major gifts - moss + ross

Gettin’ Lucky: Not a wise strategy for securing major gifts
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Gettin’ Lucky: Not a wise strategy for securing major gifts

All Posts, From The Partners, Fundraising Counsel

Gettin’ Lucky: Not a wise strategy for securing major gifts

By Mary Moss, Founding Partner. In my experience, there is not much luck in major gifts work. I believe that you make your own luck. I have been in this business for four decades, as staff and consultant, and I have witnessed comments such as: “Wow, they just got lucky with that big gift. I work with that same donor and didn’t get that kind of gift,” or “That gift just came out of the clear blue” or “That donor had no history with that organization. Wonder why they left their estate there?” In most instances of “gettin’ lucky,” there is a solid connection with the donor and strategy behind the gift. I have had a handful of happy occasions where “true luck” happened, and have always wished for more (don't we all?). Nothing replaces a compelling [...]

DeniseT2022-11-06T09:45:20-05:00September 20th, 2022|All Posts, From The Partners, Fundraising Counsel|

Five Ways to Become a More Effective Major Gifts Officer
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Five Ways to Become a More Effective Major Gifts Officer

All Posts, Fundraising Counsel, Team Expertise

Five Ways to Become a More Effective Major Gifts Officer

By Elizabeth Hopkins. For many major gift officers, summer is the opportunity to take stock of the success and challenges of the previous fiscal year and make resolutions for the new year. The most successful gift officers embrace prospect planning to ensure they are getting out of the office to find, cultivate and solicit the best prospects. If you are at your desk more than you are out, you are missing opportunities. Meetings, database entry deadlines, reports, and proposal writing can tie you down to your desk, preventing you from your primary responsibility of engaging prospects and donors in major gift conversations. Here are five suggestions to help you focus your work to become a more efficient, effective, and productive major gifts officer. 1. Create a personal annual development plan that includes both fiscal-year fundraising goals and engagement goals. Include [...]

moss+ross consulting firm2020-03-30T21:33:29-04:00January 30th, 2020|All Posts, Fundraising Counsel, Team Expertise|

The Extraordinary Importance of Ordinary Donors
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The Extraordinary Importance of Ordinary Donors

All Posts, Campaign Counsel, From The Partners, Fundraising Counsel

The Extraordinary Importance of Ordinary Donors

By Susan Ross. All donors, large and small, play an important role in charitable giving, yet recent data show that about half of US families today are not giving at all, and those that do are giving less than they did 15 years ago. Research from the Lilly School of Philanthropy at Indiana University shows that this is true across the board, among all organizations. The good news is that most nonprofit organizations are meeting fundraising goals, thanks to larger gifts from fewer donors. Pursuing the extraordinary opportunity means focusing on major gifts. But what about the “ordinary” – the small or medium-sized gift? The stakes are high: nonprofit independence and sustainability may be jeopardized when a few very generous, very wealthy donors have all the voice and clout. Such donors usually do not want all that responsibility [...]

galanova2020-02-28T17:51:12-05:00August 7th, 2019|All Posts, Campaign Counsel, From The Partners, Fundraising Counsel|

Building a Successful Major Gifts Program

Moving Your Donors to Major Gifts All fundraisers know they need more major gifts. In a packed room at our recent presentation at the 2017 North Carolina Philanthropy Conference, moss+ross offered a variety of tools to support fundraisers to get those major gifts. The handouts from that session (linked below) offer guidance about creating a major gifts program and step-by-step strategies for soliciting major gifts and managing a program. We hope you will be able to use this “toolkit” to enhance donor meetings in every stage of the solicitation process. We're grateful to the individuals who shared their positive feedback about the conference presentation: "I loved your presentation. It was so entertaining and informative." "The session was very helpful as a refresher to train others." "My colleague and I were both in there [for the presentation]. She just started and [...]

galanova2020-02-21T18:39:48-05:00September 21st, 2017|All Posts, Fundraising Counsel, Team Expertise|