Articles

Want to Raise Millions of Dollars? Create an Efficient Fundraiser

If you had a Swiss Army knife for the perfect major gift fundraiser, the tools in it would include ones for motivation, collaboration, calculation, creativity, and most of all efficiency. With a portfolio full of prospects, a fundraiser must learn to strategize on what matters most – being efficient with their time to determine which of the larger gifts have the best chance of closing…READ FULL ARTICLE

What’s Your Value Rating to Your Prospect? Here’s How To Increase Your Number!

People are just plain busy again – especially those high net-worth prospects you are trying to court. It can be challenging, even frustrating, to get any response from your requests, right? Keep in mind, your prospects have lots of competing priorities, none of which may include you. What will it take to make you stand out and get noticed? Your value to a prospect is vitally important and can make all the difference…READ FULL ARTICLE

Have You Used the Deadline Card to Close a Major Gift?

Rarely when a major gift solicitation is made does the donor immediately make the commitment. While your donor considers the ask, the process can seem to drag on while you wait…and wait for the decision. How can you speed up the process and close more major gifts? Simple. Deadlines are the answer – your magic remedy. A date-sensitive scenario can create a sense of urgency for your donor…READ FULL ARTICLE

Feeling Ghosted by Your Prospects? Try These 7 Crafty Techniques to Get a Response!

Major gift fundraisers know that we are not a top priority for our prospects. We are competing with their own priorities – job, family, hobbies, and other organizations they may support. It can be quite challenging even to get a response from a prospect to secure a visit. Here’s how you can avoid being ghosted. Persistence and creative messaging will make the difference. The goal is getting a prospect to open your email. Here are 7 crafty techniques to add to your fundraising arsenal…READ FULL ARTICLE

The Anatomy of an Effective Qualification Email

Securing qualification visits with potential major gift prospects can be challenging and flat out exasperating at times. You are dealing with busy people that have numerous competing priorities, none of which may be yours. So how do you make an impression and get on their calendar? As a fundraiser, you need to craft a highly effective message. One that grabs their attention and outlines the value of meeting with you. Let’s dissect the three areas of an effective qualification email to help you land a visit….READ FULL ARTICLE

6 Tips to Effectively Manage Your Major Gift Fundraisers

You’ve become an exceptional major gift fundraiser and now you’ve been promoted to manage a team of fundraisers. Congratulations – that’s great! But it generates a whole new set of responsibilities. How do you successfully lead a team while managing your own portfolio? And how do you find that delicate balance of leading the team, passing on your knowledge and creating more exceptional fundraisers?…READ FULL ARTICLE

The One Question You Should Always Ask in Prospect Qualification Meetings

There you are – qualifying another prospect. You’ve prepared your list of questions to help determine wealth and affinity. But here is the one question you should always ask…READ FULL ARTICLE

Shock Prospects with Speedy Follow Up and Major Gifts will Follow

Building relationships with major gift prospects is often a lengthy process of strategic engagement that should start and end with one thing: prompt and thorough follow up. As a fundraiser, you should make it your #1 priority to follow up on any action items relative to conversations you have with your prospects. How fast? Within 24 hours fast! By doing this, you demonstrate to the prospect that you not only value the relationship but they are a priority to your organization…READ FULL ARTICLE

5 Places to Uncover Major Gift Prospect Leads

Every major gift officer wants better prospects in their portfolio. But where do you go to find them since, in most cases, they aren’t just handed to you? It will take a little detective work and time to discover and properly qualify these new leads. Here are five places that any fundraiser, seasoned or new, can check out to aid in the search…READ FULL ARTICLE

The Best Questions to Help Determine a Prospects Wealth

One of the most basic elements of the fundraising process, but the most important, is calculating the wealth of a potential donor. Why you ask? For one, it will help identify if your prospect may be a major gift donor. If so, this will determine who in your organization the prospect should be assigned to and the engagement strategy needed to lead to that major gift…READ FULL ARTICLE

Thank and Educate your Internal Partners with a “Pathway to a Gift”

Everyone knows that when a major gift comes to fruition, it is never the work of just one fundraiser. It takes a team to partner across an organization to identify and cultivate a prospect towards an area they are passion about…READ FULL ARTICLE

11 Essential Techniques to Get Bigger Gifts from Donors

With budgets tightening at universities, it is more important than ever that major gift officers maximize their solicitations. This means if a donor wants to a make a certain size gift – how can the fundraiser get them to a higher level of giving?…READ FULL ARTICLE

8 Strategies to Steward Donors Toward Their Next Gift

Stewardship is the strategic process that begins after a donor makes a gift to your university. This entails thanking them, while keeping them up-to-date on the impact of their gift. Most importantly though, stewardship should be thought of as cultivation towards their next gift…READ FULL ARTICLE

7 Strategies to Turn Your Major Gift Officers into Closing Experts

Getting to a major gift can be a long and tedious process where strategic engagement must be matched with a targeted solicitation to maximize giving. Throughout this process, there are distinct factors that happen along the way that will be the reason a major gift closes…READ FULL ARTICLE

11 Ways to Cultivate Internal Relationships that Produce More Major Gifts

The internal relationships that a major gift officer establishes in their organization has a direct impact on their success as a fundraiser. The university leadership, faculty and staff are your essential partners for finding new leads and properly cultivating prospects towards an area of interest….READ FULL ARTICLE

A Step by Step Guide to Fundraising Qualification Visits

For fundraising success at any university, it is essential to continually replenish your donor portfolios with new prospects. As prospects move down the donor pipeline, new ones must be sought after to start the process of engagement and ensure future major gifts…READ FULL ARTICLE

The Art of Targeted and Tiered Engagement to Maximize Major Gifts

The engagement process is a crucial time period to build a prospect’s affinity towards your university. This can take several years and it is imperative that each touch point is done with strategic intention. To make sure this is happening, universities must be equipped with engagement activities that are targeted towards their strengths and tiered with various levels….READ FULL ARTICLE

This Simple Spreadsheet Will Make You a Focused and Efficient Fundraiser

As a major gift officer, it is always important to have an effective plan of work for your prospect pool and we have a spreadsheet that can help. The below spreadsheet will keep you focused on your most promising opportunities and make sure you are efficiently moving prospects through the donor pipeline. READ FULL ARTICLE

How to Maximize Major Gift Solicitations and Slay Objections

After a prospect has been properly cultivated towards an area of interest, it is essential that a strategy is in place to maximize the major gift opportunity. This process starts with the development officer presenting the prospect with a gift amount. By doing this, the bar is set for a significant gift that would accomplish the donor’s philanthropic goals….READ FULL ARTICLE

How Case Studies Help Create Better Major Gift Officers

The path to a major gift can be a long process that spans multiple years. During this time, numerous activities are taking place to engage a prospect towards a specific project or area of interest. These engagement activities must be done strategically to ensure a prospect gives at their highest gift potential…READ FULL ARTICLE

9 Strategies to Motivate Prospects to Make Major Gifts

You have presented a proposal to your prospect, but now comes the moment when you must get them to sign the gift agreement. This is a crucial part to the gift giving process that will encompass objections, excuses and delays from the donor and perhaps some hesitations on the part of you, the prospect manager….READ FULL ARTICLE