3 min read
How do you take a donor that a mid-level gift officer has been working with and hand him over to a major gift officer? Our team at Veritus gets this question all the time, because not only do we help...
3 min read
A few years ago the comedienne Kathy Griffin had a reality show called “My Life on the D List.” Essentially she made fun of herself as a non-“A-list” celebrity and the lack of respect those...
3 min read
I sat down with a major donor several weeks ago when I was in New York City. We started talking about her philanthropy, what she was trying to accomplish, what were some of her frustrations as a...
3 min read
If you have been trained correctly as a development professional, you are donor-centered, providing outstanding customer service and essentially striving to say “yes” to donors. I mean, just about...
2 min read
I used to hate the word “no”. Everywhere I turned people were telling me no. I have to confess that I was a pretty rebellious kid. I had trouble with authority figures, which explains why they...
3 min read
I talk to many major gift officers, development professionals and non-profit executives every week. Perhaps it’s the time of year, or the stage in their careers, but I’m hearing from a large portion...
2 min read
It is an amazing thing to watch – truly amazing. Some authority figure casually decides to hire a MGO to chase what Jeff and I would call “ghosts and rabbits.” It’s wishful thinking at its best – and...
2 min read
I just don’t know what it is, but lately I’ve been working with many MGOs who are really struggling with confidence. Either they’ve recently had a bad experience with a donor, or a donor just doesn’t...
3 min read
I have to tell you I’m tired of it. I’m tired of hearing from MGOs that they don’t have donors on their caseloads that give high five, six and seven figure gifts. If you are an MGO and you have at...
3 min read
We have all had the experience. We try to contact donors and no answer. They will not answer the phone. They will not answer their email. They probably don’t open our mail. And the silence is...
