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Hey, I'm Jon.
And I'm Becky.
And this is the We Are For Good podcast.
Nonprofits are faced with more challenges to accomplish their missions and the growing pressure to do more, raise more and be more for the causes that improve our world.
We're here to learn with you from some of the best in the industry, bringing the most innovative ideas, inspirational stories, all to create an impact uprising.
So welcome to the good community, we're nonprofit professionals, philanthropists, world changers and rabid fans who are striving to bring a little more goodness into the world.
So let's get started. What's happening,
I have gone back into the vault and I've put my major gift hat back on and I'm excited to dive back into this conversation today.
That's so good, because it's like cold here in Oklahoma today. And we're going to sunny Florida to talk major gifts. You know, this is going to be such a fun conversation. We're gonna deep dive not into just your typical major gifts conversation. We're gonna talk about qualification, which I don't feel like gets enough attention. And so this conversation is going to take us there. And we brought really an expert onto the podcast today. We're so delighted to have Meg George with us. She's the co founder and president of George philanthropy group, based out of sunny Florida. And she is a strategist, but her focus has been on high impact major giving philanthropic investments, she advises nonprofit organizations across different sectors focused on a relationship centered approach. So you know, she's totally our people here. She, you know, leads feasibility studies helps implement major gift programs, and assist with running large campaigns through their work at George. And they're working directly with leaders in development to hone their skills. And one of her priorities is serving and leading workshops and virtual trainings and retreats. So she really comes at this from like a beginner's mind for of everyone here to really take something from this conversation. So, Maggie, it is a huge honor to have you on the podcast get in this house.
Oh, my gosh, I am in this house. Thank you so much for having me. I am so honored and grateful to be here.
Oh my gosh, well, you know, we love to talk about major gifts. Because I mean, we talk about grassroots a lot on the podcast, because we really do believe in the power of community giving. But we know that having these investment level conversations is so important. And so we're excited to dive into that. But, you know, as we're gonna go straight into the nuts and bolts of this, we want to hear your story like how did you fall into this work where you're working with so many high net worth individuals and working in advising, like, take us back to med growing up? And what led you to your work today?
Okay, well, it all goes back to the time in high school when I wanted to go to pharmacy school and didn't go. And my parents got the news for me that I was going to go to a small liberal arts college in Syracuse, New York and get a degree in French. No one had a good plan for this, including myself, Oh, yep. But I did it. And at some point there, I realized I was not going to be a French teacher, and that I didn't know what I was going to do. But my Alma Mater was hiring for a leadership gifts officer basically. And they came to me when I was graduating and said, Hey, you seem kind of bold. You seem a little forward. Why don't you come you know, take a look at institutional advance mission office. And I had no idea what that was. I grew up in a small town outside of Utica, New York, and, you know, not around big philanthropy by any means. But I jumped into the cold, deep part of the ocean with with leadership and major gifts I got on planes, I went to cities I had never even been to before and had visits with alums. And it was invigorating. And I loved it. I met my husband actually working on a business school campaign. And he had left his field. He was a lawyer for a short stint. And then trans came over to the bright side over here and philanthropy. And we ultimately decided after a couple of stints in health care and education and working on some different campaigns that a whole lot of organizations were asking us for advice and, and help and our expertise or our stories and we were like we could do this. We could devote all of our time and bandwidth together to helping a whole lot more organizations and we are right now. And so we both left our jobs and founded our firm in, I think it was 2014, I guess, and just grew like everybody knows you don't one client at a time starting in New York, and then eventually down in Florida and here in South Florida is where we have most of our work. Now,
I love the winding nature of development paths. And I mean, John, does that story not sound like us. And I'm sure your mom, your parents were looking at you. And the same way our parents were when we told them, we are going to quit our jobs and start a podcast in our mid, you know, for me, mid 40s. So thanks for just sharing that background. I love the grassroots nature of how George philanthropy group kind of came together. I love that you found your husband together. And it's just a great story that you've leaned into this passion. And so we want to focus in on major guests. And before we get into like the qualification part. I mean, this is just kind of a storied moment in time that we're sitting in we are in this post COVID world where you're sitting in the age of digital, we have an economic downturn looming, like talk to us right now about what you're seeing. That would be kind of like major gift best practices. Considering this current philanthropic landscape, give us some counsel on what you're seeing and what you would advise for our listeners,
it's important that we all come to philanthropy, from the facts, and the facts are that over $484 billion, was given away last year. And that always about 70% of that money is coming from individuals. If you are one of those people who waits all year for the USA charitable giving report to come out, thank you shout out Lily School of Philanthropy. There, yeah. Oh, it's so good, right. And then you also know that foundation giving is on the rise, and that corporate and planned giving has had some volatile years. So I say to all of my clients, or I say to anyone in the audience at any of my workshops, we can see clearly where money is coming from. There are individuals serving as the backbone of philanthropy in America. And there are foundations who were founded by so many generous families and individuals that are coming in second. So we know exactly where to spend our time and our energy and our resources. It's on the people who are making investments here. And I love to unpack where the money is landing because, you know, religion and education are just always so prominently up there, right kind of taking, taking a lot of the dollars that are given any any one year, but things are changing, the pandemic had really forced donors hands at giving to causes that could no longer rely on earned revenue opportunities, and also forced to the hand of institutions who had never relied on any earned revenue opportunities, who were solely relying on philanthropy, to really diversify and, and get to a financially stronger and healthier place through different unique ideas. And so I think looking at the scope of the kind of philanthropic landscape in America, it's safe to say that spending your time and energy understanding the individual donor is your best shot right at raising, you know, a lot of money. Understanding the people who are at the very top of the pyramid has become increasingly more important and interesting. I loved that last year, we could see about 5%, I think it was over $15 billion came from Mega gifts. So mega gifts, they define that as gifts of $450 million or greater. It's like, Whoa, that is a huge percentage of individual gifts, coming from majorly huge investments in organization. So that is really kind of everyone when I have their attention. I'm like, This is our first clue into where we need to pay attention.
Yeah, I mean, I love that you're kind of going there. Because while we always love pulling in the reports and the data that shows you like such the macro level, I think it's also important for people to understand what's the data of their own organization showing them you know, as we kind of look at that, is it where is your investment in time and how can maybe pulling your own data and looking at that kind of points you to where you could have the biggest opportunity for growth so if you want to speak to that, but how do you cultivate a major gift program that's really isn't existent today for those listening that they Do I really should put more into individual giving?
So you said two things there, I'm gonna respond, John to the first point first, which is that if you take someone like MacKenzie Scott, she really offended philanthropy, like she came out swinging, but not swinging, she just came out giving, it's like we all started paying attention to this person who's giving ginormous gifts, without strings attached to them. And so I think that I take the example of MacKenzie Scott and 2020, giving billions of dollars, to the point where if you just removed MacKenzie Scott and all of her gifts from 2020s, individual giving, it would have been the first time in a long time, maybe even history, where the percentage of philanthropy from individuals actually dipped a little bit. So in other words, our reliance on the very top of the pyramid, the biggest donors, and I'm gonna say philanthropic investors in this country is huge, we're relying on them. But that's actually kind of like a snapshot of every one city in towns and communities and organizations. You know, I would argue that that really is just an example of what we're seeing everywhere with, I know much different numbers and figures and names, but it serves us something that's representative of a lot of what we say. So you also asked John about starting a major gifts program if your organization doesn't really have one. And I think that people kind of approach this whole area with it feels intimidating, right. And they approach it with concerns, usually around either their data, or something like their ability to get relationships. My board isn't a fundraising board, or we haven't kept a really clean, tight database. I hear that all the time. I'm sure you guys do as well.
I feel like we worked in some of those. Yeah, yeah,
you felt that? Yeah, you will live to that. It doesn't matter if your data is perfect or plentiful. And it doesn't matter. If your board and your organization has a ton of relationships. What matters is if you have leadership that can be trusted, you have a vision that includes something that's maybe a little bold, not just keeping the lights on and making sure that the heat can get kicked on. But something that advances you, and you drive outcomes. So if you come to me and you say, our leader, a solid, she's been here for three years, she has no plans to leave, we're going through a strategic visioning process. She has a couple elements in here that are exciting. They're new, they're bringing us somewhere. And hey, guess what I can point to all of our outcomes, right. So this is how many people we served last year, with more investments, were expecting to serve this many in this quality way. So that is all to say that's a long winded way of saying we kind of worry about or focus on the wrong things. First, a strong major gifts program comes from that value piece of what what kind of impact and outcome you're actually driving, you know,
preach. That's really good. Yeah,
I mean, yeah, that's really strong tone setting. And I really appreciate you talking about if you live those mackynzie gifts, out of the total, the sum total, we talked about this all the time, we see the base eroding somewhat, and we it puts so much pressure on us to really secure those major gifts. Or if you're a small organization, we're seeing this just terror that they have that Oh, our grants may not all come through, and we have to have all of these grants come through. So I'm glad that we're doing this hyperfocus on major gifts at this time, because I do think there's a level of uncertainty that people are walking into as we move, you know, into a possible recession. And it's like, what does that look like right now. And I think the place to start, is what you just said, because I know back in my time, if I didn't have a vision when I was a major gift officer that I was casting, if I didn't have impact, I'm really just going through a lot of the motions of talking through tactics and strategies. And that's not what a donor wants. They want that bold vision you're talking about. They want to be a part of moving something significant in a major way. So let's focus in on qualification for a little bit. We just think it has become one of the most necessary tools to ensure that your major gift operations is successful. So talk to us about qualification and why Is this such a necessary tool to major guests right now,
I started to change the name of my workshops years ago, because I noticed that less people were signing up for them when they focused on qualification or cultivation than if it had something fancy about the ask in the title. It's like everyone's number one question is, how do I make the ask? Or how do I make a major or principal gift ask? And the answer is by being an excellent qualifier of this major or principal gift prospect. And so my husband and I, we are partners, we work together. And we will argue until we're blue in the face that qualifying someone is the absolute most important skill you can have. And step you can take in closing a major gift. And so I have the benefit. Also, I will add of working with some philanthropists, we advise some families and individuals on how to strategically and meaningfully align their philanthropic investments with organization so that they feel good about the outcomes being generated. And I've learned so much from them too, about how to qualify someone. So I think that if we can reframe our minds for this conversation, and just major gift work, in general to think this is a relationship first approach to raising money efficiently and effectively, but most of all meaningfully. So by qualifying someone, I am in other words, taking that first step towards totally understanding this person as a human being who has feelings and thoughts and cares about what he or she is going to do in this community or this world. And they also might have a business or money that's been inherited or a private family foundation, some way of giving, right. So I want us to think about qualifying is marrying up the affinity and the capacity components of any future donor, and putting them together so that we're leaving there with a super deliberate and intentional plan to cultivate and ultimately solicit them because we learned so much by qualifying the kind of donor that he or she is, oh, man,
oh, my dimples showing, I'm believing in this for sure. Yeah. And
I'm getting too enthusiastic. I don't need to sell you guys on it.
It's not possible. It's not possible in this environment.
But I just think like, you can only get into those type of conversations if you have really great questions and the ability to listen and ask those kinds of questions. So I know that's been part of your story, too. What are some of those questions that you pose and kind of? How do you frame that?
Okay, yes, this is really important to me. Because when I first started doing this work, and I was a recent college grad, and I was going to places like Washington DC for the first time, I'm leaving these meetings like, why am I not closing gifts? Why am I not? Why am I getting back on the plane feeling so defeated right now. And my husband and I laugh about this, because I'd go back to the office, you know, we worked together at the time and I'd say, Oh, I met with all these people. I feel like, you know, I didn't get all of the gifts I wanted to close. And he was like, if you talked to them, as much as you are talking to me, they probably did not get the chance to actually say the things you might want to learn. And he's not getting any more guilty, this podcast. But yeah, it's not like he was right, I guess. So I think that my ability to be successful changed when I realized that I should be doing very little speaking, relative to you know, how much chatter is going to happen in this conversation. So I started to ask things that might feel very obvious, but I'm going to share them like, Hey, can I have my first meeting? your office or your home? So that when I walk in, I can say this is a beautiful office? How long have you guys been here? Oh, believe it or not, we just moved here. Last year, we had a huge event happened in our company where we had to acquire like 200 more employees. We needed a bigger space. No kidding. What was that event? Well, we went public, your oh my gosh, congratulations. How did that process go? It's like that's an example. You know, going to someone's home. These pictures on the wall are so beautiful. Where are you all on this photo? We're in Aspen we go there every year. Oh no way. Do you ever have I was there we do, we kind of split our time between San Francisco, Aspen Palm Beach, you know, your check marks on capacity are going off. So I know these are kind of simple, but even walking into someone else's territory first and just observing and kind of trying to understand what sort of physical environment they're in, and why tells you so much about the person and the family, maybe what they care about, or maybe their resources relative to their capacity to give. So that's a good start. But also, I think that as nonprofit professionals, we tend to read a ton I know I do about nonprofit news, like I'm on the Chronicle of Philanthropy every morning, I'm constantly checking in with all of my other kind of philanthropy friends on their news. But what we also need to read is The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, whatever your you know, your news of preference is so that you feel equipped to speak about the world and businesses. I was so scared of this when I was younger, I never wanted to ask a lawyer in some ginormous firm right in New York City, like anything about business that would open the conversation up to me looking like I don't know a lot. I'm not very informed or I can't talk about business. So I'll I'll be vulnerable and saying that I didn't know a lot. I'm from upstate New York, I have a French degree. I started fundraising and major crypto is my first job ever. So I've had to learn. You know, I asked my CPA questions about the world I ask friends in different industries are people like you know, Nancy Brinker? That's someone we're both friends with? I asked her questions about health care. And I'm not afraid anymore to look like I don't know things. I don't know them. But the more that I learn about business in the world, I feel like I can ask those questions. When I'm qualifying someone, I can ask what they think of something that's going on, or I can ask them about their business being third generation family or just recently having gone public because I Googled those things I equipped myself. So I think that's kind of my part to to qualifying is like, ask someone about their business and understand the financial, you know, and familial word, the world that they sit in. And then my last kind of recommendation there is to ask questions about their philanthropy. And if you're only going to remember to, because I am throwing a lot of things out there, it would be to ask them, where they are involved or where their spouse is involved in why they are that might look like volunteering, giving sitting on a board understand their why. And ask them if they've ever given a gift before that felt like a really notable experience. And if they can describe it, and I was specific to not say really wonderful or really bad, because it leaves it open for the person to say, I have to admit, I was hesitant to have you come the last time I gave to you know, my spouse's alma mater, we'd never heard about how you know, where they spent our money. We never heard from the gift officer again, or we've just finished paying a pledge to the campaign and our children's school. It was wonderful. There were so many events, so many updates. So just those two questions kind of unpack so much about the person you're sitting across from.
I mean, Meg, God love you for steeping all of this in so much humility and owning your imposter syndrome, because that was 100%. Me and I would wager that's 100%. Anybody that's walking in to ask for a gift for the first time. And I think what you framed here is is not only is it smart and human, but it's a natural way to talk to somebody without feeling robotic, without making it feel like you're trying to manipulate them in any way. And I think that's the stuff that holds people back on not only as a fundraiser, but as a donor from opening your home, opening your office. And I absolutely loved all of your questions. You know me, I've got to throw it in on the back end too. And I would say, Guys, it's okay in your qualification to tell people why you love your organization. Because I think your origin story of what you have uniquely seen. What uniquely gets you up in the morning that drives you to do this work would also give a unique perspective to them as you're starting to really nurture a brand new relationship. So thank you for all of that. And I love this modern approach to it. And I want to dive a little bit more deeply into it. Because I think something that we've heard a lot in our communities specifically with frontline fundraisers is, there's been a shift in the way that we engage with donors in the digital age. And I would love for you to kind of talk about that through the lens of qualification talk about what modern qualification looks like in the digital age. Are you texting, you know, is your donors or your prospects? Is this happening in zoom? What happens when you can't physically get into the office because we're looking at global community now? And not all our donors are in proximity to us, some of them are halfway across the countries to talk a little bit about how somebody could do that in a virtual world.
Absolutely. You know, this is also somewhat specific to the region where you're working. I have clients in a lot of different areas of the country, and they all have such a unique culture to them. in Palm Beach County, for example, which is where I'm situated right now, most of my clients on both a nonprofit side and a philanthropist side really prefer in person engagement. But what has changed, despite that more traditional preference, is the ability to communicate more regularly informally, you would never have texted a donor in Palm Beach, you know, before 2020. And now I feel like they really welcome that. So that's one little nuance, I'll say, but relative to America, just more generally speaking, 100% people are texting donors to try and secure visits, they are asking for visits by zoom donors are receptive to that. Back in the day, it was like you had to meet in person, you had to send a letter first that you were going to call when
a doll formula was exhausting and so robotic, I'm so glad we're past it, I'm relieved.
Wasn't it painful, it was so painful. So now I feel like zoom is okay, this is something that's probably a little different. You used to they used to call it identification. In fact, I think on some of our major database systems that was like it was like identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship, I only call it qualification at this point. And I would argue that, in many cases, it's more than one visit, I would say that you are not always cultivating someone, the second time you see them, which could completely be by zoom or on the phone, it does not have to be in person. But chances are the second time we meet someone, we are still gathering that information about either their affinity or their capacity, which means that the whole process is kind of tilted a bit like you can take someone and ask them for a visit. And that first visit could be a half hour on Zoom, and you kind of meet each other and you get a little bit. And that next visit can be really intentionally aligned, of course with something that he or she shared or an interest that you noted, but you're still probably really gathering that information from them. So the lines are more blurred, I think between the stages, because we have to be so genuine. And it needs to be such a fulfilling process now, but also just to the digital world, you can have a meaningful and fulfilling process on Zoom, and through these little email updates that just are a picture of something on your campus, for example, or, you know, a text that says it was really great to me, I'll text you again in a couple of weeks. So I think the doors are just people are just so much more eager to affect change, and they're not drilling us and grilling every little detailed aspect of how we do it, we should take some of that pressure off of ourselves.
I agree.
I mean, I just I just think like this process when you do it right. When you're having these really meaningful engagements and not rushing the process has to lead to so much different results. In the end. I wonder if you would speak to that of like, what does it look like if someone rushes this or doesn't even have this step compared to an organization that's willing to invest this time and dedicate and orient the team around this approach? What kind of results you know, how do the results like different
The thing is that I hear the most is disappointment from organizations who say all we got was $1,000 from that person or, you know, I asked them for $10,000 and they couldn't believe that It's like, well, that we're just reacting, right? Like, we're just like going through this series of reactions instead of proactively engaging people on a, you know, kind of systematic but also very relational basis. And so I would say that people who kind of skip that qualification piece at the onset are not teed up well, to actually make a specific, well considered solicitation of someone. And by that, I will define that as a specific amount of money, vehicles, if you want to offer something specific based on what you've learned, with an allocation of that support. And so, I think that when people aren't qualified, they might come to us with a gift, they don't really know always how much to give, we can't assume because they are tremendously successful business women or business men that they're super sophisticated philanthropists. So by qualifying people, we're not just skipping out on that chance to really ask and put like our best foot forward and doing so we're also kind of missing out on some of the pieces where we're educating them about philanthropy to be can't assume they know everything that we know,
I agree with you wholeheartedly. And I don't think that fundraisers in general that we step into that as our expertise enough, I think we step back so much and let the donor drive more than we should. And I think, you know, to that point that you've made early on just about I was, you know, intimidated to go into these offices. Yes, that is how all of us feel when we first started doing this. But when we show up with what we know. And we show up with what we've seen, and we show up with impact, and vision, it's just a different conversation. And that is a magnet to people who really want to use their philanthropy to change the world. And I think this dovetails into just this incredible movement that we're seeing that we want more fundraisers to take on as a suit of armor, which is, how do you use what you do to be a change agent on this earth? And I just think that the intentionality of major gift fundraising can have a tremendous impact. Talk to us about that intersection between intentionality and major gift fundraisers, how can people begin to get that mindset of believing in themselves as as not only people who are building bridges to create incredible impact for the organization, but really about being a change agent on this earth with what they know, and how they can connect people in community? Talk to us about that?
Yeah, this is just so especially meaningful, and like, important to me, because when I entered this field, I felt like people were thinking about nonprofit professionals and fundraisers as such transactional human beings who fell into the space because like they couldn't, or didn't want to go work at some big for profit corporation. And there's specific times in my life, I remember looking around and feeling like, No, that is not us. We are all the things we're exactly look, look at the the support that we're bringing to our communities, and changing the trajectory of people's lives or places, you know, that are on the other end of the support. So to be more granular on it, I think that we have this historical notion that fundraisers at an organization need to go meet with people, and they need to ask them for money. But what they actually need is a seat at the table where the visions are brought to light where they are contemplated and discussed where board members are asking really hard questions or bringing tough feedback to the room. And they need to be able to soak that all in and speak to donors as if they have just heard firsthand because they have what the organization is going to do. Why how they're going to do it, how much that's going to cost and what's going to happen as a result of that. They also need to be able to go back to that seat at that leadership table and say, Hey, I had 10 visits this month. Eight of them asked me why last year, we did not. And five of them want to know if next year we're still going to be and that's what I mean really, when I say be a change agent at your organization. I've tried to get in the habit of thinking people who work in These, you know, in our field and philanthropy and leading with gratitude, to also remind them like you are doing tremendously important work. And can you imagine what the organization would be like, if you weren't doing that if you weren't connecting what people want to give to the needs you have. That means you need to really be able to have autonomy to go between those two sectors and speak into things and hear things, gather information and share perspective. And I want the boardroom doors, I want the C suites to be open to major gift officers and Frontline fundraisers even more than I think they are right now. Because they are the people on the front line, they're getting the feedback, they're asked the hardest questions, they have the tightest answers, like let's let them in, let's hear what they have to say. So that when a board chair and an executive director want to include something in a strategic vision that a gift officer can say, hey, if we tweak it this way, or if we make it bold in this way, tell me how much that would cost. Like I've listened to people, I have ideas on who I could go to for something like that. So I guess this message is not just for those who are fundraising, but also for those who are working with fundraisers as colleagues like they're, they're your guys out there, getting the Intel and the information that you want and need to make sure you have that boldness to your vision, and that it can kind of be tested against your constituency a little bit, so use them more. And if you are a frontline fundraiser, go into your work every day with that mindset of who over what I always tell everyone wake up and think about who before you think about what like who can I go to to change, maybe not the world today, but this thing that I have control over changing, don't call me and say, I don't know what to ask for, or I don't feel like I have something that I can really fundraise for, like, let's go into the rooms we need to go into and figure out what those things are.
Meg, louder for the people in the back. Everybody rewind that, listen back to it. Because I think this is a real problem in our industry. And this is a call to arms. Because when you have a vision in a vacuum, and I'll tell you I've worked at organizations who keep their vision at a really high level, it creates a silo for the vision, it doesn't allow the vision to spread, and be interpreted. And, frankly, to have holes poked in it, which is what we need to strengthen what we're doing. And I can tell you that at my former organization, at the beginning of my career, that didn't even exist, there was not a culture of that. And I bet there's a lot of people listening outside to this who are saying, oh, yeah, I work in an organization where somebody hands me, the campaign goal, they don't talk to me about what it takes to get there who who could be a part of that they hand me the goal. But the shift that happens when you are brought to the table, and you can name names, and you can name your interest. And you can point to other partnerships, it becomes an entirely different story. And I would just up the ante, on what you're about to say, on what you're proposing here and say, Don't even just bring those major gift officers to the table, bring your storyteller to the table, bring your donor relations person to the table, anybody who's listening, maybe your social media manager, to the voice of your community who is getting that qualitative or even quantitative feedback. quantitative feedback speaks to the bean counters, we have all learned this at the CFO level. So we got to have that data. But I do think that there is a narrative that is not being told when those visions are only at the high level. And we have to bring the top of the vision and the bottom of the base of story together to really create that impact. So I love that you created space for that. I'm sitting over here, click SNAP and my fingers could not
love it more. What I was thinking is we run a lot of campaign feasibility studies which we tend to call campaign planning assessments at this point, because we'll have to do a whole nother episode I will come back if you'll have me or we can just get together and talk about this because I want to hear things. This is a huge piece of what I do and what drives my passion for including people and letting them be change agents is when you are planning for a campaign and we're forming the list of prospective interviewees for the study. I'm like, I want your assistant and In the room, I want president's assistant in the room. I want everyone who interfaces for your Yes, to be in the room here because I need to make sure that every little detail, you know, we're running a campaign feasibility study for an organization in South Florida. And the assistant knows when someone has purchased a plane because she's talking to them about whether they can get together for lunch with someone. I'm like, Yeah, we want to know that that's helpful to us. So I'm more or less underlining your point, Becky, it's like anyone who has Intel? Let's get them in the room here. Boom. Yeah,
I mean, to me, it's like the recession proofing your mission in this because you have all these relationships, you understand what could land what's not going to land where your challenges are going to be? So it's just, it's just good. And you know, I know you love this space. I mean, it's in your name, philanthropy is in the name of George philanthropy group. So we want to give space to you to talk about the power of philanthropy, and now you get to be witness to a lot of stories is there one that's just kind of sucker punched you and was like, Man, this is why we do what we do.
Ironically, it's not even through my work. But when I was a student at Lemoyne College in Syracuse, New York, which is a really small liberal arts school, and the only school I really visited, you know, my parents did not go to college, my older brother did, he went to that school. So it seemed like, that's where I'll go to. And when I was there, getting my French degree, a man
who had
lost his, he lost his wife, probably I'm trying to remember now. But some years before I got there, she had also gone to the college, and loved French, or she had also gotten a French degree, and he established a scholarship. So I get this email as, like 19 years old, you know, I don't even know the word philanthropy to be totally honest. And I get this email from the institutional advancement office asking me if I would come meet this gentleman during scholarship night. And I'm like, Oh, my gosh, yes, obviously. But what am I going to do? Or say, you know, I don't know. They're like, No, he just wants to meet you got like, basically, anyone who's giving a scholarship is coming. And if you get one, you can come and say, Thank you. So I, like get my Ugg boots on because it's in Syracuse. And, and I walk across campus and like kind of nervous. And this older man who is just sweet as pie, gives me a hug. And he's like, I'm so thank you for coming. And I'm like, No, thank you. You know, this is it's so nice to meet you. And he didn't have any children. His wife died. He's like, if you ever want to have lunch with me, so I'm like, Of course I do. We meet you know, the next week at the cafeteria at my college, and we have lunch together and you just talked about his wife. And I remember thinking like, this person doesn't know me at all. This person knows nothing about me. And he's giving money that I'm somehow getting so I can come to college here. It was such a mind blowing epiphany for me that years later, when the same advancement office came to me and was like, you know, you seem like you'll, you'll be good at asking do you want to come do this? I'm like thinking of that man. Yes, that sounds like such an amazing way to do what it sounds like I maybe want to do but also make it possible for other people like me because I had no idea that this even existed before you sent me an email to meet him. So that's kind of my my start.
I love when major gift officers tell stories that have nothing to do with anything they've ever solicited. And I thank you for that story. Because it is like the Getting back to the heart of why we do and I have to say I've worked with the university as well and it never gets old. Never gets old to watch a scholarship donor meet their scholarship recipient and the joy that they have of just simply wanting to know you in that story is just so evident of that. That was beautiful, man. Thank you. Okay, Meg we and all of our conversations as you know with a one good thing and we are ready for you to bring the heat down with here one good thing what would you offer up to our community today?
It's a little taboo, but bear with me. Oh, my one good thing in major gifts is work smarter, not harder. You do not I have to show up to every team meeting, feeling like you have to report on how early you got there, how late you stayed, how many tasks you've completed, you need to focus on being smart, and genuine and meaningful, and just passionate about understanding the people you're sitting across from. And that might mean sending out five emails and calling five people to get five meetings where you spend an hour of serious quality time, honing your skills and flexing your organization's muscles and learning and listening and growing deeper relationships with people. So I had to explain it. But at the end of the day, the best advice I've ever gotten and major gifts is work smarter, not harder.
An oldie but a goodie. And I love the way you've applied our favorite conversation. Yeah, it's so good. Okay, Meg, I mean, you've got super fans brewing, I know people listening are gonna want to connect with you and your work. So point is to all the ways you where do you show up online? And how can people find the George Flint group?
Okay, we have an Instagram, I think it's at George philanthropy. So that is easy. Same thing on LinkedIn, George philanthropy group, I post, sometimes from my personal, LinkedIn, Meg, George, and then we have a website, George philanthropy.com. And I try to update that as much as I can with videos and blogs. And later this month, we will be launching something on our website that I think will be really helpful for those who have come to us and who we haven't been able to help. I wish we could take every person who asked for our help with campaigns or implementing a major gift program, the reality has been that we haven't been able to, but we'll have this resource, sort of like a membership program. It has a series of master classes, we're calling it on these very specific topics. So qualifying donors making the ask getting your portfolio ready, I hope people will appreciate and take advantage of that and find it helpful, because it will be a lot of tips and tools for those leaner shops or those one man woman or one man shops, who really could do some, some extra support and major gifts. So that will be available on George philanthropy.com. And I will be excited to meet more people through that too.
I just commend you, because I think this is a different narrative. And if anybody is taking anything away from this conversation, do not go into 2023 in fear, go into 2023 as your fundraising with absolute confidence about who you are, what your vision is, and how somebody can be a part of it. Because if you can cast that, well, people will be a magnet to that dollars will be a magnet to it. What we call believers will become a magnet to it step into your confidence in your power, you can be this change agent, thank you for reminding us of that Meg and just rooting for you and the George philanthropy group and all things keep going.
Thank you so much. And I want to just add to what you just said that I don't want any fundraisers to leave this episode, feeling like intimidated or questioning anything around major gifts. Go start having visits, you will learn so much on every visit that you have. You can do it don't assume for other people. And like Becky said, don't go into it with fear lead with gratitude be genuine and the rest of the workout.
Loves.
Thank you so much. This has been so delightful.
This has been really fun. Thank you guys so much.
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