multiple tasking Archives

Donor-advised funds for major gift officers — strategic resource on six- and seven-figure DAF grants

Donor-Advised Funds for Major Gift Officers: Where the Money Already Is

Viken Mikaelian May 12, 2026 No Comments

Donor-advised funds are reshaping major gifts. The largest grants in American philanthropy are increasingly moving through DAFs — not checkbooks, not private foundations. This strategic briefing gives major gift officers the prospect identification frameworks, solicitation scripts, sponsor differences, successor beneficiary mechanics, and stewardship discipline that close six- and seven-figure DAF grants. Paired with the comprehensive 14-chapter DAF resource at Philanthropy.org.

roman columns portraying stability over time

A Will Planner Is Not a Planned Giving Program: 10 Questions CEOs Should Answer

Viken Mikaelian April 18, 2026 No Comments

Most nonprofits believe they have a planned giving program. They have a will planner. They have a planned giving calculator. Perhaps a bequests page. That is not a program — that is activity. A structured planned giving program is something different entirely: built on ownership, relationships, and disciplined execution that continues regardless of staff turnover or passing trends. It compounds over time. It does not restart every 18 months. Here is what a real program actually looks like — and why most nonprofits don’t have one.

Grand Canyon at sunset — vast scale representing the transformational impact of major gift fundraising

Major Gifts: The Complete Guide to Building, Growing, and Closing Transformational Donor Relationships

Joe Garecht April 9, 2026 No Comments

Most nonprofits say they want major gifts. What they actually have is a list of donors and a quiet hope. That’s not a strategy. Major gifts are built through a disciplined five-stage pipeline — identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. This guide walks through every stage in depth, with real frameworks, hard truths, and no filler. Twenty-five years of major gift fundraising, distilled into one complete resource.

Pareto principle image -20% effort - 80% results

The Modern Pareto Principle

Aidan Coffey April 4, 2026 No Comments

The Pareto Principle has always said 80% of results come from 20% of causes. In fundraising, that split is tightening — closer to 90/10 or 95/5. Donors are giving later in life as wealth concentrates at the top. Nonprofits that ignore small and mid-level donors today are cutting off their future major gift pipeline. The solution: data, monthly giving, community engagement, and diversified financial vehicles.

Nonprofit fundraiser meeting donor with tablet showing data insights and relationship mapping for major and planned giving

Your Donors Have a Story. Your Tools Are Only Giving You a Score.

Will Schrepferman March 23, 2026 No Comments

Most gift officers walk into meetings armed with scores—and leave money on the table. Capacity ratings and wealth estimates don’t reveal why a donor would say yes. Today’s AI-driven research uncovers the story behind the wealth: motivations, relationships, and long-term intent. When you stop relying on scores and start understanding stories, you don’t just ask better—you identify the donors ready for major and planned gifts.

Hourglass illustrating the risk of bequest revocations when donor relationships are not actively maintained.

Bequest Revocations: Where the Money Goes When Donors Walk Away

Inside Contributor February 8, 2026 No Comments

Bequest revocations are a metric almost no advancement office tracks. As legacy intentions become easier to generate through low-friction, self-service tools, they also become easier to abandon. Institutions report growth while relationships thin. The numbers remain intact. The donor’s commitment does not.

When Feasibility Studies Become Career Insurance

Inside Contributor February 8, 2026 No Comments

Feasibility studies are a staple of major gift fundraising — but in many institutions, they’ve quietly become a substitute for donor engagement. This essay examines how short tenures, risk aversion, and misaligned incentives lead organizations to commission studies not to inform action, but to delay it. When preparation becomes the strategy, donor momentum fades, leadership avoids hard truths, and the money goes elsewhere.

Major gift officer using AI to enhance donor insight and strategic decision-making

AI Isn’t the Future. It’s Here.

Viken Mikaelian February 7, 2026 No Comments

AI is not coming to major gifts—it has already arrived. Used correctly, AI does not replace gift officers; it removes the manual research that keeps them from building relationships and closing gifts. The real advantage is not speed alone, but better judgment: sharper prospect focus, faster strategic thinking, and more time spent with donors who are actually ready to give. Organizations that do not embrace it are already competing at a disadvantage.

Modern boardroom conference table with financial documents overlooking illuminated city skyline at night

Institutional Investing Explained

Viken Mikaelian February 6, 2026 No Comments

The financial markets have complex forces working within them that can affect your investment profits. Institutional investing is one of these forces. Read on to find out how they can affect nearly any investment you may be considering.

Hands holding crystal balls with colorful dashboard charts — bequest intentions as fortune telling

Bequest Revocations & VooDoo Math

Viken Mikaelian January 31, 2026 No Comments

Planned giving dashboards count additions. They never count revocations. That’s the math nobody mentions. Donors change their minds. They update wills. They get divorced, have falling-outs, or simply forget. Conservative estimates say 60% of bequest intentions never become gifts. The vendors selling intention-tracking software won’t tell you this — their dashboards only go up. Major gift officers already know the difference between activity and outcomes. Planned giving should too.

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