By Arthur Criscillis In most organizations, a tremendous amount of time and attention is devoted to principal, major and planned giving programs.  Why? Because they tend to generate gifts with the greatest impact on colleges and universities – in addition to fueling high campaign goals. However, because of the focus on major and planned giving […]

By Nancy Peterman It’s good to catch up with colleagues and make new acquaintances at professional conferences and other events. I attended CASE District III (CASE is the Council for Advancement and Support of Education) earlier this year, and was particularly delighted to see several long-time professionals in attendance who hold cabinet-level development positions, such as […]

By Jerry Henry An organization we are working with is seeking to raise funds for “deferred maintenance.” For a while now, the Board has delayed installing a new roof and updating its heating and air systems, as well as taking care of other physical plant needs. Instead, they have taken a “Band-Aid” approach of just […]

By John Taylor Quite often, I am hired to go in and “fix” an Advancement Services department. Usually, the fundraising office brings me in, with the suggestion the Advancement Services unit is broken. What I find is it is not the department that is broken, but how the organization has (or has not!) allocated resources, […]

By Nancy Peterman Closing major gifts can be a challenge. We’ve all worked with donors who, for various reasons, just don’t take that final step and put their signature to paper.  After a lot of hard work and activities designed specifically to yield well-received solicitations, the frustration of not being able to include a major […]

By Arthur Criscillis Cash is king – without it you wouldn’t be able to provide the programs and services your nonprofit offers. But why should people give you their hard-earned money? Effective fundraisers are able to answer this question every time they ask for a gift and make the case for donations. I often hear […]

By Jim Hackney, Managing Partner The philanthropy field is beginning to bounce back. Back in March, the stock market indices reached a record high, which means for many major donors, the reason to NOT make a gift (such as a depressed investment portfolio) has all but disappeared, or at least diminished, as an obstacle. Some […]

By David King, President & CEO With the release of Giving USA we get confirmation the philanthropic recovery from the recent recession is continuing, and outpacing the overall economic recovery. The figures released today show giving increased 3.5 percent in 2012 over 2011, just slightly ahead of the inflation rate, but far ahead of the […]