10 Secrets to Major Gift Fundraising Success: The Second 5

Elephant piñata

Ready to get your share of the major gift goodies?

Every organization should have a major gifts program. That’s where much of the philanthropic money is.

It’s a rare organization that has a mailing list large enough to raise a million dollars from a million different $1 donors. But most organizations do have major donor prospects hiding in plain sight.

Your job is to find them, then move them along a cultivation path that prepares both them — and you — to make an ask that results in a values-based exchange.

In Part 1, we covered the first five secrets to major gift fundraising success: choosing your major gift amount, finding the right prospects, creating the right case for support, building a gift chart, and knowing when to ask.

Today, we’ll cover the final five — the secrets to working the plan you’ve developed.

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Sigmund Freud in office

5 Secrets of Psychologists: How to Get Donors to Say “Yes”

 

Sigmund Freud in officeIn 1984 Robert Cialdini wrote a groundbreaking book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, outlining principles of influence that affect human behaviors.

These principles are well documented, and can be incredibly useful to fundraisers.

Even someone inclined to support your cause may not give unless you push the right buttons.

Here are five triggers — with a few suggested strategies (I’m sure you can come up with more) —  to use these principles in your offline and online relationship building with prospective supporters:

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Heart in palm of hands

Nonprofit Boards: From Passion to Philanthropic Leadership

You can’t ask someone else to passionately support your organization until you’ve personally connected with your own passion for its work. To preach religion, you must first get religion. That’s the starting point for effective board fundraising — particularly when it comes to major and planned gifts. Board members are most credible as fundraisers when…

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