On the final episode of the fundraising conversations series, Ken and his friend discuss fundraising gurus, using the internet to attract millennial donors, and how long it takes to secure a major gift for your organization. (Hint: think more money, more time!) Ken delivers the Lesson of the Week and hashes out five reasons your Major Gifts Program isn’t working - including socialite donors, a broken major donor pipeline, and neglecting to tell donors your organization’s story. The good news - all these problems have solutions, and major gifts can be the crown jewel of your fundraising efforts if you let it!

On this episode, Ken and his friend hash out the legal and societal issues with offering incentives to fundraising employees in the nonprofit sector. They discuss recruiting - and keeping - talent, and how to value the best employees in a world where being motivated by personal financial gain is frowned upon. There’s also a series of rapid-fire questions for Ken on everything from what to expect from a newly hired major gifts officer, to whether nonprofits should stop throwing large annual events.

On Episode 3 of The Above Goal Podcast - Fundraising Conversations. Ken and his friend discuss the what, when, and why of feasibility studies (including the reasons why in a perfect world, they might not be necessary), and use Andrea Kihlstedt’s article The Problem with Feasibility Studies and a New Approach to talk about the ways that this kind of thinking would affect capital campaigns and donor relationships. They answer a listener question about getting the entire organization, including non-development staff, to participate in a culture of fundraising and even throw out a challenge to listeners complete with hashtag. #AGChallenge

On Episode 2 of The Above Goal Podcast - Fundraising Conversations, Ken and his friend talk about Mark Rosenman's recent opinion article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy, Nonprofits Must Rally Americans to the Ballot Box to Protect the Needy. They have a healthy back-and-forth about how nonprofits should perform advocacy in a hyper-partisan world. Ken takes a question from a development staff person frustrated with their executive director's participation in fundraising. Finally, Ken premieres the "Lesson of the Week" with the 5 questions that must be asked before starting a capital campaign

This week on The Above Goal Podcast - Fundraising Conversations, Ken and his co-host find the humor in donor-advised funds, discuss why the individual giving figure is his favorite part of the Giving USA report. Ken lists the many reasons that nonprofits are still pessimistic despite increased overall philanthropy. Ken answers questions from fundraisers about how to get undesignated major gifts and strategies to get board members to fundraise. Articles Discussed: Giving USA Statistics - https://givingusa.org/see-the-numbers-giving-usa-2018-infographic/ Nonprofits See Cloudy Giving Forecast, but the Facts Suggest Sunshine - https://www.philanthropy.com/article/Opinion-Nonprofits-See-Cloudy/243670 The 'Black Hole' That Sucks Up Silicon Valley's Money - https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/05/silicon-valley-community-foundation-philanthropy/560216/