Can't Wait For Distribution
Andrea and I are pleased to announce the publication of our second book, How To Score Your First or Next Million-Dollar Gift. Just like doting parents, we have an unwavering belief that our books are easy to understand, concise and full of rich take-aways. I didn’t arrive at the topic without a lot of careful thought. Our learning community of professional and non-profit leaders — primarily from modest size organizations that make up the vast majority of our nation’s 1.5 million non-profits — repeatedly requested that we address this challenge.
Those of us in the profession describe impactful amounts with several shop talk terms — major, leadership and principal gifts. They all have different meanings from one organization to another and even the meaning within the same organization can evolve over time. But $1 million provides absolute clarity. Even though wealth has exponentially exploded over time, and now mega-gifts are becoming common, million-dollar gifts continue to have a magical sound to them.
We want to empower smaller to modest-size organizations who are fueled by passion to become equal to non-profits much larger — and benefit from the knowledge, strategies and best practices that help them discover, cultivate, solicit and steward seven-figure gifts. The book becomes available November 12, 2024, both through our book distributor and Amazon. There is a special offer for those who pre-order: Just click here to reserve your copy and we will also send you a complimentary copy of our first book, 10 Simple Fundraising Lessons ($16.95 value). It provides a solid foundation to understand how to best how to apply the lessons highlighted in the new book. That’s two for the price of one.
Lessons From Fundraising Training
What have we learned from leading 250 live and virtual learning community gatherings engaging thousands of professional and volunteer non-profit leaders from all across the country over the past six years? It has been a profoundly rich and vast education. The common denominator is the passion, devotion and energy that drives inspiring non-profit leaders from organizations of all different sizes, missions and parts of the country to relentlessly aim and reach higher in pursuit of their visions of a better world. We are grateful to Inside Charity for featuring our article highlighting 10 primary conclusions.
State Of The Sector
BDO’s 2024 Nonprofit Standards, a benchmarking survey, indicates that following a few years of investment in their technology, infrastructure and internal resources, many non-profits now have the revenue, organizational culture, and donor networks to execute plans to deepen, and perhaps transform, long-term impacts on the communities they serve. The survey, now in its 8th edition, asks critical questions of 250 non-profit leaders, including financial health and performance, spending priorities, future outlooks, and the factors driving them to reevaluate their missions. Key findings:
(1) Non-profits experience growth: 52% report an increase in revenue during their most recent fiscal year and 59% anticipate their revenue will increase further in the next 12 months. Additionally, 62% of non-profits have more than 7 months of operating reserves on hand. Non-profits may be using this time to save cash in order to effectively deploy dollars once their transformation plans are fully formed.
(2) Evolution ahead: 73% of say they plan to meaningfully expand or shift the scopes of their missions in the next 12 months. This re-evaluation of scope is in response to board member pressure, evolving geopolitical, environmental, and social factors, and pressure from funders.
(3) Spending plans reveal organizational priorities: As they consider what comes next, 52% say they are increasing investments in new programs. Other areas where non-profits are increasing spending include technology (52%) and risk management and compliance (45%).
(4) Artificial intelligence takes hold: 82% report using artificial intelligence (AI) in some capacity, including for financial tasks (53%), program optimization and/or impact assessment (43%) and organizational strategy (40%).
(5) Non-profits stand apart from election results: Notably, non-profits don’t feel that the outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election will radically impact their operations and fundraising: 51% anticipate a Democratic presidential victory will have a neutral impact on donations, and 64% anticipate a Republican presidential victory would have a neutral impact on donations.
(6) Press pause on advocacy: And yet, the unknown outcome of the 2024 presidential election may be causing non-profits to put advocacy plans on hold, with just 25% planning to increase their spending on advocacy in 2024.
Charitable Giving in the 2024 Election
Anyone feeling bombarded by political advertising via print, electronic and digital media won’t be surprised that the 2024 election is on track to the be most expensive ever. The total cost of the 2024 campaign is set to come in at a record-shattering $10.2 billion to nearly $10.7 billion, according to AdImpact research, a political advertising analysis firm. That’s a 19% increase from the 2020 campaign. How will this affect fundraising by the nation’s 1.5 million non-profits? At first, you might think that this shrinks the pool of dollars for charitable causes. This might seem counter-intuitive, but a CCS Fundraising report reveals that charitable giving increased in nine of the last 10 presidential election years, save for 2008 during the global financial crisis. The charitable giving numbers for an election year tend to follow the trajectory seen in previous years, whether it is an upward or a downward trend. Think more deeply and you understand that there are different motivations and goals for these two types of giving. This much is for sure: Smart non-profits should continue to do what they always should be doing: Effectively communicating with donors and donor prospects — telling compelling stories, conveying the impact of time and money invested in them and nurturing relationships into friendships based on shared values, priorities and visions of a better world.
Genius Philanthropy
We’ve long been profound admirers of the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for its bold MacArthur Fellows Program representing the visionary ideals of philanthropy — excellence, innovation and complete trust in recipients. The 2024 class is composed of a genuinely diverse group of 22 men and women who celebrate and inspire the creative and unlimited potential of individuals to make a difference in the world. The focus is on extraordinarily creative individuals with a track record of excellence in a field of scholarship or area of practice, who demonstrate the ability to impact society in significant and beneficial ways through their pioneering work or the rigor of their contributions. Fellowships are awarded directly to individuals rather than through institutions. Recipients may be writers, scientists, artists, social scientists, humanists, teachers, entrepreneurs, or individuals in other fields, with or without institutional affiliations. The MacArthur Fellowship is a “no-strings-attached” award in support of people, not projects. Each fellowship comes with an award of $800,000 to the recipient, paid out in equal quarterly installments over five years. The Foundation does not require or expect specific products or reports from MacArthur Fellows and does not evaluate recipients’ creativity during the term of the fellowship. Since 1981,1,153 people have been named MacArthur Fellows.
Gifts From Far Away Become Common
Tadashi Yanai, the chief executive officer of Fast Retailing Co. and Japan’s richest person, donated $31 million to the University of California at Los Angeles’ College Division of Humanities, a record amount for the program. With his latest commitment, Yanai has donated nearly $59 million to UCLA. The bulk of the donation from Yanai will help fund a web-based hub called Japan Past & Present, which will be a one-stop shop for academics worldwide. This makes it possible for the first time to go to one page and see what sorts of books are coming out in the Japanese humanities everywhere. Based in the Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, the project not only promises to bolster UCLA’s standing as a leading center for the study of Japanese humanities, but also positions the campus as an engine for elevating the field globally. Gifts from far away have personally and profoundly impacted my career. When I was relatively new in my role as Development Officer in 1998 for The University of Texas at San Antonio College of Business (now Alvarez College of Business), we experienced the excitement of scoring UTSA’s first million-dollar gift from a philanthropist 8,267 miles away in Hong Kong. Richard Liu, Founder of Superior Leather who had developed a long-time friendship with our Dean, Dr. Jim Gaertner, funded student and faculty exchanges, executive education, research collaboration, and joint programs. Liu has made gifts totaling $5 million to UTSA.
Social Profit Orientation
To assess whether it’s feasible to take social and environmental action and still prosper financially, a team of scholars from Texas A&M, Fordham, and Monash Universities conducted 78 in-depth interviews with executives from 21 for-profit companies and non-profit organizations around the world that strive to do one or the other or both. They also analyzed archival data regarding the companies’ and non-profits’ performance. The conclusion is that the opportunity to do good socially and well financially is real for these companies and non-profits. By seeking to do right by the public and the planet, reputations are strengthened, employees are energized, external relationships are enhanced, new competencies are created — and society benefits. Companies and non-profits can prosper when they embody a social profit orientation by making sustainable, social and environmental impact central to their missions. Their study was published in The Conversation.
3rd Year Is A Charm
From Louis Diez, Founder, Donor Participation Project & Annual Fund Toolkit, comes this fascinating and consequential observation: Based on his research and others, three years of consecutive giving is a tipping point for both donor loyalty and major gifts. After 3+ years of giving, donors are much more likely to keep giving. If they have capacity, they are up to twice as likely to make major gifts. Diez argues that this metric better than others for four primary reasons:
(a) People still have trouble defining and calculating donor retention;
(b) This one is easier to understand and calculate;
(c) It illustrates the point that not all donors are created equal;
(d) It illustrates that non-profit fundraising has a long cycle.
He concludes that non-profits are working at a minimum, on a three-year horizon with each of their donors. This thinking will hopefully educate boards and non-fundraising leadership on why priorities like staff retention and building trust are so important.
Looking Back 8 Years
As non-profit fundraisers navigate the ever-evolving world of philanthropy, keeping up with donor trends is crucial. Dollars and Change, a new report from Candid, GivingTuesday, and Network for Good, takes a deep dive into eight years of data, shedding light on the patterns in charitable giving — and the factors that drive those patterns. Key findings:
(1) A handful of major donors and grantmakers have an outsized influence: Just 0.3% of individual donors — those giving more than $50,000 annually — are responsible for 45% of total donations. Similarly, the top 0.1% of institutional grantmakers, awarding over $100 million each year, represent 35% of all grantmaking dollars.
(2) Fundraisers need to understand donors’ motivations: The data shows the size of a gift or grant often matters more to organizational sustainability than the type of donor — whether it’s from individuals or institutional funders. Understanding why donors give, especially at higher levels, can be a key factor in securing large, transformative contributions.
(3) Giving priorities vary by donor type and grantmaker size: The report also reveals differences in giving priorities between individual donors and institutional funders and between grantmakers of varying sizes. Individual donors, regardless of contribution size, tend to prioritize human service organizations. Institutional grantmakers, by contrast, are more focused on education, health, and public benefit organizations.
(4) Economic factors affect giving: Economic conditions are a strong predictor of charitable giving, with both individual and institutional donors showing increased donations during strong economic periods.
(5) Unlocking the full picture: Dollars and Change delves into these key trends and more, including year-over-year shifts in total giving from individuals and grantmakers, the relationship between giving and median incomes by state, and how geography influences giving patterns.
On Bookshelf: Giving is Not Just For the Very Rich
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Make Every Board Minute Count
We love the graphics developed by our friend from London, Michelle Benson, Founder of Culture of Philanthropy, who’s specializes in helping charities to use LinkedIn to fundraise from high value partners. This one vividly makes the point that while we need board members to break the ice and open doors to their professional, personal and civic contacts to develop much needed resources, time and time again, non-profits are guilty of wasting their valuable time by holding too many meetings, that are too long, loosely structured, dominated by long staff reports and by sending them mountains of paperwork to read. Consider that every minute of a board member’s time is precious as gold. Don’t frustrate them with unnecessary meetings and reports. Instead, proactively engage them to genuinely take full advantage of their high value potential in the discovery, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of major gift donors and prospects. This is what will excite them and produce exciting results.
Quiz: Best Airports
J.D. Power has released its annual 2024 North America Airport Satisfaction Study, which ranks the best airports in the U.S. and Canada — and tracks consumer satisfaction. The new report is based on 26,290 surveys from U.S. or Canadian residents who traveled through at least one U.S. or Canadian airport between August 2023 and July 2024. The ranking of the best airports was redesigned for 2024 and is now based on seven factors including ease of travel through the airport, level of trust with the airport, terminal facilities, airport staff, departure/to airport experience, food, beverage and retail and arrival/from airport experience. Each airport is rated on a 1,000-point scale. We’re going to spotlight Mega Airports that are defined as those with 33 million or more passengers per year. Match the following airports with their respective scores. Answers are shown at the bottom of the page.
1. Boston Logan a. 557
2. Chicago O’Hare b. 569
3. Detroit Metropolitan c. 591
4. Minneapolis-St Paul d. 643
5. Newark (N.J.) Liberty e. 671
Stratagems is published monthly by Jim Eskin, Founder of Eskin Fundraising Training, LLC. We offer workshops and customized training sessions for board members, staff and volunteers of non-profit organizations of all kinds and sizes. For details about our services and information, or to find out how to schedule a training session for your organization, visit our website. Follow our events on Facebook, and read more articles about philanthropy on our LinkedIn page.
Jim Eskin, Founder
Eskin Fundraising Training
Email: [email protected]
Cell: 210.415.3748
www.eskinfundraisingtraining.com
