Major Gifts Tricks and Treats – October Halloween Nonprofit Blog Carnival

If either your askers or your givers leave the room looking like this, you’re doing something wrong!

FEAR not! The Halloween Nonprofit Blog Carnival is back, offering TRICKS AND TREATS galore — from nonprofit experts all around the web –to help you find, cultivate, solicit and steward your major donors.

When you trick and treat, you always like to go to the houses that give out the most CANDY, natch?  Well… let’s find the donors giving out the most GOODIES so your mission is assured of success.

You’ve got to be prepared! No just showing up without a COSTUME or a thoughtful plan of attack that takes you through the “good” neighborhoods. Sure, you’ll get some lollipops and chewing gum. But I know that’s not what you really want.

Go for what you need.  Go for what will make your time spent on this effort feel worth your while.  We’ve got a WITCHES’ COVEN full of experts telling you exactly what to do!

Pick a goody or two from this great list. After all… it’s the season!

Donor Identification and Research

1. 5 Best Ways to Find a High-Quality Donor. If you find looking for donor prospects SCARY, this one’s for you! It’s all about the wealth and philanthropic indicators that clue you in to the fact that a prospect may be a good candidate for major gifts cultivation. Thanks to Joanne Fritz for sharing this guest post on nonprofit about.com by Bill Tedesco of DonorSearch.

2. Major donor research is not all SMOKE AND MIRRORS. There’s some science behind it! The nifty guide to prospect research and major giving by Richard Smith of DonorSearch includes a wealth of information about how to determine a person’s likelihood to make a major gift. The article also breaks down different types of major giving.

Planning and Managing Donor Cultivation

3. BOOst your major gifts results with this article: How to Raise Major Gifts – Even When You Don’t Feel Like It. Amy Eisenstein outlines four steps for you to take between now and the end of the year to better engage the folks you need to reach your year-end fundraising goals.

4. How to Make Major Gifts Work for Your Nonprofit. Mark Kelly of Donor Pro Blog offers up a few suggestions for those new to major donor development. Nothing CREEPY about it. Brass tacks baby!

5. If you don’t think from your donor’s perspective, your attempts at cultivation may drive them a bit BATty rather than put them under your SPELL. In Once a Major Donor Always a Major Donor, Leslie Allen writes for Front Range Source about what it means to take your major donor prospect out of the regular annual giving pipeline – and all the familiar ways they have to connect with you – and unceremoniously toss them into a different pipeline with different rules. It can work swimmingly, but not unless you approach the transition with great care. Take a gander at the article.

Donor Relationship-Building

6. This one tool is essential to major gifts asks says Mazarine Treyz of Wildwoman Fundraising. And special props to her for holding up a photo of one of my favorite non-fundraising fundraising books! Learn how to get to know your donors personally, and vice-versa, in this article. If you want to turn your donors faces into SMILING JACK_O_LANTERNS be sure to check this post out.

What’s the best way to connect donor prospects to you emotionally? Hint: It’s not JUMPING OUT FROM BEHIND THE BUSHES to scare the beejeezus out of them! 4 Keys to Building Relationships with Major Donors by Joe Garecht at Fundraising Authority tells you not only how to get in the door, but what to do once you’re there to build a winning donor relationship. You don’t want your major donors to fade away like GHOSTS.

7. Rebecca Davis, PhD, CFRE shares that her TRICK, a hard-learned one, is to communicate regularly with major gifts prospects. Her TREAT is to enjoy visiting major gift donors. Don’t just make major gift visits because it’s good for the bottom line, do it because it’s good for ALL SOULS—you’ll both take great delight in meeting together and talking about your passions. Check out: The Year We Almost Didn’t Get The Gift.

Donor Stewardship to Create Lasting Bonds

8. The Heart of Effective Major Donor Development: It’s Not Money. This one’s from me! If you want to sustain giving over the long term, you’ve got to devote yourself to two things: impact and gratitude. Everyone likes a bit of CANDY now and again. Learn all about it in this Clairification post.

Next month’s Carnival will be hosted by Pamela Grow, and she’s picked a great topic: Adopting an Abundance Mindset. Check out her call for submissions – and, if you’re not yet signed up, sign up to get monthly reminders about each Blog Carnival topic.

Take the SCARY out of Asking for Major Gifts

Get the Clairification Major Gifts Playbook to learn everything you need to know about setting goals, identifying, researching and qualifying prospects, building your case for support, cultivating both donor-prospects and solicitors, inspiring major donors to say “Yes!” and stewarding donors so they’ll  remain loyal over time. The Playbook offers a holistic approach to major gifts fundraising through 4 separate e-Guides. They work as stand-alones as well as companion pieces. Have a specific area that’s proving to be a stumbling block? Or just know there’s something you could do a lot better? Buy one or two that meet your precise needs.If you’re new to major gifts, get ‘em all at the “Bundle Bargain” discount .

I stand by my products. If you’re not happy for any reason, let me know and you’ll get a full refund.

Wishing you all the best… and have a terrific and BOO-ti-full Halloween week-end!

Image courtesy of Freedigitalphotos.net