I had an experienced gift officer proudly share this comment with me recently. I don’t think it was the flex he thought it was. I’m pretty sure I understood the sentiment behind his statement: He engages donors in such compelling ways and with such skill that he doesn’t need to
Helping our donors and friends remember: the professor who encouraged them when they were unsure of themselves; the loving care and treatment their mom received during a life-threatening illness; the confidence-building experiences their children had on the courts and fields of play; the sense of calm that emerged when a
What do donors expect as a result of their giving? To answer this question, advancement professionals typically respond with a duality. The first duality is the donor-focused aspect. This response is focused on what the donor expects for themselves in response to their giving. Responses like: gratitude, recognition, special invitations, small gifts,
Before each visit with a donor or a prospective donor, we should ask, “what do I really want to know?” . . . about their financial capacity? . . . about their interest in our mission or cause? . . . about their willingness to be generous? . . .
November 19, 2026
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This webinar will cover how to develop a powerful annual fund case for support that serves as the foundation for fundraising appeals, volunteer engagement, leadership messaging, and donor communications.
“What will our donor get when they make their gift?” In some advancement shops, the response to this question is something specific – a pair of socks, tickets to a football game, a naming right, a tchotchke. In other advancement shops, the response to this question is nothing specific. A
November 18, 2026
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Join us for this insightful one-hour webinar as we explore the realities, opportunities, and challenges facing women in advancement today.
November 6, 2026
This Gonser Gerber Virtual Workshop for New Vice Presidents in the advancement and development profession is designed to support new leaders during their first few years on the job.
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This On Demand webinar will equip you with actionable tactics to align annual giving and major gift teams around a shared vision of donor engagement, stewardship, and growth.
It is common for some in advancement to hear the word, “persuasive,” and think, “manipulative.” But, the two are very different. When we aim to be persuasive, we: are ethical, transparent, factual, and logical; seek fair, win-win outcomes with others; respect people’s rights and responsibilities to choose for themselves, based
Advancement leaders can create 3 professional development environments for those in their care. These professional development environments can encourage team members to: Learn More Skills – develop the technical skills related to their work; Receive More Instruction – learn from others about how they have enhanced their work; Think More – reflect on what our work means and become more
The concept of “performance-based metrics,” is well known in our advancement work. But, saying something is well known does not mean that it is well understood. In fact, in the case of “performance-based metrics,” I would suggest the concept is very poorly understood. What “performance” are we talking about? Does “performance” equate to outputs? Like dollars raised? Or, commitments received?
If we want the most helpful evaluative process for our development program, an important first question to answer is, “what are we using as our comparison?” For example, we might make the following evaluations, “Overall, our fundraising results haven’t been very productive.” Or, “We are making great progress with our fundraising.” But, neither of those evaluations is especially helpful until
We don’t need more data. We have so much of it we don’t know how to use or store it all. We don’t need more ideas. We have more of them at our fingertips than we can possibly implement. More advancement results typically don’t come from more data or more ideas. More advancement results typically come when we strengthen messy
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This On Demand webinar covers the critical elements of planned gifts and developing a double or triple ask strategy.
On Demand
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This On Demand webinar for community colleges will explore how alumni relations, advancement, enrollment, workforce development, and marketing teams can work together to build lasting relationships with alumni throughout every stage of their lives.
Listening as higher education presidents or nonprofit CEOs stand before their faculty, employees, volunteers and state that what they do isn’t “the real world,” is a sad statement. I don’t find these types of statements sad because I happen to disagree with them. I find them sad because the statements themselves show a deep lack of understanding regarding the fundamental
On Demand
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This On Demand webinar explores strategies for growing and maintaining your endowment, and engaging donors in long-term philanthropic investments.
The personalized letter from the president that invites people to join the President’s Circle by giving at least $1,000 is not for everyone. The purpose of any call to action is not to get everyone to respond. It’s to understand the profile of the core audience, identify those who fit that profile, and how someone they respect invite them to
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In this on demand webinar, we will focus on the aspects you can control within your advancement staff and organization to hire, retain and continually inspire your team.
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