Most fundraisers who work in and around major gifts have a copy of Richard Perry & Jeff Schreifels' book It's Not Just About the Money on their bookshelves. The book has quickly become a classic, teaching countless fundraisers how to build authentic relationships with major donors.
Richard and Jeff are two of the most well known consultants in the industry focused on building major gift programs, and they have long preached the importance of putting relationships with donors above everything else.
The “Veritus Way” that they created focuses on putting a system in place for finding, cultivating, and engaging major donors in a way that focuses on the donors' interests and passions and helps the donor invest in making the world a better place.
Because It's Not Just About the Money is so donor-centric, it may come as some surprise that the authors' latest book is called It's Not Just About the Donor: The Ultimate (Management) Guide to Major Gift Success. Of course, Richard and Jeff haven't turned their focus off of the donor, but have added a new, equally important person into the mix… someone that your non-profit will rely on if it wants to see major donor success.
That person is you… as a leader or manager at your non-profit, you have a crucial role to play in building a sustainable and scalable major gift program at your organization.
Everything Leaders Need to Know to Succeed in Major Gift Fundraising
After taking some time to read through this book, I can say that this is the book I wish I had when I first started leading fundraising programs. As a Development Director, Executive Director, and consultant working with dozens of non-profits, I can tell you that this book will help you understand the major gift fundraising process, as well as how to put goals, objectives, and honest-to-goodness metrics behind your major gifts program.
While every non-profit will glean insights from this book, the real benefit lies with mid-sized and larger organizations… non-profits that have multiple fundraisers on staff and a number of major donors already giving to the organization. Larger and mega-organizations will benefit as well, particularly from the detailed discussions on creating donor offers, developing a robust major gift program, and hiring and managing major gift officers.
This book will be particularly helpful for Development Directors, Vice Presidents of Development, Executive Directors, CEOs, board members, major gift officers, and fundraisers looking to take on a leadership role in non-profit development. Fundraising consultants working with mid-sized and larger organizations will also get a lot out of this book.
Build a Real System for Major Gifts Success
In my work as a consultant, coach, and trainer, I focus on building fundraising systems. Good fundraising systems rely on real-world data and provide actionable strategies, metrics, deadlines, and responsibilities that allow the organization to focus on what is really working for their fundraising program. In It's Not Just About the Donor: The Ultimate (Management) Guide to Major Gift Success, Richard and Jeff show you how to build just such a system for your mid-sized or larger non-profit's major donor program.
This book isn't just pie-in-the-sky strategy either. It has tons of nitty-gritty, rubber-meets-the-road details that will help you succeed. You'll learn how to create budgets and forecasts for your major gifts program, how to hire the right major gift officer, and how to deal with the biggest problems that plague major gifts programs. The book also includes several helpful templates, including a sample major gift officer job description.
Remember, your non-profit does great work and relies on fundraising to succeed. And the success of your fundraising program relies, in large part, on your major donor program. If you want to build a robust and successful system for major gifts, I highly recommend this book. It's an instant classic, one that I'm going to refer back to over and over again. You can get your own copy at Amazon by clicking here.
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