In my video Tip, Highly Successful Fundraisers Get Donors Excited To Meet With Them, I emphasized the importance of remembering your role as a fundraiser is to earn a visit with a donor. I strongly encourage you to watch the previous Tip if you haven't done so before reading this one. I've included it directly below:

Let me be clear right here. I am not writing about trying to make a “cold call” on a prospect that may not know of your nonprofit. I have written many Tips on getting an appointment to see prospects, making cold calls and trying to make cold calls into “warm calls.”

I am talking about a visit with a donor.

I see this more and more often, with long-time donors, and even with mega-donors I work with. Fundraisers I help talk about donors who give through an annual appeal but won’t connect for the rest of the year. There are donors who give regularly but never pick up the phone when you call.

The fundraiser wants to thank the donor and cultivate the donor to make another...

The other day at a meeting with hundreds of very wealthy donors and numerous influential nonprofits, I had the following conversation with a leader who has a non-fundraising role with one of the most successful nonprofits at this meeting.

This nonprofit has over eighty individuals that have each given $1 million dollars or more and are all members of their $1 million donor recognition society. Years ago, I successfully helped this nonprofit solicit many of these gifts, but for the last few years, we have had little contact.  

In our conversation, this leader lamented the fact that none of the $1 million donors had made a second $1 million-plus gift. That absolutely shocked me. I know many of these donors. Their commitment to this nonprofit has not diminished. Their wealth has not suddenly vanished. The nonprofit remains very effective in carrying out its mission.

“What do you think is going on?” I asked the leader.

“I have no idea,” she said. “I just know we give them every opportu...

We all deal with adversity—for some of us, every day. Once in a while, the difficulties are serious. Today, I am sharing how I have confronted the toughest challenges I have faced. I do so with the belief that how I have dealt with these issues may inspire you on how to best confront your toughest challenges. Here are some of mine:

My journey in the professional workforce began at age twenty-two. Since then I have been let go from positions twice. This in itself could be a couple of tips. However, the fact is, I never missed a single monthly paycheck, never had to go to the bank or a family member for a loan, or draw unemployment. These were times of great stress, but each time I landed in a better place. Somehow, the worst news became the best news.

During my seventeen years in business as a consultant, I have twice lost clients that were at least one-third of my business revenue. New clients can take months to come on board, so losing that kind of business can hurt badly. But we ha...