After the sensational spring launch of Mastering Major Gifts, I am super-excited about launching the program again this fall. The spring/summer students had amazing results…
- Success in securing meetings for the first time with prospective major gift donors
- More engaged and involved board members in terms of giving and helping with fundraising
- Implementation of appropriate metrics to measure the success of their major gift program (using more than simply “dollars raised”)
I’ve received so many requests for scholarship for this course, so we’ve decided to run a little contest here and award Mastering Major Gifts to two winners for the upcoming class.
- Winner #1 will get a scholarship to upcoming the fall course
- Winner #2 (someone who already took the course) will get a full refund for their course tuition from earlier this year
We’ll announce the winners next week.
This is YOUR chance to win free access to Mastering Major Gifts
This will only take a couple of minutes (literally).
All you have to do is answer one short question! In the comments section of this post, tell me…
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 — we select the winners. So, more compelling entries have a better chance of winning.
We’ll read every single response. Next Monday, September 19th, we’ll award two winners. If you win, you’ll get complete access to the membership area of Mastering Major Gifts, where I provide you with a step-by-step system to help you raise major gifts.
If you’ve already taken the course, you will win back your full tuition.
We will award two winners.
We’re really excited to read your entry and hear what you have to say!
Post Update: (And an Additional $348.00 in prizes)
Important Update: In addition to giving away Mastering Major Gifts, we’re also giving away the following to the two winners:
- A one on one, 45 minute coaching session with Amy Eisenstein, ACFRE ($300 Value)
- Copies of two published books, Raising More with Less and Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops ($48 Value)
Enter below in the comments — simply answer this question:
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?
Mastering Major Gifts is a way to move forward by leaps and bounds instead of struggling to meet expenses. As a camp and conference center, we provide opportunities for children, youth and adults to engage with others in significant ways. In this setting, it is good to be diverse, which creates lively discussions and learning opportunities for all involved. Increasing diversity requires scholarships for those who may not comfortably afford the experience. Major gifts would allow diversity to increase while expanding programming and offering the life-changing camp experience to more children, youth and adults.
I have read through a lot of Amy’s blog posts and free materials and have every confidence that I will receive wonderful training and information through Mastering Major Gifts. The course seems comprehensive, current, relevant, and important. I am a new Executive Director for a small nonprofit with no development staff who is just learning about fundraising with no background in raising money, and I am certain that I will have all the skills I need to raise major gifts after I take the course. Amy is obviously an expert in her field and I can’t wait to see what knowledge she has to share! Thank you for this opportunity.
I recently lost my job at the hospital due to budget constraints. I have started a consulting business literally by contacts calling me asking me to assist them with major gifts. I’m doing well but I honestly believe if I take your major gift course I would have the tools to be a master. I have heard you speak at many AFP conferences over the years and know it could change my life and help me save and change lives! Thank you for your consideration and a chance to something absolutely amazing! Pat Valleau
My name i s Nita . Wilkinson. I am director of advancement for Green Hills Community, an aging services provider in West LIberty Ohio. I am very new to fund development. I have not even started a major gifts program because I don’t even know where to begin. I know that it is the bread and butter of where I want to go, but it has yet to be included in my fund development plan as it is overwhelming to me at this point. I work with elders and I know that there is opportunity, and I know that this would benefit so many of those who live on campus. This would allow me to be more successful within my company as well as change the lives of so many that live at Green Hills Community. I would love to have the opportunity to learn from you and take my development program to the next leve.
I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money for my organization because I believe it will provide me with a mindset shift. I feel like I am standing at the bottom of Mt. Everest, looking up and asking myself how in the world will I ever start this journey of major gift fundraising, let alone reach any sort of summit. I think the Mastering Major Gifts course will provide me with the practical steps (and confidence!) that is needed to begin pursuing major gifts.
How could it not? Right now our biggest single donor was $15,000.00, we are looking for a edge to help move us forward in making that next contact, that next gift that will help take us to a new place.
Going thru the course will give me a better idea of how to acquire donors. However, I just don’t want donors for Cats Haven; I want to acquire people who will share the mission of caring for special need cats and kittens, plus senior cats.
This class would help me learn the way to approach the people and how to show them the work we do in a manner that makes sense
Truth is, I am not good with words…..I need to learn how to say what is needed without coming across as inept or just another crazy cat lady.
Amy, as a sales person for over 40 years, I’ve used many talents and acquired many new skills to be one of the best. Now that I’m at Food For The Poor for over four years, I want to achieve more and learn more of the ways to approach donors for larger gifts. As I watch some of the Major Gifts officers in our company bring in $30,000 and not just $3,200, I stand in awe.
There certainly is training here, and yet there are some nuances that I want to pick up to bring my “influence and style” to perfection (if that’s possible). When I can apply what I learn from your Major Gifts Mastering sessions, there will be dancing in the streets to the Praise and Glory of God
I think the major gifts training will include components of how to organize and methodically create a system to follow for cultivating major gifts. I struggle with creating good systems and would benefit greatly from this course. His Hands Free Clinic has several grants that will expire in three years. This course would provide me the skills to work towards replacing the grant funding. I the Executive Director, with responsibilities of human resources, billing, and payroll working just 30 hours a week. I have a great volunteer force that helps me with fund development. I would imagine this course would also help me to utilize my volunteer force more effectively. Thank you so much for this opportunity. I can’t wait to hear your answer next week!
Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money as it will give me a focus with a new angle and fresh ideas to connect and find synergies with our supporters.
I know that Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because after reading your book, Major Gifts Fundraising for Small Shops, I adopted a major gifts approach to our annual fund last year and it was hugely successful. I work in a small school serving 2 1/2 year olds through 8th grade and our annual fund jumped from $420,000 to $500,000 last year and we achieve the goal because of major gifts– it absolutely would not have been possible with out them. Really: we had 434 donors total. I am certain that your training will increase my confidence and skill level, enabling us to raise more to make our school a center for leading edge practices in education. I hope you’ll visit our website and see why Lowell is so special: http://www.lowellschool.org. Thank you for considering me!
Learn techniques and technology to support developing Major Gifts as part of our Resource Development Plan. At present, we focus on grants, donations and event sponsorships.
We need a major gifts program. So, just acquiring the skills and knowledge will help me to be systematic and move forward confidently to build a major gifts program. It is a hole in our fundraising and our non-profit really needs the support of major gifts.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me shift gears from focusing on grants to being more strategic and smarter about working with individuals to achieve their goals through support of my organization. I anticipate that the course will also boost my confidence level in working directly with high-end donors. As the arts organization I work for is about to experience an exponential growth in attendance numbers (3-4 times greater than we currently experience) because of November 2016 move to a burgeoning arts and business district, I need to be prepared for the next stage in our 38-year evolution. At the same time, because we are experiencing step-down operational funding (as are all the arts organizations in my area) from a major local funder, mastering major gifts is even more essential for the long-term sustainability of my organization. As the sole development staff person, I can’t emphasize enough what a game changer this would be for both the organization and myself.
Success in securing meetings for the first time with prospective major gift donors
More engaged and involved board members in terms of giving and helping with fundraising
Implementation of appropriate metrics to measure the success of their major gift program (using more than simply “dollars raised”)
I was born into a family who has done rescue mission work for all of their working lives. So I always say it is in my blood. However, I went to college for and practiced as an RN for 19 years. Loved it. But then God called me to “join in the family business”. I left the hospital and was the volunteer coordinator and office person for this mission. My role has evolved over my 9 years here. I now handle “all things related to donors”. We have a small staff. There is a “development director” who does more with marketing and events. There is a website/social media (part time) person. There is a small bit of access to a graphic design person, as her main “hat” is the volunteer coordinator. I have never taken a marketing or fundraising class in college. I do try to watch for webinars and local seminars that will enhance my knowledge. I love working with people so the relational side is easy for me. Finding the time to make calls and visits is a bit more challenging. I do all of the entering of gifts, keeping up the database, writing and thanking, reporting. We work with a company whose focus is rescue missions in sending out monthly campaigns for us. Our budget is around $2 million. We house men, offer an extensive recovery program for those with addictions and assist needy families. We are just beginning another facet to our program for “after care”. As men complete our recovery program (in 12-15 months) they are needing a transition step before being on their own. Finding which donors may already be in our database who can make major gifts, would enable us to hire another person for the development team so that we can begin a robust online marketing campaign. Being able to take this course would help me focus on the “right” actions and people so that we can continue our very important mission.
As a one person shop for a air ambulance company i do believe Mastering Major Gifts would certainly help me raise more money. I am the Director of Development and the ony development person for our organization. I came to the organization with experience in annual giving and events however, i have little to no experience with major gifts. I have been reading everything i can get my hands on, have seen Amy Einsteien at 2 AFP conferences and know she certainly knows what she is talking about. Anytime i have taken a course with her i have found it extremly helpful. Of course you can imagine we have a very small development budget and I use the money we do have for the AFP conference as i think it gives me a good mix of education as i cover all aspects of development. I have looked at this class for sometime now and know it would be a huge help to our organization however, financially my board will not justify it. I would love to take the course and blow major gifts out of the water to prove to the board they are wrong. If you choose me as the candidate for the scholarship i assure you will take the course very seriously and be determined to implement Amy’s ideas and suggestions in our organization. Thank you for the opportunity.
I love the non-profit where I work. It does great things for kids, and is an inspiring place to do development work. The more money we raise there, the more kids we can help who could really use it. I know that major donors is an area where we should be spending more time and getting better rewards than we currently are. If we did, we could be bringing in big bucks. My problem is that I can’t get through the door with most of our potential major donors. In fact, I can barely get them to answer the phone or respond to an email. Most of my board members are trepidatious about doing it themselves and would much prefer that I do it. And so, we get smaller donations than we could be getting. Plus, I have a difficult time developing different strategies for different donors. And, to confess the truth, picking up the phone is just not my favorite thing to do in my workday. Most days I force myself to do one or two calls. But surely, if I had more confidence or actually knew what I was doing, it would be easier and I’d enjoy it more. That’s why I need this course; Amy has the answers I’m looking for, I just know it! But of course, without bringing in major gifts, my work can’t afford for me to take this class. And neither can my personal finances. And so the cycle persists…. 🙁 If only there were a way to get a scholarship…. that would solve all my problems! And just think of the good it would do for the kids:)
Our nonprofit has been around for over 45 years but found itself in a position of near unsustainability a couple of years ago, With a new Executive Director a new energy within our community and Board. has been created. We have a small Staff with the development work among many other responsibilities handled by the ED. As the new Board President it is crystal clear for us to not only continue on the path of sustainability but to offer the programs, etc. which benefit our community and grow into our potential, we must tap into those who can and would like to give major gifts. We are adding a development committee to our Board but realize that the Ed and myself must take the lead. In viewing the content in the Mastering Major gifts curriculum it is covers just what we need to build a program which engages our Board and and provides a process by which Staff and Board can work together in developing the relationships needed to solicit and procure Major Gifts. We have already discussed the need to change our Board culture to one of philanthropy. This will take time, but we are ready for the first steps. The Can Do attitude of the program along with Amy’s enthusiasm and the quality Information and techniques being provided are a recipe for Sucess in the area of Major Gifts. Help us build something remarkable for our organization. We would like to get started as soon as possible, but this expense is not in our budget and to wait until next year or beyond would impact our ability to begin what we feel would be a remarkable journey.
I am involved in the relaunch of a non-profit 501(C)(6) association that is incorporating a 501(C)(3) affiliate. An educational and research organization focused on massage, the Massotherapy Institute (MI) is subordinate to the Ohio State Massotherapy Association (OSMTA). While I run an accredited educational institution, I have no experience asking foundations or philanthropists for money. Taking the Mastering Major Gifts program will help to establish sound policies and procedures for campaigns to fund these organizations
Because you said it would and because we’ve had NO success at major gift fundraising it would have to help.
Hi Amy,
I am new to development and have the honour of taking on the Development Manager position at an arts organization I have been involved with for over 20 years. They have had a rough few years but with an excellent all new management team have managed to work themselves back into a stable financial position. Unfortunately, we need to win back the trust of our donors. This is a good, good, good organization that contributes so much to children and the community and I want to do the best by them that I can. I could definitely use your help with Major Gifts fundraising! Thanks for the opportunity.
I know of the need, and am passionate about our mission – it’s incredibly important and builds individuals that then are better equipped to positively impact their communities. This course is essential because it’s sequential, broken up into manageable steps and results oriented. I need the guidance and momentum this course provides. Plus it will help me to carve out the time necessary to devote to major gifts. I have done some of the work – i.e. identified our top tier of donors to move to the next level. I admit I need help in breaking it down and creating weekly training and action steps. I am determined to succeed for all the people that need us and this is the next step in my personal and professional growth. I have spent time solidifying our organization and strengthening it (including rebranding) so that now I can talk with confidence and intelligence to potential major donors. I’m ready and my organization is ready!
I believe in my heart and soul that Mastering Major Gifts would help me earn more money because I’m open to change. I have the talent. I have the drive. With your help through this course I will also have the mastery. I’m a lifetime learner and I thrive on trying new ways to connect with donors and prospects. I’m a huge relationship person and I believe there are many more kind and good people out there in the world than the opposite. I want to meet them, know them and help them help others through philanthropy.I have a personal goal to receive a million dollar gift. I now have a donor with the capacity to make that gift. With this course I am confident that my goal would be realized. I’ve been a fundraiser for more than 15 years and I will be the first to tell you that I still have a lot to learn. It never gets old to me and I find new adventures around every corner. I believe that Mastering Major Gifts would be a new adventure that would help me gain the tools to help others through my work.
You have concise answers..and have the experience, education and savvy that could take me to the next level
I have worked in major gifts for one year and exceeded my goals last year…on a “wing and a prayer”. I am trying to incorporate many different systems and methods and believe that your course could give me the structure that I need..
I have experience with Annual Giving and Events, but not much with Major gifts, grant writing or foundations. This is one area I would like to increase my knowledge in order to help lead the campaigns for our school, and to one day work in development for a non-profit or independent school.
I am always pleased with the value and insight provided by Amy Eisenstein (and I am a seasoned fundraiser). I have no doubt that Mastering Major Gifts will be similarly beneficial!
Imagine a beautiful condo rental right on the beach in Maui. The waves are crashing on the sand of the gorgeous public park right outside the lanai. Birds are singing, children are splashing in the sparkling water and little lizards dart about. And, there I sat reading Major Fundraising for Small Shops – How to Leverage Your Annual Fund in Only Five Hours per Week. That’s how important I see the need for major gifts at our community theater and yet as I returned from Maui in March, the waves of other needs for my one-person development shop have crashed over my plans to implement all that I had read. I am hoping that the structure of taking your course could help me surf those waves and become a success story for you to share with others. We are a small shop and I do not have the funds personally or in a budget – please consider me for your scholarship. Thank you!
Hi Amy, I think it would benefit us because it gives us a plan. A perfect step by step plan to help us with our pediatric hospice program. There are two of us and 26 counties. We get so busy doing the things that have to be done that taking the time to be strategic gets lost. I also believe it will help us be strategic in utilizing our board and volunteers.
Empowerment, improvement, proof. Why walk alone! I’ve read the e-mails and agree with them. Thoughts of self doubt in whatever phases or wherever your at in your quest add up to still seeking HELP. Not just listen to a webinar or going to a conference will take you to a better you and a better gift. Hopefully those are ways to socialize, see whats trending, maybe give an idea or two but it doesn’t replace having support. Support meaning, the how to’s, what way’s, and the why’s to answer… is this the best choice with the biggest outcome. Contacts are crucial, support is crucial, and proof of making a difference is the actual action plan, implementation and evaluation of what your purpose is. This Mastering Major gifts answers the questions “Why walk alone,” “Why not raise more”, and “Yes I can.”
Thank you, (for your support)
Adra Breclaw-Csanyi
Our Lady of Grace School
Development Coordinator
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money? Because having a heart to do service for others isn’t enough–good intentions and good service doesn’t make the work sustainable. Knowing how to ask others efficiently and effectively is key to helping others. With Amy’s years of experience, friendliness, her ability to mentor, and her new insights into taking mentoring to the next level–this course transforms the success of fundraisers and through them changes the world.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because I am new to the Major Gifts Officer job (6 months in!) I already have the patience for this work and dedication to my small organization, but sometimes I need a little extra motivation to structure my work and give me the confidence to move forward with my donors. Since I work at a small organization, I need the backing of training like this to demonstrate to my colleagues (in and outside of the development team) that I always have a strategy. I could use tips on language and style of communication as well as large and small actions that will make a difference to deepening my donor relationships.
I think that Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because I need direction in my department. Our department needs help with training and I feel this would give us something concrete to rely on, not just for me but for more development staff down the road. You have such a great ability to relate to us as fundraisers, and I am sure you can help us do a better job of working with our donors. Also, I think it will work because I am ready to do the work. I’m ready for a plan and I love to learn new things. I’m tired of floundering around doing what I think is best and not accomplishing what I know if possible.
Thank you for putting together this training and offering us all a chance to be great.
Hi Amy. Thank you so much for this opportunity!
Here’s my story: I came from higher ed fundraising. I was in charge of Annual Giving on a team of 40+ development and communications professionals. It was time for a shift in focus and a new challenge for me, so I took a job with the largest and oldest human services agency in my area. I’m now the VP of development and communications, and I’ve been here since February. So while I’m working with a big agency and I actually DO have a team, unlike so many other nonprofits (I have a communications coordinator, a special event coordinator and a part-time admin), I still have that feeling that I’m a one-person shop. The agency is 117 years old, we have 350+ employees working on 36 programs, across 18 locations over a large regional area, yet people don’t know us. There is a lot of marketing/communications work to be done too. Most of the agency’s development work in the past has focused on events and grants. Very little personal cultivation has been done with individual donors–such a huge opportunity!! The department started using a donor database about 3 years ago, and we have 5 years worth of donor data in the database. As we were preparing our annual report for 2015 (very late due to staff turnover!) we realized MAJOR mistakes in data entry from last year and we are in the process of fixing it all. From my annual giving background, I know that accurate data is EVERYTHING!
We have really good “bones” in this department–we finally have an excellent, solid team in place, data is getting cleaned up, event season is almost done. And I’m soooo nervous. I truly believe we are on the cusp of making incredible progress, engaging and cultivating donors in new and exciting ways, we have the support of leadership and the board….yet I personally feel stuck with what to do next. What an awful feeling! There is so much potential with our donor base, I know there are major gift prospects just waiting there for me, but I’m not quite sure what the next step is. I watched one of your videos, Amy, where you said you were busy ALL the time, checking things off the task list every day, yet you felt like you weren’t getting anywhere. That’s exactly how I’m feeling. Like you mentioned in your email, I’m reading tons of blogs and articles, but none of them are helping me get where I need to be. I’m a linear thinker–I feel like I have to have steps 1, 2, and 3 completed before I can begin soliciting donors. But in reality, I don’t have time for that. I need the kick-start. I need the tools and processes and guidance that can finally push me to make some real progress.
I recently had a board member make me feel like I’m failing. I know I’m not, but I also know there are things I could be doing so much better. Boy, do I want to show her (and myself, my CEO, my board, my community) what I can really do! And I feel like your course could finally get me there. Thank you for what you do to help us struggling fundraisers, which in turn make our communities better, healthier places!
Q: “Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?”
A: We’re a small but mighty nonprofit theatre company–utterly unique in our region in that we focus solely on producing cutting edge new works you cannot see anywhere else. We’re in our 19th season, during having grown from a nomadic troupe of actors into a dynamic player in the local arts scene – but due to some questionable decisions by a previous leadership team, my colleagues and I have been scraping by with essentially zero cash reserves for the last 2.5 years.
Since I joined the team as Associate Artistic Director under the leadership of a new Producing Artistic Director, we’ve produced 300+ performances per season…with a full time staff of 7.
That means each one of us is a Jack (or Jill) of all trades: my technical director also manages our bar; my associate producer also assists on set construction, my boss (the Artistic Director) also designs all of our shows – and I am in charge of marketing, fundraising, assisting in season selection AND directing at least two shows a season.
All of this to say: I may be a Jill Of All Trades, but that means I’m also a master of none. In order for this scrappy little company to realize its real potential, it’s time I got closer to mastering the art of major gifts.
I have a lot of experience in annual fund work and institutional fundraising, but since I jumped from a Development Associate-level fundraiser straight to an Associate Artistic Director-level executive, there are some holes in my knowledge–especially when it comes to raising sponsor-level major gifts from individuals.
And major gifts for our company are lagging as a result.
We have the prospects – our work is beloved in our community and we’ve done a lot in the last two seasons to build the loyalty and personal investment that could lead to bigger gifts. Our foundation funders have recognized this growth with significant increases in their giving. But we still operate without cash reserves, so we’re constantly vulnerable: unexpected major expenses pose a real threat to our existence (and those things happen a lot in the theatre).
If I could take this course and refine the skills I need to convert that loyalty into consistent major gifts, we could build the war chest we need to weather unexpected expenses better, and we could then spend less energy on “emergency” fundraising and more on what we do best: providing opportunities for 200+ artists in a midsized Midwestern city, and creating community around cutting-edge artistic experiences that are affordable for all.
I’d love the chance to build the skills I need to be a major gifts rockstar, and give this scrappy little theatre company the legs it needs to carry it into its next decade of work. Our artists and audiences deserve more than I can currently give them – and I want to make sure they get it.
The course, Mastering Major Gifts, can help me raise more money for my organization by teaching me to develop a compelling story. I will learn how to identify major gift prospects more effectively, how to use the database more efficiently and how to get board members involved in connecting with major gift prospects to facilitate a gift. I will also learn how to develop friends and followers and deter,mine if some of them are potential donors and major gift prospects.
In addition, I will learn how to determine the right amount to ask for, which is an area our organization needs guidance on. Lastly, the course will teach me how to get better at respectfully recognizing donors as people with a passion for the organization and not simply looking at their financial capacity.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me to feel more comfortable in making the all important ask as well as how to continue to build the relationship. I want to learn this important skill in order to prove to myself and to my employer that “I can do it”! The gift of “the ask” is something I want to learn to make myself more successful and raise funds for an excellent cause.
Thank you Amy for this amazing opportunity!
There are so many fantastic nonprofits who have amazing missions to benefit humanity and the environment. I wholeheartedly support them with time, talent, and treasures. Selling the mission of an arts organization is a bit tougher.
We have a 56 year history of providing professional theater during the summer months in Central Minnesota. Our campus is nearing 100 years old; the organization is deeply entrenched in the fabric of the life in this lakes area; our programming is growing. All the markers are there for success and yet we live hand to mouth each and every year. With a staff of 1.5, we are working very hard to stay on top of the needs of the organization but I don’t think we are necessarily working smart.
As the proud and humbly grateful executive director of the theater, it is my mission before nearing retirement to help build more sustainability for an aging campus, for continued excellence in programming to enhance the quality of life in our area, and for the perpetuity of the organization.
With a focus on major gift fundraising, I know this would happen. It would a honor to be chosen and take the class from Amy to learn how to be a smarter fundraiser.
Hi Amy,
I am in a new role at Friends of Karen for the last 3 months as their Director of Individual Philanthropy. This is a position that was created to bring Friends of Karen to another level of funding. It is important to get this major gift training to put a comprehensive plan into place to grow revenue. As soon as we grow revenue we can pass on the donors love for our mission to help families with children battling cancer or another terminal illness. These families need more help. I need to increase major gifts for the organization, build a comprehensive moves management program of engagement, recognition, face-to-face asks, etc. I heard you speak once and have been reading your blogs ever since. You are truly motivating and to take this class would be a gift that passes on straight to the Friends of Karen families and children in need of support. Thank you for considering giving me a free scholarship to your class. It would be a true blessing.
Kindly,
Kathleen
Here at The Saklan School, our board’s commitment to the mission and financial stability of the school has carried us through the most recent economic downturn to today, where there’s me, their first-ever (part-time) development director, our middle school (for 48 students total) has a waiting list for the first time, and our parents continue to love, love, love our teachers and programs.
So, how do we get our non-trustees—who have the capacity to give more to our Annual Fund—to want to pull their love out of their pocketbooks, too?
Having followed Amy since I discovered her a year ago, I know that taking her MMG program will provide me with the approach and skills that our school needs to boost our Annual Fund from “just making it” to “now we can afford to do more for our kids and teachers”. What a dream come true that would be!
I’m a relatively new executive director for a conservation organization, and trying to learn as much as I can about major gift fundraising. I believe that our organization can be most effective in its fundraising efforts if there is a special synergy between board and staff in this effort, and I’m working to create that synergy in our organization. I would benefit from the mentorship and expertise provided by this class.
Mastering Major Gifts will help give Save Our Shores the foundation it needs to continue it’s positive impact on the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary’s shoreline unrestricted – without living under the restraints of government funding. It will also give me the confidence, skill and mentoring I need to make a difference as Development Manager. My employer is ‘unable’ to pay for this course and I am willing to invest the funds personaly because I truly believe in Amy Eisenstein’s knowledge.
Thank you Amy for offering this scholarship! All the best to the winner.
Because statistics and research tells me it will!
Confidence.
Confidence to approach leads, existing donors, and connectors knowing that my methods are tried and tested – and work.
And confidence building among the leadership team and board that what we are doing – a new-ish major gifts fundraising program – is a proven approach that creates stable, efficient, and growing revenue for an organization of our size.
Taking this course would grow my confidence and the space and support to do my work and secure those early wins so critical for an organization to fully ‘buy’ major gifts.
Thanks for opening this opportunity.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me (us) raise more money because gifts from individuals are the proven source (by far) for building and maintaining sustainable funding for nonprofit organizations.
For over 9 years, I’ve been a part-time development professional in the Division of Natural Areas at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History. I interface with the Museum’s Development Department but I report to Renee Boronka, the Associate Director of Botany and Natural Areas. Why, you ask, am I not housed in the Museum’s Development Department?
Because, for over 40 years, Dr Jim Bissell, the Curator of Botany and Director of Natural Areas here at the Museum, has been an unstoppable and charismatic major gift fundraiser. He is passionate about botany and conservation and gets potential supporters as excited as he is. Sometimes it only takes a hike on one of our 52 Nature Preserves for Jim or any of our other naturalists to awaken an appreciation for nature and conservation. But Jim’s other talent is that he builds long, deep relationships with potential donors and knows how to ask for significant gifts. And he has done this throughout his tenure.
I was hired to help Jim with his and the Division’s fundraising. I’ve learned a lot from him and our entire Division subscribes to the following simple development philosophy:
1. Is the potential individual donor interested in our Division’s mission of protecting and stewarding the environment?
2 .If so, get the donor involved on field trips or at conservation events-out in the field is the best
3. Ask and ask big!
When I arrived 9 years ago, I provided administrative support for Jim’s fundraising activities. I asked him where he found his long-time, loyal donors. He said most came on field trips years ago so I suggested since there hadn’t been an organized annual appeal for Natural Areas, let’s start by building a list of all past and current field trip participants and send a direct appeal to them. Over the years we found many new supporters this way and today we raise approximately $450,000 annually for our operations from individuals. The annual fund appeal is a combination of the Natural Areas Annual Appeal, Jim’s famous letters to his older supporters (he’s been writing those for years!) and direct asks.
Jim is almost 70 and has no plans to retire-but life has a way of changing the best intentions! To plan for the future, my direct supervisor Renee Boronka and I are committed to putting in place a Major Gift plan for the rest of the staff so we can continue to grow Jim’s approach now and in the future. It is important for our entire staff to be empowered to recognize a potential major supporter and know how to steward and eventually ask (with the help of development staff of course.) for a gift.
I would appreciate the opportunity to learn from Amy as we enter into this new phase.
I think this course could be a great resource for Natural Areas.
Thank you for your help!
Kate
Kate Zannoni
Assistant Director of Development
Natural Areas Division
The Cleveland Museum of Natural History
1 Wade Oval Drive
Cleveland, OH 44106
T 216.231.4600 x 3401
F 216.231.5919
kzannoni@cmnh.org
Mastering Major Gifts gives newer fundraisers all the basics in an easy to understand format you can comfortably integrate and use. Experienced fundraisers will see ‘all the pieces come together’ from your previous experience and training and you will be able to raise major gifts with confidence. By completing Mastering Major Gifts with Amy Eisenstein, your organization will benefit because you will greatly strengthen your fundraising skills and know exactly what to do.
My university just announced the first-ever comprehensive campaign with a BIG goal. My challenge is, most of my current donors live in the lower end of major gift land – $10,000 to $50,000 range. I need to both secure bigger gifts from current donors and engage new donors at the same time. I believe the first two objectives – securing meetings with new prospects and engaging volunteers in our work – are going to improve our fundraising dollars (up to six and seven figures!) and bring success to our important campaign. I want to find those donors who are committed to our mission of educating students and helping them achieve economic and career mobility after graduation. (That’s a very powerful thought when you see the impactful difference on our first-generation students – a scholarship gift can change their life, and make it more likely that their own children will be college graduates. One gift can break the cycle for generations.) I believe in our mission and in this campaign, but I need more tools and training to increase the opportunities for success.
Fundraising models have changed. What used to work no longer works. Relationships count and nonprofit staff turnover is high. Mastering Major Gifts allows an organization to create sustainable relationships with donors that believe in your mission and want you to succeed.
Raising money is key to protecting much of what I care about and helping communities to thrive. I’m new to the profession and look to Mastering Major Gifts to turbo-charge my efforts to raise more money by laying out a clear roadmap to success by building my skillset step by step. I expect this will develop my confidence and skill in communicating about our work and developing relationships with people who are seeking meaningful philanthropic opportunities.
How Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money:
The course will help us to build on the changes we have already made: identify top donors by gift amount, hand-tagging direct mail letters, personal thank you calls from volunteers/me and thank you cards from our CEO, researching our donors using the internet, improving our record keeping of all interactions with our donors, identifying board members who are willing to make calls to donors and holding our first high end donor event.
We are poised to launch a Major Gifts Program.
These activities have resulted in one surprise high-end gift. I am sure there are possibilities for many more more high-end gifts,
I am in a small shop and I do all the individual fundraising, with part-time admin help.
I will raise more money by learning how to:
-identify and focus on the right donors
-know what information to retain regarding donor research and interactions
-get help from Board Members
-move donors from a direct mail focused communications plan to a donor centred communication/cultivation/stewardship plan
-get meetings with donors (know how to approach)
-know how to ask for a gift and how to put together a proposal
-know how to measure the success of our program
And have a source for asking questions!
Thank you Amy for providing the opportunity to attend this course free. My reasons for believing this course will help me raise more major gifts are twofold and relate to my experience as a fundraiser and the organization for which I raise funds now.
I have over 12 years of experience in fundraising, the bulk of it in grant writing and institutional fundraising. I transitioned to a Development Director role three years ago and came to my current organization two years ago. Both of my department head positions came with heavy grant writing responsibilities, so I have had little time to invest in major gifts training or learn and test strategies on the job. Needless to say, my success with major gifts fundraising has been scant and limited to renewals since I’ve had little time to invest in cultivating prospects.
However, I am now on the verge of being able to transition almost fulltime to major gifts fundraising in conjunction with my department head duties. I have trained a professional in my department in grant writing for one year, and a staff departure has allowed me to restructure the department in order to make her a fulltime grant writer. (Previously, I had an annual fund director who was responsible for major gifts also–with limited success.) I’m excited to soon be focusing on our most generous and committed donors, but I’m also nervous about what I don’t know. While some institutional fundraising strategies transfer to major gifts (proposals, specific asks), I know it is a highly specialized field with its own nuances and best practices. Through the course, I believe I’ll gain more personal confidence in appreciating that I know what, how and when to do with major gifts prospects and implementing that knowledge.
In addition, my organization is extremely undeveloped in raising major gifts. With a young development department (only being added 8 years ago to the administration), the focus for the last 30 years has been on securing corporate sponsorships and grants since the leader transitioned to her current post (30 years ago) from a corporate career. The Board of Directors is also highly corporate with the mindset that their personal solicitations and gifts should come from corporate coffers–no matter how many times I try to explain that corporate giving only makes up 6% of the national fundraising average. I hope that through this course I will also gain a better understanding of how to better engage current Board members and recruit new Board members for successful major gifts fundraising.
Because Major Gifts is the major area where most of organization fail to master. They are often successful in raising small amounts. So Mastering Major Gifts will help in achieving major fundraising goals. 🙂
I am new(ish) to this organization – Support Dogs, Inc. and I have a great Board and President/CEO that are excited and involved and ready to take the organization to new heights…but really scared of fundraising! I know they need a push and training. I’m not sure what to do next. I’m struggling to even get them to make thank you phone calls. It’s starting to deflate my enthusiasm…and I get to work with puppies!!! I love your posts, videos, and tweets. I know I’M ready. Can you help me help my board? SDI is amazing and we have great potential! I want us to accomplish amazing things together! At the very least, when you’re having a down day, check out our live puppy cam on our website: http://www.supportdogs.org. 🙂
The very first time I read your blog, I felt reassured, “I can do this.”
I’ve been receiving the benefits of your e-newsletter for a year. It’s clear to me your course, “Majoring Major Gifts,” understands the challenges I face fundraising in a “small shop,” and is designed accordingly.
I was emboldened by your messages on September 8, 9, 10 which helped me see that despite all the challenges, I have what it takes to generate the support Friends of the Future needs to do its work.
Everything I’ve learned from you has brought me to the brink of being a major gifts rock star. The quantum leap I need help with is in Module 4 of the course: How to get the first date!
You see, my last first date was 29 years ago, and he did the asking. In fact I don’t remember ever asking anyone out on a date.
So learning how to initiate a relationship with a potential gifter is a real deficit of mine I know your course can help me overcome. Your course will also provide the help I need pulling together all the bits and pieces I’ve learned into a solid course of action.
Because of all you that you’ve shared with me I am confident you are the right mentor/coach/ teacher for me and the course content is just right for my circumstance and goals.
If only my professional development budget was more than $250!
Ultimately, I am confident your award will help provide the fuel Friends of the Future needs to empower people to take action for the wellbeing of Hawai`i Island. (FOFHawaii.org)
Amy,
Mastering Major Gifts will help create a long-term, sustainable source of funds for our very small nonprofit with just 2 full-time employees (I’m the Executive Director, and we have a full-time Naturalist for our Audubon Chapter). A course like this will help me prioritize major giving, focus my attention where it needs to be, give me the tools I need to be successful in supporting our mission to connect people to nature, and leading my Board to do the same.
A few months ago we just completed our first “real” Strategic Plan, and developing a major gifts program is a stated objective in the Plan. Help me “work the plan” and achieve our goals!
PS- You ask for our website– please don’t judge! It took me years to secure the grant and matching grant to design a clean, modern, meets or exceeds best practices website, which is currently in development. (See how I’m in it for the long game? I’m persistent. I’m fun. And I’m also dedicated.!)
Mastering Major Gifts
Program offered by Amy Eisenstein
Scholarship Request
Submitted by Jeanne M. Patrican, Executive Director of the Eastwick Foundation
Why do I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money?
A few short months ago I was named the first Executive Director of the Eastwick Foundation. The Eastwick Foundation is associated with Eastwick College and raises money for scholarships and community non-profits, especially local food pantries. My task was to start from scratch and implement all the procedures and systems that a non-profit requires – from redesigning the website to selecting a donor database management system (Bloomerang, yay!) to identifying/analyzing/reaching/cultivating current and potential donors.
After looking at the data, not only do I know that Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money, but I also know it is the only way for me to raise money. Let me explain.
Although I have the support of the Eastwick College staff, I am the only Foundation employee. This means that I must be as efficient as possible with my time. Regarding different fundraising vehicles – events, direct mail campaign, crowdfunding, recurring donations, major gifts, etc. – my thinking was thus:
• Events: Very time consuming and very little payoff, especially for a first time event; plus we don’t have a large enough donor database from which to draw significant attendance.
Fundraising potential? Very little; not a wise use of time
• Direct Mail Campaign: Less than 50 people have donated to the Foundation and our list of potential donors is non-existent. Even if these people respond to an appeal and donate $100 each, $5,000 is not a large amount. In addition, some of these people would be better served to be included in my Major Gift Program.
• Grants: This is a possible avenue and one that I am currently pursuing. However, I don’t believe that the potential is as great compared to major gifts from individual donors.
• Crowdfunding: Successful crowdfunding requires a large database of people from which to get the ball rolling. Previous attempts to create an alumni society were not effective.
Fundraising potential? Small for the amount of time that would have to be exerted. Eastwick College students and graduates are not as bonded with the school as those who attend a four-year college.
• Recurring Donations: Very worthy program but will not yield the revenue that a Major Gift Program would
Fundraising potential: Initially small but something to think of for the future, after a Major Gifts Program is in place
This leaves Major Gifts as the best choice. Especially since Tom Eastwick, president of Eastwick College has given me access to the names of his friends and colleagues who have donated $5,000 in the past, plus potential new donors who have the capacity to become major donors. His list includes people who can make a gift far larger than $5,000, but I need a full plan – not one consisting of just asking for a donation and thanking them.
And, saving the best for last, Tom Eastwick said that he would match the donations (up to $1million) that I raised.
So, hands down, soliciting major gifts is the way to go.
I have access to people who can make a major gift; I have allocated time for it; and I am anxious to begin. I just need a plan. I related to what you said in your emails: no one has ever taught me how to ask for a major gift. The larger gifts that I have received in the past were more the result of following good cultivation practices along with a good dose of persistence. I would welcome your scholarship and the opportunity to become more accomplished in this area.
Thank you.
I work for a wonderful arts organization with a strong and vital donor base. In thirteen short years, we’ve become a $3M organization, with a 60/40 earned to contributed income. We have raised an amazing core group of $1K and higher donors (almost a quarter of our donors are at this level). And a quarter of those are giving $5K-$25K.
We really need to move to the next level and start receiving $50-$100K gifts, but we seem to be stuck. I believe my company has laid the groundwork necessary for these gifts – but we haven’t been able to overcome those final hurdles. I believe Master Major Gifts is just the thing we need to hit our goal of raising our contributed income to the same level as our earned in the next two years, which mean an additional $250-$300K.
I have an extremely receptive Artistic Director, he is great at Fundraising and has no problems getting involved, and while I have general development skills and have been very successful at grant writing, annual campaigns, individual gifts, and medium level donor giving, major gifts is the one area I have the least amount of experience with. I believe Mastering Major Gifts can change all of this and set both me and the company I work for, for success.
Mastering Major Gifts would be a vital next step for Youth Unlimited in Edmonton. Our vision is to reach the over 50,000 youth in our city tho are at-risk or marginalized with a message of unlimited potential and hope. Our current reach is about 2,000 youth. We need to grow our capacity. I believe that by becoming better at developing major partners, we will be able to grow at a much greater rate and be more effective. Thankfully we have a great base to build off of. We currently have over 500 regular monthly partners. We simply need the knowledge, tools and confidence to cultivate major partners from our donor base. As the Executive Director, it is part of my role to develop major partnerships. I need to be as efficient as I can to do this. I believe after all I have read and watched on this topic that your program is the best resource for us to move forward and achieve our goals. Thank you for offering scholarships to smaller non-profits who can really benefit from this. Your generosity will make a huge difference.
I have the experience in the field doing almost everything that a one or two person development team does for a small non-profit. I have raised a few, what I would call major gifts, mostly in relation to a capital campaign. However, the discipline of focusing on the critical aspects of major gift fundraising has escaped me because I am so busy with the day to day activities….like newsletters, donor calls, thank you notes, special event sponsors and so much more. “As Confucius said “I am so busy doing the urgent, I have no time for the important.” Well, the important is urgent and I have come to the sincere conclusion that I cannot do it myself. Without a mentor, someone to inspire me and encourage me and make me accountable, I will continue to put major gifts in second place when it should be in first place. I owe this to myself and the organization I work for. My organization serves the homeless and they deserve the best I can bring to the table.
I have followed Amy’s materials for a long time. I have even met her and heard her speak at our regional conference. She’s top-notch. I believe that her major gift course provides timly and invaluable step-bby-step guidance to move my career along. I want to be a major gift officer and I am currently looking to build my skilss to find a new job. I love the fact that the program is weekly, online, and work at your own pace,and the best part it comes with 34 CFRE credits. I am planning to sit for the C
fre by the end of 2017. Amy’s major gift course will enable me to accomplish my goals by taking this course.
This is the chance for our organization to realize its true potential. We are on the verge of big things, but I need your help and inspiration to make a breakthrough. We have the very best caring and loyal donors. I know they want the opportunity to make a bigger difference.
All of the ingredients are sitting on the table waiting for me to create something spectacular – I just need some guidance and a kick in the butt.
I’ve read Major Gift Fundraising for Small Shops. I know what’s possible, but I have let other priorities and distractions get in the way of moving forward with a systematic plan. This course will be what allows me to find a track and stick with it.
And I will make you cookies if I get the scholarship – that’s not a bribe, it’s a promise.
I think “Mastering Major Gifts” could be the key to unlocking enormous potential support for Eastside Baby Corner. For 26 years, we’ve been giving kids the basic “stuff” they need for healthy development but it has only been 8 years since we hired our first staff (me!) and instituted a governing board. I’ve been focused on building a well-rounded development program, from grants to events, spending just enough time on major gifts to bring in a few a year. My biggest challenge is helping the Board to embrace their role in fundraising, and especially major gifts. I am looking for the support, encouragement and tools to do just that.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me because I am newer to my fundraising professional role. I recently moved to Tanzania to help the fledgling The Toa Nafasi Project, an education organization, grow into a stronger more established organization. The primary fundraising focus of Toa for the next year is to build more and strengthen current major gifts. This course will help me and the Board and Leadership Team learn how to meet major donors and measure the effect of our work.
The money is there. I truly believe people want to give and they want to be asked. This course will bridge the gap between our current funding status and giving the community the opportunity to demonstrate their generosity.
I am the Director of Advancement for Hawaii Children’s Action Network, we address the root causes of poverty and inequity and focus our work on advancing public policy that impacts the systems that serve children from birth to age 8 (early childhood). We are the only non-profit in the state doing this work.
We recently changed our mission and vision to focus on advocacy work, coalition building and build a grassroots movement and along the way lost some major funders; the funding gap is large. Most people don’t get advocacy work and the trend among major funders is to support direct service agencies and yet our work is vital to the success of our local direct service agencies. We have strong supporters in the community who are donors with great potential to become major donors. Our kids need these donors:
49% of young children NOT in school
71% of 4th graders NOT proficient in reading
70% of 8th graders NOT proficient in math
15% live in poverty
I went from Head Start to Wall Street, so I know investing in early childhood has a high ROI. Our kids deserve a fighting chance and an investment from our major donors.
Thank you for the generosity of your offer and time spent reading this comment.
I want to take Amy’s class and learn to plan and execute a real major gifts program. I have to admit after 20 years in the nonprofit sector in fundraising I often feel like a fraud because I am lacking this vital skill. I think in part it is fear of failure that prevents me from moving forward. I have the prospect of a new job on the horizon and I want to be a better more efficient fundraiser. The size of this school will Put me in the spotlight as the expert and I know that this schedule ok deserves everything I can give it. I know the steps and I have read lots of books and recently purchased Amy’s book on Mastering Major Gifts. I just really need Amy’s advice on how to get started and keep the momentum going. I would love to have the confidence to be a real leader in any organization I enter.
Mastering Major Gifts helped us make a mediocre major gift program go to stellar program in a matter of weeks. We became more organized and realistic about our goals and what we needed to do to bring in the dollars to help serve our clients. We have been having regular meeting with our major donors with much success thanks to Amy. Without this course we would still be scratching our heads with what to do next. Now that we have the tools to work with I know that our major gifts program is going to keep growing and growing with much success.
My board is allowing me to take a risk and move our organization from an events based fundraising machine to one focused on communicating impact and listening to our supporters. We are a small organization that hasn’t attempted to ask for bigger gifts, but we will be building a classroom in the near future which will require community feedback and support. Some of the board members are open (and have the demeanor) to having 1:1 donor meetings to help the development team raise funds, which is exciting, and a little overwhelming. Trying to figure out where the different roles for the team members and the board fit within major gifts, and could really benefit from these resources and peer support. Wondering how our cultivation efforts change when thinking about a major gifts program too.
Why do you think Mastering Major Gifts will help you raise more money?
Amy,
I know your course Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because I am stuck! I have self doubt. I experience all the issues you speak of and NEED your help. The school I work at is in need of a major gift initiative. Our founding Head of School is retiring this year so it will be a year of transition.
I have read your blogs and have learned from them. I truly believe in what you say and know have helped many people develop and grow in their positions. I am truly ready to learn and to be inspired by your words.
I would be honored to receive a scholarship to Mastering Major Gifts and know it will help me grow in my current position as Director of Development and help my school grow financially.
I am a little less than a year in my current role of Major Gifts Officer at a private, liberal arts university. I know what you’re thinking, “universities have no problem in the area of major gifts,” at least that’s the assumption I’m always met with. However, this could not be further from the truth. Here, a major gift is considered any contribution at or above the $1,000 level. I would be lying if I said I was not a little surprised by that when I first started. I was guilty of thinking “at least as a university we will have alumni support.” This is yet another assumption I am always met with but, again, is not valid. The majority of our support actually comes from what we consider “friends” of the university, not alumni. These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to challenges I face in my role as a Major Gifts Officer. All of which can be overcome through Mastering Major Gifts.
In major gifts, we always hear about money that’s left on the table and missed opportunity. I want to be the fundraiser that overturns every table, checks every nook and cranny, and takes full advantage of every opportunity, but I don’t know where to begin. Mastering Major Gifts would definitely allow me to learn the procedures of major gift fundraising to be the type of fundraiser I want to be. It would help to build my confidence and comfortably make the ask, thereby eliminating my current feelings of uncertainty, insecurity and frustration. Our department operates in a small shop setting, especially for a university. There’s 8 of us total and I am the only one single-handedly devoted to Major Gift work. As I mentioned above, alumni support is lacking and we rely on the same individuals for major gifts, which seems to be an insurmountable challenge especially having just entered the public phase of a campaign. Needless to say our major gift work needs much improvement. Because of this, I very much appreciate the structure of Mastering Major Gifts. It encompasses absolutely everything related to Major Gift work, everything I hope to increase my knowledge and expertise of, including prospect research, database training, scheduling visits, making the ask, proper gift language, securing the gift, stewardship, board members, campaign and everything in between. These are tools and resources that I need to be successful in my position, to better serve the mission of the university and ultimately, create a positive impact for our students. Thank you so much, Amy, for this wonderful opportunity and for your consideration.
Honestly i was a missionary in Romania for 20 years I used to raise funds in churches and individuals. I built a camp and Bible school I finished my asssigmnet three years ago, thinking I will not do fund raising again. last month I meet a business who has an small non profit I came on board he had no personel at all I began organize from the bottom and still doing it, not printing material, almost nothing. I change my actitud and I took the job seriously but with the diference I am in USA and the non profit is a rehab center. Your course will one of the most important training I will ever have. Thanks
It is said that there are 3 ways to lead: By Example, By Example, By Example.
How fitting it is that I have been brought into a non-profit career at a time that the organization and board are hungry for a Major Gifts leader to set an example and standard. Also, that the 3 biggest parts of my life outside of the office are in non-profit volunteer work and creating a turning point of growth. We are not brought into our careers by happenstance or accident. It is with purpose.
Being able to participate in the Mastering Major Gifts program would be an incredible blessing to help focus the wide-eyed appetite of a Major Gifts program that is raring to take off but spinning its wheels. Our organization is clear in its direction and has had many of the team for years, but the Development Department has undergone significant change every year for the last five years. We are now in the beautiful place of having a full and dedicated staff that is ready to get the wish list of plans and goals into action. The organization is also embarking on a substantial capital campaign and we are very aware that the Major Gifts and Annual funds need to be properly cultivated and stewarded in tango with the Capital team.
There is a deep passion within our team, those we serve, and the incredible donors who make it all possible. Amy’s leadership, clear communication, and depth of knowledge will help me learn how to ignite that passion or connect it in the way of bringing more meaningful gifts and connectivity between the donors and organization. It will also help enrich our greater Puget Sound community through the volunteer work and being able to help lead them by example!
Mastering Major Gifts was a breath of fresh air to me. I began my development career less than a year and a half ago, and this course was like development boot camp! I am fortunate to have a large donor database but sifting through it was a nightmare. I utilized the methodology from Mastering Major Gifts to really analyze my donors based on access, belief, and capacity – and I discovered that we have a veritable gold mine of potential major donors. And now, I have more confidence in my ability to develop those relationships.
Thank you, Amy!
It has always been my dream to work in the non-profit sector. I worked in project and trade show management for 15 years. I liked what I was doing and I was very good at what I did but I wasn’t fulfilled. I wasn’t being my true self. I want to make a difference. I want to know my work has helped feed, home, clothed, or actually changed peoples lives.
I was honored when CUMAC hired me as their new Events Coordinator. I have so much passion for this mission and I come to work everyday motivated to create events and connections to help raise money for CUMAC.
I truly hope to be offered this opportunity so I can build a major gift program and use what I learn from such an experienced individual as Amy to make it happen.
I am taking webinars, seminars, connecting with other non-profit professionals, and spending all of my time to become the best Events Coordinator I can be and the Major Gifts classes are exactly what I need to do next to turn the knowledge into financial success for CUMAC.
This is the impact CUMAC is having in NJ:
–Over 38,000 people in need fed and nearly 2 million pounds of food distributed
–Over 100 families were given clothing and household items to recover from disaster
–A dozen people previously struggling with disability and homelessness received housing and support services
–Dozens more were provided job training and work experience to move on to gainful employment
–Nearly 3,000 children received school supplies, Easter baskets, and holiday gifts to feed their potential and joy
–Over 30 other feeding programs were provided shared food resources and support through the Community Food Coalition
I really hope, Amy , can see the passion I have and know that picking me will not be in error. .
Thank you
I have a lot of learning, listening, and understanding to do when it comes to my current major gift donors and future major gifts prospects. My agency has a compelling mission; we treat trauma in children who have experienced abuse and neglect. Your course is critical to my ability to connect my prospect’s passions with my agency’s work in a way that move things forward systematically towards a sustaining relationship. It is only in that space that top level support can live and flourish.
Because it will help me build more capacity, which in turn will allow our small agency to build capacity and master raising major gifts!
Mastering Major Gifts is more than just soliciting money from donors. Major Gifts allow for personal development, not only with your donor, but with yourself. Understanding how your donors feel about your organization, and why they support you, is the platform for your Major Gifts program. Not only does this open doors for your organization financially, but this also allows you to better serve the individuals and groups that so diligently contribute to your organization. Creating a Major Gifts program moves you forward in understanding your purpose as a nonprofit and what the next stages will be in your success. It all comes back to the people you serve, and how well you serve them.
Mastering Major Gifts is a skill that everyone needs. It doesn’t matter if you are in your first week or 25th year as a development professional it is something vital to every organization and person we serve. You work just as hard asking for $500 as you do for $50,000 so wouldn’t it be nice to have the skills needed to make the ask with confidence?
Training is the key and this is a great opportunity to check up from the neck up (thanks Zig) and refresh and reignite skills you may have are not using. If you are new, how lucky are you to have an opportunity to avoid the pitfalls many of us have made to learn the skills of asking for Major Gifts.
Ride along with Amy, read. listen, learn, initiate and refresh and bring out the superstar that is inside of you.
It’s a numbers and heart thing. I’ve seen the numbers on how effective focused training in this area can be. Our organization now has a solid base of annual donors and needs to move forward into major gifts. Our Board members and staff have incredible heart. They are mission-driven people. We have a solid base of annual donors. We just need to take that step toward asking our donors for larger gifts, The hesitation comes more from a lack of confidence than anything else. The training would give us the tools and knowledge to determine the best way to connect with our supporters (and which supporters to prioritize) and show them how, together, we can make a mission they already care about flourish, and our community with it.
Mastering Major Gifts will help me to learn more about the craft of Fundraising and Major Gifts in particular from an esteemed professional with years of success under her belt!
I have been working as the Director of Business Development and Marketing for my organization for a little over a year. I took a jump out of the corporate world where I was a top notch sales manager into a nonprofit organization. We are a small and mighty team of 10 people who move big mountains. I am the only one on the team responsible for raising funds and bringing in sponsorships and while I have learned a lot in the past year I feel like there is so much more I can learn! I am a sponge and have learned to be open to anything. I feel like the biggest struggle I have is identifying the right match for the major asks that I am doing. And I would love some help with that. Our nonprofit organization works with other nonprofits to help them with their business tools and equips them with their ministries and organization to have a successful record. So this training would really have a large ripple effect.
Mastering Major Gifts will help us raise more money by strengthening and re-invigorating relationships. There’s an exciting difference between “doing” major gifts and “mastering” major gifts! Amy will untangle our confused thought strands, lay them out so we can see them clearly, and then help us to reweave them into something beautiful.
We’ve got a great list, a powerful mission and are poised for growth as we move into bigger space. We just conducted a small, successful capital campaign, and now need to have the same kind of success to support our operations.
Mastering Major Gifts would give me the information and confidence I need to go forward with a formal major gifts program. We’ve got all the pieces in place – this class would ensure that we can sustain our operations and continue to make a difference in our patients’ lives.
I wanted to take this course when I first read about it in Amy’s blog. We have very little support for education here.. We know we need to vastly improve in the area of major gifts and I have read much on the subject but it is difficult to put those pieces together in actual practice. The idea of taking a comprehensive course seems like a dream. I know it will benefit our donors and help me and in turn those I work with raise more money to support vital programs and services of our healthcare system..
MMG has been a huge resource to our small shop with a heavy lift. The way the course is structured is just as important as the content, which has been much more comprehensive than I’d imagined. Admittedly, I haven’t finished the course yet. However, it is has been really helpful in terms of thinking through goals, necessary messaging tools, board engagement and asks as well as metrics and reporting out. Since beginning the course, I was encouraged to reach back out to a loyal donor to increase their giving. For the first time in 5 years, they gave a second gift and increased their total giving by 250%…more than covering the cost of the course. Can’t wait to finish the program and see what else we can accomplish! Plus, Amy has been incredibly approachable and paired us with accountability partners, which has been so helpful. Thanks for this offering.
These days, everyone needs to do more with less. Non-profits struggle to make due with what’s left of that “less” and turn it into more for growing numbers of people in need. It takes nothing short of a miracle, and fewer hands to steward donors means major gifts can be the only solution to raising funds to keep the doors open.
Just this month, I joined the Newark Museum, an institution with a long history and an even longer legacy of fiscal challenges. As the 12th largest museum in the collection in the country, we serve 300,000 visitors each year with a budget that is one-tenth as large as some of our museum peers. Lean and mean though we can be, we struggle to attract giving dollars in a crowded field of worthy causes despite the critical services we provide to youth, families, and seniors of diverse backgrounds. Proof of our worth is in our numbers: 250,000 objects, 250,000 square feet of program space, and 3,000 new free Newark family memberships created just this year! With our funds from the city and state cut by half in the economic downturn, increasing numbers of underserved students and their parents eager for our educational programs so that they can supplement failing school systems, and weary neighborhood donors pulled in many directions both personally and as champions of so many worthy causes, we need to sharpen our skills to stay in the game.
Mastering Major Gifts is not an option, it’s a necessity to ensure that we stay in every donor’s Top 2 as times become increasingly challenging and so many world issues present understandable distractions. We all desperately need operating funds, and we need ways to grow and graduate major donors into supporters of general operations, so that we can free up project support and one-time program sponsorships for new donors not yet convinced of our worth. Mastering Major Gifts provides the essential tools for building relationships, friendships, and legacies that donors and non-profits alike can be proud of.
In this the 350th year of Newark’s founding, there can be no doubt that Newark is on the rise: increased business presence, real estate development, and new attention to the neighborhoods cultural institutions is all cause for optimism. Mastering Major Gifts will ensure that the Newark Museum team will be able to seize opportunities that arise among longtime donors as well as newcomers to the city willing and able to help us serve the
Please pick us, we will make you proud!
I work for Goodwill of Southwestern PA. Our mission is to help improve the quality of life for individuals with disabilities and other barriers to employment. As a graduate of a Goodwill program who has been working for them for nearly 10 years, I have a very close connection to their mission and truly believe in what they do. They have changed my life and continue to change lives everyday by empowering individuals through work. Goodwill receives funding through a number of sources yet has never given major gifts a try. I believe that our donors have a strong connection with Goodwill’s mission too, but they’ve never been asked to give more to help sustain our programs. I’m excited about the Mastering Major Gifts program because I believe this program can open the door to many mutually beneficial relationships between our donors and Goodwill. Thousands more in our community can be served if donors are encouraged to give all they can.
Hello, I’m the Founder & Executive Director of MISSION POSSIBLE KIDS, a national nonprofit empowering kids to become “agents of change” in our world by helping others. Our 18,000 kids have helped over TWO MILLION around the planet!
Though we are the only widespread service learning program for young kids AND we have an incredible track record AND we’ve been at this as a nonprofit for almost a decade, we still struggle to raise funding to cover even a minimal core staff to do all that we do. Traditional foundation funders say they love what we do, but we always seem to lose out to nonprofits in need of crisis funding. YET, if we don’t do something NOW to grow a much larger and more committed volunteer work force, there is NO way our country will be able to meet need in our society (the US is currently at a 10-year low in volunteering stats). Our program is the only one wholly focused on this issue, while making it fun for kids.
So, while our proofs and outcomes show that it works in building great character in kids and instilling a social DNA, we still have trouble getting funded. We need to find a better way. One way, we’ve always been a social enterprise, and that greatly helps, however we can’t rely on that totally to fund staff to meet the growing demand for our program. Your program sounds like something we desperately need. I hope you will check out our website at http://www.missionpossiblekids.org and help us develop the skills to invest in ourselves, our kids, our nation. Thank you for your consideration!
The non-profit I work for serves adults with an intellectual/developmental disability. The cause is not “pretty” as they say but it is essential to our community. For three decades the majority of gifts has come from family members, but donations from family members is not enough, especially when they are used to donating small amounts. My role is move them towards major gift giving and I am finding great resistance in that area
So many factors are playing against us as we are a small organization with big needs. Most critical has a been a reduction in funding from state and federal levels, requiring us to refocus on the generosity of supporters. A major gift program is required if we are to meet our needs.
Having attended a lecture of yours many years ago, I know that your experience can help me remove the resistance and create a Major Gifts program that would be successful. For years I have been a subscriber to the newsletter and put many of your ideas to play for the organization. I know the Major Gifts Program would be educational, beneficial and successful here at my organization.
Our agency has been dependent on events and United Way funding as primary revenue sources, both of which have decreased over the years. We’ve never had a major gifts program/initiative and really don’t have anyone on staff currently with the needs skills to start/create one…but we’re willing to learn. As a small non-profit we’re struggling a little right now to not only sustain but to diversify our revenue so that we can continue to facilitate proven, life changing programs to local youth. Yes, I said life changing, as in more likely to graduate, less likely to get involved in juvenile crime, and guaranteed to increase self confidence; we are unduplicated in our community. So, finding ways to diversify…and that includes learning new skills…is essential to the children we served, to our community, and therefore to our agency.
Why does a particular donor give to an organization? Fundraising centers on relationship building and understanding the why behind a donor’s desire to connect with your mission. Mastering Major Gifts will enhance and strengthen my relationship building skills and give me the tools necessary to uncover the “whys” that live behind the donor’s gift.
I took Amy’s course this summer and I am so glad I made the decision to do so. Mastering Major Gifts has already changed the way I do my day to day work, as well as how I tackle longer-range goals with our major gift program. When the course started, I was just finishing a fiscal year and starting a new one, so it was perfect timing to do an assessment of my current portfolio/pipeline, review how I spent my time in FY16 and even to take a pause and celebrate my successes beyond just funds raised (Amy’s course begins with how to measure success and looking at time management). One of the things I started to implement immediately was changing how I asked for meetings. Before Mastering Major Gifts I would reach out to donors or prospects to schedule a visit and get no response. After the cultivation module, I implemented some of Amy’s tips and was able to secure 4 donors visits right away. I look forward to even more success in the coming months. This course covers the whole fundraising cycle and is chock full of great tips on how to work smartly, efficiently, and effectively and I highly highly recommend it for anyone thinking about registering.
I’m adding to my comment because I wanted to let everyone know that hasn’t signed up for this class, they should. I paid for the course out of my own pocket and it was worth every penny. but no matter what wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed the course and got so much out of it. In fact, I consistently refer back to my notes and implement different things. Right now I’m using the worksheets from module three to revisit my portfolio and build my pipeline. In other news, with Amy’s course I was able to finish my CFRE application and was approved! My exam date is October 25th. Fingers crossed I pass. 🙂
It’s mid-September and you’ve just been hired as the new and latest planned giving/major gift officer in advancement office with a quasi established planned gifts program with responsibility for major gifts in one college of large university. All you can think about is it’s three months to December 31 and where do I take the first bite of the elephant sitting on my plate. As for major gifts I’m thinking of getting a needs list from the college and put together an action plan wrapped around IRA rollovers from potential and prior IRA donors. Then I’d tackle planned gifts with a focus on a bequests initiative targeting segment of the data base in mid-level and higher donors who’ve been regular donors for an extended period of years. Is this to scatter gun or grasping for straws in a hurriccane?
Dear Ms. Eisenstein,
Hi and thank you for this contest!
Your expert private session and books will assist our organization tremendously by educating The Plaza Arts Center in successful resource development. Connecting to large donors and maintaining those relationships is fundamental to our growth. You have the talent and ability to touch Eatonton, a growing and diverse community in Middle Georgia. There are many major gifts to be secured in order to sustain this non-profit, which is the magnet of the community, This building is a community center and performance hub that will be reaching it’s centennial anniversary. With such a strong history and soul, our small staff, board, members of the community, and dedicated volunteers rely on such niche fundraising tools to grow to the next level. We would be so proud to have you as a Plaza partner to help raise our operations to such an effective position in managing major gifts. Tangible lessons are the key to growth. We would be honored to work with you.
Very sincerely and respectfully,
Jessica
Why do I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money?
The opportunity to participate in this course comes at a pivotal point in our organization history.
We are presently participating in a merger ( two local grassroots organizations in Louisville Kentucky that have been in operation for a combined 62 years to fulfill similar complementary mission) that will become official in early October 2017. Each organization has a waiting list for services.
The opportunity to successfully execute a major gifts campaign that supports our PHASE 2 funding while not pillaging present operational budget needs is my goal. I believe that with increased knowledge, learning and expertise your course will allow me to share best practices and planning so that out of the gate we can develop a new Board culture and model the type of development practices we would like to see them adopts as our newly merged Board of Directors.
The launch of our newly merged organization and the publicity plans will inform and attract funding partners, volunteers, service partners, and other community members who want to invest their resources and energies in a reliable, efficient, and sustainable organization in our community.
Anyone involved with a nonprofit will say “I have the best job in the world,” while also longing for the day they can say “mission accomplished!” Most of us love our job – helping the homeless, addressing domestic abuse, finding homes for abused animals – while also wishing those problems did not exist and that our nonprofits were not needed. But they are. And, we must do better. I must do better. Our nonprofit Foundation helps amazing students who are excelling in school, defying all odds. They are raising kids, working full time, active in the military, or all of the above! The best part of my job is giving away money to these amazing students. But, to give away money means I need to raise it. Mastering Major Gifts will help me professionalize my approach by helping me identify new opportunities in our existing donor base, while also expanding that donor base. With Mastering Major Gifts, I can change the world through education (with better fundraising!).
Because our donors are aged and can only give small amounts now and we don’t currently receive major gifts nor do we have a major gift program.
Mastering Major Gifts will help our organization raise more money because it will help us focus our attention on those individuals who are most committed to the mission of the Women’s Fund. We had an amazing and highly successful luncheon event last week attended by more than 1,000 women. We set a new record for fundraising, but I’m exhausted. There were women in the room who could make five figure gifts, or more, but are not going to make that type of investment during a group call to action at an event. I need to learn to organize my time differently to make sure we are engaging those donors in a meaningful way. We have so many great ideas to change our corner of the world for the better, but we need major gifts to make that happen.
As we are a relatively new Not-for-Profit group, we need much help with raising major money. After having read all I can about Amy Eisenstein’s course, I am convinced it would allow us the opportunity to learn not just more, but the best way to acquire the skills and knowledge we so desperately need to master major gifts. We will be able to help more people in recovery and help some of the homeless people. We are a prime target and fertile grounds for learning how to not just do this, but do it the best, most efficient and effective way.
We are a small organization celebrating our 30th anniversary. I have been a volunteer ED for the past 16 years. Our project operates in Nicaragua where we have a staff of 20 and a bi-lingual Nicaraguan Field Director. We serve more than 400 children with scholarships, tutoring, afterschool programs, leadership and service activities and we operate a small organic farm.
I’m 81 years old and need to retire. We recently hired a Program Manager/director-to-be and we’re training her through AFP webinars, seminars and the AFP Conference in Boston. We have always raised funds–around $150,000/year–through direct mail and events After 30 years, we have a strong list of supporters. Now we need to add a serious major gifts component. . We can’t afford to pay for Mastering Major Gifts, I have great respect for your work and know that it is exactly what we need to reach our goal of a successful Major Gifts program.
A couple of my Board members I should spend more time with recruiting major gifts. I find it always a challenge because I don’t have enough to accomplish all my tasks. I am the Executive Director of my organization and I need to juggle a lot of things.
I think Mastering Major Gifts will help us as an organization to provide excellent programs for the people we serve.
My small arts organization struggles to maintain a spotlight in the hearts of donors who have many reputable and deserving nonprofits to support. I know that major gifts are extremely important, and I am working on building the infrastructure to develop this source of funding. As a strung-out and new Executive Director at a small shop, I need guidance and inspiration to keep moving this work forward. Questions that I struggle with include: How do I capture my donor’s attention and convince them that the arts are integral to vibrant, healthy, and joyful community? How do I engage my board and motivate them to be involved and active participants in a major gifts program? How can we get over our fear of asking together?
My name is Marcella and I’m the Development Manager at Reading Village, a small international non-profit working to empower indigenous youth in Guatemala to eradicate illiteracy in their communities and break their communities free of poverty. This year, we are sponsoring 67 teens to go to high school (only 10% of teens in their villages make it to high school because of the cost) and providing them leadership and literacy promotion trainings that they then practice by providing dynamic and engaging reading activities to 50 children (each youth leader). That’s 3,350 primary school children receiving important story time that they otherwise wouldn’t have and that will ultimately help change the fact that only 25% of children get to the 6th grade.. We are finishing up our 10 year anniversary year this December / January and looking to the future for all that we hope to accomplish. Most importantly, expanding our program to reach over 10,000 children through our literacy programs by 2020.
We currently have about 70 major donors ($500 gift or more) and work to keep them engaged in the impact that they make possible. That said, we know we need to not only further develop our current program (create different levels of major donors and different engagement touch points); but also work to find more high wealth donors to invest in our work. With our very small staff (me and the ED / Founder) and busy Board of Directors, it’s been a challenge to increase the gifts from current donors and find NEW major donors.
Having participated in some of Amy’s webinars, I am confident that participation in her Mastering Major Gifts course will greatly impact our major donor outreach and success identifying and pulling in new major donors. With only $300 in our budget for professional development, we could never afford to pay for this course on our own. Because we’re so small and working to serve as many people as possible in rural Guatemala, we’ll never have a high budget for these sorts of courses. But, I know that I could take the resources, training and tools from this course and run with them! And, I would also be able to share my newly gained knowledge with our Board so that they, too, can be more effective in their fundraising efforts. All of this would help us to effect even more positive change in the world! Thank you very much for your consideration!!
In gratitude for this opportunity,
Marcella
We are a small center in a big university and work in the interdisciplinary spaces between surgical science, technology and engineering, education, telemedicine, and clinical services. We see more opportunities than we can pursue to make major advancements in the fields of medical care that are most invasive of the human body – to improve quality of care, minimize the invasiveness of interventional procedures (improving outcomes, reducing recovery time, increasing patient safety and comfort), and to develop new methods to address currently unmet needs, extending health and life. Our mission sometimes has an “outside of or in-between traditional fields” flavor and we have a hard time engaging with potential donors at the level it takes to grow a program like ours – we flounder. Your course will empower us to find the path forward to pursue the resources needed to increase the scope and scale of our center and to move our successes out into the world to save lives and health.
Transitioning from the corporate world of sales and marketing into the non-profit world has been interesting ….to say the least. I find many similarities as far as cultivating the relationship, follow up, networking but “making the ask” for a major gift seems more difficult than asking for the sale! Our organization is just 5 years old, and we have been successful these past years because of the business model we have in place, a strong engaged board and are meeting the need of our surrounding communities. Although organized I struggle with implementing a strategy that is easily duplicated and brings results. I know that by participating in this course, I would have access to the tools and support to lay a pathway to follow. Thank you for your generous offer.
P.S. I didn’t share our organization or mission because there are so many wonderful non-profits applying that I assume you were not as interested in what we do, but want to help us do it better! Thanks
We need the skill set to raise funds so that we can further our mission of saving unborn babies from abortion. We are a growing ministry with only one full time and 2 part-time staff. We need to be able to expand to three full time persons and 2 part-time to meet the needs of our mothers and babies. We need to learn how to get and keep large donors. How do we contact, engage and bless donors? As a small, but growing ministry we do not have funds for this type of training so this would be a huge blessing for us and it would help us give back to the community and bless them. Thank you for your consideration.
We all believe the money is there although the big elephant in the room “Is how do we reach those individuals with major gift potential?” I am the Executive Director of a regional Food Bank and my task to raise funds in addition to operating a facility which distributes food for 800,000 meals a year in addition to operating a Soup Kitchen and large garden with a HoopHouse. I believe I need a breath of fresh air while raising major gifts!
I work with local low-income families in need of affordable housing. As the Executive Director, I have seen first hand what a positive impact moving into a decent, affordable home has on the families we work with. Strong and stable homes help build strong and stable communities.
More than half of all adults have made a trade in the past three years to cover their rent and mortgage. Tradeoffs include taking on a second job, cutting back on health care or moving into less safe neighborhoods.
The need for affordable housing is real.
Learning how to increase major gifts has become a focus of our organization as we understand how important it is to connect donors with our mission. Attending your training would be just the boost we need to launch our program into the next level, so we can raise more money and partner with more families.
Amy,
Your Mastering Major Gifts course would be a major asset to the three parishes and one school that I serve.
Being in the religious field, I feel there have been some stumbling blocks compared to my past non-profit experience, which was not faith based.
Being able to secure major gifts so that a sustainable tuition assistance fund can be established would be a great relief to staff and especially to families that have a commitment to faith based education. We are a parochial school, not a private school, meaning our school is supported by our three parishes and not by tuition alone.
I’ve read your blogs, used your free online resources and have purchased at least one book and feel that this course could be the one thing that gives us an edge. I am a lone wolf in the development (and stewardship) department for the 4 organizations. There is little to spend on education for myself or professional conferences. Any money spent needs to be my own….I am focusing on my CFRE after the first of the year. (My application is almost ready to send in to meet the Dec 31, 2016 deadline). I feel having that certification will benefit my organizations in the eyes of foundations and individuals in a position to make a major gift.
Being awarded this opportunity, would be a gift not only to me, but to the many families and children that I serve. I truly believe our school helps to develop leaders and if we are able to provide them with the help they need to attend our school….we all win; our school, our families and our community!
Over the past four years, I’ve led our organization through a major turnaround after they almost closed the doors in 2010. We’ve expanded partnerships, increased earned income, and stabilized institutional funding despite some major shifts in foundation giving for arts education. At the same time, our singers’ needs for financial aid have significantly increased (up 25%), and a predominantly parent donor base means constant shifts in individual giving. All of these efforts (without development staff) have stabilized us, but taking this course would give myself, my board, and my Artistic Director the tools, structure, and shared language to engage greater support within our community that will allow us to better serve neighborhoods and families with higher needs.
Neighborhoods with dropout rates and child poverty exceeding 30% in one of the more affluent regions in the country, with some of the highest statistics for violence and homicide and where kids are least likely to have access to music programs that give them a reason to go to school and help them cope with what they see in their communities. We have a 42 year history of this work – with a 90% college attendance rate record – and our only major donors are a few of our board members. With this training, we could figure out how to effectively connect to those people in our community who share our passion and our commitment to creating stronger communities and greater harmony through music.
Dear Amy,
What an amazing, and incredibly generous opportunity! It is so thoughtful of you to provide scholarship opportunities to take the Mastering Major Gifts workshops at no cost. Thank you! At this point in time, neither I nor my organization could afford the cost of this type of program, so having an opportunity to win a scholarship that could take my organization to a new level of donor engagement and support is very exciting to me.
I am a self-trained development professional. I got started in this profession through a grantwriting internship at a local literary nonprofit organization, where after six months of internship, I was hired as a part-time grantwriter, and have written many successful grants since that time.
When I started volunteering as a trapeze coach for my current organization, School of Acrobatics & New Circus Arts (SANCA), the school had no development or fundraising support at all. I offered to write some grants and from that point forward, created the development position at SANCA, which grew to a full-time plus job spanning all aspects of development: annual appeals, grants, events, donor stewardship. Over five years, SANCA’s contributed revenue as grown from $50,000 to over $400,000.
My only official education in development is a 9-month certificate course offered through the University of Washington, and occasional afternoon workshops or webinars. I feel I still have A LOT to learn, and that my biggest weakness in development is in Major Gifts. I have had no practical training in this area, no mentorship, and no good examples to follow. As a single-person development office, I don’t currently have coworkers or even many peers with whom to bounce ideas around. From all my learning it is clear that major gifts are key to success and ongoing sustainability for nonprofit organizations, and that it can be especially crucial in the transition from a smaller to mid- and larger-sized organizations — a transition that SANCA is currently experiencing.
It is my hope that the Mastering Major Gifts will provide the education, tools, and mentoring opportunities that will provide me with the confidence and knowledge to successfully develop and expand a Major Gifts program for SANCA. I also hope the program will give me the tools and strategies that will help me to activate the Board of Directors as donor stewards, and give me ways to inspire them in this work joyfully. My current board is very afraid of making donor contacts and stewardship, and I really struggle with ways to encourage and inspire them. We are taking baby steps together, but it is a slow process, and I know that there is vast potential from our current donor base if properly stewarded.
My heart has been with SANCA for years now, and I stand fully behind our mission. I’m proud of the successes I’ve brought to the organization, while at the same time I struggle with feelings of failure because I’ve been unable to turn our board’s attention to Major Gifts and deeper partnerships with very caring members of our community.
Your scholarship opportunity is especially meaningful to me because scholarships are one of SANCA’s strongest methods of providing access and opportunity to our community. I’d like to share just a little bit about my organization with you:
SANCA is Seattle’s only nonprofit Circus School. In twelve years SANCA has grown to be the largest circus school in the United States, and serves over 1,000 youth and families weekly with circus classes that are physically challenging, socially enriching, and inspire confidence and creativity. To date, SANCA has awarded more than $863,000 in scholarships to youth and families who have the least access to healthy, creative, and physical activities — including youth who are homeless, at-risk, or have disabilities. SANCA serves a diverse community of people of all ages and abilities with classes, camps, in-school and after-school Social Circus programs, and public performances. SANCA’s mission is to improve the mental, emotional, and physical health of children of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities by engaging them in the joyous creativity of acrobatics and circus arts.
Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!
Sincerely,
Jeff Deveaux
Development Officer
SANCA
We are just developing a Major Gifts program at our foundation, and I have been charged with leading the way. I believe in ongoing education and training to have the best tools and skills to be more effective and efficient in raising the funds to help us fulfill our mission of providing “excellent care for every person every day”! I want to be the best at raising major gifts because I truly believe in the amazing work we do on a daily basis. I believe I have the skills, personality and drive to make this happen. And I believe this course would strengthen my ability to raise more gifts and provide me with new tools to be more effective. Thank you for the opportunity to win!
I am the Executive Director of a young and growing arts charity in rural Canada, and charged withraising the funds to restore and renovate our heritage building into a cultural digital media centre for future generations. We have a multimillion-dollar capital fundraising goal, and will need significant major gifts to attain it. Major gifts mentors are not easy to come by in our town of 10,000, so this course will be transformational for me, for my organization, and for our community. Every chapter of the training, your book, your direct coaching and your gracious offer to analyze a selection of prospects – I would be grateful for every step in this process.
Our non-profit is not a pretty one, we don’t train guide dogs, or give books to kids, we provide supervised visitations for parents who can’t see their kids without it. We don’t get donations of any kind. What we really need is for a major donor or two would support our mission which in turn will help others to see us for what we do and the need for it in our community. We really can only raise funds through little fundraisers we do now and then. We are just getting by.
Amy,
I’m inspired!
I’m inspired by my organization’s commitment to serving the greatest areas of need in health and human care services – from addressing poverty through workforce development to breaking the cycle of violence through education and restoring justice with rehabilitation programs for those in and exiting prison.
I’m inspired by you, truly, as a role model, a strong, nonprofit professional I can learn from as a young woman entering the field of philanthropy.
I’m inspired to make a difference, in my current organization and whatever future places I may serve. I know that my life is more about giving than getting, about being open to opportunity, and about embracing a spirit of abundance rather than looking at scarcity.
This course would help me gain confidence and skills I need to inspire others to be generous with the resources they steward. Our organization is at a crucial time of fundraising and has an added challenge of recent changes in upper management. I have created a mid-level program to encourage deeper engagement with our donors, but it will not be enough to raise needed funds without establishing a strong major gift program. I need guidance from a mentor like Amy to help my organization raise funds to continue meeting people in their greatest needs. Thank you for the opportunity to apply for this scholarship, and thank you to all the other dedicated applicants who are out there every day, working to make a difference in this world.
Catherine Werner
I am an AmeriCorps VISTA developing a financial literacy program to help empower the low income residents of my county. This would become a new department of Blue Valley Community Action, which works to assist low income people in the 9 county area of Southeast Nebraska.
Winning the Mastering Major Gifts contest would be an amazing way for me to learn how to fund my program. This program is going to have a huge impact on my community by educating our friends and neighbors of all ages on how to improve their finances, even on a limited income, This would, in turn, reduce the drain on social programs. My ultimate aim is that while working with our young adults and older kiddos, we can help them break the cycle of poverty. The more money I can raise, the faster I can implement my program, and the farther reach I can have (I am hoping to spread into neighboring counties as well).
Thank you for this opportunity! Fingers crossed!
I believe Mastering Major Gifts will help me, my Board of Directors and other ambassadors of the Tunxis Foundation raise more money because philanthropy has so many facets to it and the more you learn the more you grow. As you learn more about why people give, how to express appreciation and respect each donor you learn more about yourself. In society today there are so many great causes and Mastering Major Gifts is another way to help our goal of educating students, moving them to self sufficiency and into careers rise to the top of the list for those who are philanthropic with their time, talents and treasures. I’m open to learning just as much as I’m open to sharing what I learn; that’s why I believe Mastering Major Gifts will help me, my Board of Directors and the Foundation raise more money.
Warm regards,
Helen
An opportunity to attend Mastering Major Gifts would be an opportunity to learn from a master. I have a master’s degree in nonprofit management and unfortunately, the “how to’s of fundraising” is not part of the course. However, I have been a development officer for more than 15 years but mostly in special events and annual giving. I now have been able to secure a position as a major gift officer and know that this course will help me develop the added skills and mindset needed to successfully implement the right strategy to secure major gifts.
Reading your emails – feeling like you’ve literally crawled inside my head, hitting on every one of my weaknesses and passions – has been sobering to say the least. You understand exactly where we’re coming from and where we need to go. That seems like the most convincing evidence that the Mastering Major Gifts course is exactly what I need. And what the girls and women we help need. Thank you for making this possible.
Mastering Major Gifts is a completely different approach to fund-raising than the Melba Valley Senior Center has taken in it’s almost 27 years of business. Obviously times have changed significantly and previous fund-raising methods do not work today. And because we are a senior center, we have the unique distinction of when we lose our members, we truly lose them. Being aware that upcoming generations don’t think the same way seniors of the past did, fund-raising becomes more of a challenge than it has been in the past. Add to that the dynamic of being a rural farming community with very few services, our challenges, while not impossible, are greatly compounded. It is time for a new approach and doing that is not free or easy.
Serving in fund development for over two decades I was “indoctrinated” with the message of never leaving a meeting without an “ask and a check.” This led to years of frustration, low productivity and a sense of failure. Over the years my definition for “Major Gifts” evolved significantly. I read in some posts that Major is a synonymous term for “huge; large; gigantic; bigger and biggest” and more. But I have learned that Major Gifts are not just a monetary number, but a relational network and partnership. Donors must have a trust in the fund developer’s credibility, word, and integrity. This has now evolved into Major gifts that come as combined gifts; not always from just one donor but from clusters of donors who trust the development officer, who understand the Vision and Mission, and are willing to place trust in the credibility and integrity of the development officer and the team s/he represents. I have seen $1,000 gifts grow to larger gifts of $20,000 and even $125,000. Yet, through building clusters of loyalty and always taking 5% of my day to thank people in writing, these clusters have given me gifts totaling over $1.5M. This course on Major Gifts will be valuable to continue to grow the larger single gifts (which is always needed, especially as the “greatest generation” leaves a vast concentration of wealth), but I know it must also focus on building the network so that each donor feels equipped with the right tools, given resources that express genuine thanks, and materials that are spreadable and enable the donor to invite his/her friends into the circle of giving. I need to keep improving in both areas and I think this course will give me the skills and the motivation to keep going.
By building clusters, I have learned that we often think a donor can share about our NGO/work from their own experience. But that is just not true. One donor has only one perspective and one story to share. I want to give to donors the tools they need to make the message spreadable to their friends, colleagues, family, and others without having to become an expert on my NGO. When I equip the donor, they truly understand that I believe in them and I want them to see that what they are giving is making an impact. This grows a local cluster and makes my visitation for F2F meetings all the more enjoyable and cost effective.
One must never stop learning, but even in the third-third of my life I want to learn more and give to the new development officers the mistakes, lessons, and the new breed of mastering giving that the 21st century has to offer us. It would be an honor to take this course. You cannot raise many from behind a desk and much of social media has an air of expectation that people will give if I just make the ask sound convincing…that does not build people nor loyalty. May I take your course?
As a less experienced fundraiser I think Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money by guiding me in the major gifts process and to assist me to create a plan. Currently my work is very organic and donors come to me, but I want to take charge and also work with a prospect list. I look to experienced professionals to share their successes with me but then make it my own major gifts program.
I believe Mastering Major Gifts will help me raise more money because it will do three things well: 1) reinvigorate the discipline of contact management (moves mgmt), 2) it will inspire a greater vision for doing more, 3) it will create an interactive atmosphere with others and I work well within a synergistic team process.
The exciting part is by elevating the amount of money for our organization, more students will be assisted in getting the education which will help transform their lives. I’m ready!