WHAT DRIVES MAJOR GIFTS? The answer: ideas.
So often development work is reduced to this notion of ego. What the donor wants. The recognition the donor wants. The entertainment the donor wants. And probably this is not entirely wrong. But these are not things upon which one can build an entire major gift development effort. So what is it that motivates the big gift? And some not so big gifts.
Like so many stories in fund raising lore, the following may be apocryphal. But I don’t care; it’s illustrative. And who knows, maybe true:
A successful business person in Texas makes a $100 million-gift to a major medical center. The president of his alma mater is stunned by this remarkable gesture and comes to him with this question: Why not us? A thin smile crosses the gentleman’s face. He pauses a moment. Looks straight into the eyes of his questioner and says: You never presented me with a $100 million idea.
Now here is something that definitely is not apocryphal. This week’s episode of This American Life on public radio. Here is a big idea that has the likely potential of changing the prospects of an entire neighborhood of New York City. The prospects not of this generation but the one coming up. Click here or on the image above. Montana take note.