Perspectives

by Dawn Borgeest Are you unwittingly on the “yellow brick road” searching for the Wizard of Oz to tell you where you can find new donors? Never mind finding donors, set your sights on finding the right friends. Here are three sure-fire strategies to help you find them. I dare say the bane of any development officer’s work is donor acquisition. Just how do you find new donors to…

Don’t you wish you had a crystal ball to tell you if your next major campaign will be successful? Well, we don’t have a crystal ball, but we do have the next best thing – a feasibility study. fea·si·bil·i·ty stud·y/ˌfēzəˈbilədē ˈstədē/Noun - an assessment of the practicality of a proposed plan or method. When contemplating a campaign, a…

By Cynthia Woolbright It’s vital to keep abreast of trends in annual giving. Here we have a few of the more notable trends. Some of the trends in giving include, but are not limited to: an increase in donor advised funds; an increase in on-line giving; increases in organizational giving; a decrease in the past few years in overall individual giving as we learn more about the full impact of…

Trends come and go. But sound major gift principles are timeless and invaluable to our success in fundraising. Yes, we read “trends in major gifts fundraising” when advancement firms, along with information from businesses and research programs, provide us this valuable information. We look for insights into what we might do better, what might we be missing and what can we improve. Over the…

Stewarding donors is a vital and indispensable in ensuring retention and continued loyalty – not to mention creating opportunities to deepen your donor relationships. As defined in Merriam Webster dictionary, stewardship is the conducting, supervising, or managing of something, especially the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one's care. For us in advancement, our…

By Cynthia Woolbright Bringing new trustees on board offers great and unique opportunities to inspire and engage them in your work. Let’s begin with some assumptions on how and why individuals were asked to join the Board of Trustees, based on the Governance Committee research and assistance, such as: building a pipeline for new and future trustees; identifying and confirming the talent, skills…

By Cynthia Woolbright A follow up to Part 1 of Best Practices for On-Boarding New Trustees Bringing new trustees on board offers great and unique opportunities to inspire and engage them in your work. New members should meet individually with the President and senior officers as a part of the on-boarding process. You might arrange a group meeting, with individual officers meeting with the trustees…

Diversity and inclusion is all about building community, appreciating differences and building empathetic leaders. Learn more from Kelly Gagan, Vice President of Advancement of Nazareth College in Rochester, NY.

Join Kelly Gagan, Vice President of Advancement at Nazareth College in Rochester, NY to learn more about her leadership philosophy including the critical importance of communication, empathy, listening and leading from behind.

By Cynthia Woolbright Your next major donor is likely already supporting your organization and, perhaps, is even engaged at some level. Learn how to inspire, teach, and engage donors to a major gift. The number one reason why donors give? They believe in the mission. The number one thing donors want to know after making their gift? That their gift was received. With these truths, what might be…

By Cynthia Woolbright Last week, you met Penelope and learned how her gift officer started to deepen her inspiration, learned about her interests and engaged her in the university’s work. Now, let’s learn what they did next. Ask Her to Make A Gift In due time, the dean of the St. Jude’s research in children’s cancer and the dean at your university agree that a proposal should be discussed…

By Dawn Borgeest What donors find important when being thanked for their gift. The five P’s of memorable and meaningful thank you notes. We all know the importance of thanking donors for their support. But how do we make it meaningful and memorable? How do we do it in a way that reflects our gratitude and deepens our relationship with the donor? To help answer that question, I fielded an…

by Cynthia Woolbright The face of philanthropy is changing. Women give and give generously, but only to those organizations that earn their support. The face of philanthropy is changing. At the Forbes Philanthropy Forum in May 2018, there was near parity between female and male participants, noted Forbes contributor Bonnie Chiu. With the rise of female philanthropists, there will be more…

by Cynthia Woolbright People leave their boss, not the institution. Be prepared to hire the right boss. Based upon his research in leadership, Michael Watkins, associate professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, cautions, “the root cause of transition failure always lies in a pernicious interaction between the situation, with its opportunities and pitfalls, and the…

by Cynthia Woolbright While incremental changes on boards are occurring at our colleges and universities, we are still woefully short from true diversity on our boards. The Association of Governing Board, in its Report on Consequential Boards (2014), recommended that “boards must improve their own capacity and functionality through increased attention to the qualifications and recruitment of…

by Cynthia Woolbright Imagine the incredible things your team can accomplish when they demonstrate World Cup worthy values. Here are five values that might just inspire your team. The USA Women’s Soccer Team kicked the summer off by igniting record-breaking levels of enthusiasm and interest in the World Cup 2019 games. As I followed their award-winning journey, I was taken with the attributes…