Annual Giving

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 annual 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…

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…

  When you are in the middle of a $400-million-dollar comprehensive campaign, as is Tracy Barlok at The College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, you don’t have a lot of spare time.  So we were grateful when Tracy granted us a few moments to answer our questions about what is trending among donors right now, the competition for donors’ dollars, diversity in the donor pool, and other…

Interview with Sylvia Racca | Executive Director, Dartmouth College Fund at Dartmouth College Kathy Howrigan | Senior Consultant & Principal, Analytical Solutions, Marts & Lundy As consultants in development and fundraising, we know that when it comes to the area of annual giving, best practices are continually changing and the way that a potential donor is approached varies. Therefore we wanted…

Interview with Amy Ferguson, Executive Director of Annual Giving, Boston College Ask an annual gift officer what has had the greatest impact on fundraising strategies in the past 20 years and the answer is likely to be “technology.” And the greatest challenge facing today’s fundraisers? Also “technology.” There seems to be no disputing that marketing, communications,…

by Cynthia Woolbright For some of us, making the actual ask can be daunting and challenging. So, how does a gift officer forge a relationship with donors and prospects such that when the time comes to “ask for a gift,” both parties are at ease with the process? Fortunately, we can start with a set of strategic questions aimed at building the relationship with prospective donors by encouraging…

Associate Vice President for Annual Giving, Alumni Relations and Engagement University of Rochester Martha Krohn has a philosophy about annual giving and alumni relations: they should be integrated. At many colleges and universities, these two areas are distinct with distinct goals, programming, staff and responsibilities. Not so at the University of Rochester, where the two have been brought…

Executive Director Regional Advancement University of Rochester There was no hesitation in Marlies Sullivan’s answer when asked to name the key elements of an effective and sustainable leadership annual giving program. Marlies manages a team of major gift officers for Regional Advancement at the University of Rochester. Building a program that meets or exceeds campaign goals (which U of R…

Lil O’Rourke President University of Rhode Island Foundation Despite some recent declines in international student enrollment in American colleges and universities, the most recent IIE Open Doors study reports 1,094,792 international students were enrolled in 2017/18.* As our campuses have become increasingly international over the past decade or more, with students who study…

This article was first published December 4, 2013. Rosheen Kavanagh and Katha Washburn share their strategies for building a donor loyalty pipeline for the future. Interview Transcript Cynthia Woolbright: So let’s start with the recent history of these programs: why you started them; how you developed your volunteer base; what sort of outcomes you’ve had and how long the programs…

This article was first published July 8, 2014 Our interview with Sandra Butters (Northeastern University) and Kim Gerighty (Groton School) reveals the strategically complex nature of educating parents on the importance of supporting the institution their child has chosen to attend. Interview Transcript Cynthia Woolbright: Thank you very much, Sandy and Kim, for joining us today about parent…

This article was first published July 13, 2013 We spoke with Kassandra Gove, Assistant Director of Student and Recent Graduate Programs at BU, and Stephanie McBride who serves on the BU Alumni Council and volunteers with the Recent Graduate Network on the subject of engaging recent grads in alumni programs. Knowing what a challenge this is for almost every alumni program in the country,…

Christopher (C.J.) Menard, Chief Advancement Officer, Amherst College   “Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” …Andre Gide Over the past twenty-four years that I’ve been working with international donors, there have been some distinct changes. For years, the prevailing opinion was that, as a general rule, the…

Laura Anderson tells us about “Hollins Rocks,”—the school’s first ever significant fundraising effort driven by social media. As Hollins University neared the close of our fiscal year in June 2013, we received a $100,000 gift. To reach our annual fund goal of $3.1 million and engage lapsed donors, we decided (with the donor’s consent) to use the $100,000 as…