In this week's edition of Scaling Major Gifts, I share the four lenses I use to decide who stays active, who graduates, who pauses, and who needs another look. I also walk through how to bring your leadership along so quality, not quantity, becomes the story you tell.

In this week's Scaling Major Gifts newsletter, I share a simple blueprint for designing offers donors can say yes to with confidence. The five elements. How to structure multi-year and blended commitments. How to co-create with your best donors instead of pre-packaging.

This week's Scaling Major Gifts newsletter is all about building that kind of trust, on purpose, with practical tools you can put to work right now.

This week's Scaling Major Gifts newsletter is all about cutting through the noise. I walk you through the four core tech categories that actually matter for major gifts work (hint: it's not that many), a simple five-criteria check to evaluate anything in your stack, where AI genuinely fits (and where it honestly doesn't), and a 90-day "stack tune-up" plan to help you retire what's not working and feel good about what is.

In this week’s Scaling Major Gifts, I’m sharing how I use AI to draft, refine, and personalize donor communication that still sounds like me. Plus, a few simple prompts you can test this week.

In this week’s Scaling Major Gifts, I share how I finally took back my week using time blocking, clear communication, and a few smart AI helpers to protect high-value donor time and grow major gifts.

This week, let’s talk about how to blend major gifts and corporate partnerships more intentionally.

Have you noticed how different donor conversations feel these days? I’m hearing it everywhere. The donors leading with values, especially women and next‑gen wealth holders, are changing what generosity looks like in 2026. They ask sharper questions. They expect quicker answers. And they want their giving to align with their worldview and social circles, not just their wallets.

If your case feels more like a museum piece than a living, breathing invitation to change lives, next week’s focus will help.

Let’s talk about how to build a resilient major gifts portfolio, one that can bend with market change without breaking your organization’s momentum.

You feel the pressure to qualify donors fast in 2026.

Budgets are tight, boards want forecasts, and donors expect personalization every time.

Scripted discovery calls can start to feel like an interrogation, for you and for them.

This week, I want to help you redesign those conversations so they feel more like mutual exploration and less like a checklist.

Every nonprofit is feeling this tension as donor expectations rise and teams run lean. Personalized stewardship still matters most, yet doing it for dozens or hundreds of donors feels impossible. Especially when every new automation tool promises ease, but adds setup and management time.

Let’s simplify.

Every nonprofit is feeling this tension as donor expectations rise and teams run lean. Personalized stewardship still matters most, yet doing it for dozens or hundreds of donors feels impossible. Especially when every new automation tool promises ease, but adds setup and management time.

Let’s simplify.

If you feel both curious and cautious about using AI for donor research, you’re not alone. Many fundraisers are testing tools that promise speed and intelligence. Yet, the fear of misusing data or losing authenticity keeps us on edge.

The truth is, AI can help without taking over. Your human presence still matters most. The key is learning where AI belongs in your prep process, and where it doesn’t.

You might be sitting on a long prospect list that feels overwhelming. I’ve seen lists with hundreds of names pulled from wealth screens or event lists, but very few donors ever move forward.

In this week’s edition, From Donor Lists to Donor Signals: Prioritizing Your Best Prospects, I share that it’s time to stop treating every wealthy name like a top prospect and focus on the few who are both interested and engaged.

If 2026 revenue targets landed on your desk before anyone checked the donor pipeline, you have plenty of company.

Nonprofits are being pushed to “do more with less” while a smaller group of donors is carrying more of the load.

You feel the pressure to be bold, but you also see the reality in your database.

This week’s topic is about designing a plan that honors both.

If there’s one thing my nearly three decades as a major gifts professional have taught me, it’s that our work is never just about dollars. It’s about people, purpose, and possibility.

This week is especially meaningful for me as I celebrate the official release of my new book, Calling All Heroes: Combining the Best of Donor-Centered and Community-Centered Fundraising for Greater Impact. I wrote this book for you: the major gift officers, development directors, executive directors, and board leaders who show up each day with passion for your mission and a commitment to making real, lasting change.

Last week at the Nonprofit Storytelling Conference, I had the privilege of delivering my keynote, "Casting Your Donors in a Lead Role: The Power of Immersion." The positive response from over 800 attendees was so encouraging that I wanted to share some of these concepts with you here in the Scaling Major Gifts newsletter.

This edition is special. We just wrapped our very first all-virtual Excellence in Major Gift Fundraising Seminar, formerly brought to you by the Institute for Charitable Giving, now proudly hosted by the Modern Institute for Charitable Giving. For three energizing days, passionate major gift fundraisers and brilliant faculty members gathered, virtually, united by one mission: to advance major gifts programs in nonprofits of every kind.