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8 min read
15 Open-Ended Questions to Ask Donors and Build Stronger Relationships
If you’re a frontline fundraiser, you’ve probably had a donor conversation where you weren’t quite sure what to say next.
Passionate Giving BlogTM
Major Gifts
6 min read
How to Build a Year-End Donor Plan
If you’re a frontline fundraiser, you can probably feel year-end getting closer. When the calendar fills up, you can practically hear the revenue expectations through your screen. And somewhere...
5 min read
A Director of Development’s Guide to Prioritizing Major Gifts Fundraising in 2026
Picture this (or maybe you don’t even need to): Your Monday morning calendar is stacked. There’s an event to plan, a grant deadline to meet, an appeal that needs approval, a board member asking for...
3 min read
What to Do with Your Major Donor Contacts After Your Spring Gala (Before the Moment Passes)
Spring gala season has wound down, and if you're like most fundraising teams right now, you're probably tired. Really tired. Months of planning, coordinating sponsors, recruiting volunteers, managing...
3 min read
How to Use Your Equivalency Language
In the first part of this blog series, I shared with you the importance of creating equivalency language and how to create it for your organization. That’s the hard part.
2 min read
How to Create Equivalency Language
If you go to the Feeding America website right now, the very first thing you will see is $1 = 20 meals. It’s simple and effective. The organization is showing you the actual impact of every dollar...
3 min read
One of the Biggest Barriers to Major Gifts (And How Leaders Can Remove It)
“I don’t have anything to present to donors.” A major gift officer said that to me a while ago. And before I could even respond, their manager jumped in, clearly frustrated.
3 min read
The Metrics You’re Using for Major Gifts Are Pushing Your Fundraisers in the Wrong Direction
There’s a reason so many major gift programs feel busy but are underperforming. It’s not a lack of effort. It’s not a lack of talent. Most of the time, it comes down to what you’re measuring.
3 min read
Why Donors Get Stuck in Mid-Level (And How to Move Them Forward)
I’ve got a question for you. Do you know exactly which donors in your pipeline are ready for a deeper relationship right now? If you had to name them off the top of your head, could you?
2 min read
What Happens When Everyone at the Table Looks the Same
I’ve been thinking a lot about equity in fundraising. Maybe that sounds like a buzzword these days, but it’s a real, structural issue that directly affects whether organizations actually grow. When...
3 min read
The Right Way to Refresh Your Caseload
Let’s start with a reality every major gift officer eventually runs into: donors leave your caseload. Some pass away. Some change priorities. Some hit a business downturn. At the same time, new...
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3 min read
How to Get the Best ROI From Your Event
For decades, fundraising events have been the default answer for many non-profits. Galas, dinners, tastings, lectures, golf outings—every year, organizations pour enormous amounts of staff time,...
