Generous charitable support is consistently motivated by:
- being invited to give by someone the giver admires;
- believing in or having been personally impacted by the institution’s mission;
- trusting in the institution’s leaders to deliver on their vision for the future;
- having a personal connection with the institution today;
- believing that making this gift will be personally satisfying.
Generous charitable support is not consistently motivated by:
- receiving tax benefits;
- receiving public recognition;
- the giver’s family tradition of support for an institution;
- reviewing a spiffy, well-designed case statement;
- being convinced through data, logic, or an overly-suave presentation.
Research as well as practice repeatedly prove the above points. And most everyone who has sat with even a few donors knows these truths and how sustained generosity is motivated.
Why, then, do we spend so much time highlighting or perfecting the last 5?
This article was originally posted on Jason’s Blog in February 2023. To read more, visit www.jasonmcneal.com.
