Major Gifts Guru.com

Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 1 of a series)

2009-11-09T18:06:00.000-08:00

Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 1 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I recently served as one of the faculty for PLAN MGO, an immersion training program for major gifts officers. The second day of our classes featured two New England donors who both have extensive experience as volunteer fundraisers. Some of their comments are captured here.

Henry

"Rather than just asking for a major gift I always ask people for an even greater gift to our cause – their time.

"Capital campaigns are like sprints. Keep the energy and finish quickly. I don’t like long campaigns.

"Never let a donor pay off a 5-year pledge. By year 2 you need to be meeting with the donor to tell them the impact of their current pledge. In year 3 start gathering ideas from the donor on their future interests in your organization. Year 4 bring back some projects that incorporate these interests with your organization’s plans for the future. Ask advice on how to design the program. In year 5 ask for a new 5-year pledge to fund their new ideas. If they pay the pledge off early, hurry up this process.

"Events – follow up after the event. Touch each person. If you feed ‘em, ask ‘em.

"I see too many times where everyone is scared to call on 'Mr. Big' to get a lead gift. Don’t be afraid. Mr. Big may be wondering why nobody has asked yet. He wants to be included. And, always remember it’s easier to get a $250,000 gift than a $25,000 gift.

"Believe in yourself. Realize all of us are self employed. Sure, some of us get a pay check from a company or nonprofit organization, but we all work for ourselves.

"I always tell people 'give until it feels good.'”

More to come

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 3 of a series)

2009-11-04T17:28:00.000-08:00

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 3 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I was recently hired by a mid-sized nonprofit to run its major gifts operation. Although I've worked in development before, I have never held this particular role. I'm writing to ask you for any advice you might have for a new major gifts officer.

In the first 3 articles in this series I talked about finding out about your top donors to build a major gifts annual giving society. The next step is to visit donors to sharpen gift club benefits, to review lists of names to see who else could join, and to determine how each donor could help in this recruitment.

Of course file contact reports after each visit. Follow up to close new gifts you have detected and to recruit volunteer leaders for your gift club.

The next startup step is to focus internally.

What is your case for support? In tough times why should a donor choose to give to you instead of their other causes? What makes you unique to the donors? As the new kid on the block, what can you learn from your organization’s leaders and program managers that would amaze and delight donors?

Go interview senior management, long-term board members, and staff leaders of your service delivery programs to build your case for support. Write up each interview to reflect on what you’ve heard. As you meet with people, ask them for images (pictures, graphs, diagrams) to show your nonprofit in action.

Also read all recent accreditation reports, major grant proposals, annual reports, direct mail letters, press releases, and other official documents that help tell your organization’s story.

Then start writing an outline case for support (or use PowerPoint) to come up with 20 to 30 slides to tell your story. Your case should include:

how you benefit and impact the community with photos of peoples' lives you impact

why you’re unique and special and therefore worthy of support

the challenges the organization faces that could be solved through more resources (money and influential volunteers)

then your fundraising programs and opportunities for donors to help

Remember in outlining – 5 to 7 words per bullet point, 3 to 5 bullet points per slide (or page), a picture or graphic chart for each page, a story for each page that brings one of your points to life. Go for simplicity and clarity.

Once you have gone through 5 drafts circulate it to your internal interviewees to seek their advice and improvements. Then go back to your best donors to see how they would improve it.

Now you’re ready to share it with potential donors.

Good luck in this new job. Keep me posted on your progress. For my readers, what others suggestions would you provide?

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 4 of a series)

2009-11-03T15:24:00.000-08:00

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 4 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Notes from an AHP International presentation (9/09) from David Woodruff,

Executive Director and COO for Development for Massachusetts General Hospital

Final Comments as You Plan a Campaign

Ask the tough question – “Is a campaign necessary?”

The good part of campaigning is that it sets an institutional goal and challenge. Woodruff noted: “For MGH we’re so big we needed the energy of a campaign to unite the Hospital.”

For Massachusetts General Hospital campaigns:

Force strategic thinking and promotes cross fertilization of disciplines
Unifies themes and a marketing image
Builds institutional constituencies versus the departments
Encourages institutional investment in development
Demonstrated community impact – has turned out to be very important
Position your heritage and your vision for the future.

What types of projects got included in their campaign?

1) Institution-wide priorities

2) Physician and departmental leadership

3) Existing core of volunteers

4) Market appeal

5) Implementation of a multi-disciplinary approach

Challenges ahead – keeping the annual fund moving for unrestricted giving; building a culture of volunteer fundraising (they only have a 14 member board with half of them physicians), moving beyond grateful patients to potential donors in the community.

“We try to show how Mass Gen benefits the economy and the community. We know we haven’t told our story to enough of the right people. We’ve got to let people know of our phenomenal accomplishments.”

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 2 of a series)

2009-11-02T21:59:00.001-08:00

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 2 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

In the first article of this series I suggested you set up an annual giving major gifts club. I also recommended that you look at your top donors of the past year or two to look for giving patterns and levels to set your club at.

Once you’ve made your analysis, go to the top two or three tiers of donors (for our example the top 8 giving $2,500 or more) to ask their advice. Let them know of your plans and have them react to the gift club level. Show them the current members list at each of your proposed levels to see what they would recommend.

Your initiative thought of seeing your major gift donors is correct. But, why do they want to see you? Have an authentic agenda to make your get-acquainted visits more comfortable for them. By discussing your new gift club you have an authentic reason to meet with your best donors. Find out:

Why they give?
What motivates them philanthropically?
Ask how they could be helpful in developing your gift club benefits that would attract new donors?
If they don’t like to ask, could they host a home or club event to share your story?
And, who else should you be calling on? Who could be invited to cultivation events?

As you meet with people, create a list of all donors (top down) for the last 3 years so donors can review the list (200-300 names). By showing a list of names you’ll get your current donors to qualify the people who have already given some type of gift before. Can they give more? Who is connected enough to help you get a meeting. And, in looking at a list, new names will surface.

In Gladwell’s The Tipping Point he talks about the law of the few – mavens, connectors, salespeople. You want to determine which attributes your best donors have.

Who are the real champions and visionaries?

Who may be weak on the message but are connected to everyone and can open any door?

And, who are the few who can close the deal and help you meet your fundraising goals?

Sometimes one person will do all 3 jobs – but my experience indicates that’s about 1% of your donors. Some can do 2 of the 3 tasks and almost everyone can do 1 of the 3. Just listen hard to determine where they are comfortable. Be patient. Sometimes it takes multiple interactions to develop a relationship and to build trust.

Work top down. Build relationships with the biggest donors first as they will know other people like themselves.

More to come

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 3 of a series)

2009-10-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 3 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Notes from an AHP International presentation (9/09) from David Woodruff,

Executive Director and COO for Development for Massachusetts General Hospital

Campaign Progress

Mass General’s fiscal year end is 9/30 and they project final FY 2009 results at $235 Million bringing the campaign to $824 Million. While they had a great year, they know next year will be tougher and they have set their projections lower (please see an earlier blog post about one of their lead gifts by clicking here).

Woodruff commented: “With this campaign the Hospital is recognizing the power of philanthropy. With some 8 figure gifts leadership now understands philanthropy can be transformational.” Major gifts for us are $100,000 to $1 million; principal gifts above that.

The campaign started with 70 staff in 2005 raising $110 Million that year. The staff is now at 110 staff – 30 major gift officers lead the work (this includes corporate and foundation fundraising staff).

No government research funding or earmarks are counted in the campaign.

The biggest growth in 2009 was principal gifts of 41 million or more but they expect 2010 will see more annual gifts, mid range should be good next year.

For MGH the normal pledge is 5 years with some principal gifts structured out for up to 10 years on a case by case basis.

Campaign counting – Duke had a good example of campaign counting. MGH used some of their ideas and borrowed others from CASE guidelines. Planned gifts do count.

$750 million building, 25% to be fundraised, $75 M for naming rights

They found only 1/3 of our departments were getting HIPAA authorization signoff forms, but those that did were raising more money. So they made this uniform so we could raise money in every department.

I found the gift table interesting. It started at the $100,000 level. 1,000 gifts of $100,000 or more are needed. They use a 4 to 1 prospects per gifts model. The gift table starts with prospects needed, then gifts needed, gift range, subtotal.

More to come

Defending ROI of Major Gift Officers

2009-10-28T14:10:00.000-07:00

Defending ROI of Major Gift Officers

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

"I am wondering if you know if there is any 'standard' or data that supports industry ROI for gift officers in their 1st through 5th years? I am in the position of defending the ROI of my gift officers to my Trustee Board, but do not know what the readily acceptable number would be, depending on their years in the position. Thanks for the help." DN

I posted an earlier series of articles on this issue. Click here to go to that series of posts.

However, the old standard is out. We used to say that a MGO should pay for themselves by the end of year 1; 3 X by year 2; and 5 X by the end of year 3. Or, you may get a star that can produce 10 times their salary and benefits.

One of my colleagues had taught her institution that her team could make about $1 million per staff member. While she had a great 2008-09 and raised $75M, their target was $125M. So, in spite of the tough economy she had to lay off 50 people.

Times are different now which makes the old standard benchmarking less valid.

I do have one hard and fast rule – after 1 year the new staff person has got to be covering their salary and benefits. They still may need to flower in the future but they can’t be a drag on the system.

Also, before you defend your staff too quickly, really think deeply about each person’s productivity. How is your overall office doing compared to last year? How is each person doing from a year ago? Who is always out of the office making connections and filing contact reports? Of course you need to measure dollars, but monitor activity.

Don’t fall into the trap of defending everyone if in reality you have 1 star, 2 solid players, and one weak person. You should admit any weaknesses in your staff and share how you are coaching for improvements.

If your major gift officers are working on organizational committees, subtract this time from the 125 prospects they should be shepherding. Or, ask your boss to let the MGOs out of committee work so they can focus on raising money.

Now is also a great time to audit how much the staff is dedicating to special events? Everyone may have to work twice as hard to raise the same money this year.

Finally, is everyone filling out contact reports to document all calls? The team may need to strategize next moves for each prospective donor. You may need to decide if a particularly prospective donor is worth further cultivation. The less experienced the staff person is, the more of this coaching they will need.

I hope something here is helpful.

P.S. Remind everyone that even a 3X return is really good. What other investments can your organization make that results in 67% return – certainly not the stock market.Write blog post content here

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 1 of a series)

2009-10-20T22:22:00.000-07:00

Advice to a New Major Gifts Officer (part 1 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I've been reading your blog for about a month now with much interest. I was recently hired by a mid-sized nonprofit to run its major gifts operation. Although I've worked in development before, I have never held this particular role, and I'm both excited and nervous to get started.

I'm writing to ask you for any advice you might have for a new major gifts officer. As I understand it, my first task is going to be to get to know our current major donors. But how will I proceed with new donors? I hope you have some tips. Thanks for your site and your time.

N.T. from the East Coast, USA

This is a fun question and takes me way back in time. Good luck on the new job. Here is how I would start.

You’re right in thinking you should start with your current major gift donors. Determine what a major gift is for your organization – is it $1,000, $5,000, or what?

I’m a champion of establishing a basic, annual giving major gifts club. Or if you have, totally re-engineering it.

Pick just one entry-level giving amount (with higher amounts recognized by level and/or color). Use one gift club name to brand the club and focus staff energy to build community and identity for gift club members. When I was a university vice president I went so far as to re-title the staff coordinator of the club “Executive Director” of the Presidents Club. This made a lot more sense to the club members than development officer.

What should your basic entry level dollar amount be?

One way to check this is to look at the top 25 gifts to your organization in the past year. Work top down – how many gifts at each level starting with your largest gift first. You should be able to determine a pattern as to where you could set up an annual major gifts club program.

Here’s an example of some data:

1 – $25,000
4 – $5,000
3 – $2,500
12 – $1,000
6 – $500

This gift patterning is tough to call. You could set a major gift club at $500 with 26 members. I probably would call it at $1,000 with 20 members. But, you could consider $2,500 with 8 members.

To check your instincts go back to the gift histories of these same top donors. How stable is their pattern of giving? For example, if you think $1,000 is the right answer, how consistent have the 20 donors giving at that level this year been in the past? If you’re seeing good stability in the gift histories, then you’re on the right track. If on the other hand, you see only periodic giving at this level and in fact most giving at $500 then the $1,000 may be too aggressive. If you see many years of higher giving and that this year is actually low, then the $2,500 gift club level makes more sense.

More to come

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 2 of a series)

2009-10-18T22:34:00.000-07:00

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 2 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Notes from an AHP International presentation (9/09) from David Woodruff, Executive Director and COO for Development for Massachusetts General Hospital

After establishing their historical credentials, the next step of their case preparation involved evaluation of the elements of a potential campaign.

What are the forces at work now or in the future that will impact the financial stability of the hospital?

What are the needs that can be addressed by philanthropy?

Does evidence demonstrate that fundraising is possible?

Is a campaign necessary?

What opportunities could be realized through a campaign? Or lost if one wasn’t done?

The campaign focused on facilities & technology, investments in key clinical and research programs, recruitment, and retention of the best clinical and research staff, and global outreach. The will of leadership was critical to get the campaign moving forward. The 8-year, comprehensive campaign includes:

Research endowment $100M
Unrestricted $100M
Education endowment $50 million
Facilities $300 M
Program $950M

They expect unrestricted giving to be the biggest challenge and have started an annual giving program to help boost these efforts across all departments of the Hospital.

More to come

Washington Fundraising Training The Win Win Ask and Listen for Success

2009-10-15T09:54:00.000-07:00

Washington Fundraising Training: The Win Win Ask & Listen for Success

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I will be lecturing to a communications class at Walla Walla University in the State of Washington on November 4, 2009. If you’re in the southeaster Washington area, you’re welcome to join the class from 2 to 4 pm for The Win Win Ask.

Later that day at 7 pm I will do a community presentation on Listen to Win. Following this session will be a book signing for Winning Gifts: Make Your Donors Feel Like Winners (Wiley & Sons 2008).

This is my second visit to campus to teach a class. I hope you can join me for this event. For more details on how to attend these free events, please send me an email.

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 1 of a series)

2009-10-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

Inside Story on a $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign (part 1 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

At the 2009 AHP (Association of Healthcare Professionals) International conference in San Francisco I got the change to hear David Woodruff,

Executive Director and COO for Development for Massachusetts General Hospital provide an insiders progress report on their $1.5 Billion Capital Campaign. Please note this is not the official goal of the campaign but rather a working target. They plan to go public in 2010 and are still calibrating the final target amount.

Mr. Woodruff provided insights on they have gotten to this stage of campaigning. Campaign counting started 10/1/05. They hope to reach their goal by the end of 2013. They track progress quarterly. Their fiscal year end is 9/30 and they project final FY 2009 results at $235 Million bringing the campaign to $824 Million.

Massachusetts General Hospital has 23,000 employees and is the largest Medical Center in Boston. Woodruff noted that Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will be 200 years old in 2011. The bicentennial became the driver for the campaign. As they celebrated 200 years of history they knew they had to tell the vision for what was going to happen in the next century, the 3^rd century at MGH.

They started with a one page summary of their 200 year history which showed tremendous acceleration of clinical and research excellence in the last 60 years.

More to come

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 5 of a series)

2009-10-11T17:17:00.000-07:00

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 5 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Here is a continuing article from the San Francisco 2009 AHP International (Association of Healthcare Professionals) annual meeting. These gems were gleaned from Sandra Henningsen who presented a session on Maximizing Your eMarketing Success for Major & Planned Gifts.

The participants in the session got into a stimulating discussion about the use of video on the Internet. How much money should you spend? What type of production values should you use?

I was particularly interested as I have produced 18 videos in VHS and DVD format over the years. I serve as executive producer and interviewer and have found them to be the most powerful ways to make your case statement come alive to prospective donors.

Everyone stressed the importance of using motivating stories to enable donors to motivate other people. If you show a video segment an your annual gala, put a version on the Internet.

One of the younger people in the room wondered if a quick handheld video would be okay. While a handheld camera is less steady, it may seem more real to people. Lower production values make it more authentic.

My sense is higher production values are important with older donors who are used to television quality versus a more free wheeling “Blair Witch Project” format that younger people are used to.

One of the AHP staff responded that she was capturing video of the conference for posting on YouTube since their site couldn’t accommodate the video yet. She was using a $300 camera for basic video work. But, she strongly suggesting buying a high-end $150 boom microphone as people are more forgiving of video quality if the sound comes through clearly. Don’t count on the camera’s built in microphone to do the job well.

Keep patient and donor testimonials to 5 minutes or less.

All of this discussion on video content really got me excited. When we do our video work for campaign movies we’ll tape someone for 15 to 20 minutes to end up with 2 or 3 sound bites for the final product. I like to have 5 to 7 people in the 8 minute video to get a variety of perspectives. With this session, I got the great idea of doing multipurpose editing. Once we’re done with the major overview piece, we can go back and edit 3 to 5 minute solo testimonial for each of interviewees to let people capture more of their thoughts on the Internet. Usually we get so many good quotes that it’s heartbreaking not to use all of them.

And, of course, use YouTube to share videos of your organization. They have an entire nonprofit section and you can put links to your videos from your eNewsletter and website.

More to come

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (Section 3, part of the Q&A series)

2009-10-08T17:17:00.000-07:00

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (section 3, part of the Q&A series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Here’s why it is important to do a feasibility study before a campaign and why most fundraising consultants refer to the study process as “philanthropic market research.”

As a follow up to the study process, once the organization has accepted our philanthropic market study report and campaign plan, we suggest inviting all study participants (anyone who has come to a leadership briefing, sent in an engagement survey, or participated in an interview) to come to a report-out session. We suggest offering 2 or 3 optional times to be flexible enough for good attendance. The consultant presents a summary of the report findings. Then the organization announces their plan of action – going forward with a campaign at the recommended goal amount (sometimes modified because of the study report). We use this opportunity to recruit leadership one more time. The reality of a strong, clear campaign plan encourages more people to offer to help.

The report out meetings are effective. Prospective donors are usually pleased to learn the organization listened to them and respected them through the study process.

Several years ago I hired a retired university vice president to do some work on studies with me. Vic was a great fundraiser and had been through 35 years and 4 capital campaigns at a variety of colleges across the county. His campaigns had been successful even though he hadn’t done a philanthropic market study for them. After being involved with the process a couple of times, he felt that a study helps guarantee success and that his colleges could have raised far more money if they had gone through this process. He became a believer.

So, yes, go through a study process to prepare for your upcoming campaign. It forces you to make your case, engagement donors early, find the fundraising volunteers that will ensure success, and put in place the resources needed to win.

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 4 of a series)

2009-10-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 4 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

eNewsletters – these can be effective ways of communicating with prospective major gift and planned estate gift donors. They can include stories of donors, news articles about your organization, and links to staff “welcoming” web pages. Be sure to include links to further information on your website and to a PDF of your longer, print newsletter.

I was intrigued by the information about a staff welcome page. Sandra suggested putting the lead gift officers at the top of the page with smiling pictures and also including any staff that donors may interact with – receptionists, other major gift officers, etc. Some website use an optional video greeting as well to help break down barriers and make the staff more real and approachable.

Send eNewsletters to your existing list and let them know they can opt out at any time. Most will stay in.

There is a trend to eNewsletters as they are relatively inexpensive and very “green;” no paper or postage. The speaker noted Blanchard Valley Health Foundation invited people to the opening of their imaging center through their eNewsletter.

You can also announce planned estate giving seminars by eNewsletter and then link to the professional speakers and their photos on your website. Again, this breaks down barriers to communicating with advisors who will complete donor gifts and provides your professional advisors with good visibility to potential clients (a win for everyone).

A personal note from a client experience – they went to an eNewsletter format and it was great. But, they stopped doing a traditional newsletter. I recommended they do both because we were missing 35% of the emails from our target audience of 70 and older prospects. Maybe 10 to 20 years from now we can go all electronic, but not yet. Keep using multiple platforms to reach the most people.

More to come

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (section 2, part of the Q&A series)

2009-10-06T17:14:00.000-07:00

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (Section 2, part of the Q&A series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Here’s why it is important to do a feasibility study before a campaign and why most fundraising consultants refer to the study process as “philanthropic market research.”

To prepare for the leadership briefings (focus groups) requires that an outline case statement be prepared. This forces the organization’s leadership to think through campaign priorities and to practice presenting it to a friendly audience. We generally recommend 4 to 6 briefing sessions to involve your best 50 to 100 donors. For one group we ended up having 22 leadership briefings involving more than 300 people all over the state of California.

Another great study technique is the use of an engagement survey. This is a simple way to reach out to the next level of prospects. We generally ask organizations to send the engagement survey to the top 5% to 10% of their donor file. This is a much larger group of people than the 40 being interviewed or the 100 in the leadership briefings. You send out the case outline used in the leadership briefings with a one-page (front and back) survey form and a return envelope. We’ve used both regular mail and email. It’s fun to see who pops out of the woodwork. For one organization we sent 16,000 emails and got nearly 2,000 responses. Another group discovered a $500,000 donor that wasn’t on anybody’s radar screen.

One of the most important questions we ask during the interviews is: “Will you work on the campaign in some way?” This helps us to recruit campaign leadership throughout the study process and to present a volunteer organization based upon findings of the study.

We also use the study interactions with a client to help determine what resources the organization will need to win the campaign. One of the major reasons for campaign failure is over-reaching on the goal and under-resourcing the staff. Your organization must play to win.

The final study report, the campaign plan, is also a great educational tool for your volunteers and administrators. An outside voice is helping show the path to campaign success.

The other value of this campaign process is the outside, independence of the consulting team. If the emperor has no clothes, they’ll tell this to the consultant where they may hesitate to tell the staff. It’s a giant listening exercise.

More to come

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 3 of a series)

2009-10-05T17:21:00.000-07:00

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 3 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

To reach your target audience of 60+ year olds for major gifts and planned estate gifts be sure to use senior friendly web design. Realize that:

Vision is less precise
Colors are more difficult to see (primary colors preferred)
High contrast is important (black & white or blue & yellow)
Navigation must be easy
Substantial white space is a must
Use short paragraphs
Link to features, eNewsletters, PDF files quickly (seniors will do only 3 clicks through a website)
Make sure your philanthropy page is on the home page of your hospital in a visible, top of the page location
Use similar layouts and colors to your print materials
Use clear backgrounds so its easy to read
Minimize flashing images
Use only one or two large fonts

You may have to go to your institution’s website design staff to get special dispensation for a senior-friendly philanthropy site. Sandra has had organizations make and be granted this special request.

You can find good examples of this type of senior-friendly design on the websites for Eisenhower Medical Center, Blanchard Valley Hospital Foundation, St. Joseph Medical Center, Carle Foundation Hospital, Fred Hutchinson Research Center, and the University of Hawaii Foundation.

More to come

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (part of the Q&A series)

2009-10-04T17:08:00.000-07:00

Is a feasibility study really needed for a nonprofit capital campaign? (part of the Q&A series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Great question. Thanks to Ann in California for submitting it.

Here’s why it is important to do a feasibility study before a campaign.

First, most fundraising consultants have stopped using the language “feasibility” and are using some variation of “philanthropic market research.”

Feasibility is really a leadership question. If you have a critical need and must move forward, then you should have a campaign. Instead, think of the study process, the interviews, and leadership briefings (participative focus groups) with your best donors as part of a philanthropic market research process with the goal of listening to your donors to help develop a realistic plan for your campaign.

How big should the goal be?
What projects resonate with donors?
Who are champions for each project?
What staff and infrastructure investments will be needed to win the campaign?
How long should the campaign be?
Are there are enough volunteers to insure success?
What training do the volunteers need? The staff? The management team?

If it takes six (6) calls to secure a major gift, using the philanthropic market study process motivates donors to attend a leadership briefing and then participate in a personal interview. This means your organization can complete two steps very quickly. The data gathered during these two interactions are like gold during the campaign. We use both occasions to recruit volunteer leadership.

More to come

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 2 of a series)

2009-10-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 2 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Gu

Ted Hart, ePF Founder, “Charities should approach the Internet as a communication and stewardship tool first and a fundraising tool second.”

A participant in the meeting from North Carolina indicated they had a pet therapy program. Each animal had its own webpage and was actively fundraising for the program. This led one of their owners to put a planned estate gift in place to endow the program.

Sandra, our speaker, announced that her firm gives an eMarketing award to their clients. This year Eisenhower Medical Center won because they got two significant gifts through eCommunications – one was $500,000. They hope to meet this donor soon.

The benefits of Internet eMarketing are 24/7 access, interactivity, and immediate information. In tracking web use, a lot of activity takes place after midnight.

However, realize that website expectations are high and dynamic. People want new content, interactivity, video, and easy navigation

More to come

Fundraising Training Feedback AFP Nebraska

2009-10-01T10:48:00.000-07:00

Fundraising Training Feedback AFP Nebraska

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I want to thank the AFP Nebraska Give & Gain fundraising conference organizers Meg Johnson and Joanne Harse for their hard work in organizing our sessions.

Here are some of their kind words to me after the conference:

"Thank you so much for making our AFP Give & Gain Conference 2009 a huge success! Your professionalism, warmth, great story & wealth of knowledge & experience were a perfect match for our audience. To top it off, your excellent book will continue to reinforce all we learned plus provide more great tips for succeeding in the critical field of fundraising."

"Many, many thanks for the great information. Folks had positive comments and many shared that they needed a 'spark' to get them re-energized . . . and you were just what they needed at the right time! It was a great pleasure working with you."

Nonprofit salaries can hurt nonprofit fundraising

2009-09-30T17:29:00.000-07:00

Nonprofit Salaries Can Hurt Nonprofit Fundraising

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

USA Today just released a story titled “Non-profit execs make millions: big organizations have highly paid leaders.”

These types of articles really hurt fundraising. This story was based on a recent survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy which posted its 17^th annual salary rankings.

The articles lists 20 nonprofit leaders and their pay. Of course its hard to see that the head of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia gets paid $2.3 million or that the Museum of Modern Art (New York City) pays its chief $2.7 million. I’m glad I don’t have to do major gift fundraising at those institutions.

But, many of the others listed in the survey are highly paid investment managers for nonprofit endowment funds who are compensated comparable to Wall Street investors, big-time football and basketball coaches, and medical staff whose pay is based upon their medical work as much as their administrative duties.

Not mentioned in the USA Today article but a headline in The Chronicle article was the comment that nearly 30% of nonprofit CEOs took a pay cut. Of course, that’s not juicy news.

Sensitize your board and CEO that if they want to create a culture of philanthropy, and if they want to appeal to major gift donors, they need to be careful about executive pay. With more and more transparency comes to nonprofit organizations through the updated 990 process, Guidestar.org, and Charity Navigator nonprofit executive pay will become more visible.

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 1 of a series)

2009-09-29T17:21:00.000-07:00

Using the Internet to Increase Major and Planned Gift Fundraising (part 1 of a series)

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I just got back from several days in San Francisco for the AHP International (Association of Healthcare Professionals) annual meeting. I presented a session and facilitated an Idea Exchange.

In this series and several others I’ll report on sessions I attended and the gems I gleaned from them.

Sandra Henningsen of Crescendo Interactive presented a session on Maximizing Your eMarketing Success for Major & Planned Gifts. As you know, I’ve been trying to become smarter on how to use the Internet for major gifts work. So here are some highlights.

eMarketing is just a component of your entire marketing efforts for major and planned estate gifts. Remember the theme of cross marketing – print, thank you events, personal proposals, personal visits, giving guides, seminars, you’re your website. Be consistent throughout your platforms. No one channel will do the trick.

We had a great discussion with participants in the room. One organization talked about using an online donor survey. It worked well and was a good way to connect with prospective donors.

The Internet allows you to empower donors to comment so they become part of your cause, not just a donor.

And, always remember that it’s still personal relationships that closes gifts.

More to come

Nontraditional case statements for major gift fundraising

2009-09-28T11:25:00.000-07:00

Nontraditional case statements for major gift fundraising

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I just got back from several days in San Francisco for the AHP International (Association of Healthcare Professionals) annual meeting. I presented a session with my client from Harrison Medical Center Foundation in Bremerton, Washington – “Great Nurses for a Great Community.”

You can see the highlights of the presentation in the image above. If you’re interested in a set of the handouts just email me at TomWilsonMajorGiftsGuru@gmail.com.

As a long-time fundraising consultant for nonprofit organizations, one idea to leave with you on this topic. Hire a great consultant to help you create and polish the case. Don’t wait to hire a consultant for just the feasibility study (the philanthropic market research study). We’ve seen a lot and can help bring the case to life for you, your administrators, and especially your donors.

A great case makes for great major gift fundraising.

Immersion Training for Nonprofit Major Gift Officers

2009-09-27T06:38:00.000-07:00

Immersion Training for Nonprofit Major Gift Officers

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Please join me (author of Winning Gifts: Make Your Donors Feel Like Winners), and my fellow authors Laura Fredericks (The Ask: How to Ask Anyone for Any Amount for Any Purpose and Developing Major Gifts: Turning Small Donors into Big Contributors) and Simone Joyaux (Strategic Fund Development: Building Profitable Relationships That Last and Keep Your Donors) for a 4-day immersion training program for major gift officers.

Offered October 30 to November 2 in Boston, the major gift officer training will take you to great depth to strengthen your current skills or build new skills. This program will be a wonderful way to take a young, rising star on your staff to a high level quickly. It’s also a great way to re-energize your career and polish techniques to ensure results for your major gifts program.

The major gift officer immersion training program is offered by PLAN in Association with the AFP Massachusetts. I know one of my readers of this blog is already signed up. And, 15 registrations are already in place. The organizers hope to have 20 to 25 sign up. So the class size will be small, which is great for the faculty.

For more information on the training and to register go to www.planmgo.com. Come join us.

The Tough Get Going -- Advice to Major Gift Fundraisers

2009-09-15T05:46:00.000-07:00

The Tough Get Going -- Advice to Major Gift Fundraisers

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I developed this presentation for AFP Nebraska for their Give & Gain conference. See the image above for the three keys to success.

If you'd like a copy of the presentation that includes Tom's Top 10 Tips for Tough Times, then send me an email at TomWilsonMajorGiftsGuru@gmail.com.

Building a Powerful Annual Major Gifts Program

2009-09-08T20:33:00.000-07:00

Building a Powerful Annual Major Gifts Program

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Even though I concentrate on capital campaigns these days, one of the first recommendations I make to my clients is to start going on an annual giving major gifts society of $1,000 or more.

If you have a major giving society for the annual fund, give it a boost. Market the basic level and then keep expanding it by higher levels for those who can give more.

One of my clients referred me to the Washington State University Foundation website. Their story is amazing. 5,838 donors made gifts of $1,000 or more to WSU President’s Associates for nearly $46 million of donations – all part of a record year in 2008 of $143 million of contributions to WSU Foundation.

A $25 million donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation topped off a stellar 2008. Their grant is to help construct a new building for the veterinary medicine program, the School for Global Animal Health (talk about a bold vision).

Brenda Wilson-Hale, VP of University Development and CEO of the WSU Foundation, and her staff are to be congratulated.

So, if you don’t have a $1,000 annual giving club, get started. If you have one, get energized and get it going to a higher level.

Donors Telling You No During the Great Recession

2009-09-01T11:43:00.000-07:00

Donors Telling You “No” During the Great Recession

By Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Question: I carry your book like a Bible. It’s a tough time out here. I'm trying my best to cultivate relationships where I can so that when the sun comes out again - I'll have some new donors. In the meantime, how does one counter the deluge of "I'm over-committed right now" responses these days? Justin, New York City

It's great to hear from you. The overcommitted comments may be real or may be a good way to get rid of you.

Try to determine how real. I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago and talked to a leader of one of the major accounting firms there. He said his contributions budget 2 years ago was $160,000; this year it's $80,000 so he has to tell many groups they've supported in the past no. Adding new donors to the mix, forget it.

Keep qualifying donors for real networth and the liquidity. Even in good times somebody with a high networth can be illiquid – real estate investors, private company owners, etc. We are still in the midst of a capital liquidity crisis so many people who used to have cash to give have to wait.

Some people may just want you to go away . . . so their comments are real and authentic.

Others just don't want to deal with things right now. Again qualify for networth, don't worry about liquidity just start cultivating. If people really get excited about your cause; involved with you by helping strengthen your story, open doors, and even help raise money they will make the best gift they can.

So, ask them to review lists to see what doors they would be willing to open. Will they agree to raise $5,000 for you from others? How can your fundraising story be stronger?

Remember the major gifts officer mantra – cultivate, cultivate, cultivate