In the seven decades following its 1923 establishment, Glassboro State College in South New Jersey was essentially the teachers' college for the area. A solid, growing college for many locals and in-staters, it was best known for hosting the historic summit between President Lyndon Johnson and Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in 1967.
In 1992, that all changed. The college received a truly transformative gift. In fact it was the largest gift ever given to a public college or university in the history of higher education. Humble GSC received $100 million from industrialist Henry Rowan and his wife Betty. The only strings attached were that they establish an engineering college in South Jersey and jumpstart engineering education. Not only did the college do that, graduating its first class in 2000, but it achieved university status in 1997 and named the whole kit-and-kaboodle Rowan University. This year, Rowan will open the first new medical school in South Jersey, the Cooper Medical School of Rowan University. For a bullet list of the impact of this gift, check out the report at the Collingswood Patch Web site.
Whew. Now that’s a major gift. A transformative or ultimate gift to your school is one that will result in a huge progression for your school and its programs. If you are actively researching your potential donors, you should be able to identify individuals capable of making such a gift to your school. Getting that gift depends on your ability to tie your school’s mission to that donor’s passion, and demonstrating through cultivation how that gift will transform your school.
But that is only one kind of major gift. And major gifts are not necessarily defined by a dollar amount. Writing for the Association of Fundraising Professionals, Dave Sternberg and Nick Parkevich note that “the term ‘major gift’ is subjective. A gift that could transform your organization might be an average gift for another organization.” (Major Gifts: It’s Not the Donation Amount That Matters—It’s the Strength of the Relationship)
A leadership gift is one that shows a serious commitment to you school. It may not be that one top gift of a campaign, but it's the several gifts on the “second tier,” so to speak, that are part of the top third of your giving pyramid. Your leadership donors are the 5-20% who are giving anywhere between 80-95% of the money to your campaign.
What are you doing to cultivate these donors? You need to make sure you are involving them in the life of the school and keep them interested. Remember to listen!
- Listen deeply
- Stop talking
- Ask questions
- Seek advice
- Be interested in them
- Show passion and commitment for your cause
Additional ISM resources of interest
ISM Recorded Webinar Looking After Your Leadership Donors
ISM Live Webinar 21st Century Schools: ISM’s Advancement Model
ISM's Monthly Update for Development Directors Vol. 7 No. 10 Cultivation Now Reaps Rewards Later
Additional resources for ISM Consortium Gold Members
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 37 No. 6 21st Century Schools: The ISM Advancement Model
To The Point Vol. 14 No. 5 The Circle of Influence as a Fundraising Tool
Ideas & Perspectives Vol. 36 No. 15 Campaign Gift Pyramid Demonstrates Progress and Encourages Competition
