Listening to Major Gift Donors

Listen to Yourself

I recently made a presentation at the Idaho Nonprofit Center Conference in Boise. The session was “Listening to Major Gift Donors” based on chapter 3 of my book Winning Gifts: Make Your Donors Feel Like Winners. We had some great questions and comments from participants.

One that struck me was a Zen-like comment – “To be a great listener of others you need to take time to listen to yourself.”

This suggestion reminded me of an article I saved from U.S.A. Today featuring Mr. Vijay Eswaran, a Hindu Indian who is CEO of the QI Group, a 10-year old company with nearly $1 billion in sales. Highlights of the article included:

• “Eswaran, starts each day monk-like with an hour of silence, a practice outlined in his book In the Sphere of Silence. It’s called mouna, silence. Essentially it’s yoga of the mind.


• “It begins with analyzing the day that has gone by, going through the goals you had set and seeing what you achieved and what you failed to achieve and trying to derive lessons. Then plan the next day and beyond.


• “It forces you to slow down a moment, detach, and take a good hard look at yourself.


• “There’s a certain amount of walking around. I strongly recommend writing, because you are really communicating with yourself and you can look back upon it later.


• “It’s like practicing before you play the game.”

I’ve ordered his book and will write another post on what I learn as I try his methods. An hour of silence a day – that’s challenge, but if it helps my listening to major gift donors then it will be worth it.

Permanent Link: Listening to Major Gift Donors

http://majorgiftsguru.com/2008/12/listening-to-major-gift-donors.html