What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 5 of 5: Lack of Training In this final installment of What's Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? we're going to address what's perhaps the greatest obstacle of them all. The good news is that if you overcome this one obstacle to raising major gifts -- a lack of formal training, you'll … [Read more...]
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 4: No Time
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 4 of 5: No Time It’s true that major gift fundraising is a huge time commitment... and the payoff might be months or years away. With grant deadlines looming and your gala coming up, it’s a real challenge to find time to raise major gifts. However, if you truly want to raise major … [Read more...]
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 3: A Lousy Team
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 3 of 5: A Lousy Team Raising major gifts takes a village. Unfortunately, many board members and executive directors don’t understand that. They hire a development director and expect them to raise major gifts in a vacuum, and subsequently, are upset when it doesn’t work. This post … [Read more...]
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 2: Bad Prospects
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 2 of 5: Bad Prospects In part 1 of this 5 part miniseries on overcoming every obstacle to raising major gifts, we crushed your self-doubt about raising major gifts. In this post, we'll address the notion that you have the bad prospects (i.e., the wrong prospective donors). One of the … [Read more...]
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 1: Self-Doubt
What’s Stopping You from Raising Major Gifts? Part 1 of 5: Self-Doubt Do you ever wish you could raise major gifts, but simply aren’t sure if you can? Maybe your organization doesn’t have the right: donors board members executive director infrastructure Or maybe it’s time you don’t have enough of. Or maybe, just maybe, … [Read more...]
Reflecting on Life, Major Gifts and Nonprofit Boards
This week I celebrated a milestone birthday. Yes, it was the big 40! So naturally, I've spent some time reflecting on my life and business. "Have I helped people to the best of my ability?" "What can I do better over the coming months and years?" "What are my long term goals?" Looking Back In my January, I declared 2015 as the … [Read more...]
Getting Real with Major Gifts: Interview with Tycely Williams
As you know, for the past few years, I have been blogging about how to raise major gifts. I thought it would be helpful to team up with some of my colleagues in the field to share their expertise on the subject. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Tycely Williams, Director of Major Gifts at the YMCA of Metropolitan … [Read more...]
5 Practical Steps to Raising Major Gifts in Time for Year-End
The summer has flown by and the kids are back to school. It’s now time to think about your year-end fundraising. Statistics show that most organizations will raise up to 60% or more of their total fundraising in the last few months of the year, so the fall is always a very critical time of year. Although raising major gifts is a lengthy … [Read more...]
Getting Real with Major Gifts: Interview with Jamie Roseman of Planned Parenthood
For more than a year, I have been blogging about how to raise major gifts. I thought it would be interesting to team up with some of my colleagues in the field to share some of their expertise on the subject. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Jamie Roseman, at Planned Parenthood Federation of America and Planned Parenthood … [Read more...]
Getting Real with Major Gifts: Interview with Keith Rhodes of BBBS
For more than a year, I have been blogging about how to raise major gifts. I thought it would be interesting to team up with some of my colleagues in the field to share some of their expertise on the subject. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Keith Rhodes, the new Senior VP of Major Gifts for Big Brothers Big Sisters of … [Read more...]
