Not Asking Donors? Don’t Blame the Major Gift Officer

If you are afraid to ask someone for money you should not be involved in major gift fundraising.  That sounds pretty logical, right?  Yet, when Richard and I get involved in helping non-profits with their major gift programs, we find so many MGOs who don’t ask their...

Trust the Process

Recently, I was sitting across the table from the CEO of a very large non-profit we work with.  He said, “Jeff, tell me how our MGOs are doing.”  “Well”, I said, “all of your MGOs have exceeded their revenue goals in 2012 and overall your major gift program is up 70%...

Five Things You Must Do At The Beginning of This Calendar Year #5 – How Well Did You Thank & Report Back To Your Donors?

“Thank you”, according to the dictionary, “is a conventional expression of gratitude”.  I would suppose that if I do not feel thankful or say the words, “thank you”, that I am not really grateful. I have thought about this quite a bit. Is feeling thankful a learned...

Five Things You Must Do At The Beginning of This Calendar Year #2 – Review The Performance Of Each Donor On Your Caseload

I will never forget the meeting I had with an MGO one day last year in late January. I had asked him to come to our meeting prepared to review how each of his donors had performed in the year that just ended. Our meeting was a disaster. To begin with, he waited until...