Blog

Sharing insights, strategies and inspiration you can use right now.

This is where I share strategies, action steps, and ideas for scaling major gifts, and answers to questions that matter most right now. 

164. Human-Centered Major Gifts
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

164. Human-Centered Major Gifts

This is for major gift officers, development directors, executive directors, and board members at small to mid-sized nonprofits. After reading, you'll understand why the human-centered model is rising, which shared-power practices work in major gifts, and how to frame this work with donors, communities, and your board.

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163. Thinking Global: Cross-Border Major Gifts
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

163. Thinking Global: Cross-Border Major Gifts

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors at small- to mid-sized nonprofits. After reading, you'll know why global giving is growing, which questions and pitfalls matter most, and how to build a simple support team and protocol for international gifts.

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161. Stacking the Deck for Year-End Major Gifts
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

161. Stacking the Deck for Year-End Major Gifts

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors at small to mid-sized nonprofits. After reading, you'll understand what changed for year-end giving this year, have a five-checkpoint calendar you can use right away, and know how to keep your team focused with a one-page dashboard.

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160. Impact Reporting That Deepens Commitment
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

160. Impact Reporting That Deepens Commitment

This episode is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors at small and mid-sized nonprofits. You'll walk away knowing what donors want from impact reporting, how to agree on metrics together, and which formats and tools make it manageable for a busy team.

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159. Today’s Gifts, Tomorrow’s Legacy
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

159. Today’s Gifts, Tomorrow’s Legacy

This is for major gift officers, development directors, executive directors, and board members at small and mid-sized nonprofits. You'll walk away knowing which donors to talk with about legacy, what to say, and who to bring to the table.

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158. Calming the Waters: Supporting Anxious Donors
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

158. Calming the Waters: Supporting Anxious Donors

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and nonprofit CEOs who are watching good donors slow down. After reading, you will be able to spot the behavioral signals of donor anxiety, use four conversational moves that lower the emotional temperature, and offer five gift structures that make a large commitment feel safer.

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157. Growing the Next Wave of Major Gift Talent
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

157. Growing the Next Wave of Major Gift Talent

This is for development directors, chief development officers, and senior major gift officers who want to grow the people on their team instead of replacing them every eighteen months. By the end, you'll be able to name what the fundraisers coming up now need, coach inside work you're already doing, and build a development plan in about thirty minutes.

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155. Campaign Planning when the Future is Fuzzy
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

155. Campaign Planning when the Future is Fuzzy

This is for development directors, major gift officers, and executive directors who are running or preparing a campaign and feel stuck waiting for conditions to settle. By the end, you'll be able to set a working goal and build three response scenarios around it, name the assumption your plan is quietly resting on, and talk to your board about uncertainty in a way that increases their confidence.

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154. Recognition That Feels Right Today
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

154. Recognition That Feels Right Today

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors who want their recognition to match how values-driven and next-generation donors want to be seen. By the end, you’ll have a practical recognition audit to run, a way to distinguish meaningful recognition from vanity recognition, and a clearer framework for navigating sensitive naming questions.

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153. Building for What’s Next
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

153. Building for What’s Next

In my recent conversation with Mark Stuart, President and CEO of the San Diego Foundation, one idea kept coming back to me:

Fundraising is not a department.

It is a team sport. Listen in to learn what that means in practice.

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152. Listening Sessions and Donor Advisory Councils
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

152. Listening Sessions and Donor Advisory Councils

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors who want to deepen trust with their closest donors and move beyond one-directional reporting. By the end of this post, you'll be able to design a listening touchpoint, tell a listening session apart from an advisory council, and turn what you hear into decisions donors can actually see.

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151. Culture as Your Ultimate Major Gifts Strategy
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

151. Culture as Your Ultimate Major Gifts Strategy

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors who feel like the only person in the building who thinks about donor relationships. By the end of this post, you'll be able to describe what a culture of philanthropy looks like in practice, name the small steps that shift it, and understand why your internal communication channels matter more than you'd expect.

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150. Healthy Boundaries with Major Donors
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

150. Healthy Boundaries with Major Donors

This is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors who want to honor generous donors without absorbing behavior that crosses a line. By the end of this episode, you'll understand the power dynamics that show up in major gift work, you'll know the red flags that a relationship has drifted out of balance, and you'll have language you can use this week to reset expectations while protecting everyone's dignity.

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149. It Takes a Village: Internal Partners in Major Gifts
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

149. It Takes a Village: Internal Partners in Major Gifts

This article is for major gift officers, development directors, and executive directors who want a practical way to bring the right internal partners into their biggest donor relationships. After reading, you will know why this kind of collaboration matters more in 2026 than it used to, exactly who belongs at your table and why, and how to run a coalition meeting that produces real next steps instead of another calendar entry.

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148. Events that Actually Move Major Gifts
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

148. Events that Actually Move Major Gifts

This is for development directors, major gift officers, executive directors, and event volunteers who want their donor events to build real relationships without draining the team. By the end of this post, you'll understand why donors increasingly value depth over spectacle, you'll have the 3P framework for designing your next gathering, and you'll know what a real follow-up system looks like once the event ends.

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147. Working Smarter: Automation for Major Gift Officers
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

147. Working Smarter: Automation for Major Gift Officers

This is for major gift officers, development directors, executive directors, and small teams who want more hours for donor relationships without adding more hours to the week. By the end of this episode, you'll know the three categories of work that are safe to delegate to AI and automation, two workflows you can pilot this week, and the guardrails that keep any of it from feeling impersonal to a donor.

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146. Inclusive Major Gifts in Practice
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

146. Inclusive Major Gifts in Practice

Today we're talking about inclusive major gift fundraising. Not as a campaign theme. Not as a single event with a diverse photo lineup. As a daily discipline that shapes how you build relationships with every donor, especially the donors whose culture, identity, or lived experience differs from your own.

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145. Building Predictable Major Gifts Revenue
Trent Thompson Trent Thompson

145. Building Predictable Major Gifts Revenue

Today's episode is called Building Predictable Major Gifts Revenue, and we're going to talk about how recurring and multi-year commitments can change the shape of your fundraising program in ways that annual campaigns simply cannot.

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