A MOVES MANAGEMENT SERIES: PART 1 – IDENTIFICATION
IDENTIFYING MAJOR GIFT PROSPECTS searching for the diamond in your data You can’t have a major giving program without major gift prospects. It’s true whether you’re just starting out or managing a large team of gift officers. Wherever you fall on the spectrum, there are plenty of ways to enhance your prospecting and bring new donors to the table. Machine learning is changing the game when […]
WHAT DO NON-HUMAN PRIMATES AND GIFT OFFICERS HAVE IN COMMON? Our brains limit the relationships we can maintain.
Research suggests that the need to maintain social groups was a contributor to the evolution of the primate brain, and that both human and non-human primates have a limit to the number of relationships they can manage. The social brain hypothesis (Byrne & Whiten 1988; Barton & Dunbar 1997) finds that humans can, cognitively speaking, maintain an average of 150 […]
FOUR FUNDAMENTALS FOR CREATING MORE EFFECTIVE DONOR JOURNEYS: Why you’re likely leaving money on the table – or even turning donors away – with impersonal communications
They say that people give to people. Like a lot of things “they” say, there’s some truth in that chestnut, but it doesn’t tell the whole story. Perhaps more accurately, fundraising prospects give to people who take the time to engage them in meaningful ways, offer compelling giving opportunities that align with personal interests or […]
CHOOSING YOUR DONOR DATABASE
INTRODUCTION There are some questions that are as old as time, like what’s the meaning of life, where do I want to be in ten years, and what fundraising database should my nonprofit use? The database question is one that every organization must face at some point, and it’s fraught with fear and frustration. This […]
Catholic School Marketing and Advocacy Campaigns
AT CHANGING OUR WORLD, WE BELIEVE IN THE PROFOUND FORMATIVE POWER OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION. Over multiple decades living our faith through our work, we have represented 500+ Catholic schools, thousands of parishes and 35+ arch/dioceses throughout North America, as well as organizations committed to Catholic causes, including, most recently, the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the […]
Top Five Reasons for Major Gift Officers to Develop their Emotional Intelligence Skills
Top Five Reasons for Major Gift Officers to Develop their Emotional Intelligence Skills Written by: Diana Curran, M.P.A. When it comes to working as a Major Gifts Officer there is no shortage of roadblocks, detours, traffic jams, or accidents that we encounter along our journey. I’m sure we’ve all experienced times when: conversations go off course […]
MG360: MAJOR GIFT METRICS
MANAGING AND EVALUATING MAJOR GIFT OFFICERS AND FRONT-LINE FUNDRAISERS Caution: What gets measured gets managed! Managers of major gift officers: it’s time to stop focusing on visit and activity metrics. Have you ever found a gift officer meeting repeatedly with the same 20-30 prospects while the rest of their portfolio sits dormant? A team of […]
MG360: THREE WAYS FUNDRAISING BENEFITS FROM A CULTURE OF PURPOSE
IS CULTURE OF PURPOSE THE NEW CULTURE OF PHILANTHROPY? If you haven’t talked about building a culture of philanthropy, you’ve never been involved in fundraising. The heart of whomever coined the phrase was in the right place. Inspiring philanthropic support is not the job of development staff alone – everyone has a role to play in securing financial support to fuel the mission, […]
MG360: A Holistic Approach to Major Gifts Fundraising
Transformational gifts come from meaningful relationships. We leverage the leadership involvement from across an organization, design strategy built on all available evidence, and inspire teams to build relationships that result in transformational support. Our approach empowers both program leaders and gift officers alike by designing and focusing on metrics that drive performance, not just activity, […]
HOW U.S. COMPANIES ARE SUPPORTING CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
October 2020 Civic engagement – and voting, in particular – is foundational to American democracy. Yet for too long it has been rather difficult for many to vote, particularly those with hourly jobs, caregiving responsibilities and other barriers. With the 2020 U.S. presidential election right around the corner – an election some believe will be […]