Major Gift Officer Job Opening in Portland, Oregon

Major Gift Officer Job Opening in Portland, Oregon

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

Here is an opening at one of my clients. Let me know of your interest.

Adventist Medical Center Foundation (Portland, Oregon) is seeking to hire a highly-experienced, major gifts officer to serve as Director of Annual Giving. The successful candidate will establish a $1,000 annual giving society with the objective of securing 100 members in its first year; obtain golf tournament sponsors for a $185,000 event; continue employee giving of $140,000 a year; and work on special fundraising projects. Five to eight years of results oriented fundraising experience required; CFRE preferred. Send impact resume to Tom.Wilson@campbellcompany.com. Excellent benefits and an experienced Foundation team welcome your expertise. You can find out more information at their website by clicking here.

Permanent Link: Major Gift Officer Job Opening in Portland, Oregon

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/12/major-gift-officer-job-opening-in.html

Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 3 of a series)

Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 3 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I captured this information from a session at AHP International (San Francisco, September 2009) – “Prospecting for Success: Creating a data-driven program that yields results” by Sally Boucher, WealthEngine & Nancy Lee, Director of Research, Jefferson Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Other advice

In a 2008 test, 80,000 mailed, half segmented, half not, those segmented increased average gift size from $82 to $120.

Upgrade ask amounts and frequency for those with higher capability ratings, and more recent giving.

What do you do with low capacity ratings? Drop those who do not respond to appeals or live in nonproductive gift codes.

For planned giving look at:

Birthday (60 and older)

Loyal donor (10 year giving or longer)

Multiple property owners

While I only know enough about prospect research, databases, and direct mail to be dangerous, it’s always fascinating to listen to the experts in these areas. As major gift officers, we need to keep our personal relationship skills high as we continue to work smarter through good prospect research.

This article is part of a series. To read the rest of the series, please click the links below:

• Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)
• Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 1 of a series)

Permanent Link: Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 3 of a series)

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/11/healthcare-prospecting-for-major-gift_18.html

Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 3 of a series)

Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 3 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I recently served as one of the faculty for PLAN MGO, an immersion training program for major gifts officers. The second day of our classes featured two New England donors who both have extensive experience as volunteer fundraisers. I captured some of their comments:

Russell and Steve responded to each other and questions from the audience

“As a volunteer I can open any door once. After that it’s up to you, the staff to keep things moving forward.”

“Insider tours of a lab, backstage, of the art curation workshop are very effective ways to engage donors and to reward fundraising volunteers like us.”

“Use your volunteers to screen names. One organization got us together to review a list of 900 names. We knew about 260. Then they invited the 260 in to see who they knew. It was an effective technique.”

“I think you major gift officers should be out of the office seeing donors 80% of the time. I know people tell me this is unrealistic. But, that’s your job.”

“People like to be asked for more than dollars.”

“What’s more important in fundraising – need or successful results? If you’ve done exciting bold things this year, then tell your donors, your investors. Then tell us why you need more support in the future. It’s really a balance of both stories. If you have no successes and only needs, why would I give you money? Or, if you have only success but don’t need any more money, why should I give you more? You must have future vision to excite donors. I would start with the impact of past investments and then talk about future needs.”

“To be an effective fundraising volunteer I need to know the donor’s hot buttons.”

“We both know people who have had to reduce gifts this year. Respect their situation, respect their gift history. They’ll be back if you stay with them in these tough times. Treat people with grace and dignity.”

“I trust a good major gifts officer as a colleague with me on behalf of the cause. My job is to transfer my relationship with a prospective donor to the major gift officer.”

Thanks to Russell and Steve for giving their time over lunch on a Saturday to speak to this group of major gift officers. PLAN MGO is to be congratulated on a great session.

This article is part of a series. To read the rest of the series, please click the links below:

• Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 1 of a series)
• Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 2 of a series)

Permanent Link: Advice from Major Gift Donors Who Are Also Fundraising Volunteers (part 3 of a series)

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/11/advice-from-major-gift-donors-who-are_17.html

An Excellent Major Donor Stewardship Letter

An Excellent Major Donor Stewardship Letter

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

One of the great joys of the philanthropic fundraising profession is getting to work with dedicated volunteers who give their time, their money, and their passion to a nonprofit cause.

One of my volunteer fundraising heroes is Dave Karr, leader of the Stayton Public Library Foundation (Oregon). I met Dave a number of years ago when he hired my team to raise money for a library building expansion.

He needed to raise $1.95 million. We told him this would be a challenge, but he agreed to chair the campaign and make a significant personal gift. The campaign reached its goal and then surpassed it to raise $2.8 million to cover increased building costs and to create an operating endowment.

This achievement for the town of Stayton with 7,000 people would be extraordinary for any volunteer fundraiser. For Dave Karr, who has macular degeneration and therefore can’t drive, can’t read papers, can only see his computer screen with a giant magnifying glass, his dedication and energy to “see” the campaign to success was exceptional.

Dave Karr chaired meetings at his home, had people drive him to fundraising calls, hold his arm to get into meetings, and led with energy and dogged persistence to ensure the campaign was a success.

But now, the rest of the story.

A great stewardship letter

I just got a year-end, gift-request letter from Dave in the mail. Here’s what he told me about the impact of the library building expansion project.

• Library visits have increased from 46,050 to 94,657
• Circulation has gone from 108,964 to 133,295
• Internet usage from 9,826 to 22,045

Ongoing donors gifts this past year paid for:

• 4 new library user computers, a microfilm reader / printer
• a defibrillator for the Library
• helped the City of Stayton replace deteriorated windows in the older section of the library
• continued to add funds to the permanent endowment
• helped fund the new Outreach Storyteller Program to promote literacy through visits to local preschools, daycare centers, and Head Start programs – the program provides book boxes for teachers to use in their classrooms and gives up to 4 books a year for each child to keep

“Thanks for your support !”

Of course, Dave included a return envelope and donor card to let people make another investment.

Way to go Dave. I’m proud of you and the entire Board of Stayton Public Library Foundation. I’ve invested before and I’ll invest again.

Permanent Link: An Excellent Major Donor Stewardship Letter

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/11/excellent-major-donor-stewardship.html

Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)

Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)

by Tom Wilson Major Gifts Guru

I captured this information from a session at AHP International (San Francisco, September 2009) – “Prospecting for Success: Creating a data-driven program that yields results” by Sally Boucher, WealthEngine & Nancy Lee, Director of Research, Jefferson Foundation, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Flag daily gift reports: Any one-time gifts of $5,000 or higher; any one-time gift of $1,000 or higher with wealth indicator; multiple gifts of $1,000 or more; suspects and leads; and newly acquired donors.

Monthly flags: high level job title and alerts in news sources.

We try to capture everyone’s business cards and put that into the database.

HIPAA – use AHP guidelines for HIPAA. Remember you need to mention the opt out and make it visible enough.

Demographic information permitted:

• Name
• Address
• Email
• Phone
• Gender
• Date of birth
• Insurance status
• Dates of service

Evaluate patient census and look for matches with current donors. It will also provide new prospects for you. Remember relationship factors to manage the prospect flow. Someone who has already given is more important. Someone who has attended an event is more important. More recent donors first. $1,000 or more first. Especially important with a small staff. Then work top down.

If the person is not already in your system, look at wealthy cities and zip codes, wealth attributes. Also, look at number of visits. Those who have been in during the last 6 months are more important.

Have immediate alerts are sent to MGOs if an assigned prospect or trustee is in the hospital.

In-facility visitation – make contact with patient and/or family by foundation staff, designated patient services officer, or physician representative; goody bag to be received prior to discharge can include a note pad, lotion, comb, case statement, annual report, patient brochure, reply device (some or all of these).

Post-visit follow up – assign MGO, track in donor management system, if not qualified for personal follow up use direct mail (monthly is ideal).

Physician referrals – a physician leader helps sell to the medical staff, recruit a core group of physicians, train, follow through when they refer a donor, and then report results.

Direct mail (Penn Medicine) uses quarterly discharge list from IT to:

• Filter out current donors
• Filter out poor performing zip codes
• Filter out Medicaid or self pay
• Screen list segment by capacity and other wealth indicators

This article is part of a series. To read the rest of the series, please click the links below:

• Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 3 of a series)
• Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 1 of a series)

Permanent Link: Healthcare Prospecting for Major Gift Officers (part 2 of a series)

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2009/11/healthcare-prospecting-for-major-gift_15.html