The end of the year is coming. Maybe you’re looking over your list of donors at what they’ve done in year’s past that last week of December. Are you counting on those gifts this year? You shouldn’t. There’s a phrase I use all the time. I tell my clients: You’ve got to get in the way of success. If you just get out there, good things happen. You see, success is flowing all around you. You just have to step into it. That $10,000 donation that comes in the last week of December every year from Mr. Smith. Don’t count on it. If you are not sitting in the living room or the office of your donor there’s a good chance you’re not going to get the gift. When the end of the year comes there’s a good chance they’ll make that gift to the other organizat ...

It’s November 1st.  We’re down to the final two months of the year.  What other gifts are on the table you can close before the end of the year? Actually you have less than 2 months.  You’re probably not going to have many donor visits Thanksgiving week.  And somewhere around December 17 or 18 it’s hard to get any meetings until after the new year.  I’ve had meetings at those time, but only with the donors I am especially close to. Get your calendar out now.  Get it out and book your dates.  Commit to being on the road a certain number of days.  Decide where you are going to go.  And then pick up the phone and start making phone calls. It’s amazing how easy it is to get meetings once you finally determine in your mind that you are going. The last 2 months of the year is ...

I was consulting with an organization recently that asked me to address how to respond to donors when asksed “so what do you do exactly?” You’re a professional fundraiser.  Maybe your job title is development officer or director of the annual fund or even executive director.  But in the end you are a professional fundraiser.  So you make the call, you set up the meeting, and now you are sitting in your donor’s living room.  The question comes: What’s your job?  What does a development officer do? There are a few answers to this question. For more savvy donors I like to be very direct.  “Well, Mr. Smith — when it comes down to it, our mission at LI is really about changing lives.  It’s a big job and one that requires a lot of money.  My primary responsibility ...

I was recently participating in a panel discussion before an audience of fundraising professionals.  Most of the people in this room had less than 3 years of experience as professional fundraisers and some had only a few months.  One of the participants asked me how to ensure that development officers are spending their time doing only the things that they can do. And I immediately knew that was a polite way of masking the fact that the development officer felt like her boss was dumping projects on her that kept her from doing what she really wanted to do. I think that people feel comfortable asking me these type of questions because I’ve walked a few miles in their shoes.   I started out in this field fresh out of college.  I was the low man on the totem poll.  I was traveling, I was out there doin ...

You know how some days your’re good and some days you’re great?  You’re asking the right questions and dealing with objections and it’s like you’re in harmony with the universe.  I was on a trip recently with a client and I had the exact opposite kind of day.  I’ve now been a part of 1,255 meetings with major donors as a professional fundraiser and this one was the worst.  It was just dreadful. While we had other meetings scheduled on this trip, this particular meeting had been the catalyst for the trip.  It was this meeting that justified all that money — flights, hotels, the time and money invested in the employee of the organization I was traveling with, and the money paid to me the consultant.  And the meeting went just terrible.  I can’t overstate this ...

What makes a great fundraiser? As a consultant with more than a decade of professional experience, more than a thousand donor meetings, and millions of dollars raised, I am often asked by non profit executives and board members, “what makes a great fundraiser?”  When the question comes they’re often in the middle of trying to fill a position.  Quite often, the person who recently left the organization and left the position vacant did a less than marvelous job. Jerold Panas has written a truly marvelous book on this subject.  It’s called Born to Raise and I highly recommend it to anyone who is involved in fundraising in any way.  Jerry is right.  To be a successful fundraiser you must have impecable integrity.  Hopefully you have a good portion of the 3-E’s: Energy, Empathy, a ...

When I was starting out in my career as a fundraiser I attended a seminar with Jerry Panas. Jerry is an inspiration, and inspiring people are often associated with “big picture” ideas. At that seminar, though, Jerry shared something so incredibly basic and practical. This thing that he shared, I adopted, and it made a huge impact on my career. As a consultant, it’s something I push all the organizations I work with to adopt. It’s the points system. Major Gifts Fundraisers get…. 1 point for calling to get a visit. 2 points for actually having the visit. 3 points for making an ask. 4 points for closing a gift. When someone is starting out in the career — they’re in their first development job — I promise them that if they’ll score just 60 points a year f ...

What can we learn from Pixar about making our pitch more effective?