Meet Jacque Daley-Perrin Major Gifts Fundraising Expert

Meet Jacque Daley-Perrin Major Gifts Fundraising Expert is a story about a nonprofit management veteran who always reaches her campaign goal. Jacque has led five university and hospital foundations as their chief development officer and has spent her career building organization’s missions and financial capacity. She is a senior counselor with Development Systems International and uses the nationally renowned Major Gifts Ramp-Up Model to raise millions. Here’s her take on Major Gifts Ramp-Up.

Here’s a quick question, “are you receiving the finances you require to achieve significant impact?” If not, it may be time for you to re-imagine philanthropy in ways that transform both you and the organization you serve. Major Gifts Ramp-Up is a unique approach to fund development that will challenge everything you believe about the raising of money and will make five, six and seven figure major gifts available to your organization using principles that reflect your values and mission. Major Gifts Ramp-Up generates the most amount of money in the shortest period-of-time possible regardless of history, mission or size and has raised billions for causes large and small across the U.S. and around the world.

Here we go…let’s explore the genius of Major Gifts Ramp-Up.

Major Gifts Ramp-Up (also known as MGRU) is implemented over 18 months in three phases: The Planning Phase, The Building Phase and the Invitation Phase.

Meet Jacque Daley-Perrin Major Gifts Fundraising Expert

Chapter 1: Management Philosophy

• Traditional nonprofits often treat donors like ATM machines, focusing too much on their organization’s needs rather than donors’ desires for the community.
• To shift this, spend at least 50% of your time building relationships with major donors, focusing on how your organization helps them achieve their philanthropic goals.
• This requires a radical shift in time management—stop doing things that don’t directly serve this purpose. Monetize your time by focusing on actions that advance donor relationships. For example, if your goal is to raise $3 million annually, every hour must be worth $1,562.50. Use this mindset to prioritize donor-centric activities.

Chapter 2: Major Gift Fundraising

• Avoid relying on fundraising gimmicks like 5Ks, auctions, and social media trends. These tactics often fail to generate a sustainable infrastructure and lead to low donor retention.
• Major gift fundraising is about personal, face-to-face conversations. Develop a portfolio of 125 major donor prospects per development officer, with 30-40 for executive directors.
• By focusing on building deep relationships with these donors, your retention rate will increase, and your fundraising efforts will multiply your current budget.

Chapter 3: Organizational Development

• This is not strategic planning; it’s a real-time battle plan. You need to recalibrate your organization’s activities to monetize every hour. Start with yourself: ask, “Does this task help raise funds?” If it doesn’t, eliminate it.
• organizational development starts with you
• before you go to your board or to your staff or to your coworkers to say when we need to do things differently,you need to start with yourself, and think about how you are going to do things differently
• I need you to run a bulldozer through your calendar
• Stop doing things that you can’t monetize
• organizational development is a real-time battle plan and it is a gut check with yourself and with the entire organization about how we are going to move forward
• HOW MUCH $ needs to be raised RAISE OVER WHAT PERIOD OF TIME

Chapter 4: Case for Support

• Craft a powerful case for support, branding your organization with a compelling value proposition that is donor centered, reflects the community’s needs, shares why your organization is unique
• Develop a strong 8-12 page document summarizing your impact, w/current programs, testimonials from those whose lives have been changed, history, mission and timeline of the organization, a compelling vision with a plan and budget to get there. Share early versions of this document with community leaders, gain their feedback to refine your message and build buy-in for future fundraising.
• Identify campaign leadership. Start to identify the two key community influencers that will become you campaign co-chairs.  Hre are people who are involved in many things throughout the community, who are respected and admired that no one can say no to.  Early identification of strong campaign co chairs ensures campaign success!

Chapter 5: Advancement Calendar

• Create your roadmap for the entire campaign. Take 6, 90-day calendars, add all major activities: board meetings, events, email campaigns, and committee meetings your org. Has.  Add MGRU: all the tasks complete with deadlines needed to successfully execute MGRU!
• Allows you to see all that your organization has on the horizon, provides to a daily, weekly and monthly tasks list that your team can follow, that keeps you on track with deadlines and helps you manage your time effectively.

Chapter 6: Prospect Identification

• Using Donor Scope: Download, Upload (your current file of donors, past and present board members and volunteers) and the community file you develop with all of the people of influence and affluence in your service area build a list of about 2,500 potential major donors and distinctively invite them to a unique and compelling Non Fund Raising Awareness Event. This list includes existing donors, a host committee of 50 community influencers, and new prospects identified from other nonprofits, community boards, and databases like Donorscope.
• This sets the stage for reaching out to the right audience.

Chapter 7: Non-Fundraising Awareness Event

• Build a strong Host Committee. People of influence and affluence.  Community leaders, business leaders, entrepreneurs, socialites, philanthropists, University President, CEO’s, Bankers, financial advisors… The only thing you are asking them to do is lend their name to your invitation.
• This event is designed to attract 150-200 potential donors, It’’s themed around the organization and the way in which it serves a population, the impact their work has and a compelling vision for the future!
• Use a tight agenda, engage hearts with emotional stories from those impacted by your work and share your great dream backed by a sound plan!
• Since you have taken them to the mountain top as we close the event our only ask is friends if you have heard anything here today that aligns with your personal goals, your families goals, your goals for the community or your church, when the CEO calls you, will you take their call? And they all say yes!

Chapter 8: Prospect Cultivation

Over the next 6 months, follow up with each attendee.  First, thanking them for attending with handwritten notes and personal photos. Second, Calling them to schedule a coffee to get their feedback about your plans and to learn more about them and their goals.  Organize your prospect list by donor potential and start reaching out, aiming for 10-15 calls weekly to secure face-to-face meetings.

Invite them to further engagement, a tour or some touch point with your programs. And asking them to become Table Hosts for your Signature Ask Event.

Chapter 9: Signature Ask Event

• About 12 months into the campaign, hold your Signature Ask Event.
• Focus on securing 25 or more table hosts who will personally bring their network to bare. No ticket sales, no buy a table. Just invite your friends!
• You get an underwriter to cover the main costs. The evening includes a beer and wine reception, simple meal, special speaker, testimonies, and your great dream backed by a sound plan!
• Then move in to the ask, where guests are invited to consider a minimum gift of $5,000 towards a specific goal to be achieved that night. All your guests will be in the millionaire wealth set and key community influencers.  Each individual and couple will be invited to consider a gift of $5,000 and you provide them options for fulfilling the gift.  One lump sum, recurring monthly payments of $416.12 per month for 12 months or pledge installments over a set period like 1,250/year for one year or $1,000 per year for 5 years.

Chapter 10: Campaign Cabinet

• Recruit a campaign cabinet of 12-15 individuals who will take responsibility for managing relationships with major donors.
• Each member oversees six donor relationships, helping to guide them through the giving process. Over the next 6 months you have monthly check ins with the cabinet and get updates on their progress.

Chapter 11: Campaign Interviews

• Before making a formal ask, seek permission from the prospect. Asking permission to ask which means when you sit down with a donor you are saying Doug and Kathy, we thought that you would like to be involved in this campaign in a significant way. Could we have permission to come back next week with a written proposal inviting you to invest in the impact of this organization.
• This accomplishes two things: it allows Doug and Kathy to say yes or no.
• It also allows you to go into that meeting with confidence that you can ask them for their best gift – that way there are no surprises everyone knows what’s coming and they’re no awkward situations.

Chapter 12: The Three-Part Ask

• When meeting with major donors, present a proposal that includes three asks at one time. Basically an annual gift, a stretch gift for a special capital project, and a legacy gift. This structured approach helps guide donors to significant contributions over time.
• I COULD STOP HERE OR GO ON AND DO A THREE PART ASK
• And then the volunteer and CEO meet face to face and make the three part ask.  Jack, that you so much for your gift of $5,000 at the Ask Event.  We were thinking you might want to give that amount over the the next three years to support the rising leaders mentorship program.
• And Jack, we don’t want to assume that you wouldn’t want to contribute to the the building project. Knowing how proud you are of the business your father built, we thought you and your family would consider a one time gift of $500,000 to name the Young Leaders Empowerment Hub in your dad’s honor.
• And Jack, not now, but down the road, because you are so connected to Young Leaders, and we know you want to leave a legacy with this community, we welcome an opportunity to meet with you and your financial or legal counsel to explore how you might consider leaving Young Leaders in your will and estate plans.

Chapter 13: Campaign Success

Where there is a dream, there is always an answer, and for nonprofits, the answer is Major Gifts Ramp-Up.

Jacque Daley-Perrin
Development Systems International
[email protected]
https://Development.net
800-257-6670

Meet Jacque Daley-Perrin Major Gifts Fundraising Expert was first posted at INSIDE CHARITY.

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