Tag: consultants

Association members: making major gifts?

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Here’s a timely tip: maximize this revenue stream for your association or medical society

Are you leaving money on the table?

Oh, wait – that question needs some context. I’m not talking about restaurant tipping (you know, that time-honored practice wherein people choose to give something extra above what’s expected).

No, I’m talking about securing philanthropic major gifts for your organization (you know, that other time-honored practice wherein people choose to give something extra above what’s expected).

Sure, members of our associations and professional societies pay dues to receive benefits from our organizations. But increasing numbers of them are going farther, by making major gifts that support and elevate their organization’s mission.  If your organization isn’t maximizing such revenues, you’re not only leaving money on the table, but missing a valuable opportunity to increase member engagement.

Are major gifts worth the effort?

The answer is a flat-out “yes.” There’s a commonly held misperception that most charitable giving comes from corporations and foundations.  In fact, the opposite is true. According to Giving USA, 86 percent of the $485 billion given in 2021 to US nonprofits came from individuals, bequests, family foundations and donor advised funds. Foundation grants added 10 percent and corporations rounded out the final 4 percent.

That balance pretty much reveals where your real opportunities lie.

Major gifts programs pay off in some very attractive ways:

Increased financial stability. A mature major gifts program can produce 70-80% of all philanthropic revenue, helping to ensure long-term financial stability. By focusing effort on major gifts, your organization can reduce its reliance on less predictable sources of funding (like event participation and giving from foundations and corporations).

Stronger relationships with members. A major gifts program builds long-term relationships with its most committed supporters.

Increased program impact. More resources will allow your organization to expand its programs and services to create greater impact. Major gifts can support new initiatives, research, advocacy efforts, and other strategic priorities that might never happen without limited funding.

Enhanced reputation. A major gifts program can enhance your organization’s reputation; a strong base of dedicated supporters is a great “third party endorsement” that can influence other external stakeholders.

Stronger culture of philanthropy. Donors who give large gifts can change the equation for all donors. Properly communicated, a major donor’s high-profile example can cause other rank and file members to stop and consider their own commitment and aspirations. When it comes to copycat giving, a rising tide lifts all boats.

Consider the facts of life

If this all sounds great, there are some major gift facts-of-life to consider. Major gift request letters seldom work – after all, most of these donors are dipping into their assets to give, not just dashing off a check. Strong engagement is key, so you’ll have to invest in building personal relationships – a process that can take 3-18 months. Also, major donors tend to fund compelling programs and projects rather than general operations, so you’ll have to identify those opportunities and build your case.

The good news is that, with proper stewardship, major donors become more than transactional, annual fund givers. Properly stewarded, they will tend to give again and again, with a lifetime of impact on your organization.

Consultants in Association Philanthropy can help your association, association foundation or medical society establish or enhance a members major gifts program.  See the steps below and visit our website  https://associationphilanthropy.com/ or contact Joe Skvara (Joe@associationphilanthropy.com; 708-990-1325) for a no-obligation 30-minute consultation.

How to start a major gift program

  • Commit your entire organization to a members major gifts program
  • Determine your priority giving opportunities and their budgets
  • Determine minimum/other levels for major gifts contributions
  • Set a preliminary philanthropic goal and initial timetable
  • Develop a compelling case for support for each of your program/project giving opportunities
  • Identify your major gifts prospects — discover if you have enough prospects in your donor base, even for a modest start:
    • Top $1,000+ annual donors for the past 3-5 years (not gov’t)
    • Top 25 donors (cumulative amount) for all time (not gov’t) 
    • Loyal donors who have given any amount every year for the past 5-10 years
    • Loyal conference and program event participants for the past 5-10 years
  • Consider conducting an electronic wealth screening of your members             
  • Recruit a major gifts committee, with a formal charge and job description
  • Create a major gifts plan; staff and committee should share their plan with your development committee, board, and select major gifts donor prospects.

The Pie You Want a Piece Of

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A not-so-secret recipe for sweet grant success

According to Giving USA, foundations gave away $90.88 billion in 2021, or 19% of total charitable giving.

As a nonprofit association, that’s a pie you want a piece of.

The good news for grant seekers: this slice of the pie is growing – up 3.4% over 2020. The bad news: breaking into the grant pantry can take a significant degree of effort, and many organizations are unnecessarily daunted at the prospect.

Grant seeking does require effort: articulating organizational strategy, documenting programmatic outcomes, projecting a grant’s impact, identifying interested grantors. To assemble, sift and stir all those ingredients – for a cake that might never rise – is more effort than some association bakers are willing to put in.

But there’s a great reason to persist: do the diligence one time, and you’re already half-way done for your next grant, because so much of your work can be repurposed. When it comes to grants, muscle memory means money.

The grant writing recipe

Grant writing requires an understanding of the grant-maker’s mission, goals and application process. Writing persuasively and accurately, you’ll need to communicate a compelling idea, demonstrate the project is well-planned, and identify a clear financial need and feasible path to impact.

Key ingredients for a sweet grant proposal:

1. Make your project description easy to understand, clearly stating what the project aims to achieve.  Confront the hard questions head-on: What need does your program address? Why is it important? Why should this funder care? Share relevant data and statistics from multiple sources.

2. Show how this issue relates to your mission and why your organization is the best one to address it. Document knowledge, resources, and services you provide that others can’t match.

3. Show how your needs align with the funder’s priority. Tailor your proposal to match the funding organization’s mission, goals, and funding priorities. For additional insights, find out who they have funded previously.

4. Detail the feasibility of success. The proposal should show that the project is feasible and the organization has the capacity to carry it out. Project timeline, milestones, and budget should show the project is well-planned and achievable.

5. Articulate clear and measurable outcomes. The proposal should outline success measures linked to the need for funding. Be prepared to project how many individuals will achieve successful results from your program. What does success look like when scaled locally, regionally, or nationally? If you can’t supply impact data, provide expert testimonials, photos, or other representations of impact.

6. Demonstrate innovation. Show how your approach to this issue is creative and innovative, while also being sound and evidence-based.

7. Assemble a strong team. Introduce an institutional team with the necessary skills, experience and commitment to complete the project. Include the team’s roles, responsibilities and expertise.

8. Provide a comprehensive budget. Detail overall program cost, the amount of your ask, and how you’ll use it (operating, staff, capital). Include all current and ongoing expenses. It is critically important to demonstrate your organization can successfully manage the grant you are requesting.

9. Address sustainability issues. If your grant request is for a start-up project, include your timeline and show how the program will be administered during the start-up phase. Show how diverse funding streams will be applied over time to sustain the program and provide an exit strategy for the funder.

10. Secure institutional leadership. Ensure the grant request has the support of your administration and board of directors. Communicate the effort required for this program and expectations for their involvement moving forward.

11. Offer sponsorship recognition. The importance of this will vary among grantors. Be prepared to provide examples of how your organization can visibly recognize their support.

12. Steward the foundation grantor. Communicate prior to and following your grant submission and whenever possible.

As a slice of your organizational revenue, grants can be more than just frosting on the cake – just follow our proven recipe. We can’t guarantee you’ll be rolling in dough, but you’ll definitely receive your just desserts.


Consultants in Association Philanthropy’s 35-point questionnaire can ensure your grant request targets appropriately, communicates effectively and asks persuasively.  To find out more, contact Brad Hutchins at brad@associationphilanthorpy.com or 630/965-7708.

Time for Some Thoughts About Time

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Here’s a timely list of comments many of us use every day. Sound familiar?

  • I don’t have the time.
  • I need more time!
  • Where does the time go?
  • Time flies when you’re having fun.
  • There’s just not enough time in the day!
  • It’s just not the right time.
  • I don’t have time for such nonsense.
  • I wish I had the time to read a book.  (Or watch a movie.  Or go to the gym.  Or play with my kids.)
  • Well, I guess I’ll just have to make the time.
  • This is a complete and total waste of time.
  • You can’t make up for lost time.
  • I’m making incredible time! (Typically expressed when traveling a long distance by car.)
  • We need to buy ourselves a little time.
  • There’s no time like the present.
  • Time and tide wait for no man.
  • Say, do you have some time to talk?
  • I’m just killing some time.

There are sure a lot of expressions about time, aren’t there?  I don’t have an original, pithy saying like the ones above, but let me share a few observations I’ve picked up about time after 39 years in the fundraising business:

  1. The Pareto Principle still applies.  80 percent of your results come from 20 percent of your efforts.  This does assume that you and your team are focused and stay focused on the right stuff.  Google “Eisenhower Matrix” and let it be your guide.
  • By definition, you can only have one single priority.  If you have more than one of those, what you really have is a to do list.  The secret to time well spent is identifying the one tru priority in the list and focusing your efforts there—suddenly the entire list becomes shorter and less daunting.
  • Can you justify your salary on a day-to-day basis?  If you make $100,000/year, work 50 weeks/year, and put in 40 hours/week, your per hour rate is $50.  If you work an 8-hour day, and are responsible for raising money, do you generate $400/day?  If you do that, over the course of a full year, your association or society will break even on you.  But the job of a frontline development office is to do more than break even.  So, the question is this: What will you do with your time to generate 2x, 5x, or 10x of your employer’s investment in you over the course of a year?

I will suggest that elimination or reduction of lower-level administrative tasks should be a starting point.  If you are getting paid to build relationships, then that is what you should be doing.  You should not be manipulating Excel spreadsheets, generating generic acknowledgement letters, or managing the logistics for your annual meeting or golf outing.  (Yikes!)

  • Here’s an oldie but a goodie.  Knock out the most difficult or the least enjoyable task (related to you number 1 priority, of course) early in the day.  (Slight amendment: With so many of us working from home now, knock it out during your daily “prime time” window.)
  • Spend at least one hour a week alone.  Take time to think, plan, assess, and reflect.  Build it into your weekly schedule.  Developing this habit will give you amazing clarity as to what is important and in turn, how and where you should focus your time.

I’ll leave you with two great quotes about time.  Internalize them by printing them out. Then tape one to the mirror in your bathroom and the other right above the computer monitor in your office.

“Time management is an oxymoron.  Time is beyond our control and the clock keeps ticking regardless of how we lead our lives.  Priority management is the answer to maximizing the time we have.”—John C. Maxwell

AND

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours in day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”—H. Jackson Brown

Principal, Consultants in Philanthropy

Do Your Funding Priorities Pass the SNIF Test?

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What makes a good funding priority?

It’s a question we hear often from fundraising leaders at associations and professional societies – especially as many of them increasingly look for ways to expand their giving among individual members.

Their need comes as no surprise. The development culture in our sector has evolved along a different path from most nonprofits. For many associations and professional societies, resource development has leaned heavily on sponsorships from industry – grants from corporations looking for exposure and business advantage among the organization’s membership. Today, funding patterns have shifted. Corporate sponsorship was already on the wane before COVID. But as associations canceled or shifted their annual conferences and other opportunities for exposure online, the result was a deep dip in corporate support that persists.

Associations and societies are now playing catch up, hoping to raise more funds from individuals, especially major donors. In this realm they find a different set of interests at play and, consequently, a different kind of funding opportunity is in order.  In this moment, we encourage our clients to ensure their proposed funding priorities pass what we call The SNIF Test.  That is, are they characterized by…

  • S – SOCIETAL BENEFIT.  Like donors to other nonprofits, association members want to do good in the world.  That good might take the form of advancing the profession by funding scholarships, training, etc., but many organizations are attracting increasing funds for more altruistic projects that are mission-aligned but which only indirectly benefit their members, such as public education initiatives, etc. 
  • N – NEED. It’s true that donors don’t give to “needy” organizations.  But it is important for philanthropy to be genuinely pivotal to projects the organization hopes to fund; if those programs can be funded through other means, there’s no urgency for the donor to give. Organizations must demonstrate that their aspirations need contributions to enable, expand and accelerate them.
  • I – INVESTMENT.  Every nonprofit’s goal is to attract major gifts. Whether defined as 5-, 6- or 7-figure gifts, these are contributions that rarely arise from mere duty or in response to an annual appeal. Associations must articulate funding opportunities with enough specificity and focus to both answer the questions and awaken the passions of individuals capable of true philanthropic investments.
  • F – FUTURE.  A good funding opportunity is not about “filling next year’s coffers,” but is rooted in a well-articulated vision. Fundraising priorities should be positioned as essential, enabling elements of the organization’s strategic plan to impact the profession and society.

The SNIF Test provides a practical guide to identifying and selecting funding priorities that donors will find compelling. But that’s just the first step. As the test implies, how you explain the relevance and impact of your funding opportunities has a lot to say about how they will be perceived by your donors. A carefully constructed case for support is vital. Sharpening the case for your organization and its funding priorities is vital to showing donors how they can fulfill both professional and personal aspirations by supporting your organization’s programs.

Describing your funding opportunities through the donor’s lens has never been more vital than it is today. The payoff?  Fundraising results that are nothing to sniff at.