Raising money is a rewarding and fulfilling profession if you ask many of the successful men and women who ask for funds on a daily basis. Nonprofits, whether they are in business to help one individual, one child, one animal, or to transform society, give development officers reasons to be proud and feel purposeful in […]

Anyone who’s around me for any period of time will learn quickly that I enjoy dining out. While I don’t consider myself a full-fledged “foodie,” I do appreciate cuisines of all types. However, while the execution of the food is very important, the quality of the service is probably more important to me. As any […]

Much has been written and said recently about reforming the federal tax system. This is not a new issue but many people in the not-for-profit sector are concerned with the number of new proposals that would impact incentives for giving. For the record, I love America and philanthropy and I think Congress acted in the […]

The opening panel at the CASE District III conference featured distinguished college and university presidents who talked about the changing and challenging trends in higher education – or, the four D’s. Fortunately these weren’t final grades, but the latest trends in higher education:  Demographics, Disruption, Disintermediation, and Dollars. Joe DiPietro, President of the University of Tennessee, […]

It happened to me again yesterday in a meeting. I had traveled to another city conduct a Campaign Strategy Study with a young couple. Before even sitting down in their living room, I was quizzing the couple about their professional backgrounds, their connection to the organization – warm up questions – when I happened to mention […]

The utilization of challenge and matching gifts remains a very good strategy for securing more gifts and larger gifts. The influencing power of these gifts is multifaceted. These gifts are motivating to those being challenged. They want to help the organization secure the full challenge or, in the case of the matching gift, add to […]

Fairly often I see major gift officers who are successfully cultivating, soliciting, and stewarding their portfolios of $25,000 to $100,000 prospects begin to change their style when the prospect is rated at $1 million or more. Some almost freeze up when it appears that the prospect might be capable of a $5 to $10 million […]

Have you closed a gift today? As fundraising consultants, we spend a lot of our time talking about (wait for it – big surprise!) FUNDRAISING. Fundraising always prompts for me a mental picture of raising a house—laying the foundation, building the walls, cutting out spaces for the windows and doors and chimney (because any house […]