Major Gift Officers are coming up against an avalanche of non-profit leaders who are putting extreme pressure on their staff to seek out transactional gifts and forego building relationships with donors. I know you feel the pressure, but do not allow non-profit leaders who don’t understand what major gifts is all about to change how you are doing your good work.
Put these tips practice and the folks you manage will have a good manager. Managing is not easy, especially when you are wired to spend all your time with your own caseload, but I know your heart is there to help your folks be successful.
You don’t have to be a small organization to be great at major gift fundraising; you just have to “think small.”
Nonprofits have forgotten that donors are as much a part of their mission as the work they do that helps change the world. It’s time for a paradigm shift.
Don’t assume your board members will automatically give major gifts. Treat them like all of your major donors and you will see tremendous generosity and commitment to your mission.
Want to reduce revenue from your major donors quickly? Put them on an advisory board and have them do nothing. A bored donor is not an engaged donor.
Jeff and I place this trait – viewing donors as partners – as a critical piece of a healthy relationship with the donors on your caseload.
The first reason a MGO will leave your organization is that there is a culture that focuses on money, rather than on the cause.
If you lose sight of what major gift fundraising is all about – RELATIONSHIPS – you lose, period.
Major gift officers have the hardest job we can think of in the non-profit space. In many ways, you have to be everything to everybody.
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