The Case for Major Gifts

Last week at a meeting, I heard a man state quite firmly that people give not to get something back for themselves, but strictly for altruistic reasons. The nonprofit’s staff and Board members – at least on the surface – seemed to go along with that statement.

I’ve spent the last week reflecting on that statement and the nonprofit’s reaction.

My fundraising experience has taught me that while some people do give for altruistic reasons, most people only think they do.

Clearly NPR and other p ublic radio and TV stations offer “premiums” as part of their fundraising drives for good reasons.  For a gift of $120, you can get a book, DVD, and CD of Pavarotti, or Suze Orman, or Brain Fitness programs. And so on.  And in exchange they receive larger gifts.

Similarly, I’ve found that while the altruism has to be present – and therefore it has to be the cornerstone of your case statement – successful major gift programs also have to contain “gimmes.”

♦ Offer to have your potential donor meet a celebrity and the gift may double for the same cause.

♦ Offer hard-to-find tickets for a sports team (box seats of course) and you can raise a tidy sum.

The cause must hold a soft spot in the potential donor’s heart, but most of the time that is not sufficient to close the deal.

To make your case successfully, put your cause front and center and be sure to sweeten the case with something for the donor themselves: a named brick, an introduction to a celebrity, field level box seats, a memorial for a loved one … a special opportunity exclusively for that donor.

Image:  the1secondfilm