In your work as an MGO, how many times have you nurtured a relationship with a donor to the point of having her ready to fund (or even actually funding) a special program or project that your organization was touting, only to have it all come crashing down because that program or project was not ready to get off the ground?
So there you are, embarrassed and angry, while your donor is frustrated, confused and probably lost forever because she can no longer trust you.
Unfortunately, this happens all the time in our industry.  Sometimes it happens because you have an overly zealous CEO who is pushing a project too fast and no one can catch up.  Other times you have a donor willing to pledge a ton of money and the organization’s eyes are too big and they should have never gone down that path.
Whatever the reason, if you want to have a successful major gift program, it’s absolutely critical to have effective, inspiring programs and projects that make an impact.  If you don’t, it’s all a house of cards, and while donors may initially support you, in the long-term, it will never work.  And your reputation, along with the organization, will go down the toilet.
This is why, whenever Richard and I evaluate a major gift program, we also review the organization’s program effectiveness and fundability.
We don’t care if you have the best process and procedures, whether you have goals and strategies for every donor, the best touch-points and relationships, or the most up-to-date database and moves management system.  If you don’t have solid programs that are making an impact, none of your efforts will work long-term.
And, as you know, Major Gifts is about the long haul.  It’s not about the quick buck as most MGOs are often pressured to produce.
Let’s be honest.  In our industry, if you have a good offer, such as, “Help poor children in Africa with food, water and shelter for 50 cents a day,” you’re going to get a ton of people giving you $15/month to support it.  If you are a good direct-response marketer, it’s going to do well.
But that offer breaks down in major gift fundraising.  If someone is willing to give your organization $20,000, $200,000 or $2,000,000, you have to be able to go beyond the emotion of the situation (although that is still vitally important) and have a budget, a strategic plan, a way to measure effectiveness and impact and the ability to report on it.
For some reason, non-profits just don’t get this.  Amazingly, Richard and I are quite surprised at how many major gift donors actually give large gifts without this information.
But, they usually don’t do it twice.
Once a donor has been burned and NOT SHOWN that his gift has made an impact, he goes elsewhere.  Once he sees that your program or project was all smoke and mirrors, he doesn’t return your calls.
He goes away, and he goes away fast.  This is one of the major contributors to donor attrition: ineffective programs that make little impact.
But then, there is also this problem: Many times, I’ve sat down with MGOs around a conference table and asked them why they can’t get large five, six and seven-figure gifts.  Their response: “We don’t have programs that need that much funding.”
What?  I know they do, but somehow the organization doesn’t know how to package what they do for major gift donors.
This is so common that Richard has even come up with a proprietary system called the Project Support Portfolio™ to help non-profits take what they do and package it correctly for donors.
When we’ve had the opportunity to sit down with an organization’s leadership and go through this process, the results have been amazing.  Routinely, it produces effective, large dollar projects and programs that major donors may want to fund.
Even more amazing is what happens when MGOs take these to donors… new six and seven figure gifts!
Now, here are a few things you need to review with your projects and programs BEFORE you take them to donors:

1. Vision — Hopefully, you can speak to the “who, what, why, when and where” of this particular project and what the overall impact is going to be, once funded and implemented.
2. Does the project have a detailed budget? — If not, one needs to be developed.  Donors don’t need to see every detail, but they need to know how their investment is going to be used.  Is overhead included in the budget?  Is the project budget large enough for one or more donors to fund?
3. Strategy — Is there a written plan to get from A-Z?
4. Can you measure effectiveness and impact? — You have to be able to show a donor this can be done.  Otherwise, why invest in it?
5. Do you have a way to report back? — Who evaluates this program?  How is that accomplished?  How will you report on the program’s success to donors?
6. Real stories — Will you have the ability to provide real stories of change?  Will you be able convey the emotion of the program or project?

These six points are essential to ensuring you will have a winning project or program to take to your donor.  And they are critical if you are going to have a long-term, sustainable and successful major gift program.
Are your programs effective, inspiring, and fundable?
Jeff