Nothing But Major Gifts

By Veritus Group

What's Nothing But Major Gifts about?

Major gifts fundraising is the lifeblood of non-profit organizations around the world. Richard Perry and Jeff Schreifels address major gifts twice monthly, to help you and your organization connect with donors in authentic ways to make an impact in your community – and the world.

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Nothing But Major Gifts episodes:

04.24.2024
What to Do When You Inherit a Caseload
Many fundraisers aren’t starting their caseloads from scratch – they’re inheriting a donor caseload that was previously managed by someone else. Whether you’re a new hire, or you’re moving into a new role within the same organization and taking on...
04.09.2024
Mapping the Donor Journey: A Pipeline Health Checklist
Is your organization set up to support the donor journey? What structures do you have in place to develop your donor relationships from initial acquisition to cultivation, mid-level, major gifts, and planned giving? These are some of the questions you...
03.19.2024
How to Get a Donor Meeting Back on Track
We’ve all been in meetings where the conversation gets sidetracked. Maybe someone present is very chatty and wants to spend the first half hour catching up. Maybe one individual has another topic they want to discuss, outside of what was outlined...
03.04.2024
Celebrating Women in Fundraising, Featuring Yolanda F. Johnson
In celebration of Women’s History Month, today’s episode is all about how women are shaping and changing the field of fundraising. Our special guest joining us for this conversation is Yolanda F. Johnson, President and Founder of YFJ Consulting and Women...
02.20.2024
Yes, You Do Need to Ask All Year Long!
Asking your donors for gifts isn’t something you should save for the year-end giving season. When you’re tuned in to your donor’s giving preferences and interests, you can bring them additional giving opportunities even outside their regular giving season. For this...
02.08.2024
Working From Your Energy: Bringing Your Best Self to Your Work With Donors
When you work at a non-profit organization, just as in any job, there will be times that you feel stuck, discouraged, or uninspired. This work is hard, and it’s not uncommon to experience feelings of burnout or frustration. If you’re in...
01.23.2024
Finding the Right Job: Tips from a Non-Profit Recruiting Expert
When you’re looking for your next fundraising position, how do you evaluate which opportunities are most aligned with your professional goals? What questions should you ask in your conversations with hiring managers to learn more about their culture and evaluate...
01.09.2024
How to Get Yourself Transitioned into the New Year
Welcome to January! In these first weeks of the year, you’re likely still finishing out the year-end season, thanking donors for gifts received, and assessing your performance compared to your goals. At the same time, you’re working on communication plans...
12.19.2023
How to Be an Effective Non-Profit Leader and Manager
When we talk to passionate fundraisers who are deeply committed to their donors, their most common complaint about their work is that they don’t feel supported by their managers. People leave organizations because of it, yet management skills are often...
12.05.2023
An Interview with the American Brain Foundation
When an anonymous check for $100,000 arrived at the American Brain Foundation, their fundraising team was blown away. The organization certainly wasn’t so large that this level of giving was typical. Who was this anonymous person, and what made them...
11.28.2023
How to Meaningfully Transition a Donor Relationship
When you have a healthy donor pipeline, there will come a time when you need to transition a donor relationship to someone else. Whether the donor is moving from mid-level to a major gifts portfolio or from a higher level...
11.16.2023
It’s Time to Move on From Moves Management
When moves management was first introduced as a strategy to help fundraisers manage their caseloads, it was a step forward in putting some much-needed structure around the donor pipeline. But now, some non-profits have taken the idea too far. A lot...
10.24.2023
How The Veritus Way Changed Our Work with Partners: An Interview with the East Texas Food Bank
At the AFP Conference last summer, two fundraisers from the East Texas Food Bank reached out to Jeff. They wanted to share with him how taking our Certification Course two years ago has made a huge difference for them in...
10.10.2023
How to Talk About Fundraising Within Your Organization
One of the greatest barriers to your success in relational fundraising is whether or not the rest of your organization understands and supports this work. We hear stories all the time from frustrated fundraisers who aren’t able to get important program...
09.29.2023
The Basics You Still Don't Have Down
We get a lot of questions from our community about basic best practices in fundraising. And we get it! It’s one thing to understand these ideas in theory, but even the most experienced fundraisers run into questions when it comes...
09.14.2023
The Three Legs of a Successful Planned Giving Program
For your organization to continue to grow, you need to invest in an organized program for identifying and stewarding planned gifts. Planned giving is an essential part of relational fundraising, yet so many fundraisers avoid it simply because they don’t...
08.22.2023
How to Be More Efficient in Your Year-End Planning
If you put off your year-end planning until October or November, you may find yourself scrambling to get things done at the last minute, without any broader strategy behind your communications. Which is why we recommend starting now! But we know...
08.08.2023
Re-Release: What’s Holding You Back from Investing in Major Gifts?
At this point, most organizations have realized the value of having a relational major gifts program. But there are still many non-profit leaders out there who can’t get over the initial cost of investing in a major gifts program, even...
07.25.2023
Can We All Just Get Along?
Having a culture of collaboration is critical to your success in fundraising. Do you have solid relationships with your counterparts in Finance, Program, and Marketing? Or does each department prioritize their own individual goals, at the expense of your mission? Poor...
07.11.2023
Re-Release: Five Things Every Fundraiser Should Do in the Summer
It’s summertime! Hopefully, you’re taking some quality time off. And whenever you’re back in the office, you may even find yourself with some quiet days where your inbox is not blowing up and all your meetings are cancelled. This is...
06.27.2023
How to Identify the BEST Candidate in Your Hiring Pool
Even before the pandemic, finding and hiring the right candidates for fundraising roles was a challenge. Now, many organizations are struggling to even get a good pool of candidates, let alone find the right candidate from within that pool. In this...
06.13.2023
Dealing with Boundaries and Inappropriate Situations with Donors
Many fundraisers can share about a time where a donor overstepped one of their personal boundaries. Yet historically, the non-profit sector has not been proactive about preparing for when a donor says or does something inappropriate. A fundraiser is tasked with...
05.26.2023
Re-Release: 7 Ways to Stand Out with Your Donors
Your donors give because it makes them feel connected to their heart and passion for making a difference in the world. And your organization is probably not the only one they’re giving to, which means that your donors are getting...
05.09.2023
Everything You Need to Know About the Latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project Report
The 2023 report by the Fundraising Effectiveness Project revealed that for the first time in a decade, the national average for major giving revenue went DOWN by -4% in 2022. This has generated a lot of concern in the fundraising...
04.25.2023
Everyone Needs a Coach
Have you ever experienced the impact of a coach in your life? Maybe you had a great coach when you played sports or an instrument. Or perhaps you’ve worked with a life coach, spiritual advisor, or someone who’s an expert...
04.11.2023
Major Gifts Is NOT a 9-5 Job
This topic is a controversial one. But stay with us for a minute! Any fundraiser’s primary objective is to connect with donors. And those donors are people with busy lives. They might only be available after 5pm, or only on...
03.28.2023
You (Yes, YOU) Can Talk Confidently About Planned Giving!
If you’ve shied away from bringing up planned giving in your donor conversations… you’re not alone! Whether you’re a major gift officer, mid-level officer, executive director of your organization – many people feel some hesitation about bringing up a topic...
03.14.2023
Boards + Fundraising: How to Create a Thriving Partnership
Are your board members actively engaged in fundraising for your non-profit? And if not – how can you encourage them to get involved? In this episode, Jeff Schreifels and Karen Kendrick are joined by Renita Tyson for a conversation about how...
02.28.2023
Moving From Money to Mission: How to Transform Donor Conversations
Imagine this scenario: you’re a leader of a non-profit, and you run into a major donor at an event. They ask how things are going at the organization. How do you respond? A: “Things are great! We’re on track to meet...
02.14.2023
How Self-Love Transforms Everything, Including Fundraising
Sometimes fundraisers are so self-sacrificing in their work that they lose themselves. They give 110%, until they can’t do it anymore. These are the ones who are at risk of burning out and leaving the profession entirely. That’s why we’re devoting...
01.24.2023
Are You Properly Nurturing Your Donor Pipeline?
If you're over-investing in donor acquisition and cultivation, but not investing enough in the upper end of the pipeline, then the donors that you've acquired can't be properly cultivated into mid-level, major gifts, or planned gifts. And the reverse is...
01.10.2023
Why Outsourcing Management Is Key to Your Success
Successful fundraising programs depend on great managers who can provide fundraisers with feedback, accountability, and encouragement. It’s a full-time job, and it requires a certain set of skills. Yet many non-profit managers are expected to continue to manage their own caseloads...
12.20.2022
5 Things to Do When You Get Back from the Holidays
When you get back to the office or start up your computer again after a holiday, it always takes a while to get re-oriented. If you do a little prep now, you’ll thank yourself when you come back with a...
12.05.2022
Creative Ways to Stand Out at Year-End
There’s a temptation to send out more communication at the end of the year. And it’s understandable; there’s a lot to share during this season, and you want to keep your donors informed. But communicating more frequently doesn’t make it more...
11.15.2022
Using Permission-Based Asking with Your Donors and Securing Meetings
It’s the most intimidating part of fundraising: asking someone for a gift. But that’s not the only thing that fundraisers need to ask for. They’re also requesting meetings, inviting people to give their time at events, and asking donors to share...
10.26.2022
Bringing Your Authentic Self to Your Work
Does your organization encourage you to bring your authentic self to your work in the non-profit space? Or do you feel pressure to self-censor certain parts of your identity? Many non-profit employees say that their workplace culture has created an environment...
10.17.2022
Terrible Things Non-Profits Do That Drive Donors Away
Usually, people have the best of intentions. But it’s shocking how many organizations have internalized some misguided views of fundraising without realizing how their mindset is hurting their donor relationships. There’s plenty of wrong thinking out there, and on today’s episode,...
10.03.2022
Taking Your Donor to the Scene, Without Promoting a Savior Mentality
We talk a lot about the importance of taking your donor to the scene so that the need feels real and personal to them. But there’s a risk of exploiting the very communities you serve if their stories are not...
09.19.2022
The Veritus Way in Action: Interviews with Our Clients
What is it that makes The Veritus Way of fundraising so successful? To tell you more about it, we’ve invited a couple of our clients to share about their experiences with the Veritus approach to fundraising. Listen in to learn about how...
09.06.2022
Tiering Your Donors: The Ultimate Caseload Management Strategy
Do you have a strategy to help you allocate your time per donor? The reality is, you only have so much time in a day. And you need to be a good steward of that time. So, while we value all...
08.15.2022
5 Reasons Why We Love Mid-Level (And You Should Too!)
What’s so great about mid-level? We’re so glad you asked! More and more organizations are discovering that mid-level is the key to retaining donors and donor value. When you have a mid-level program that’s focused on building relationships with donors and...
08.02.2022
Tips to Better Serve Your Donors
Looking for inspiration to help you plan for the fall fundraising season? Look no further! Since we’re privileged to work with so many different non-profit organizations, we have a bird’s-eye view of the latest fundraising trends and themes. From year-end planning...
07.19.2022
Fifteen Questions to Help You Go Deeper with Your Donor (re-release)
In this re-release of our all-time most popular episode, Richard and Jeff share 15 questions for you to use in conversation with your donors to help you better understand their passions, interests, and goals for their giving. No matter what you...
07.05.2022
How to Approach Fundraising When Your Mission Doesn’t Fit in a Neat Box
Talking about your mission with donors can sometimes feel challenging, especially if you’re an organization that provides indirect services. Do you know if you’re effectively communicating your mission and impact to your donors? It may seem pretty straightforward for organizations that...
06.20.2022
Moving Out of a Membership Mindset
Many non-profits have a membership model as a key part of their fundraising strategy. And while membership donors can be some of the most loyal and consistent in their giving, a membership model can also be limiting. Donors are going...
06.06.2022
Keep, Lift, Move: The Three Objectives of a Successful Mid-Level Program
More and more non-profits are discovering that mid-level is the key to a healthy donor pipeline. If you’re wondering where to find more major donors, the answer is almost always: look to your mid-level donors. But how do you know if...
05.24.2022
How to Approach Donor Stewardship in Planned Giving
Many non-profits feel that once they’ve secured a planned gift from a donor, their work is done. There may not be any plans for follow-up or intentional cultivation of legacy donors after the gift is committed. Yet, we know that impact...
05.09.2022
Supporting Black & Brown Fundraisers in the Non-Profit Sector
When people of color are not allowed to speak for themselves or their voices are not heard, there’s a psychological toll that often leads to burnout. Black and Brown fundraisers are leaving their organizations because they feel isolated and unwelcome....
04.26.2022
How to Take Your Org From Transactional to Relationship-Based Fundraising (Webinar Replay featuring The American Cancer Society)
You know you need to move your non-profit from a transactional model to relationship-based fundraising, but maybe you’re not sure where to start, or how to get everyone on board and fully invested in this change. That’s exactly the challenge...
04.19.2022
How to Be a Champion for Organizational Change
Creating change in your organization can feel like a daunting task. Where should you start? How do you stay on track? In this podcast episode, Richard and Jeff interview a special guest, Ruth Ann Dailey, the Senior Vice President of Philanthropy...

What's Nothing But Major Gifts about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

Nothing But Major Gifts episodes:

What to Do When You Inherit a Caseload

Mapping the Donor Journey: A Pipeline Health Checklist

How to Get a Donor Meeting Back on Track

Celebrating Women in Fundraising, Featuring Yolanda F. Johnson

Yes, You Do Need to Ask All Year Long!

Working From Your Energy: Bringing Your Best Self to Your Work With Donors

Finding the Right Job: Tips from a Non-Profit Recruiting Expert

How to Get Yourself Transitioned into the New Year

How to Be an Effective Non-Profit Leader and Manager

An Interview with the American Brain Foundation

How to Meaningfully Transition a Donor Relationship

It’s Time to Move on From Moves Management

How The Veritus Way Changed Our Work with Partners: An Interview with the East Texas Food Bank

How to Talk About Fundraising Within Your Organization

The Basics You Still Don't Have Down

The Three Legs of a Successful Planned Giving Program

How to Be More Efficient in Your Year-End Planning

Re-Release: What’s Holding You Back from Investing in Major Gifts?

Can We All Just Get Along?

Re-Release: Five Things Every Fundraiser Should Do in the Summer

How to Identify the BEST Candidate in Your Hiring Pool

Dealing with Boundaries and Inappropriate Situations with Donors

Re-Release: 7 Ways to Stand Out with Your Donors

Everything You Need to Know About the Latest Fundraising Effectiveness Project Report

Everyone Needs a Coach

Major Gifts Is NOT a 9-5 Job

You (Yes, YOU) Can Talk Confidently About Planned Giving!

Boards + Fundraising: How to Create a Thriving Partnership

Moving From Money to Mission: How to Transform Donor Conversations

How Self-Love Transforms Everything, Including Fundraising

Are You Properly Nurturing Your Donor Pipeline?

Why Outsourcing Management Is Key to Your Success

5 Things to Do When You Get Back from the Holidays

Creative Ways to Stand Out at Year-End

Using Permission-Based Asking with Your Donors and Securing Meetings

Bringing Your Authentic Self to Your Work

Terrible Things Non-Profits Do That Drive Donors Away

Taking Your Donor to the Scene, Without Promoting a Savior Mentality

The Veritus Way in Action: Interviews with Our Clients

Tiering Your Donors: The Ultimate Caseload Management Strategy

5 Reasons Why We Love Mid-Level (And You Should Too!)

Tips to Better Serve Your Donors

Fifteen Questions to Help You Go Deeper with Your Donor (re-release)

How to Approach Fundraising When Your Mission Doesn’t Fit in a Neat Box

Moving Out of a Membership Mindset

Keep, Lift, Move: The Three Objectives of a Successful Mid-Level Program

How to Approach Donor Stewardship in Planned Giving

Supporting Black & Brown Fundraisers in the Non-Profit Sector

How to Take Your Org From Transactional to Relationship-Based Fundraising (Webinar Replay featuring The American Cancer Society)

How to Be a Champion for Organizational Change