Major Gifts
Choosing a Stellar Campaign Leader
Dedicated volunteers are worth their weight in gold to your charitable organization. These high-level volunteers, including your campaign leader, provide credibility and undertake the essential relationship-building that helps attract friends, supporters, and financial resources to your organization. In a successful capital campaign, the importance of committed, high-performing volunteer leaders simply cannot be overstated. In fact,…
Read MoreThe Fundraising Rule of Thirds
The fundraising industry has a lot of rules of thumb that development professionals apply to the situations we encounter. What we have to avoid is leaning too heavily on these rules in an effort to make a difficult job easy. The Oxford English Dictionary defines “rule of thumb” as a “roughly practical method.” That is…
Read MoreBoard Development in a Campaign Setting
A successful capital campaign often affects not just the financial position of the group, but also other areas. Your organization’s relationships with others can grow as a result of a successful campaign due to its board development, which can undergo a significant transition throughout a capital campaign. The Board’s Responsibilities There are a number of…
Read MoreFundraising Campaign Success: Making the Calls
Everyone starts their campaigns with high hopes for success; no one designs their campaign with failure in mind. So why do as many as 40% of capital campaigns fail? The number one reason why campaigns fail to reach their goals and their potential is that they simply did not make enough calls. They did not…
Read MoreA Couple of Heartwarming Fundraising Stories
Fundraising can become such a mechanical process, in which we focus on rating prospects, writing proposals and scheduling logistics. This is never truer than in the midst of a capital campaign, when the pace of activity must be very high and everyone is focused on the bottom line of the campaign’s financial goal. In these…
Read MoreBeyond the Bake Sale
One of the major recurring issues faced by non-profit organizations is the need to fund the annual budget. Highly successful organizations have a reliable source to which they can look to provide these funds. Most of us, however, must spend considerable time with our hands out. This article discusses two ways to alleviate the reliance…
Read MoreThe Importance of Leadership Gifts
If there is one concept that is always essential, it is the importance of quality leadership. There are many different expressions of leadership, all of which are necessary. Leadership of time, leadership of talent, leadership from staff as well as from volunteers. And, of course, there are leadership gifts, the foundation of a successful capital…
Read MoreBenefits of a Capital Campaign
What does it mean to have a successful capital campaign? Clearly, reaching or exceeding the dollar goal is a significant and meaningful measure. Winning campaigns, however, create, multiple and diverse ripples of activity throughout an organization which help it become stronger and better able to fulfill its mission.
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