"Big gifts take professional discipline and an inclusive approach to planning and implementation. With Big Gift prospects, thoughtful, thorough hard work really pays off and we as professionals experience one of the great joys in fund raising; ""the thrill of victory.""

INTRODUCTION

Big gifts don't just happen. They don't happen through talk, wishful thinking or taking shortcuts in the approach. Big girls take professional discipline and an inclusive approach to planning and implementation. With these prospects, thoughtful, thorough hard work really pays off and we as professionals can experience one of the great joys in fund raising; ""the thrill of victory."" Let me share with you my step-by-step tested approach and how it paid off for my clients in million dollar gifts.

Here's an example of two of these leadership gifts. One came from a wealthy woman through her foundation after her death and the other was from a Fortune 500 company. Both donors had made prior contributions, but nothing like the size of these gifts. Our objective was to secure a blockbusting gift, one that would be a cornerstone for the campaign, not simply to upgrade previous contributions. These million dollar commitments set a new higher giving level and increased the size of other major gifts. They also added greater public interest and excitement. These are the added benefits gained from such mega-gifts. With the millions of dollars raised and the other advantages, it behooves you to put your best efforts into the pursuit of these large commitments.

SELECTING THE BIG PROSPECT

If you choose the right big gift prospect, half the battle for support is already won since you have the factors involved that create success. What are these factors? There are at least five ""C's"" you should look for in evaluating the prospect:

Connections. The prospect should have a number of connections to your organization, which might include being a donor and a leader, past or present. Perhaps your cause has served the prospect's family or employees. The prospect may know various Board members or key staff. The more connections you can document, the better you can plan this solicitation and the greater success you will achieve. For example, in the case of a huge multimillion dollar gift, a colleague compiled a 20-page report on the members of the prospect's family who had been treated at our client's medical center over the last decade.

Capacity. You must be sure that the prospect has the capacity to give at the level you are seeking. Sometimes the prospect has the wealth, but it is not liquid, or otherwise available now to make a big gift. Fund raisers waste much time on prospects who are not capable of making the gift that is being sought. Before drafting a solicitation plan, you should check out the giving capacity and the record of the donor to give. Implement this with several knowledgeable people.

Clout. In most cases, it takes a solicitor with influence to secure a large gift. It takes a person who has the influence to get the appointment and to ask for the gift at the level that you need. One of the truisms in fund raising is that people give to people, not to organizations. But it is also true that large gifts are given to people of similar or greater influence. Therefore, you need to involve a leader with clout in your solicitation, even if it is only for a single major prospect. This may be a friend of one of your Board members, a golfing partner, business associate, or a relative. You must look for the clout or influence to make the big gift happen for your organization.

Concern. Your prospect has to have demonstrated concern about your generic cause. This should be confirmed by friends and business associates. It should be exhibited in the prospect's giving and volunteer record. But if the prospect has no known concern about your cause, you can be sure that there will be little chance of securing a big gift unless it is given strictly on the basis of relationships. All big donors have core concerns as a basis of their philanthropy. When you can relate these ""needs"" of the donor, you are on the right road to a big gift.

Confidence. For a major gift to be given, the donor has to have a solid degree of confidence in your organization. The donor wants to know that you have the ability to use the gift wisely and that the gift will truly make the difference. The donor wants to know that you have the integrity to honor the terms in expanding the gift. Trust in your organization, which takes confidence, is a key factor in the donor's decision to give you a big gift.

These five factors are criteria for evaluating your major gift prospects. If these criteria are not present, you should seriously consider moving on to another prospect. This is also important when a person has a lot of money or someone in your organization knows a wealthy prospect. This is not enough to justify your valuable time, cultivation and solicitation. Far too much time is wasted on weak prospects. This valuable time should be invested in evaluating solid prospects who meet these criteria. Be sure to have a committee help choose your key prospects, according to these criteria, so that your time is most wisely invested.

STEPS TO A BIG GIFT

Coming from many years of fund-raising experience, we have developed the following process and steps to plan and solicit:

Donor Evaluation. What size gift can you secure from the donor? What will be your dollar request to this donor? What is the donor's past giving record to your organization and to other similar causes? If there's no giving record, forget this prospect; a campaign is not the time to convert people to philanthropy. Official records, published lists and reports, as well as friends, Board members and business contacts are needed to gather the necessary data to make a solid evaluation.

You should meet with several of your top leaders to review the data and develop a gift target for the prospect. You don't want to set it too low, nor too high. You must be able to show that the size of the gift being requested is reasonable and critical to your cause and to the campaign's success. You can't set it so high that the prospect laughs at your request, thinking that it's far beyond his interest or means. Nor do you want to risk asking for too little and thereby losing a lot of potential money.

Evaluation is a critical initial step in this process. In the case of the million dollar gifts that we're using as examples, the situations different in each case. We determined that the woman donor's foundation would soon have a tremendous amount of money bequeathed and must make several very large grants immediately. We also learned that one of the first grants would have to be an appropriate woman's cause, like our client's organization, the YWCA. From interviews with the Trustees of the foundation, we determined that $2 million would be the absolute maximum that could be requested. We decided to ask for the maximum so as to be in a position to ""negotiate"" the actual amount of the gift. When this negotiating period was over, it was agreed that the foundation would grant $1 million for the $4.5 million campaign 40 times more than their previous gift. This larger amount was due to their community leadership, the stimulus to other major donors and to ensure the success of the campaign. We entered into a negotiation whereby we were required to meet terms relating to our stewardship and the present scope of our services to the corporation and to the community. Meeting this challenge won us the right to be considered for the $1 million level and effective presentation and follow-up won us the gift.

Contacts. In planning your gift approach, contacts who can influence the big prospect are essential. Relatives, business associates, financial and legal advisors are fitting contacts. All these people can help give you the insight and information to plan your cultivation and solicitation. The prospect's likes, dislikes, past giving record, business priorities and philanthropic activities will help you to develop an effective plan. All of these contacts may be able to help you directly in the cultivation and even solicitation of the gift.

In the case of our foundation gift, we had a couple of Board members who knew the foundation gift, we had a couple of Board members who knew the foundation lawyer and a trustee. We interviewed them about the possibilities for a gift and the factors that would influence their decision, as well as asking which trustees would be favorable towards a woman's cause. We interviewed those four additional trustees who gave us information necessary to make our presentation to the foundation, develop our proposal and mount an effective follow-up to secure a grant of $1 million.

INTERESTS AND NEEDS

Donors have strong interests and needs. You must know what they are and link them to our gift request. Of course, if you can't realistically make this connection, then you have the wrong prospect. You shouldn't waste time making a farfetched connection. The donor prospect will tell you, as one of the richest men in America told me, ""You have a wonderful cause but it's not my cause, I have other major interests.""

How can you tell what prospect's interests and needs are? Check the prospect's giving record to see what leadership and gifts that individual has contributed. You can ask friends and associates as well as checking newspaper files and magazine articles and published data on contributions. Of course, in both our examples of $1 million gifts, we were able to check the record because Fortune 500 corporations and large foundations have their interests and grants documented for the public. Nevertheless, we also checked with trustees, executives, corporate executives and with others who knew the prospects and their giving record. The only way to make a strong case for the gift and have a convincing proposal is to tie in with the prospect's demonstrated interests and concerns.

PAST PARTICIPATION AND GIVING RECORD

Certainly past support of your organization is a prime factor in influencing whether you will be approved for a gift or grant. If there has been a leadership from the individual prospect, company or foundation or other participation, as well as financial support, then you have an even stronger chance for a major gift. The past level of financial support or timing are not as important as the fact that a precedent has been set for supporting your cause. In other words, your organization has already overcome the big challenge of being on the approved list.

Precedent is half the case for a gift. It is also important to note that the donor has given to similar organizations and in the same gift range that you are requesting. Just remember, when allocating your time, it's very difficult to get a leadership gift in your campaign if there's been little or no giving previously from that prospect.

In the case of our foundation donor, previous gifts had been made for several thousand dollars, and then one for $25,000. Campaign leaders objected to how we could possibly ask for $2 million when the last grant from the foundation had been so much less. But we pointed out that it wasn't the size of the participation that counted, but that the foundation in the past had supported our organization several times and now had much greater assets. We emphasized that this was the opportunity of a lifetime to secure a blockbusting gift. In the corporate solicitation example, the company had given our organization a significant gift a decade before the campaign. Historical linkage was very important in making our new request for a substantially larger gift.

KEY PLAYERS

It is essential to find out who will make the decision on your gift request. Who will be the key players directly and indirectly in this decision-making process? Rarely does a major donor make a large gift without consulting advisors, friends, business associates, or relatives. Who are they in your situation? Identify them and determine how you will cultivate them and get their support for a favorite decision on your request. This has to be done delicately and with the appropriate timing.

With our foundation donor, we determine that the key decision-makers were the lawyer and the specific trustees who would be most favorable to a woman's cause. We used the interview approach as a means of informing and cultivating them before, during and after an interview. We felt that the interviews left them predisposed to our cause before receiving our grant proposal.

In the case of our corporate donor, we determined that our cultivation process would have to include the contributions committee and certain Board members serving on that group. Other decision-makers were several key staff members including the contributions vice president, the medical director and the community relations director. Once we identified these key players who would help the CEO make the final decision, we assigned a campaign leader or organization staff member to each of these individuals to help inform and cultivate them. The result was the full approval of our $1 million request, double the size of the amount originally indicated as by the company in our initial interview.

STRATEGY FOR THE GIFT

What will be the strategy of your solicitation-the key idea that will help to make the gift happen? In our example of the foundation donor, the key idea was to provide the Board of Trustees with a suitable big gift opportunity to memorialize their benefactor with a cause that illustrated a dominant interest in her life; the advancement of women. The foundation needed to have a public recognition of her long civic leadership and provide a lasting visible reminder of her contributions to the community. The $1 million gift to name a service building in her memory on our client's campus met the needs of her foundation and therefore was readily approved. When you consider the needs of your donor-prospect, you have the best chances of getting the gift.

In other situations, your strategy may relate to an event, such as the company needing to celebrate its 50th Anniversary or a national celebration such as ""The Year of the Child."" In a different situation, we asked the donor for a ""founder's gift"" as one of the sponsors helping to open a new service area for our client organization. Of course, this was the same area being served by the company. In another case, your donor may want to stimulate your organization's leadership giving by extending a challenge grant to math giving by your Board. In another solicitation, the key strategy was the heritage of the organization and to approach each of several donor prospects whose families had been connected with the cause for a long period of time. They were asked to make a heritage gift which would be especially visible for public re. cognition at the organization's headquarters and their families were honored in a special heritage publication on the advances of the organization.

CULTIVATION ACTIVITIES

How much cultivation will be necessary before you are ready to solicit for your big gift? Some prospects who have been involved with the cause for a significant amount of time may need very little cultivation, but others who are fairly new may need a great deal of attention and effort on your part. Remember, cultivation activities, to be successful, have to involve the prospect, developing the prospect's information base and motivation to give to your cause. The more personal the cultivation, the better. For example, a tour of your facilities, with a chance to meet staff and the people that you serve is much more effective than a fancy brochure or a lengthy letter. There are many different kinds of cultivation activities, and usually it's the combination of several that help do the job. These activities include letters, invitations to an event, recognition at an important occasion at your organization, personal visits, meeting with Board members, telephone calls and progress reports.

In the case of our corporate donor, we worked with the vice president for corporate contributions to determine the criteria that would qualify our request for serious consideration. These criteria related to how efficiently our programs were operated, as well as the degree of our stewardship over the corporation's last capital gift and annual support. The company also wanted documentation of our organization's various services to its employees, volunteer involvement of its employees in our programs and the scope of our services to the general public. Several staff members had to be assigned to gather specific data on each of these requirements. This report, which took several weeks to compile, became the basis for a one-on-one cultivation with the corporate staff and decision makers. These key individuals were invited by an assigned key volunteer or staff member from our organization to make a personal tour of the facility. This was a chance to see first hand how the campaign capital funds would make a difference in our services. This would show how much better the community and the corporation would be served. The tour for each of the decision-makers in the company was a persuasive factor in winning support for our grant request.

LEADERSHIP INVOLVEMENT

Without a doubt, a fact of fund raising is that people give to people, therefore, the most critical factor in getting a big gift is to find the leader who can make the solicitation successful. Often it takes the influence of several leaders on your Board and on the campaign team. Sometimes you have to find these key people as is done frequently through the campaign study. It may be that the special solicitor you need will serve only as an honorary chairman for the campaign. It would be better if the solicitor could be one of your active campaign chairs, but so often this is not possible. Often an influential person will help for a single big solicitation. If this happens, it means that you'll get two gifts because that solicitor will also give a significant contribution because in the process of preparing for the visit, the individual will be won over to making a big gift.

You will have to search your present and past Board list to find out who knows the prospect - the key decision-makers. These Board leaders will get you information from their assigned contacts to help with the cultivation, the proposal and the solicitation. Ask them to actively cultivate, and you need to do everything possible to get one of the most influential leaders to actively participate in the solicitation of your major prospect. If this is not possible, then you should ask for a letter from that individual to help set up the solicitation situation and to add that leader's influence to your request for support. Other letters of endorsement from powerful individuals will help with your solicitation. Once you have made the request and submitted a proposal, these endorsement letters can urge that every consideration be given to your proposal, pointing out how the gift would be beneficial to the donor and to the community.

ORAL PRESENTATION AND SOLICITOR SELECTION

You must carefully prepare the oral presentation of your big gift request. It must be done in person by the most effective team of solicitors, which usually includes your executive director, the campaign chair and your volunteer leader who has the greatest rapport with the prospect. Sometimes the campaign consultant or development director also are included in the solicitation, especially with organizations that have very little experience in soliciting big gifts and need to have that additional degree of support and confidence. The objective is to have the greatest influence present in the solicitation, as well as necessary staff support. You also want to answer all program and campaign questions raised by the donor.

In our example, our approach to corporate staff involved the three-person solicitation team. But, presentation to the contributions committee and the CEO was made only by our campaign chairman at his request. He had a great deal of experience and felt that this would be most effective and he used a presentation involving colored slides. This allowed him to be personally involved in interpreting our cause and it was based on his experience in making similar presentations to top clients and investors. He was most effective and helped us win the $1 million grant.

Other situations might require a different kind of approach. The presentation should involve showing as well as telling, and the challenge is to be informative, influential and persuasive. If you use several solicitors, then there needs to be a solicitation script outline, so that each person knows when to participate and what primary thoughts to convey.

You have to have a briefing before the solicitation. If the prospect feels another session will be necessary, then schedule it before you leave - usually at the same time; a week or two later. Also, you will want to know what other information should be submitted that would help with the gift decision. You should also inquire about the decision-making process and the schedule for consideration.

EFFECTIVE SOLICITATION

An appointment to solicit the big prospect is so important that it can be considered halfway to success. It should not be handled lightly, or given to a secretary or assigned to a half-hearted volunteer. It should be made by your most influential campaign leader who is going to be the solicitor. This is the best approach. Often, the most effective appointment approach is a telephone call, from a close friend on the Board or campaigning team, to the prospect asking if you might share the organization's exciting program and campaign plans. Sometimes the leader feels more comfortable writing a brief note requesting the meeting and then following up with a phone call, or asking the office to make the call in that leader's name. Several dates should be offered to make the appointment as easy as possible to be accepted. Be sure that there's enough time to prepare for the oral presentation and that the appointment is confirmed in writing. Copies of the appointment letter should go to each member of the solicitation team. The team should have a ran-through of the presentation before the visit. You should also check and find out who else the prospect may have in attendance so you can plan accordingly.

When making the visit, you need to be sure that the key solicitor has the right words ready to ask for the gift. In our experience, there have been a number of times when volunteers have gone to solicit and not asked for a gift. This happens because they don't have the specific words ready. The solicitor has to be prepared at the end of the visit to say something like this, ""The Board would like you to consider making a gift ($250,000 - use a specific amount), $50,000 a year for five years for the new service center (state specific purpose)."" It should be shown how the gift fits into the campaign gift chart; and to show how the donor's contribution will meet the campaign needs.

Then there should be utter silence to let the prospect respond. Listen carefully and be prepared to answer questions and objections. There may well be a period of ""negotiations"" on the payout of the grant, the conditions, or on recognition. But, overall, there must be a readiness to ask for a big gift and to aim at the prospect's motivations and concerns. You always need to stress how the gift will make a big difference in your organization's ability to serve and meet the needs of the donor. Then you need to ask, ""May we send you a written proposal for your consideration?""

Soliciting in depth - considering all sources of support - is important to prepare for during the visit. The common mistake in soliciting for big gifts is to assume that there is only one source of funds. With our corporate prospect, there was also the opportunity for matching gifts from corporate executives that we cultivated as well as matching gifts from the company for any employee gifts. With the foundation donor, there was the opportunity to solicit the individual trustees of the foundation later in the campaign. In another example, where we approached a corporation during the study, it was indicated that only a gift of $75,000 would be possible from this company, where the CEO was honorary chain However, during the study interview, we were able to determine that there were several other sources of support including a company foundation and several other family sources. At our request, the CEO checked with each of those sources and was able to get girls in the name of the company which is also the family name for a total gift of $225,000, three times the original amount mentioned.

In another solicitation involving our chairwoman, she was able to double her pledge when reminded that an old insurance policy could be part of her gift. In other situations, we have been able to get a gift in kind, such as a paving of the organization's driveway in addition to a cash gift to greatly increase the overall campaign pledge. Considering all sources of support by a major prospect can greatly increase your support and decrease your fund-raising costs.

THE WRITTEN PROPOSAL

This proposal needs to be complete, but succinct, informative, as well as persuasive. It should be written to the prospect's needs and motivations, as well as to the organization's needs and concerns. It must present the case for the prospect making a big. gift. You need to describe the specific funding needs, as well as state the expected outcomes of the big gift and the benefits to the community. You must state the dollar request and the payout conditions of the pledge to be paid. It should indicate the total amount and then the amount expected each year over several years.

In case of larger donations, flexible payout terms are often utilized with success to meet the donor's situation and to allow the maximum gifts. Sometimes the payout schedule is back-loaded, particularly when a donor indicates that within the next year or two it will be difficult to contribute much but after that there will be a greater capacity to pay off the pledge. It should describe recognition for the donor and other benefits. You should consider using a letter proposal as a way to keep the request brief and as personal as possible. It can be effective to attach a backup report or data on your organization's services and a list of principal campaign leaders and Board members.

INCENTIVES AND RECOGNITION

In considering a major gift prospect, should ask why should this donor make the gift? What incentives will make it more attractive for the donor to give? What recognition will encourage the gift? Even when the prospect claims not to want any recognition, usually the donor does want appropriate recognition and will agree if you point out that public recognition will encourage other big prospects to give. Although quite often names are put on rooms, wings, or whole buildings to recognize the donor, in other cases, contributors would rather have their name on a program fund or endowment.

In one strategy, which raised a number of $100,000+ gifts, a tribute fund was created which attracted more than $1 million. This included large gifts from the honoree's husband and friends. The fund's title had the donor's name and one of her personal goals, such as ""The Mrs. - International Fund for Peace.""

With a corporate gift, the terms included reduced cost membership service cards for employees. In the case of the foundation grant, the incentive was suitable public recognition of the donor's leadership and contributions, as well as the naming of one of the major buildings on the organization's campus. The beast approach is to ask the donor what would help to make the gift and how you could best express your appreciation and recognition. As in all the steps in fund raising, it is most productive to involve the donor-prospects in an appropriate way.

ACTION SCHEDULE

As part of your written plan for each major donor, you should develop a brief action schedule, following the process we just have presented. Assign dates for the initiation and completion of each step. Be sure to be generous in the time allotments. The process cannot be rushed. There has to be enough time for development of a big gift. Think of a cake baking in the oven. It does not do you any good to rush it, take the cake out before you finish. Greater patience is needed with a big gift. Scheduling also should include the assignment of each step of the process to various staff and volunteers. Action schedules should be used to follow-up continually with each member of your team. You must drive this funding process forward to achieve the support. Without effective organization of this big gift process and a time schedule, there is a great deal of activity, but little or no money.

EFFECTIVE FOLLOW-UP

What are the steps that are needed after the donor has made the gift? Certainly the first step is to have the organization officially acknowledge the gift and express full appreciation. There should be several other thank you letters from the solicitor, from the president, and from the effective director or other staff person directly involved with the facility, or project being supported. Public recognition and gift presentation at one of your Board meetings or annual meeting could be effective. There might be a ceremony when the building or program is officially opened. The donor and related individuals should be personally involved and thanked by a number of Board members, campaign leaders, and civic officials. Plaques and other tangible forms of recognition should be considered. With suitable thought by your campaign committee and discussion with the donor, you should be able to decide on unique and appropriate recognition.

Most important is stewardship, the careful expenditure of the gift according to the donor's wishes and adequate progress reporting. All big donors want to know that their gift is being used wisely and that it is having the maximum impact to make a difference. Both conscientious and appropriate recognition and stewardship can greatly influence the possibility of future major gifts by these donors.

A third step should be specific activities to involve the donors in the life of the organization. These involvements could be as an active leader on the Board or special committee, or serving on an advisory council, or as honorary chairman. This involvement might be written invitations to special events, tours of the new facilities, or programs. Newsletters, annual reports and special progress reports also maintain the donor's interest. Always let the donors k"