Clairity Click-it Special Edition: Major Gift Fundraising

Click it BIG time!

This week’s Click-it is all about major gift fundraising. What better way to begin the new year than by thinking BIG?!

I’ve pulled together an awesome group of posts from some of my favorite major gift fundraising experts.

There’s also an opportunity (at the end) for you to delve deeper into major gifts fundraising this year.

I wish you BIG, considerably sizeable fundraising results this year in order to accomplish your BIG, considerably important and serious mission.

BIG Tips to Raise BIG Money for Your BIG Mission

Click-It: Is Your Nonprofit Board Avoiding Their Money Role? Nell Edgington of Social Velocity weighs in with this important belief (with which I happen to agree): “I strongly believe that the board of directors is a nonprofit’s most critical financial asset.” To succeed with major gift fundraising your board must embrace their financing role.

Click-it: Board Members Should NEVER Ask for Money – Here’s Why. You may still be reading because, from the title, you thought you were off the hook! Think again. The point Amy Eisenstein of TriPoint Fundraising is making is that fundraising is fundamentally not about money. It’s about impact. “Don’t talk about giving till it hurts! Giving should feel great!”

Click-It:  Persuasion, Fundraising and Rabbits. This is a fun read from Andrey Gidaspov’s personal blog, Ideas That Work. He gets right to the point. You can try all sorts of tricks, but the bottom line is this: Meet with donors. Listen to donors. Ask donors.

Click-It: Top 10 Tips to Catapult Your Major Gift Fundraising is a great ‘to-do’ list from Gail Perry of Fired Up Fundraising. Here’s just one take-away among many nuggets of wisdom: “The more times you are in front of the donor BEFORE asking, then the bigger their ultimate gift.”

Click-it: 4 Things Your Donor Wants: #4 – To Know Her Gift Made a Difference is the fourth in a series of posts by Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels of the Veritus Group. The entire series is terrific: #3 Your Donor Wants to be Told the Truth; #2 Your Donor Wants to be Treated as a Partner, and #1 Your Donor Wants to be Known. Take time to learn what your donor cares about; don’t make it seem like just an endless quest for the donor’s money.

Click-it: Mastering Online Social Fundraising Using Content Marketing.  This one may not sound like it’s about major gift fundraising, but in today’s marketplace it definitely is. All donors are online, and they all want to know what benefits might ensue should they choose to participate passionately with your organization.  I’m honored to have recently been able to chat about this on “Driving Participation” with Beth Brod0vsky of Iris Creative.  Don’t forget you’re offering donors the opportunity to change the world.

Click-it: [INFOGRAPHIC] Major Gift Fundraising By The Numbers. This is a truly excellent primer to major gift fundraising from Bloomerang, designed by Jennifer Crothers. Use the data and recommended tracking metrics provided to create an effective strategy.

Want to Delve Deeper into Winning Major Gifts Fundraising?

‘Early Bird’ discount ends January 15th – Save $50!

Major gifts account for a whopping 72% of all annual gifts. They’re not just for capital campaigns. And they’re not just for behemoths. Any organization, of any size, can and should do major gifts fundraising.

Do you know that major gifts are also the most cost-effective form of fundraising? Assure you get your piece of the pie. Please join me for my most popular e-course: Winning Major Gift Fundraising Strategies for the small and medium-sized shop. I offer this annually towards the beginning of the calendar year, giving you plenty of time to do everything that must be done in order to assure successful asks for your upcoming campaigns.

I think you’ll love this course.  The course begins Tuesday, January 26^th and covers 6 weeks of seriously useful material gleaned from my 30+ years of experience in the trenches. I’ve done this!

Until midnight Friday, January 15^th, you can grab it at the Early Bird price* of $237. Later, the price rises to $287. If you act now, you could save $50!

*The price includes registration for up to 5 additional people from your team – staff or volunteer.  Major gifts should be a team sport!

Photo: Flickr, Isaac Torronterra