I became the DD for Miriam Foundation almost a year ago. Our mission is to empower unique learners and we do that through our three educational programs: Miriam School (PreK-8), Miriam Learning Center and Miriam Academy (9-12). Like many who work in development, I stumbled into the field years ago and never had formal training. My degree is in political science and my experience is primarily in special events and annual fund campaigns but I enjoy learning, am great at following a plan (especially with specific instructions and timelines) and love a good challenge. From what I have read about the program, Mastering Major Gifts looks like a fantastic way to help me take my career, and my desire to fulfill our mission of empowering unique learners to the next level. We are fortunate to have a very engaged board and a strong community of long-time supporters and I would love to be able to give them and myself the tools to be able to raise major gifts. The most rewarding part of my job is when our parents tell me how much they appreciate what I do because without our fundraising their child wouldn’t be able to get the help that they need. I believe that Mastering Major Gifts will empower me to empower many more unique learners and I am anxious to get started.
Dear Amy & the team at Mastering Major Gifts,
I’m writing from my office at the small but mighty non-profit, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN). We’ve got a lean staff of 12 that works across the DMV region on climate change and clean energy advocacy. One cog in that small staff is myself, the Donor Engagement Coordinator, and sole full-time development staffer. I landed in this role after spending about a year in a Special Projects Coordinator role, in which I was co-managed by our Executive Director and then Development Director. By the end of the year, our Development Director, who I regard as a close mentor, chose to step down from her post as our sole development officer for personal reasons. At that point, I was promoted into my current role, where I manage the organization’s individual giving strategy – covering everything from board relations, major gifts, fundraising events, stewardship, and everything in between. I was lucky to have the excellent mentorship of our past Development Director to set me on the right course in taking on this huge role, but in many ways, I’m still “learning as I go.” I have a lot of passion for the work that I’m doing, and I’m constantly striving to seek out more educational opportunities so that I can continue to put our organization on the path to shift our funding mix from primarily foundation grants to individual giving. With all of that in mind, I feel that I would greatly benefit from participating in your Mastering Major Gifts course as I continue to develop the chops for raising major gifts in my role at CCAN. Thank you very much for your consideration and for all that you do for fundraising professionals everywhere.
Best,
Danniele Fulmer
I have been working in fundraising for a long time and Major Gifts is still a hurdle for me. How do I motivate our board to assist in fundraising? How do I convince people who don’t know me very well to meet with me? How do you undue some of the concerns that were before your time? And above all, how do I do MG justice when I am also managing 4 people and have numerous tasks on my plate that demand me attention now. Maybe I may not be making it a priority because I have not “mastered” it yet. I know that MG’s are where I need to be focusing more of my attention and I also know that, if done well, it has a great ROI. My goals are going to continue to rise and I need this skill to keep our team successful.
From everything I’ve read that Amy has written (and or seen from Amy in one of her videos), I can imagine the Mastering Major Gifts course will be both strategic and tactical and will provide the step-by-step tools to help me focus my time and effort into the work that will make the most difference for the population my organization serves. Prioritization and time management are the two biggest things that I struggle with in running a small shop, and since I know I’m not unique in facing this challenge, I hope this course will show me how to break out of this cycle and connect with the current and prospective donors who can make the most difference.
Mastering Major Gifts would help my organization raise more money by equipping our team with the resources and tools necessary to operate at the highest levels. By enhancing our major gifts plan with concrete strategies to cultivate and solicit major donors, we would be able to better engage with the 20% of supporters who could potentially fund 80% of our programs and services. Amy Eisenstein is dedicated to lifting up other fundraising professionals to reach their fullest potential, and it would be a game-changing opportunity to elevate both our team’s training and the connections we make with donors through working with her program.
We are at a crucial stage in our nonprofit. Need more sustainability and resources to grow. We currently can not afford a development staff person. I’m learning all I can about fundraising and development so we can raise funds to sustain and grow. Our service plays an important role with recently homeless and foster children aging from the system.
I not only have an undergraduate degree in nonprofit management and have worked in nonprofits my entire 20-year career; but, for the last 14 years, I’ve worked exclusively in development. I’ve done event planning, annual fund development, and capital campaign management. But, I have never intentionally made a personal major ask. I feel I have the book smarts and practical knowledge to take my career to the next level, but am terrified of making the leap. Now, as the development director for a medium-sized regional science museum, I find myself stuck at the edge of this cliff. I can take that scary jump into major gifts and elevate my career or go find another path entirely. I’m ready to be nudged off that cliff and shown what a difference I can make when I take my development career to the next level. I believe Amy Eisenstein’s Mastering Major Gifts will give me the tools and courage to not only jump, but to soar. This is exactly the right moment in my career for this program. And, it’s exactly what my organization needs right now. We have only been fundraising for the last 15 years. I like to say we are in that awkward teenage stage where we don’t really know who we are. We recently changed our name/brand and are about to open a new wing for a new demographic. Fundraising goals are increasing significantly and my department needs to be able to keep up. We can’t do that through direct mail and social media alone. It’s time we improved our major gift fundraising. I believe Mastering Major Gifts can take us from teen to fundraising adult.
Founded in 1896, Kingsley House has served more than half a million people in the Greater New Orleans area. After 123 years of service, the mission remains vital to this day – educate children, strengthen families and build community. While the agency has long-standing major donors (which are beginning to wane), there are relatively very few new major donors. As most organizations, most energy has been put into special events and the annual fund; they have done a great job at both. But as I begin my journey as the new CDO, I recognize there is a lot of work to do and it needs to done quickly as the 125th Anniversary of the organization will be celebrated in 2021.
Mastering Major Gifts would be an invaluable tool as I move to build both operational support and long-term sustainability for the organization.
April is one of the more than 650 individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities served by New Star each year. Her journey through life has had sad and challenging moments. With no family and only a state guardian, she needed help opening doors to her future possibilities. Once she was in New Star’s care, she was given her own bedroom (a first for her) in one of our 22 residential homes. She also joined our day program where she worked in production and made some great friends.
But, she wanted more.
So her case manager helped her find part-time in our janitorial program and April became a member of one of our on-site janitorial teams where she learned new skills.
Still, she wanted more.
Through our Employment Services department, she was coached on how to interview and found a full-time janitorial position. Now, five days a week, April works from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., then comes home each evening greeted by her staff and friends.
Today, she is enjoying her life.
This may be April’s journey, but New Star made it possible.
The story of April and so many others need to be shared. We have plowed along helping individuals like April by piecing together fundraising through events, grants, and direct mail.
My goal is to share the story of April and so many others with donors who can make life-changing moments happen. I want to help more people like April reach their full potential. I’m acutely aware that the only way to accomplish this is through Major Gifts.
New Star’s major donor program is just getting off the ground. The agency’s president is on board and wants us to jump in but where do we start? How do we start? And with extremely limited funds how do we go about reaching our donors? Neither one of us has had formal training and the development office consists of myself and an administrative assistant. What is the best way to fit it all in?
A scholarship to the Master Major Gifts program will answer all those burning questions, and will put us on the right path to create more meaningful days, productive years, and, ultimately, more fulfilling lives for those we serve.
Asheville, North Carolina is the number one place in the nation to drink beer and to retire. Asheville City Schools has the largest racial achievement gap in the state and 5th largest in the nation. I became the Executive Director of the Asheville City Schools Foundation 4 days ago and I need coaching on major gifts to tackle an ambitious dream for our kids. I want Asheville, NC to be the number one place to grow up for all of our children not just those with privilege. We aim to create an Asheville Promise similar to the K Promise in Kalamazoo, Michigan ( last dollar college scholarships for all students) and we are going to need some MAJOR gifts to make it happen. We need excellent guidance and we need it quickly. Mastering Major Gifts will help us bring a dream into reality so that we can achieve our long term vision of supporting all children in our schools to discover their unique talents and dreams.
I accepted the position of Resource Development Coordinator to assist the Merakey Foundation raise funds to enable people with mental health disorders, intellectual and developmental disabilities, behavioral health and drug and alcohol addiction live to their fullest potential because of my many years of direct contact with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. While my passion lies in ending poverty in developing countries around the world, I know mental health is one of the most neglected issues that hamper community growth and worth the attention. The reason I think mastering ,major gifts will help raise money is fact that it is a clear path towards meaningful partnerships and providing a means for people of goodwill to make a lasting impact and it will benefit my current mission and the next. Major gifting provides donors with an opportunity to find fulfillment in changing the lives of others. 2018 reports show that about 70% of all donations to Nonprofits in the US were from individuals. Major gifting is an opportunity to engage more donors, bring about meaningful change in the lives of those in need and create a better community. Personally, mastering major gifts will mean advancing my career as a fundraising professional.
I am a new major gifts officer and new to the field of development. At my non-profit I have been allotted one year to develop a major gifts portfolio of 150 donors from the constituents in our database. Having never done this before, it has been a daunting task. All of the “active” donors are already in someone else’s portfolio, so I’m trying to build mine from donors who haven’t given for a year or more. Based on everything I’ve learned so far, I know I have little chance of accomplishing my goal without first building a relationship with our constituents. I’ve made calls, emailed and sent handwritten notes to over 100 past givers – and I’ve not been successful. Not even one meeting! But I am not one to give up easily am determined to find success. By participating in your online workshop, I hope to learn the skills I need to find my first major donor from within the depths of our database and build my portfolio from there. With your training I know I can make progress and positively impact my nonprofit now and in years to come.
I’ve been a development professional for twenty years but still feel that Major Gift fundraising is a black box. We are successful in engaging our donors and securing gifts, but there’s a lot of room for improvement. Major Gifts make up the smallest portion of our income and we desperately need to change that. I’ve taken a course or two related to Major Gift fundraising but did not feel that it gave me real tools to improve. I’d love to try a new approach!
The International Music Foundation provides FREE high-caliber classical music concerts to Chicago residents and tourists, as well as WFMT radio listeners. We are looking to expand our programs to reach new audiences. Specifically, we want to reach overlooked populations such as patients in hospitals, residents of nursing homes and the homeless seeking shelter and food. Our organization merged with another in 2016. That, along with general donor fatigue, has seemed to tap out most of our donors. It very much feels like we need to build our donor pool from scratch. Mastering Major Gifts would be a wonderful resource with helping us do that. Did I mention that we are on a shoestring budget, so all of these free concerts happen with just 4 staff members? A scholarship for MMG would be unbelievable and so greatly appreciated!
My organization has a small but committed group of donors, many of whom have been giving online or via direct mail for up to 10 years without ever having been met by the staff. We only have 6 staff members and for many years, we were run by 2 people – the founder and 1 other.
I am the first long-term development hire the organization has made, joining the team straight out of college in 2016 with no fundraising experience but a passion for our mission and a willingness to learn. We have managed to grow our donor base from around 80 to over 400 active donors over the last 3 years mainly through improving direct mail, networking, and events. I was able to re-activate many lapsed donors by simply adding them back to our mailing list after they had been “lost” in our database.
From our founding in 2008 through 2016 we were largely funded by innovation award funding and government grants. Since then we have relied on program revenue and funding from our corporate partners to keep afloat. Individual giving has accounted for ~1-3% of our income.
However, I believe that our donor base has great potential to be a significant source of ongoing funding for the organization, if they are better engaged and aware of the impact that their gifts can make. Our success in re-engaging donors and high retention rates show that people are passionate about our mission and willing to give. I suspect that many of them don’t know the impact that a larger gift could make for us, or know exactly what the funding would go towards because they have never been asked.
The founder/previous CEO has successfully stewarded 2 major donors in the past for gifts in the $10,000 – $50,000 range. These were people who had personal relationships with her. Many of our long-time donors are friends and family of our founder as well and they have not met anyone at the organization other than her. She has recently stepped down and moved on from the organization.
I have initiated donor thank you calls from the staff and board and met with a few local donors but am struggling to find the confidence and right strategies to approach meeting with more donors more regularly, and with the intention of making an ask. I’ve never made a direct ask over the phone or in person for the organization. Our average gift is around $220, but we do have donors that have given $1,000 to $5,000 gifts and have never been asked in person for more.
I’ve struggled with the classic nonprofit problem of “wearing too many hats'”. I manage direct mail, have started a monthly donor program, am our database manager, have written grant proposals, work with our board, contribute to corporate relations and communications, help plan our annual event which has become partly a fundraiser over the past 2 years. However, many of the fundraising resources I read suggest that it would be worth investing a good portion of my time into stewarding our mid-level donors into major donors.
This course would help me to be confident that I have the skills and tools that I need to be successful in meeting with donors, and communicating to them the impact that their major gifts could make. By learning to better steward our existing donors and make asks, I hope to help secure more substantial ongoing funding to support our mission.
You are the mentor this mission needs to help us inspire our contributors to a higher level of participation, to taking animal lovers to a “no kill” community with the “no Kill equation”.
Our data base shows us that we have 118, five year Giving Circle families and trusts and we would appreciate the coaching to take them with Aggieland Humane to the next level.
On May 1, 2019 I became Mission Development Coordinator at Valley View Retirement Community. Development was not a priority with an earlier administration, and there is much to be done here; however, it is exciting to work with the present administration, board, and volunteers putting into place policies and plans to achieve excellence, Fitting the Annual Fund and the Endowment Fund into our plans along with creating a monthly giving program and working to promote all of these as we design a new website is a challenge. As Executive Director of another organization, raising major gifts was just a small part of my responsibilities; however, with this position, raising Major Gifts is key to growing the potential for the Community’s expansion and sustainability. After reading testimonials of other Mastering Major Gifts graduates, I felt compelled to apply for this scholarship, and look forward to the experience ahead.
I have recently joined an organization that provides shelter, counseling, legal services to women, children and men who experience domestic violence. Our mission is to end domestic violence and to empower victims to achieve safety, independence, and healing from the trauma of abuse.
As you can imagine, this is an incredibly challenging mission to fulfill. As Director of Development, I am responsible for all fundraising through events and campaigns, and I work with the ED to secure grant funding. Most of our grants require significant matching funds from non-governmental sources. Major gifts is an area in which I have little or no experience and from the materials and blog posts I have seen from Amy, this course will help me to build a strong foundation from which to build a major gifts program. I have a wide network, I am a good listener, we have a great story, but I need a step-by-step approach to taking a prospect from introduction through cultivation, and then to determine what is the appropriate amount and way to ask . We have very little flexibility in our budget, and this scholarship would be the only way I could participate in such a program.
My 30 year fundraising background has been ‘hands on’ with all aspects of the profession which has been a blessing and a curse! My experience and 17 year tenure with the organization I work for allows me to successfully be the ‘go to’ person for other development staff and colleagues. While I am committed to helping others, it can also distract me from what should be be my focus – major and planned gifts!
For background purposes, I was Cleveland Metroparks first professional fundraiser. For the first 14.5 years I was also Cleveland Metroparks only fundraising professional. And, I can confidently say that Cleveland Metroparks has successfully navigated a delicate balance of being a tax-based agency that also seeks charitable support.
Now that our department has expanded and I am no longer literally ‘doing everything’ I should be able to easily direct the majority of my attention to major and planned gifts. However, I find that once I identify an appropriate prospect that Cleveland Metroparks has so many different stories to tell that even when I think I am attentively listening to the donor, I am not always picking the right project? Thus, I am not being as efficient as I should be with the donor’s time as well as my own.
I have been an active AFP and CGP member for many years and read many professional publications. I am also fortunate to have a broad network of fundraising colleagues with whom I share information. However, I do not feel that these channels have provided me with the true catalyst to improve my major gift work in recent months.
Very simply, Mastering Major Gifts sounds like the ideal opportunity for me to refocus my passion for Cleveland Metroparks with my institutional experience and professional skills to to a new level of success within our growing development department. Unfortunately, resources for Mastering Major Gifts are not available in our budget this year and I hope you will consider my scholarship request. Thank you!
Osprey Village is working to develop a “neighborhood with a purpose” near Hilton Head Island, SC, in which to provide housing and related services for adults with intellectual disabilities and their aging caregivers. We had engaged a local “professional fundraiser” to plan and manage a capital campaign for us.. $200K, one hurricane, and 18 months later, he’d raised less than $20k so we fired him. It would be pretty hard for us to do worse than that!
Since then, we’ve had 25 acres of buildable land donated to us. We have several people who worked on fundraising and grant-writing projects before, and we’ve been making contacts with potential major donors and supporters in our area. I believe that we just need that guiding hand of an experienced mentor to make our capital campaign a success!
I think that your course Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money because raising money is an art and a science, and I believe this course will educate me on both aspects of raising more money for my nonprofit, GateWay of Hope. I’ve been the Executive Director of GateWay of Hope (GateWay) going on 4 years now and was hired to grow the organization. Immediately, I realized that the majority of my job was about fundraising, so I enrolled in the local university’s non profit fundraising course which included 7 different classes, one of them was Major Gifts. This 2 day course was very helpful, but it wasn’t enough. I believe your course, which spans 7 weeks on this one very important topic, will give me the knowledge, accountability and momentum to raise money from major gifts.
GateWay is the only women’s counseling center in my area that serves women exclusively. Our mission statement is to “lead women to discover hope, pursue healing and live in wholeness through counseling, coaching and support groups.” And that is my story as well. Had I not received counseling during a very difficult time in my life, I would not be at this agency, or even alive. So I believe in the mission of GateWay.
The founder is still on staff, and it has taken a herculean effort to move the agency in a direction of growth past the influence of the founder. So we are just beginning to reach out to wealthy individuals and it is really hard. I think this course is just what I need to help the agency, but we can’t afford the tuition, so I am hoping to win the scholarship. I am the only full time employee of our agency (we have 6 therapists/ life coaches) and I would love to grow the agency to several full time employees. So much is needed – especially money! So, by taking your course, and learning how to raise major gifts, I believe that we will be able to grow exponentially beyond our current projections.
I would be extremely grateful to receive this scholarship and hope that I and my agency are selected. .
Ultimately, your course on raising more money with major gifts will enable us to reach more women with the message of hope, healing and wholeness; offer more scholarships, and reach low income women and women of color who are not able to pay for our services.
Thank you for your consideration.
Warmly,
Dacia
I have always wanted to enrich my local community at each stage of my life and in each community that I have called home. Currently, the place I call home is known as a wonderful vacation spot but the local community is battling a large gap in annual income and the needs associated with this. I want to ensure the dignity and worth of each individual to promote the programs and activities of our organization to build healthy and resilient communities in our region. One of the development trends that has greatly affected my current team is staff turn-over. I have in three years had three different bosses and lost two staff members out of a team of three. Now that we have a newly minted team and cemented our direct report structure, it is time to get things in motion and I believe that this professional development opportunity will provide an opportunity for the entire team to be provided with focused strategic direction to bring our the best results for each other and in turn strengthen the children, families and individuals that we work for. Thank you for your consideration and for offering this opportunity..
This very generous offer comes at an intriguing time. We are a smaller rural affiliate of Habitat for Humanity. We have no formally trained fundraising professionals but have still managed to have a great impact in our community because of very generous donors and volunteers. We are currently in the early stages of a statewide capital campaign which opens avenues for us not previously possible. Having the additional resources and training of your class would be extremely beneficial in our campaign success. We have an aggressive strategic plan in place as our community has so much need when it comes to affordable housing and affordable repairs. A successful campaign will forever change the landscape of affordable housing in our community. Thank you for your consideration!
I think Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money because it’s literally the piece we’ve been missing for 43 years. I’m the first person in my organization’s entire run who’s been mostly focused on what most non-profits would call development – like at all- and I’ve only been at it since 2011. Last year we kicked off our first-ever major gifts program. In these ways, we are babes in the woods. In others, we have SO much already in place. For example, donor acquisition is and always has been primarily through a professional, door-to-door field canvass that also does organizing on our issues. Last year they collected nearly 10,000 contributions. We also have a professional phone canvass that cultivates those donors, when they update donors on our work. However, until I started our program last year, we had only about 20 people giving $1,000 or more and our largest gift had been only $5,000. And we had only one of those. Add to that phenomenal donor loyalty (like 15% of our donor file have been with us 20+ years) and you can see we have SO much potential. I’ve only got through the first two modules, but I can tell this is EXACTLY what we need to maximize support and raise the unrestricted funds that will pull us out of debt, deepen our connection to our donors and build for a glorious future.
Thank you Amy for this opportunity to win a free scholarship to Mastering Major Gifts!
Why will it help me raise more gifts? Because you are an expert in the field. The tools you already shared at the AFP International Conference in San Francisco 3 years ago propelled me to take your Major Gifts Challenge – and it worked!
As a new Development Director for Community Shares of Wisconsin, I began reaching out to donors and started building relationships using your highly organized plans, tips, and tools. Major giving is growing and with additional tools and expertise, I’m confident we can grow even more.
And, as a data geek – strengthening my relationship building muscles can only be helpful!
Thank you again, Amy, for this amazing opportunity!
Susan
The next big step as we move into our largest project to date – 11 affordable ownership homes, in one of the most expensive counties in the country – is major gifts. Our organization has been working diligently to build a fundraising board of directors. Now I need major gifts expertise in order to empower motivated board members.
My organization does amazing work to help children and adolescents with mental health and learning disorders, and the founder’s vision is a world where no child suffers. We are also working to end the stigma around mental health disorders. I came here about 6 months ago after 11 years of working at a private college and other educational settings prior to that. I love the mission, but I was caught off guard by just how different this work looks here and the team is young (your email last Monday really spoke to me!). There has been a lot of turn over in this department and the strategy has been very reactionary. In the 10 years since we were founded, the majority of money raised here has been through events, foundations and grants. The passion is high, but the pipeline is slowing. I am tasked with raising major gifts, starting a grateful family program, managing the annual fund and building out a donor pipeline. Our Founder/President is very hands on in our small development shop and the work of raising money has not always been based on best practices. I’ve done major gift work before, but I know there is always more to learn. I really want to help my Director of Development build a strong shop with a good foundation. What I hope to learn in MMG will also set me up for the remainder of my career. Thank you for your consideration.
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?
In a sector where the term “wearing many hats” elicits sympathetic and knowing head-nods, the practical tools and no-nonsense way Amy teaches in videos and blogs has pulled me back to where my time is best spent – building relationships and understanding our donors better. It’s slow work, full of challenges, and I often wonder where I could be doing better…
Why do I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money? Because Amy said it will! I’m driven to make our nonprofit a sustainably funded and stronger place because I care about the work we do and the ways it makes our whole community stronger. I’m driven by best practices, a genuine interest in the donors I meet with, and optimism that it CAN be done!
We have not formally trained in major gifts and know there is much to learn. We will be launching a capital campaign in the near future and would love to have additional confidence to secure our goal.
This is our 30 Anniversary of providing stepping stones to personal and economic self-sufficiency to chronically unemployed and impoverish women. Our facility is more than maxed out and we are planning to begin our quite approach to securing leadership gifts during this celebration.
Your course would be an exciting opportunity for our organization to maximize our efforts.
Thank you! We are eager to learn…
Hi! I am a rabbi in Mexico City and I am eager to know more about fundraising. I watch all the material of Amy Eisenstein and I think it is very suitable for our congregation.
I think all the experience of Amy and her team can be very useful for the Mexican style of the Jewish Community. I admire Amy and her knowledge is very well based on theory and also she is very resourceful in practice.
As a rabbi I need more knowledge and guidance to be more successful in our fundraising campaigns.
I feel that in Latin America we need the experience of the USA to be better in this meaningful way to grow.
For the last two years, you could say I’ve been “flying by the seat of my pants” in my role as Foundation Director at a small rural Indiana hospital. Previous directors left files of information about what had been accomplished in the past, but it is evident that the Foundation has only scratched the surface when it comes to actively engaging the community in fundraising.
While our events have recently grown in financial support and visibility, our first-ever Capital Campaign this year was not nearly a home run. Your emails inspire me to learn more about how the Board and I can realize our full potential for the good of the hospital and those we serve. With knowledge, guidance and direction, I believe our Foundation will achieve much more than we ever imagined. The possibility of a scholarship for Mastering Major Gifts would be the only way I will have access to this valuable information. Many thanks for the opportunity to participate!
I’ve done a lot in development, but not major gifts solicitation. My organization was moving forward and working on building a development team, but we are dealing with state policies that have led to a reduction in workforce for us. Not surprisingly, the development department took a 50 percent hit. My director of donor relations position was eliminated and my assistant was cut to part time. It’s really up to me to master major gifts! We have some low hanging fruit I believe would be fantastic prospects, and other individuals we could cultivate, but I’m feeling unsure of how to systematically begin to implement major gifts and keep all the other balls of a one person (and a half time assistant) department going in a 10 million dollar organization. We provide services to individuals with substance use disorder and our work, literally is, life-or-death. We can not provide the services consistently with having to cut staff and expenses. We raise 20 percent of the budget now from development activities like special events, grant’s, and direct mail. If we had a robust major gifts program, we would offer more alternative programming options to help those individuals and families fighting the disease of addiction.
I want to work myself out of a job. This may sound plain but that is my ultimate goal. I have been working in non profit for many years- in various roles. The mission has changed, from organization to organization, but the one thing that remains the same is our need to more donors. I want to fully equip myself to cultivate donors more effectively and link them to our nonprofits vision and mission. My dream is to an efficient fundraiser. So much so that they no longer have a need for me.
I am confident that your Mastering Major Gifts would put me in a prime position to seek and secure the major gifts that will take us to the next level and beyond.
As the President and CEO, I constantly need to keep learning and growing.
I am missing the Major Gifts piece in my fundraising quiver. I have successfully asked for a few major gifts, but I still have so much to learn. I know that through your Mastering Major Gifts class you will teach me identify major donors in our donor files and have the tools and confidence to ask them for the major gifts they want to give to our organization. I will also have more confidence to seek major gifts outside of our donor files.
Our small organization has grown over the last several years as far as budget, personnel, and programs. As the president and CEO I have learned and improved our communications and fundraising through appeal letters, newsletters, and email communication. I have established a solid monthly giving program that continues to grow. We’ve implemented a strong welcome series, and a decent legacy program. We conduct two successful major events every year. I write a few small grant requests each year and most receive some funding. Our donor retention rate is 61%. We began winning back some of our LYBNTs & SYBNTs with a “Missing You” series this year. All that being said… our donor base is not growing as much as I believe we need to continue our growth.
Thank you!
Last year, I attended a Major Gifts Challenge workshop hosted by Amy and learned about her method for rating prospects using affinity and capacity scores. I brought this info back to my team and it was incredibly helpful as we started organizing our donor lists. We’ve been quietly preparing for a major capital campaign to expand our facility. The proposed project is unprecedented in our area.
While I have extensive experience in a development office, the organizations I have worked at have not had a robust major gifts program. I’m ready to change that! I believe the Mastering Major Gifts program will help me prepare for this campaign so we can meet our goals now and so we can sustain our organization and continue impacting lives in the future.
So many members, so few real “asks”! My board doesn’t want to ask at all, so it all seems to be up to me. And yet, we hear criticism that we are “always” asking for money, even though we send just one fundraising letter a year! How do I move that $100 giver to $500 or $1,000? How do I get the $1,000 donor to $2,500 or $5,000, especially since I know they can afford it? How do I get any $10,000 donors? We did get a large bequest, and now many people feel we have all the money we should need for quite a while, but that is not true. It seems so rude to ask for more and more after someone feels they already have been generous with us. I only have about 5 donors who give $1,000 per year, so those are my major donors. Out of 1800 members, we probably have dozens of millionaires, but how do I find them? And do they want to give? All of this, along with being so busy with so many other things tells me I really need this course. Thanks!
I work for a small nonprofit in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada and am the organization’s only dedicated fundraiser. We run a family resource centre and a community food centre in the heart of one of our city’s most challenged communities. After three decades in communications, I made the leap into fund development three years ago because I absolutely love this organization. If someone had told me that I would one day be asking people to give, I would have laughed (hysterically), but I adore my job because I am so committed to the place, and the people, connected to my work. We have put our hearts and souls into building our very first fund development plans and we’ve been very successful. Every year we’ve exceeded our targets and, in the back of my mind, I’ve always known that Major Gifts are our holy grail. The next big step. And the sign that we’ve really arrived. We’ve had some modest success in the area and now we’re poised to launch our first capital campaign. The campaign is small in comparison to many (only $500k) but it effectively means raising twice as much money as we’ve raised in the past. I’m ready for the challenge. I’ve been an Amy subscriber for years and if there was ever a time when I needed to MASTER Major Gifts…this is IT! I hope you’ll consider this Canadian girl with a lotta heart, some serious grit, and a deep desire for more knowledge to get the job done. Thanks for the opportunity.
Hi Amy and team,
Thank you so much for providing this amazing opportunity to broaden our knowledge in philanthropy.
As you know, major giving is transformational giving. In order to make greater impact, organizations need to know how to steward donors to create a partnership for change.
Gaining your insights, experience and knowledge through this scholarship will allow me to help donors to achieve their passion for making a difference. A truly rewarding experience for the organization and the donor.
Thank you again for your generous offer.
I began my career in development just five years ago at a large research university (with over 450 Alumni Relations & Development employees). In my role there, I worked as a part of a three-person team tasked with raising $140M in support of humanistic graduate education during the public phase of the University’s capital campaign. This experience was invaluable, and did work in a frontline capacity from time-to-time, but did not have any direct solicitation experience.
In December, after four years, I left to take the Director of Development position with a small, non-profit theatre. Our annual budget just recently grew to above $500K, but most theatres in the the $500K-$1M range do not remain there for long—we’ve found that they either expand exponentially, or close. Our theatre will be entering its 27th Season in FY20, and is known as one of the leading storefront theatres in Chicago. However, until three years ago, the organization had not invested in full-time administrative staff. In fact, my role just went full-time just two years ago. I am a Development team of one—it is just me, myself, and I. Although I was used to working on a small, agile team there were many more resources provided at the University—we were able to outsource Prospect Research and Management, were provided regular reporting by our Analytics team, and had a team dedicated to planned giving.
With that being said, the theatre has quite some challenges ahead of itself. We rent an intimate space (70 seat capacity) in a building that is in disrepair, and may need to think about capital projects sooner than expected. My predecessor launched a Major Gifts program last year that is, in fact, an annual giving program. Thus, I am currently working to not only rebuild an Annual Giving pipeline and direct-mail campaign, but also building out a Major Gifts program. We have an incredible amount of work to do with regard to Individual Giving. Our goal for FY20 is $75K in unrestricted giving and I am not fully confident in our current donor pipeline, especially as we will likely finish this year at $40K in unrestricted individual gifts.
The good news is that there are incredible relationships that have already been fostered over the years that are just waiting to be tapped into. The Mastering Major Gifts program would be invaluable to me in my first year as a gift officer. I’ve already benefitted from Amy’s incredible videos and articles, but I want to continue to build my confidence in asking for major gifts. Moreover, I am interested in how to motivate and inspire our Board members to assist me as my Development Team! Many of our Board members are legacy members and quite fatigued, and I know they would benefit from some fresh insight. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration. I’m so grateful that you are working to share your wealth of insights and knowledge with the nonprofit community!!
Voices for Children is the only authorized Court Appointed Special Advocate or CASA program for Riverside County. Since 2015, we have been recruiting and training volunteers to provide one-on-one advocacy for children in foster care who have been abused and neglected. This fiscal year, we have served more than 400 children – more than any other year in the County’s history. In spite of this success, we are serving less than 10% of the County’s foster children. We receive no line-item funding from government sources and we must raise every dollar needed to operate our program. We need to raise more funds to serve more children. That’s where Mastering Major Gifts comes in. As a “new” nonprofit in the County, we are eager to explore new methods for identifying prospects and engaging people who aren’t familiar with us. Thank you for this great opportunity! We are grateful for your consideration!
I recently leaned in and leaned up, joining the Black Hills Works Foundation team as its Director of Philanthropy. Black Hills Works supports more than 600 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in Rapid City, South Dakota and the surrounding area.
Although I have dedicated my entire career to nonprofit causes, this is my first opportunity where fundraising and philanthropic partnerships are my core responsibility. It’s humbling. The people we support, who are achieving great things every day, often in spite of great challenges, deserve my best.
Each individual supported by Black Hills Works has an experienced team helping them achieve their daily and life goals. Our person-centered approach means each individual is supported in a home, at work, in training, at a retirement center, at church, at concerts, on walks, at sporting events, in an art studio, on stage, or just at home relaxing. The vast majority of Black Hills Works employees are on the front lines providing support to the people we serve, helping them live life fully. This too is humbling – my colleagues who are on the front lines carrying out the mission of the organization, are counting on my success.
I recognize that in fundraising there is, of course, always more to learn. “Mastering Major Gifts” would be a huge opportunity for me as a relatively new (in title) fundraiser with a new organization. I have always found your (Amy’s) blogs and videos relatable and empowering. “Mastering Major Gifts” would be a very timely and necessary “deep dive” in my nonprofit/cause-oriented professional growth – allowing me to be successful for my team, my colleague, and, of course, for the people with intellectual and developmental disabilities that we support.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful consideration.
There are many young teens in our community who truly need what the private high school I advocate for has to offer. It is expensive and well worth the investment in the futures of these wonderful students. Tuition covers most but not all costs and more than 60% of our students cannot afford the education without financial assistance. So my job is simple, right? Encourage alumni and their families to pay it forward and help young people receive what they and their families know to be a potentially life changing education. What’s the problem? APATHY. That’s it. Apathy.
How can I do a better job of reaching alumni and families and reminding them how important it is to participate in the education of a student who was once just like them, so they can become successful adults, just like them. My passion doesn’t seem to be enough. I don’t want to let these students or this wonderful school down but I feel as though I am personally responsible for not allowing more scholarship students to have this experience. Clearly I need more technical training. We are simply not budgeted for this course. I know it can make the difference, to help ME make a difference for these students. Thank you for considering me for this scholarship opportunity.
MMG would give me and my coworkers the jump start needed to actually start raising major gifts! We’ve been stuck in a place of knowing we need to do better for our major donors but not knowing how. Your help would make a huge difference for us!
The opportunity to win the scholarship to attend the Mastering Major Gifts would make a huge impact on my career, my organization; Sharing Connections furniture bank, and for our community as a whole. Sharing Connections is a small non-profit that has been around for over 30 years helping local neighbors in need transition out of homelessness and furnish their homes. For the first time in our history, we’ve been in a position to hire a Development Director. Since this is a new position for us, we are still testing the waters and our CEO asked me, our database manager, to step up and try to fill these big shoes. I’ve worked behind the scenes for 15+ years in the non-profit field doing everything from marketing campaigns, events, social media, volunteer management, and much more (in addition the database management). Yet, I have never had the opportunity to try to work directly with donors, do any type of direct asking, or true relationship building. I attended your one day class in Indiana recently and I learned so much. I’ve been preparing my Major Donor binder with the top donors, based on the criteria you outlined. I starting to research them with our Board and rate them. Taking the next step, actually contacting them, is where I’m stepping into very new territory. I know that taking the full seven-week course would not only be a huge benefit to me but it will also add to the confidence I need to take that leap to share why helping local families, kids and especially babies have a safe place to sleep at night is so important to building a stronger and healthier community with people who would love the opportunity to help us. Thank you for all you do to help support the development of staff in the non-profit community. You are such an inspiration! Thank you for considering my entry!
Lack of know-how around major gift fundraising has cornered me into my comfort zones: event and volunteer management, direct mail solicitation, faith-based fundraising, and corporate sponsorship. With completion of “Mastering Major Gifts,” I’m seeking new equipment for my young professional tool belt, including:
– better understanding of the identification and cultivation phases of the fundraising cycle
– how to best prepare for ask meetings, including material preparation and rehearsal
– techniques to make a clear ask without beating around the bush
I plan to put these tools into action, raising funds efficiently and effectively to build vibrant, resilient communities in Iowa.
I work for a small non-profit (<$1m) which helps those in prison – we are the only ones who do this work in our state. Raising funds for our work is difficult as we are not one of the "sexy" or well-understood causes despite recent increased attention in criminal justice reform. In one year, we will face a 20% revenue gap due to the end of a significant one-time grant award; we need to start addressing this immediately. The issue: I am a one-person development staff, I work part time, and we have no funds for training & development. While I have been working in fundraising for close to a decade, I am well-aware that I could improve my major giving skills. Further, in order to diversify and increase our funding, I know that major gifts must become a key focus. This can be tricky to do while managing event, grant and annual fund appeal deadlines in a limited number of hours, but I am hopeful that your course will help me learn new skills, determine the most efficient and effective ways to prioritize and ensure I am addressing the major giving side of things – both through my work but also that of my ED and Board. In addition, I know your course would force me to focus on major giving and provide accountability and deadlines – which I could then continue post the seven weeks with you. I greatly appreciate your consideration – thanks!
Because you speak to fundraisers in a truthful manner and materials on the website strike our hearts without exaggeration.
Because you tell us who is ready for this course and who is not.
Because Long-term Care is a looming crisis that’s a cause absolutely worth fighting for.
Because I am privileged to be part of the biggest long-term care provider in North America with a over 4000 seniors waiting list and a wait time up to 10 years.
I have been “fan-girling’ Amy for many years, participating in blogs, watching videos and reading her books.
Seven years ago, I went to my Director to ask her if I could add to my job as Employment Specialist for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing at Mainstay, the role of fundraising. She said, “Knock yourself out.” That I did. With events, annual asks and direct drives, I have built the culture of fundraising in our agency, and we have raised $19K in 2012 to last year $80K.
One of the most difficult challenges I have had was to educate our own staff of the importance of diversifying our income. Diversifying like you talk about “50 Asks in 50 Weeks.” They are starting understand that our government grants and contracts are not enough, as we are seeing now with overarching, significant reductions. Our fundraising needs to morph into asks for Major Gifts. The ROI on events are just not where we need to be.
As our Director of 30 years retires on June 30, 2019, I will be taking over our beloved, amazing agency. I am as passionate about the job seekers with disabilities who we serve as the day I started in 1997. As a new Director, I want to bring us in to a place where we can build sustainability, our community and our larger gifts. I am ready to take Mainstay to the next level, and I am honored you are giving us a chance to learn from the best. Thank you, Amy (and the incredible people on her team).
Thank you Amy and team for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship. As a medium size affiliate of Habitat for Humanity Int’l, we are “staff challenged” and wear many hats. As the Executive Director/CEO of Cowlitz County Habitat for Humanity, I also serve as the Development Officer. Your course and outline of “Managing Major Gifts” aligns very well with our strategic plan and would strongly assist us in launching this within our own philanthropic community. We have grown tremendously in our programs and service throughout Cowlitz County yet lack the appropriate funding to develop larger and sustainable gifts. Your great gift would help mobilize our ability to serve many more families and share the important story of our promise to the community…everyone deserves a safe, decent, affordable home. THANK YOU for helping us provide HOPE, HOMES & COMMUNITY!
I’m entering my 6th year as a Foundation Director with a local foundation (15 years + in the industry). I focused on a successful strategy that started with analyzing the foundations existing donor base, set up for 20 percent growth in donors and revenue each year conservatively, educated my donors on estate and planned gifts with professionals in the industry, outreached on planned giving, used marketing techniques to carry the planned giving message on in all communications, coordinated a major capital campaign and received 4 $100,000 gifts in 2 years for the restricted campaign and now need to refocus that momentum to unrestricted major gifts and endowments.
Mastering Major gifts will help direct me to the next level because I believe it is a technique that experienced fundraisers can understand. Mastering Major gifts can be a prelude to all of the above in ones career.
Numbers, it is all about the numbers. 57% of the children in the schools in New Orleans read below the mastery level. 39% of the children live in poverty. That is nation’s highest official poverty rate among the 50 largest metro areas in 2017, according to Census data release. 23% of children in Orleans parish are food insecure.
We need to master major gifts to change the lives of the children in the community we serve. We are not asking for our selves, we are asking for our kids. We need the best teaching, tools and techniques to accomplish this.
I began working at the Stevens Cooperative School two and a half years ago after working in several Independent Schools in New York and New Jersey for over 30 years. As a cooperative, fundraising had not been a formalized part of the school’s 70-year history, and my goal was to create a culture of philanthropy to replace the existing fee-based culture. I also needed to shift the existing parent as a worker to parent as the customer mentality. Having worked in fundraising for over 30 years, I knew what needed to be done, but taking the Mastering Major Gifts course gave me the perfect language to share with the Board and Administration as well as having access to all the amazing resources that were provided. The course was like having an additional employee in our two-person office that took care of prioritizing messaging, gathering handouts, and planning how we would communicate internally about what key players needed to know to make our transition successful. I was really grateful to have all the tools I needed to get my job done in one place!
Antioch University has an amazing legacy–Horace Mann was the first president of the College–it was the first to admit women to a full curriculum, and among the first to admit African Americans to a full curriculum as well. This legacy is alive and vibrant. I see it in our incredible faculty, and fantastic students today. I’m inspired every time I speak with alumni, and I know there are graduates and others just itching to support Antioch. I’m new to this type of work, and am confident that with a boost, and the mentorship that Amy has talked about, I can make a difference and move our University to the next level. Our budget is very slim, and our team is tiny, but I don’t want that to stop us. Antioch is “home” for me, and I’d like to see it flourish moving forward. It would be super to have the tools to garner that support.
The key to success is having the right person and the right tools to do the work. I am convinced that i am the right person- i am all about the relationships and the time honored system of trust and integrity. I need the tools to dig for the major gifts and to be better focused on identifying, cultivating and asking for these “nuggets” in our alumni and community. The key is to be versed in a true and tested method and to use it continually and cultivate it well. The role I play at the educational foundation for a public school is relatively new. My role has been to create the foundation work, evelop the systems and to support the ongoing needs for the foundation. Within the first 2 years, we raised 1.6 M in capital funds, but now our board and I need to get back to basics to have a sustaining annual giving,as well as to develop a way to do major gift propagating. I feel that Amy provides the best in practice for Fund Development professionals and I would be honored to be in this class. .
I enjoy hearing Amy Einstein’s videos and have received encouragement from her. I work with Major Donors at Covenant House Michigan and enjoy each conversation with our Constituents. I would like to be more effective in my ask to donors. I want to learn everything that is available to be used as tools to help get the donor’s participation in the gift they give. I want to embrace them with heart so they will want to embrace us as I tug at their heart strings. Together we are all family at Covenant House Michigan and will work to help move the homeless youth of Covenant House Michigan move on to a better life. I would like a scholarship to Mastering Major Gifts. Thank you.
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?
When an institution has the capacity to procure major gifts it means that it has the structure that will give it the base to consolidate its donor base.
In other words, institutions need to have a solid foundation for fundraising and the best way is to have an involved board really committed and be the ones to guide their volunteers to achieve long-term sustainability.
If the board is able to know how to achieve major gifts, it will be a much easier task and will be very successful.
That’s why I think my organization is ready to take a course like that of Mastering Major Gifts to raise more money.
Regards,
Moises Macip
I have been the Executive Director for Fear 2 Freedom for less than one year and our organization has only been around since 2011 and we have never done any Major Gift Fundraising. Prior to coming to F2F I was a stay at home Mom and avid volunteer for 23 yrs so I have not had any “formal” training, education in Fundraising or Development. Our organization is currently providing programs in 6 states and we are on the brink of going National and needing to fundraise on a National level so this class would help me get to that point. I truly believe that going through this program would be a real game changer for myself and our organization! I am very passionate about our mission and supporting survivors of sexual assault but without the Major Gifts knowledge we will not be able to move forward! Thank you fro this wonderful opportunity! I love getting your emails and have already learned so much from you!
As Director of Development and Communications for a small non-profit, I’m often pulled in several directions making sure that everything gets done. Until three years ago, our organization did not have a staff member dedicated to fundraising, and establishing programs and a culture of philanthropy can be challenging! While I have 18 years of fundraising experience, most of my work has been focused on events. Developing
my confidence, finding ways to better engage the board, identifying which of our donors are ready to give at major gift levels, and establishing a major gifts program are all skills that I need. Amy, I need your help!
Amy and Team, Thank you so much for this opportunity! My organization, Families for Depression Awareness, is a small but mighty nonprofit that helps families recognize and cope with depression and bipolar disorder to get people well and prevent suicides. The time has come for me to step up and become more of a fundraiser, and we know that our future lies with individual giving, particularly in the category of [what we consider to be] major gifts. Over the past year, we worked with a Board Fellow to analyze our patterns of giving and propose a strategy for achieving and maintaining financial stability. We have the plan in hand and I would very much like to have a more solid footing in major gifts to support, encourage, and complement the Board’s efforts. I want them – and me – to be confident in my knowledge and ability to cultivate relationships with new donors and increase giving from current donors. I believe that the Mastering Major Gifts course would help me immeasurably and provide Families for Depression Awareness with a tremendous boost. I appreciate your consideration and thank you again for providing the opportunity to apply.
The Mastering Major Gifts Program will help me raise more money for my organization because I know I would be learning from a Pro! Amy Eisenstein is one of the leading major gifts experts in the non-profit industry and I know her passion for successful fundraising, and sincerely wanting all of her class attendees to be successful, will be evident in every aspect of the program. I personally need a game changer to take me to the next level in major gift asks and I believe with her success in developing cultivation plans and implementation strategies, I will learn all I need to know to give me the confidence and tools I need to move forward. Our organization cannot afford to send me to this training, but having the scholarship to be able to take the training would help me move mountains for us! Thank you so much for your consideration!!
Dads make a difference and you can too! Learning tactics and skills to master major gifts will allow Midlands Fatherhood Coalition and our statewide network of programs to obtain the sustainable funding so that dads can be responsible and engaged fathers and children are more likely to stay in school and avoid risky behaviors so they can also be engaged and responsible adults.
Like all non-profit organizations there are some barriers to success and outside expertise seems to make a bigger difference when moving towards systematic change and capacity building! I have worked in non-profits for almost 30 years and this old dog needs some new tricks!
Strange as it may seem, the fact that I know most of our major givers quite well sometimes works against me. I make assumptions instead of setting up the meetings or doing the research or keeping in touch. I attended your workshop on major gift fundraising for small shops a few years ago and it had a huge impact. Now I’m recognizing some of the flaws in my thinking (maybe it’s based on fear) and I want to make some changes that will help me connect even more deeply. You helped me before and I am certain you can help me again with this course!
Gifts are great. Everyone gets excited as they unwrap (open) the gift (envelope). However, the gift is the end result of so much work and relationship building. What goes into creating this “friendship” as you don’t become best friends in a day….it takes a long time to establish trust and confidence. How to do this is the question? This coveted information that comes from experience that I do not have and I will benefit from this class tremendously. I work with 3 small non-profits who are in extreme need of guidance and cannot “afford” classes such as this. I take as many free classes as I can, reach articles throughout the days and use whatever info I can pull and bring it to each organization as a part-time consultant for each organization. Truth be told, I have not billed two of the NP for my time in over a year because I believe in their mission and know their finances are minimal. Acceptance into this class would be a gift I hope to be able to unwrap.
I have been working in development for over 15 years. I started on the research and planning side and have been DD in two organizations for the past six years. I am really good at building successful relationships, however, my greatest opportunity for growth is mastering major gift solicitations. I am currently in transition after being downsized by a new CEO in a restructuring. Because of my age, I worry I may not be able to get another job although I am doing the work and remaining positive. Getting a scholarship for your mastering major gifts class would provide a nice shot in the arm both mentally and practically for my career! I thank you for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship and please know that I would be a most appreciative recipient.
Despite being a fundraiser for well over 20 years, I am not used to throwing myself on someone else’s mercy! AND I’m happy to make THIS ask to you, Amy and team,
Neighborhood Falmouth helps Seniors to age in place using a cadre of volunteers to provide a variety of non-medical services that help elders bridge the gap between declining abilities and living independently at home. (Other readers- if you have an aging loved one that needs some support check out vtvnetwork.org to find a “village” in your area. It’s an amazing, affordable service for Seniors.). Anyways, we are growing like crazy, have a 6-month waiting list to receive services, and need to add more staff to manage our growth and aspirations.
The trade off is that if we get more staff (right now we are a shop of 1 & 1/2), I should have more time, but I’ll need to spend it raising significant money (for us) to cover those staff costs, and a bigger office, etc. And staffing isn’t sexy to a donor, is it? But it’s what we need, and in order to keep doing this incredible work with a wonderful, yet vulnerable population, I need to get our of the chair, and get over my fears of asking.
I need help with fear of asking, with asking for something that is infrastructure, and for involving our wonderful board in ways they are not accustomed to (fundraising).
I signed up for MMG last year and made it partway thru the excellent course, before I got completely distracted and derailed. I have re-upped and re-committed.
Amy, could you commit one of your two scholarships to us? To me?
Thank you for your consideration. You rock.
Grace Community School (K-12, Tyler, TX) is a phenomenal school providing an excellent education to our region. Being a trained educator, I stumbled into development as I became the head of a very small school. We weren’t going to make it if I didn’t come up with more funding. We tried every gimmick in the book to get by – pizza sales, entertainment books, gift wrap, golf tournaments & more. We survived, but never thrived. Now in my tenth year, the needs of the school have grown and we’ve not developed the relationships to grow with us. In other words, we haven’t mastered the art of major gifts. We’ve mastered the art of getting by. I need your help to get better and take our school to the next level!
In my small fundraising shop, I am responsible for individual giving. In line with the general direction of fundraising, direct marketing results have been diminishing and higher end giving has been growing. The growth has been a result of a combination of new activities I have put in place over a couple years: Hand tagging letters, thank you calling, improved stewardship and donor research.
As a result, my organisation is ready to embark on major gifts fundraising.
I expect the the Mastering Major Gifts course will help us raise more money by:
-Helping me to focus on the right donors- the ones with interest and ability.
-Helping me to find some help from the right people.
-Helping me build accountability into the plan.
-Helping me to ask the right questions to build relationships with donors.
-Helping me to set up proper tracking.
-Helping me to create individual moves.
-Providing tools for exploratory calls, and for planning and making the asks.
-Providing tools for donor stewardship to keep the relationship active.
I have been a follower of Amy’s work for many years. I work at a small non-profit theatre just outside of DC. Over the past four years, I have created this role for myself, moving from the part-time box office manager to a part-time development director/ box office manager to full-time Director of Engagement. We only have 3 full time employees and work together to run an organization that is growing 15% each year. Our budget dollars are focused on creating amazing work for our community at an accessible ticket price and thus budget for professional development is next to nothing. We are preparing for our first capital campaign. This course would be instrumental in my preparation as we move into this next phase of growth. I believe in this theatre and its power to utilize the arts to create community. This course would be a gift for our team and for our community,
Thank you for this opportunity!
I feel mastering major gifts will help me to raise more money because it will give me the tools and confidence necessary to deepen a donors connection to our cause. While we have donors that are able to give, I don’t know how to take them from a mid-level donor to a major gift donor. I currently work at a domestic violence shelter and our shelter is running into building issues, causing us to shut down rooms while we look for money to fix the issues. Being able to implement a major gifts program will allow us to secure the funding needed to keep our shelter running smoothly. I’m grateful for the opportunity to learn more about how to make my dreams a reality.
I run a senior citizen center for new immigrants to Israel Our organization has grown from a Mamma’s and Pappa’s organization that started in a classroom at a local school, into a center that caters 5 days a week to this population.
The seniors we serve face a double challenge: a different country with a different culture and a language they’re not familiar with, and the difficulties that every human being faces as they get older. It’s not uncommon to see seniors become isolated and lose their self-sufficiency after such a big change. This could have been prevented if the right infrastructure would have been in place- this is where we come in.
Struggling to keep this organization afloat, I’m confronted by the many wealthy family members and acquaintances from her youth my wife has. They own banks, real estate, textile factories, you name it..,
These wealthy family members donate buildings, schools, ambulances, etc. etc. etc…
Millions of dollars annually are donated by them, as we silently watch this happen, and get from them in the best of cases- a one thousand dollar donation.
The frustration is enormous!! We are surrounded by these generous individuals and see the plaques to their names on buildings around town,
There is even a building to my wife’s grandfather’s name, and here we are picking up one hundred to one thousand dollar donations, struggling with the debts of the non profit, and trying to keep the organization going.
WE ARE MISSING THE BOAT!
I think that because of our unique situation, we can gain tremendously from mastering major gifts.
I’m sure you agree with me…
Amy,
Thank you for offering this scholarship to the fundraising community! My role as Director of Advancement at the Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady, like many fundraisers, is one that requires wearing many hats! As a one-woman team creating, implementing and analyzing strategies to grow our revenue through development and marketing is overwhelming at times (to say the least!). Our organization has recently concluded a successful capital campaign, which funded the building of a new facility that is now under construction. While this was an incredible and historic milestone for our community, we are sensing fatigue amongst donors and Board Members.
This is the perfect timing to implement ‘new-to-us’ strategies to develop our major gift program, which currently has the biggest opportunity for growth as identified by our 2019 Advancement Plan. We are in a good position to implement new tactics, with a committed Advancement Committee Chair, who has embraced the Advancement Plan and is a strong advocate to the Board of Directors. Participating in your Mastering Major Gifts program will allow me to work smarter by building cultivation plans and implementation strategies, by learning to identify the right pool of donors and by learning time management and implementing the right accountability for both Board and staff.
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Schenectady is at a historic time as we build the infrastructure to serve triple the youth with our new facility. However, with that success we must have the right donors and strategies in place to support this vast increase in operating costs. I hope you will choose me to scholarship for the Mastering Major Gifts program so I can immediately implement the tools learned in this online course.
Thank you for the incredible insight and tools you provide to the professional fundraising community, which allows us to have the right tools to change the world through philanthropy!
I work for a small Hospice organisation in the UK and we are desperate for innovation in our fundraising practices and to increase our return on investment, Our team has recently faced redundancies, our Legacy income is falling short of target each year for the past two years, our NHS grant has reduced and we never seem to have the time or resources to make a significant push for major gifts. I personally do not have experience in this area but would like to up-skill myself and my colleagues. Whilst not afraid of asking supporters for money, I am finding the idea of asking for sums which seem like a huge amount to me, quite a daunting task. I also recognise that major gifts is a growth area for many non-profit organisations and feel it would be a shame if we were unable to capitalise on such a great return on investment simply because we currently lack the skills and resources to do so. I want to make big returns on investment so that we can grow our services and support more people with life-limiting illnesses in Gloucestershire, UK.
I know Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because it will offer me the education and direction that I lack in raising major gifts now. I have no background in Fund Development, but have been working in this position for just over a year. I print almost every email from Amy to review and use as a resource to build my knowledge on fundraising along with a few other books. When I first started this position, I asked what the fundraising goal for the fiscal year was and I was told we didn’t have a specific goal, just do my best everyday. I couldn’t believe it. Needless to say, I started setting my own goals to increase what had been donated the year before. There were very few major gifts at all. Having the opportunity to participate in Mastering Major Gifts would greatly improve my skill set in Fund Development to increase the level of major gifts that would help our agency’s mission of enhancing and promoting the independence and well-being of older adults, adults with disabilities and those that care for them. I have a great passion for the impact that our agency has on so many people in our community. Learning to be a better fundraising specialist by completing Mastering Major Gifts enables me to better ensure we will continue to meet the needs of some of the most vulnerable seniors in our community. Thank you Amy and staff for your time and consideration and offering this needed scholarship.
For a small non-profit without a dedicated fund development professional learning how to master major gifts is critical to its success. Our organization serves patients with a rare genetic disorder, one that is natively unknown. That in of itself, makes fundraising a challenge. When that rare disorder is one that most of those affected don’t want to disclose because they want to protect their privacy, the challenge is even grater.
Arguably, non-profits benefiting rare diseases are the most underfunded. While the need for funding is greater because there is no cure and research for better treatments and possibly, one day, a cure are crucial to the patients’ quality of life. Raising funds in such an environment is difficult when your reach is limited and those personally affected have limited resources of their own. Therefore, the know how and ability to find major donors could prove to be a game changer for the organization, and most importantly, the patients it serves.
Thank you for considering our request.
As a new Executive Director, I am blessed with a team of individuals dedicated to helping the students at our community college to ensure they do not take on debt during their years with us. Because I have relocated (to assume responsibility for our college foundation) from an area of high poverty and very limited resources across the board to a location where there is significant opportunity to grow our donor relationships and the support the community provides to our students, I see stark differences in the possibility of raising substantial gifts. With several capital campaigns on the horizon, I believe this course will assist me (and therefore my entire foundation and college team) to maximize our efforts and serve our students better for years to come. This course will be partial refresher from other trainings I have had, but moreover will teach me Amy’s tried and true principles and move me from “new guy” in the region, to a more productive and elevated fundraising role, in service to my organization and the broader community. I am eager to make a substantial impact and the stars seem to be aligning with strong college leadership, foundation board, donor base, and current support. Capitalizing in these strong relationships and investing in stewardship efforts will be a top priority moving forward. Thank you for for this chance to learn from you while preserving our limited budget for training.
I signed up for Mastering Major Gifts a couple of years ago to help support the need of our organization. I joined Service Dogs, Inc. and a year later suffered a stroke. Thankfully, I have been able to continue working and am at the point where I am capable of taking on the task of this course.
I am the first Development Director for the organization and we have a tremendous need to reach out for and understand Major Gifts and every aspect of our fundraising efforts.
We feel like we are working from the seat of our pants in so many aspects, and trying to get organized and then find ourselves in a pool of water with the level getting near our eyeballs before we can scramble and start the next thing to get money rolling in again.
It is an exhausting roller coaster to ride.
Winning the Mastering Major Gifts Scholarship would enable me to help Service Dogs, Inc. help more people living with a mobility disability by providing a Service Dog, help more people with a hearing disability by providing a Hearing Dog, help more children testify against their abusers in the judicial system with a Courthouse Facility Dog, and help more First Responders and ER staff deal with the tremendous stress of the job by providing First Responder Facility Dogs.
I need the power behind me to re-engage the Board, the President and the entire organization, engage our donors, our community, and volunteers. The sky is the limit and you can help us find our cloud of success!
It’s an area of fundraising focus that has yet to be developed. Having training and coaching would keep me accountable in creating the foundation for a sustainable Major Gifts program. As the systems are created, donors reached, and relationships built, I have no doubt the financial support will follow.
In early December of 2017, I walked through the doors of The Victory Center (TVC), a cancer wellness center in Toledo, for the first time. I was there to try on free wigs and find one to replace the hair I had lost from the chemotherapy that was part of the treatment plan for my breast cancer. TVC volunteers greeted me and helped me try on wigs. When I saw myself in the mirror with hair again, I started to cry. The volunteers hugged me. They told me it was okay to be sad about losing my hair. They made me feel as if it wasn’t alone battling the cancer that had rocked my world at 48 years old. At The Victory Center, I found a support group to help me cope with the emotional impact of cancer. I participated in free art therapy sessions, hands-on services like oncology massage and reflexology, and nutrition and exercise classes that made me feel whole again. I even rappelled 16 stories down a building to raise funds for them as part of their Over the Edge for Victory event. I knew when I was well again, I wanted to be a part of their staff and to help them help others. In 2018, I came onboard as Major Gifts Manager. As a small community non-profit since 1996, TVC has finally grown big enough to begin the journey of cultivating major donors in order to continue to meet the needs of a growing community of cancer patients and survivors. Everyone knows someone who has battled cancer, and The Victory Center makes sure they don’t have to do it alone. I have a marketing background, and I have a deep and meaningful connection to The Victory Center, as well as the passion to help our participants, but I have very little experience with Major Gifts to help TVC secure the funds to continue the mission. Mastering Major Gifts is exactly what TVC needs to help us get to that next level. Because we’re a small non-profit and we devote as much of our resources to programs and services as we can, we lack the funds to pay for the course. Please help us get to that next level by awarding me the scholarship to take Mastering Major Gifts, so that TVC can continue to provide support, services, and hope to cancer patients in the community.
I don’t come from a non-profit or fundraising background. My career has revolved around marketing and media advertising sales with a lot of time spent volunteering at various non-profits. After 8 years on the board of our local United Way and a few years away from the board, I had the opportunity to join the Greater Gallatin United Way staff in a new role as Director of Community Engagement. I am thrilled each day to make connections between businesses and government entities and non-profit agencies, including ours to increase awareness of issues and the work being done to solve them. I assist in forming potential partnerships as well as identifying donor and volunteer opportunities. We are a small staff of six, strengthening my knowledge of major gift funding would have a huge impact on my fundraising efforts as well as those of the entire group. The more we are able to raise, the more we are able to invest in our community projects and our partners’ projects. We invest in ensuring basic needs are met, child and youth success, senior stability and have added a much-needed focus on behavioral health and well-being. I would appreciate this scholarship.
I am the director of a small feminist nonprofit in Montana. Our organization has been innovative in creating programs specifically for women, then sending those programs off to continue their work as new nonprofits. The organization has also relied on state and federal funding, which comes and goes. We have some family foundations that fund us fairly consistently, but what we are missing are skills in asking for, and getting Major Gifts from individuals. If we could learn better ways to approach potential donors, and effective ways to actually get gifts from them, it would help our work with clients, help stabilize and grow our organization, and help me (and our Board members) gain the confidence and skills to cultivate Major Gifts. Our organization works with women and their families by providing case management and advocacy, housing support, and a summer camp for homeless children. I am confident in raising money for our summer camp, but find it difficult to articulate the importance of our case managers’ ability to listen to their clients, helping them problem-solve, and taking the time to build relationships. We are also piloting a new program that will provide wrap-around services to women returning to the community after incarceration. Having the skills to identify and approach major donors for this new program will be key to its success. I know I would benefit from this training in keeping our organization and our programs strong and thriving.
I have been the Executive Director of Project Onward, a studio and gallery for adult artists with developmental disabilities and mental disorders, for approximately 1 1/2 years. I have to admit that fundraising is my most daunting task. As a small non profit, fundraising has to be my number one priority. To that end, I’ve put together a team and now have the necessary technical programs in place. All that’s left is to jump into the fray. I’m very afraid to waist any time I get with prospects by making mistakes. I have a mountain of paperwork and saved webinars to wade through for tips and techniques but would love to have one roadmap to accomplish my goals.
I believe Mastering Major Gifts can be the roadmap toward accomplishing my fundraising goals.
Thank you for all the advice you’ve given me through your website. I really appreciate it.
Regards,
Nancy Gomez
Mastering Major Gifts would be transformative for our small non-profit. We are a locally based, locally serving non-profit in Central Illinois. There is a huge demand for our programming, but much of the state funding available to support our mission in Illinois benefits non-profits in the Chicago area. Mastering Major Gifts would allow us to build a a sustainable, donor based funding source that would allow us to continue to provide programs and support in this under-served market.
In early December of 2017, I walked through the doors of The Victory Center (TVC), a cancer wellness center in Toledo, for the first time. I was there to try on free wigs and find one to replace the hair I had lost from the chemotherapy that was part of the treatment plan for my breast cancer. TVC volunteers greeted me and helped me try on wigs. When I saw myself in the mirror with hair again, I started to cry. The volunteers hugged me. They told me it was okay to be sad about losing my hair. They made me feel as if it wasn’t alone battling the cancer that had rocked my world at 48 years old. At The Victory Center, I found a support group to help me cope with the emotional impact of cancer. I participated in free art therapy sessions, hands-on services like oncology massage and reflexology, and nutrition and exercise classes that made me feel whole again. I even rappelled 16 stories down a building to raise funds for them as part of their Over the Edge for Victory event. I knew when I was well again, I wanted to be a part of their staff and to help them help others. In 2018, I came onboard as Major Gifts Manager. As a small community non-profit since 1996, TVC has finally grown big enough to begin the journey of cultivating major donors in order to continue to meet the needs of a growing community of cancer patients and survivors. Everyone knows someone who has battled cancer, and The Victory Center makes sure they don’t have to do it alone. I have a marketing background, and I have a deep and meaningful connection to The Victory Center as well as the passion to help our participants, but I have very little experience with Major Gifts to help TVC secure the funds to continue the mission. Mastering Major Gifts is exactly what TVC needs to help us get to that next level. Because we’re a small non-profit and we devote as much of our resources to programs and services as we can, we lack the funds to pay for the course. Please help us get to that next level by awarding me the scholarship to take Mastering Major Gifts, so that TVC can continue to provide support, services, and hope to cancer patients in the community. Thank you for the opportunity!
Classic 107.3 (Radio Arts Foundation) is a nonprofit radio station in St. Louis, Missouri that went live in April, 2013. We are the “Voice for the Arts in St. Louis.” As the first Development Director hired in 2015, I have achieved a great deal, but need to do more to achieve our goals and increase our audience and outreach. We have two annual direct mail drives and three on air-drives per year. We have received funds from eight foundations and hope to grow this area. Currently, we have two events each year with one as a bi-annual gala. Major gift fundraising is something that I do when I have some spare time which is not often enough.
A class in Mastering Major Gifts will give me the tools to add to my toolbox for raising more money and being more productive. It should add more discipline to my schedule and enable me to work with up-to-date information with my board. The additional funds will enable us to have a much larger impact in our community, so we can increase our partnerships and offer more educational materials for both students and adults. This year we have started putting our interviews in a podcast format on our website and will be creating podcasts of educational materials for students in the local school systems who do not have a robust music program. The latter is being funded as a pilot program from a grant, but additional funds will be needed to sustain the effort. All of these type of new formats and programs can be funded from major gifts. I would love the opportunity to learn more and improve my fundraising.
Do the Right Thing, the 1989 film by Spike Lee, coins a guidepost phrase for our world today. But doing the right thing is often difficult, sometimes complicated, and almost always helped along by non-profit organizations and the dedicated, hard-working, underpaid, passionate individuals who believe that they can make meaningful change in our world. At Historic Sotterley, a 300 year old historic site with four pillars of excellence: Education Without Boundaries, Saving Our Treasures, Growing for Good, and Building a Better Community, we are challenged everyday (as most small non-profits without endowments), by the disinvestment of local and state budgets, changing tax codes, and the day-to-day chaos of small staffs trying to do too much while looking good!
Here’s where a “Mastering Major Gifts” intensive course can make a difference at Historic Sotterley:
1. Lists, Lists, Lists, I pull them regularly, but am challenged to segment them into tangible income producers. I know there’s “gold in them thar” lists. I know I have a seven-figure donor in there. How can I dig deep for real gold, no pyrite allowed.
2. Here’s a familiar headline: “Board Members Run Amok.” From those with the best of intentions, to those with contacts out the wazoo, to those who can’t even open their own checkbooks, we need guidance (and perhaps a stick of dynamite), to get fast, easy, painless action items for our board to give more than lip service to the process of identifying, introducing, asking. Hell, just tag along and say, “This is a great place doing important work. Please join us.”
3. Where do I start? And how can I organize my workload (and my desk)! Help with the endless “To Do” list, help with juggling annual fund, grant writing, marketing, sponsorships, and Good-Gawd-help-me: Events. And finally help with the most powerful word in the English language: “NO!” – “I’m sorry I can’t do that, I’m meeting with a donor/prospect/stakeholder to discover their purpose and passion.
Thank you, Amy, for offering a scholarship to a deserving organization. Thank you for listening to my ramblings.
Here’s to doing the right thing by Sotterley!
Peace.
Jane
As the famous song goes so did my development life, “525,600 minutes 525,000 moments so dear…how do you measure a ‘development’ year”. I would like to say that in my years as a Development Director I spent those moments connecting with donors and developing a major gifts program but unfortunately that wasn’t the case.
Moments, hours, days, weeks, sleepless nights were spent holding golf tournaments, auctions, writing small grants and thinking I wish I had more time to connect with the donors and really be successful at this major gift thing. Old habits, busyness, and fear kept me locked in the bottom of fundraising pyramid until I made the profound decision to step off the hamster wheel and enroll in Mastering Major Gifts.
Amy taught me that if I just spend 15,600 (5 hours a week) of 525,600 minutes a year on major gifts, I would be successful in securing major gifts. The support I received through the 7-week course, cohort sessions, and Amy’s monthly calls has changed my life as a Development Director. While the events still take place and grants are still written, the organization I serve now has a purposeful Major gifts program that is my priority and no longer takes backseat to the endless task that succumb a development department. The results of investing some of 525,600 minutes into securing major gifts have been phenomenal! The moments and minutes of my days spent on implementing and sustaining what I learned in Mastering Major Gifts has resulted in more than a 200% increase in major gifts to the organization! This year, as an organization, we received our first six figure gift which was more than all our special event fundraisers combined!
After completing Mastering Major Gifts, I continue to meet with my Cohort weekly and attend Amy’s calls as often as possible because I am convinced the moments spent will results in huge returns to help kids who are hurting. If I am blessed to receive this scholarship, I would immediately invest in re-enrolling in Mastering Major Gifts.
Our organization has disproportionately wealthy and generous donors, but with a two-person development shop and a budget of almost $3M we are always scrambling just to say thank you and hold our annual gala. We just got Board approval to add a major gifts officer (MGO) and are desperate to make sure we build the right program and do the right things to connect in a meaningful way with the donors who want to help us provide pathways to freedom, safety, and hope to local victims of sex trafficking in our city. The market for MGO’s is crazy in Seattle – we’ll probably have to “build our own” talent. Your training will ensure we set the right priorities for our new MGO, help him or her communicate effectively the need and impact of donor investments in our clients’ lives and give our entire team a critical boost of confidence to make those critical asks. Last year REST (Real Escape from the Sex Trade) had over 700 victims of sexual exploitation reaching out to us for help – please help us raise the money we need to respond when they find the courage to ask for help.
What a lovely idea.
I run a charity fundraising for a hospital. Our team is small but our ambitions are big. I am CEO , chief fundraiser, chief dishwasher, you name it. We’ve worled wonders on our brand and have a strong case for support our board buy into. With a training budget of £0 a scholarship would give me the confidence and skills to help us finish the final piece of the puzzle, the fundraising strategy. I have so many ambitious plans but no independent critical friends to help is focus in on what will really work and push me out of my management comfort zone into major gift fundraising as the majority of my workload.
Thank you for the opportunity
Hire Heroes USA is a national nonprofit, helping over 15,000 veterans, military members, and military spouses in securing civilian employment each year. I have been part of our development team for 3 years, and we rely heavily on restricted grants. As we are working to grow and best serve our clients, our team has been tasked with diversifying our funding streams – to include a major gifts program. We have a small but committed individual donor base, and look forward to cultivating these donors. I’ve been doing research for about 6 months on major gifts, and always find myself on this website reading blogs and watching webinars. I’ve already requested with my leadership to take this course, and I know this scholarship would make it a yes. I have a huge passion to learn about major gifts, as I know it will allow us to help more people than ever before, but I need an intensive, baseline knowledge to ensure we are prepared to truly develop a successful program.
As someone who has worked in the Development field over the last 13 years, holding many different titles and positions, I can say Major Gifts has always been a spot that was either overlooked or avoided. As a current Director of Advancement, I am always looking for new tools that will expand my knowledge and allow me to be more confident in dealing with Major Gifts. I believe this course will also help me in explaining the importance of Major Gifts to donors. Many donors have a hard time understanding how long-term, large scale gifts can have a lasting effect for a company or corporation. By bringing this program back to my team, which is very small, we would be able to work together in asking for major gifts and allow everyone to have to confidence to speak to donors.
I have been with my current organization for two years now and I am slowly growing the giving. My predecessor allowed many things to lapse unfortunately and it is taking me some time to build it back up. A Major Gifts program will truly be an excellent addition to our fundraising program.
I thank you for the consideration and look forward to hearing if I am chosen as a participant.
As someone who has worked in the Development field over the last 13 years, holding many different titles and positions, I can say Major Gifts has always been a spot that was either overlooked or avoided. As a current Director of Advancement, I am always looking for new tools that will expand my knowledge and allow me to be more confident in dealing with Major Gifts. I believe this course will also help me in explaining the importance of Major Gifts to donors. Many donors have a hard time understanding how long-term, large scale gifts can have a lasting effect for a company or corporation. By bringing this program back to my team, which is very small, we would be able to work together in asking for major gifts and allow everyone to have to confidence to speak to donors.
I have been with my current organization for two years now and I am slowly growing the giving. My predecessor allowed many things to lapse unfortunately and it is taking me some time to build it back up. A Major Gifts program will truly be an excellent addition to our fundraising program.
I thank you for the consideration and look forward to hearing if I am chosen as a participant.
I work for Youth Beat, a small nonprofit that provides life-changing media training to low-income, inner-city youth – kids from extremely poor San Francisco Bay area neighborhoods where as one of our recent graduates explains, “Many of us have had a family member or friend murdered, and college is often not even thought of as a possibility.”
But at Youth Beat, these same kids learn from accomplished media professionals and learn to make videos on industry-standard equipment. They build skills to enter an exciting, growing career field. And they begin to believe in themselves. As one of our current students, Vernajah, explains, “Without my Youth Beat teachers, I’d still be lost. Now I know exactly what I want to do and what I want to be . . . And I know I can do it!”
The long and short of it is that Youth Beat provides the kind of high-quality media training that’s hard to come by even for kids in wealthier neighborhoods . . . and we could provide it to so many more low-income kids . . . if we had the resources.
Your course, Mastering Major Gifts, would help us get there. As I’m sure you know, the San Francisco Bay Area is home to plenty of wealth. So there is no question that the money is there. We just need to get better at asking for it!
I’d add that our success would also be your success. It would provide fantastic evidence that Mastering Major Gifts is a worthy investment even for small nonprofits – those that have the hardest time diverting money from programming to staff training.
Thanks for your consideration!
I believe Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money in many ways. First off, fundraising is hard. For many people, asking for money is one of the worst jobs imaginable. Working at a non-profit that relies on donations, fundraising must be done!
Our organization has been in continuous operation since 1943. As the only open-door animal shelter in our area, we never turn animals away based on age, breed, health, or temperament. We have a small full-time staff of 13 and our Executive Director, Associate Director (that’s me!), and Development Coordinator are the ones who handle annual fundraising. Most of the money we raise each year goes directly to providing the best care possible for our animals. With a limited budget, it is difficult to provide our development staff with opportunities to grow as fundraisers. Our building is crumbling beneath us, and we are in the first stages of a capital campaign. Major gift fundraising is going to be such an integral part of our campaign, and considering the state our building is in, there is a great need and urgency to secure major gifts quickly. This course will help us to become successful and confident fundraisers and will provide us with extensive knowledge and expertise in the field. I genuinely believe it will make a meaningful and lasting impact on our organization for years to come. This course will not only benefit our development staff directly, but it will also help us to empower our board members to fundraise and be confident doing it. Many of our board members have been vocal about not wanting to fundraise because it makes them uncomfortable. It doesn’t have to be! This course could help us change perspectives and give our staff and board members the tools to succeed in major fundraising. We know that every ask is different and that a creative and well-thought-out plan can mean the difference between success and failure. We are motivated to learn and ready to put in the work! For us, it’s all about the animals. As animal welfare professionals, we have a unique responsibility and opportunity to speak for those that have no voice. It is imperative that we grow and evolve as an organization and as individuals to best serve our community and the animals that need us the most. Becoming better fundraisers will help us to transform our organization and gain the skills to succeed now and into the future!
Thank you for listening to me ramble and for this incredible opportunity! We sincerely appreciate your time and consideration. 🙂
With over 15 years working in the Human Resources field, and never before in a non-profit organization, I recently was hired as the Capital Campaign Manager for YWCA NETN & SWVA.
Meeting our mission of eliminating racism, empowering women and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all feels very rewarding as, over the years, our YWCA programs have transformed the lives of children and families.
In 2018, the YWCA service area expanded to include 21 counties (8 counties in Northeast Tennessee and 13 counties in Southwest Virginia). The goal is to connect with communities and organizations throughout the underserved counties of the expanded region – serving as a resource for those who wish to benefit from the YWCA experience. In recent years, the YW has received an increasing number of requests from the broader region for advisement in our three centers of excellence which include quality, affordable childcare, TechGYRLS afterschool STEM-based education and Moms R Us Teen Pregnancy. Resources are sorely lacking in much of the region. Without the support of donors, we simply will not be able to increase the number of children we serve within our programs.
Mastering Major Gifts will provide us with the necessary knowledge and tools to enhance sustainability while being innovative and creative in seeking financial support from the community. When successful, we will have the opportunity to continue to transform more children’s lives.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
I’m an in-kind fundraising rock star. I’ve been the lead on several non-profit fundraising events over the last 10 years, and my stewarding thank you notes are so well received that recipients post them on social media. I’ve written several successful government grants. I’m now a Development Officer at a non-profit in Toronto, Canada, where we support young adults with mental health challenges. The Direct of Development took a chance on me, and hired me as a major gifts fundraiser with no major gift experience. You see, I’m an over-50 woman of colour, and the Director has mentored me through the first 6 months of employment (aligning with one of Amy’s wonderful suggestions). I now feel comfortable setting up and taking the lead in meetings with prospects with capacity. Among others, I’ve been studying and reading Amy’s material, and following her sage advice. I have begun to receive gifts, and expect to do as well in this aspect of fundraising as I have done in others. This scholarship would be my way of saying thank you by proving that my mentor made a wise and equitable decision. And of course, the money raised would support, in a significant way, more young adults being able to enter a no-cost, barrier-free, evidence-based support system that would effectively sustain their mental health over their lifetime. This scholarship, ensuring this next-level achievement, would be of profound and sustainable benefit to community, illustrate the insight of social justice, and express the legacy of a new era in women-led philanthropic power.
I think the answer to this can be simply, though not wholly, distilled down to two things in general, with a myriad of additional insights that support these two points. I won’t offer you a myriad, but just a few supporting thoughts.
Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money because: 1) it’s a proven method led by an expert in the field and has proven results with excellent testimonials to its success; 2) my organization is absolutely committed to following Amy’s plan and to mastering major gifts.
Friendship Centers has been serving southwest Florida seniors in five counties since 1973 through a variety of programs and services such as medical and dental clinics, adult day services for seniors with Alzheimer’s and dementia, caregiver resources, activity centers, educational programs, community dining and at-home meal delivery, and so much more.
Given our 46-year history there are certainly some strong, established relationships, but no formal development processes/systems have ever been implemented…until now! Knowing that it was finally time to take things to the next level, the organization hired its first Chief Development Officer, which happens to be me. I’m in my fourth week here and while I’m not new to fundraising I am working with a new staff. By new I mean both new to the organization as well as new to the field of fundraising.
I have one person on my team who has been with the organization for 34 years! She’s a nurse by training and education, but has all the key relationships with donors and corporate partners. She actively solicits gifts, but has not had formal training such as Mastering Major Gifts. Given her strong relationships and long history with the organization, when coupled with this proven training program I have no doubt that it’s the perfect formula for success!
For years, money has been left on the table because no one was here to implement a true major gifts program. It’s priority #1 for me, as I know it is the best use of or time and resources.
The timing is perfect as the organization (starting at the board level) has committed itself and its resources into growing philanthropy. We are perfectly poised at this moment in time to reap great rewards from a systematic major gifts program. The donors are there and ready, the timing is right, and the commitment couldn’t be stronger. What’s missing is this program to get us started! Helping me train this dedicated team while I’m focusing on strategy and vision for the department, along with a thousand other things, will aid in our success.
And for us, success means serving more seniors who are hungry. Seniors in need of vital medical and dental services. Seniors struggling with isolationism and loneliness. And families in need of critical resources. Thank you for considering the Friendship Centers!
Why do I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money? I believe it will help build my confidence by having the right tools and training to go for the ask. I’m extremely coachable and willing to execute on any training that is provided.
There are so many incredible causes to support. A donor would be hard-pressed to choose where to invest their money for the best outcome. Each of us understands that all too well. We stand by our causes. Some of us even donate to our own missions. My current employer is Cure Cancer. We’re a national (Australian) NGO wholeheartedly devoted to making this the last generation to die from cancer. I’ve been working with Cure Cancer for 2 and 1/2 years. 2 weeks into the job, my uncle lost his battle to bowel cancer and I’m not the only one.
All of our donors, fundraisers, Board, volunteers, fundraisers… we’ve each lost someone or walked a journey with cancer personally. My favourite part of my job is showing these heroes the precise impact of their generosity = introducing to the brilliant scientists they’re funding, leading to better treatments, faster diagnoses, and ultimately longer lives.
I’d be delighted to make excellent use of a Mastering Major Gifts Free Scholarship. The impact would be significant and long term. My fundraising team is quite small. A few people on my team manage Corporate and Community Giving, but I’m the only one working on Individual Giving, encompassing all four direct mail appeals, regular giving, bequests, trusts + foundations, and major giving. While time is always stretched, I know we can fund more cancer research. It’s the only way we’ll find a cure.
Thanks for your work in this space, Amy.
I have worked as the director of development at a Habitat for Humanity affiliate for nearly 7 years. The bulk of our donations come from corporate, church, and civic partnerships. I know that Major Gifts is where it’s at – I just haven’t been able to get there!
I expect a scholarship to participate in Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because all the studies show that the opportunity is there – I simply need to learn 1.) a process to meaningfully connect with the donors who care about what Habitat offers AND 2.) how to motivate those folks to find joy in giving at a highly level to make a significant positive difference in our community..