If donors are part of your mission, your budget will reflect an investment in infrastructure that serves their needs and fulfills their passions and interests.
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Non-profits whose leaders understand donors as part of their mission will thrive in the coming decades. Those that don’t will struggle to be relevant.
Major gift officers should be evaluated based on the number of meaningful connections they create with donors. A meaningful connection moves the relationship forward toward a gift.
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.
Be doubly sure you know the whole story of every donor on your caseload. Because if you don’t, you run the risk of abusing and harming your donor.
If major donors are right in your donor file, but you don’t believe they are, you will not look for them. If they can give more, but you don’t believe they can, then you will not ask them.
If you, as a new major gift officer, will follow this road map in your first 60 days, I know for a fact that you will be serving your non-profit, your donors and yourself very well.
Your donors are not just numbers and results from a campaign report. They are human beings with passion and dreams that want to help change the world. You’re only going to know what they really are when you can sit across the table from them and look them in the eye.
More than 50 donors who have made large gifts were interviewed about what they want from the recipients of their charitable gifts. There are some great nuggets in here for all major gift officers to consume.
Today, you have a major donor file that has plenty of donors who give the same amount year after year after year. That’s a good thing. But you can turn a good thing into a great thing by knowing these donors and finally asking them to fund one of your projects and programs that they have a passion for.
