Major donor fundraising – what are you waiting for?!!
Most charities seem fascinated by the concept of major donor fundraising, yet very few explore it thoroughly or have everything in place to run a major donor programme effectively. This is totally understandable as most charities are small, don’t have the resources and don’t know where to look for potential wealthy benefactors.
How big is big?
A question I am asked a lot is “how do you define a major gift”? And I always draw this (not always this neatly):
Delighting your Donor
It is entirely possible to start a brilliant major donor programme as a tiny charity without any dedicated staff handling those relationships.
Is a Development Board a help or a hindrance?
I often come across the automatic assumption that a Development Board is the answer to great major gift fundraising. An awesome Board can propel an appeal forward and reach opportunities simply out of reach otherwise. A poorly constituted Board (be that the people, the terms of reference, the assumptions, the staff or anything else) will be more of a hindrance than a help. Any Board is hard to manage and they are always tricky to inherit!