John Keuffer – Meet a Major Gifts Ramp-Up Expert

John Keuffer – Meet a Major Gifts Ramp-Up Expert is a timely article about the power of raising large gifts written by a veteran nonprofit CEO.  Here’s what John Keuffer believes about major donors and nonprofit capacity-building.

Some think that because someone has a high net worth, they are morally obligated to give to their nonprofit because their nonprofit has a tremendously high need and it’s the moral obligation of the rich to give because they must!

When I started my own nonprofit in September of 1992, I thought the same thing.  I took the words from the movie Field of Dreams too literally in that I too thought that “If you build it, they will come.”  Well, I built it and mostly broke people who needed the services came.

And although we had great services, we couldn’t afford to keep them up.  So the great mission folded.

Dismayed!  Oh the Humanity!  How could the rich not give.  My cause is righteous!  I am righteous!  They have money and they need to get righteous…by giving it to MY cause!

In Louis Fawcett’s book entitled RE-IMAGINING NONPROFITS, he highlights how some nonprofit leaders might say, “We don’t offer a product.  We’re helping people.  Those rich people just need to give us money because they have it easy.”  And he further states “…that statement is simply not true.”  And he is absolutely correct.

Why do so many of us in the nonprofit world believe that we have a right to take from the wealthy for our cause and that the rich aren’t ethical or moral if they don’t give to our cause?   The reality is, we have no right to feel this way.  And if we are ‘keeping it real’ as they say, we haven’t earned the right to ask.

How do we earn the right to ask?

Major Gifts Ramp-Up systematically lays out a road map that helps create the environment and opportunity to earn the right to ask.  The beauty of the model is that it refines us.  Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”  Major Gifts Ramp-Up accomplishes this effort by utilizing counselors who have walked the walk.  They’ve been where you are and they’ve been through similar things as you have in the nonprofit sector.  They’ve walked through the Major Gifts Ramp-Up journey.  Some other person was their iron and now them will sharpen other nonprofit leaders with the knowledge they’ve gained through the journey.

The models in Major Gifts Ramp-Up methodically refine you to begin the journey of earning the right to ask.  The model forces you to evaluate yourself.  Are you willing to do what it takes on the journey?  Will you sacrifice your own ego and learn to be coachable.  Can you humble yourself so that you can be sharpened?

VISIT HERE TO MEET JOHN KEUFFER AT A 2-DAY MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP EVENT

Major Gifts Ramp-Up then moves you from an internal review so that you may begin to seek people in your sphere who can advise you on the journey.  Everything you do will be ‘permission based’.  You will begin to humble yourself and focus more on the needs of those you are engaging as potential donors and seeking their advice and building a relationship that is authentic.  Through this authentic relationship building process you get the opportunity to gain their permission to ask because you have earned that right to ask.

You earn that right by seeking advice and not money.

You earn that right by connecting with and listening more to your donors.

You earn the right by showing your donors that you care about them as individuals and not as an ATM.

You earn the right by ensuring you are authentic in your connections with your donors as individuals.

Major Gifts Ramp-Up shows you how to build the process where you earn the right to ask and it is a proven methodology that returns a tremendous rate of return for mission on an heroic scale.

Zig Ziglar states, “You can have everything you want in the world if you’ll just help enough other people get what they want.”  Earning the right to ask requires you to help your donor get what they want get in terms of a living legacy and impact in the world.  By learning what they need and desire most, you will be able to provide them the investment opportunity they desire most to leave their legacy in the community.

VISIT HERE TO MEET JOHN KEUFFER AT A 2-DAY MAJOR GIFTS RAMP-UP EVENT

John Keuffer – Meet a Major Gifts Ramp-Up Expert was first posted at INSIDE CHARITY.

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John Keuffer is Senior Counselor with Development Systems International. With more than 32 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, John has amassed over eighty local, state, national and international awards for service and advocacy. John is a graduate of the University of Cincinnati with an associate in criminal justice and a bachelor’s from Newburgh Theological and Bible Seminary in Christian Education. Following his graduation from the University of Cincinnati, John entered the State of Ohio Police Academy and served in law enforcement for nearly 10 years. During this time, he was highly proficient and connected with the community, hosting a local radio talk show program for fifteen years and became the public image for the departments he served. John found he had a passion for charitable service and a desire to give back. He and his family established a nonprofit foundation called Teen Response in 1993 and through that mission helped provide guidance, leadership, and character building for thousands of youths. John’s reputation gained attention in the world of professional athletes and other celebrities. These influencers began to seek John out for advice on their charitable desires and he would consult and, in some cases, run their charitable organizations helping them to have an established connection with the communities they desired to give back to. In 2013, after selling interest in his professional athlete marketing business, John began to take on roles with nonprofits of various sizes using his ability to cut through problems and find solutions that helped agencies ‘walk on two legs’: financially viable and outcome focused. Through this effort, John has helped to raise millions of contributions for several agencies in Greater Cincinnati and across the country. Today, John has been working to redesign Valley Interfaith Community Resource Center in Lockland, Ohio so that it may meet the challenges of the future and continue to serve the desires of charitable individuals to help better the community.