What is a Major Gift?
I am not a big believer in using a formula to decide the major donor level for your charity. This is mostly because if you are managing smaller donors, such as £250 – £2,000 donors, the statistics don’t add up. …
Category: Blog
Below you will find excerpts of my latest articles/posts that I have produced. To see the full article for any entry, you may click on the Title of the article.
Recruiting a Major Gifts Executive
There are two KEY roles for a Major Gifts Executive: 1. Prospecting 2. Managing Major Donors who are already qualified Of course there are many additional tasks related to these two core functions. These include the ability to write succinctly, …
Preparing the Major Gifts Team Annual Review
One of my clients has recently been preparing their Annual Review of the Team’s performance. This is important for the team but also for showing Directors the progress of the major gifts team’s work. This may not always show itself …
Handover of Major Donors
I was discussing with a client today about the very awkward subject of handing over Major Donors. It is a common occurrence that inevitably Major Gift Executives move on or perhaps need to leave for maternity leave or sickness and …
How often should I contact my potential donor during the cultivation phase?
There is no hesitation in my answer to this question – it is a minimum of monthly. To make this easier let’s call the donor Harry to bring this point into focus. If you have had no contact with Harry …
How often should I contact my potential donor during the cultivation phase? Read more »
Part 2: Getting Started with your Major Gifts Programme – What to include in a new Programme budget
In addition to the Major Gifts Executive and Administrator salaries, you will need to allow for: Travel. This is a big one and if your Major Gifts Executive is doing a lot of prospecting i.e. looking for the right Major …
Part 1: Getting Started with your Major Gifts Programme – When do you employ a Major Gifts Executive for a new major gifts programme?
It is advisable to have a wealth overlay undertaken to see how many millionaires are on your database before seeking to recruit a Major Gifts Executive. (In passing this is an ‘internal’ title and not suitable for external use) Depending …
