Major gift fundraising is incredibly difficult, and it can be emotionally draining. If you don’t have that fire inside of you to be that bridge I was talking about, you won’t be able to survive the challenges of this profession.
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Being a major gift fundraiser is an emotionally taxing profession. It has tremendous highs and lows. Sometimes, you might lose your motivation. Read more how to stay motivated in your work.
Organizations that are donor-centered and honoring of their people are successful. Those just going after the money are the ones hanging by a thread.
MGOs often leave non-profits because they hit a salary cap or they don’t have a way to grow and be rewarded without having to promote them. What can you do?
Don’t take shortcuts. If you get good support to do major gifts work right, you can experience amazing success… it just doesn’t happen overnight.
The demands on a major gift officer are enormous, and they pull us away from having a good work-life balance. Here are some ways that MGOs and their nonprofits can make a difference.
We share the key metrics every non-profit leader needs to know when evaluating their organization’s major gift program and their MGOs work performance.
To be a great major gift officer, you have to carve out time each day – or a part of each week – to look at your major donor caseload and let curiosity start to take over. Learn more about how to develop this trait in this post.
Major gifts work is often compared to selling. Selling is the exchange of money for property, goods or services, while major gift programs facilitate the exchange of money for the fulfillment of a donor’s interests and passions. If a MGO can successfully identify a donor’s interests and passions and match them to a program his organization is executing, then the money comes in naturally.
Most capital campaign consultants will tell you that before a donor commits to a long-term pledge, he will want to know who the other donors are that are also committing to a substantial pledge. This works similarly in major gifts.
