Category Archives: Major Gifts

No doubt you and your colleagues are making lots of visits at this time of year.  Here are 13 tips for a good visit I’ve learned along the way: Never be late. If you have to wait for the person you are meeting, do not sit down.  Stay standing.  If you sit, when the person you are meetingContinue reading “13 Keys for a Good Visit”

“A donor has invited me to contact her, but I don’t know her preferred means of communication!  Help!” There are only four, thank goodness!  Email, text, phone, or handwritten note.  Very rarely these days will you send a letter, especially if you are looking for a timely reply. If your connect with the donor wasContinue reading “Donor Contact: Email, Phone, or What?”

I’m often asked, “What is best practice to include in a summary of a fundraising donor visit?” Here’s what I do: To me, they’re “call reports.”  Never include anything in a call report you would not want your donor to read.  The odds are, they never will, but donors do have the legal right toContinue reading “What’s In a Call Report?”

There!  You did it!  You asked for the gift.  Good for you! You asked in a genuine, sincere way, with quiet confidence.  You asked for a dollar amount, to be sure, but you didn’t ask for money. You asked the donor to help make something important happen at your organization. That’s the key. Now what?

Major gift work is like painting.  Professional painters will tell you that 90% of the job is in the preparation.  The time and care you take in prepping the wall (that is, preparing the donor for your ask) will determine how things turn out.