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Building Your Major Gifts Pipeline

June 19, 2017 by K. Michael Leave a Comment

Pipeline
Let’s face it: big gifts move the needle.

Direct mail is fine, and, yes, every gift is meaningful. But think about truly advancing the mission of your organization. Do $100 checks have the power to take you to a new, better place?

How much time and money do you spend pursuing $100 checks? And are you as intentional and systematic when it comes to your major gifts program?

You can be.

Yes, we’re going to talk about getting you more big gifts. In particular, I want to make sure you’ve set up the systems that form the foundation of any strong major gifts operation.

Because it’s one thing to get a major gift from time-to-time. It’s another thing entirely to strategically organize your activity so that you receive a steady stream of major gifts over the long haul.

I want to talk about your pipeline.

How can you be confident that you’ll get big gifts now and in the future?

You have to invest in your pipeline.

How do you know if you are? We’ll get there.

Here’s how you know if you’re not:

3 Signs Your Major Gifts Pipeline is Broken

  1. You can’t say for certain whether your organization will receive a major gift in the next six months.
  2. Your President complains about seeing the same people at your events. “There isn’t any ‘new blood’ in the organization!”
  3. You’re not entirely sure what your gift officers do all day. Why are they in the office so much?

So what do I mean by “pipeline” anyway? Is it just a buzzword fundraisers use to sound smart?

It doesn’t have to be.

If managed properly, a major gifts pipeline can be a powerful framework that will give you a systematic and visual approach to your fundraising. One that keeps you and your team on track, and gives you the ability to project major gift activity forward.

The pipeline framework is based on the fundraising cycle. Take a look:
Pipeline-Diagram2The output you’re hoping for is, of course, major gifts.

The input is prospects.

And in the middle: relationship-building—where a person’s passion aligns with your organization’s mission.

It’s a vital process. How well is it working at your organization?

I invite you to find out.

I also want to give you some tips and tools for building a pipeline that will deliver a steady stream of major gifts to your organization for years to come.

And so, for you, I’ve put together a special four-day tutorial on building a major gifts pipeline. Best of all – it’s free.

Register today

Sign up below to receive instant access to the new tutorial.

Course content is delivered daily, directly to your email inbox. Here’s what you’ll get:

  • An assessment tool to help you get a handle on the current state of your major gifts pipeline
  • One big key to getting more out of your  pipeline
  • A simple technique for getting more meetings with top prospects
  • A word-for-word phone outreach script

All for free. Sign up below. Even if you already subscribe to Fearless Fundraising, you’ll need to register separately for this tutorial.


Sign me up for the free tutorial!

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