Driving Major Gift Philanthropy

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With over 20 years as the ED, the ask has always intimidated me — honestly, that's why I'd avoided it. This changed how I approach people. Instead of leading with the ask, I'm building rapport and a foundation of trust first.

Executive Director, Youth advocacy nonprofit (Past seminar participant)

Major gifts is not one more thing to take on.

You became your organization's ED because you care deeply about the mission and community. You're ready to actualize the organization's vision. But the day-to-day has a way of taking you off track, away from the most powerful conversations for you and your nonprofit.

While major gifts are typically considered to be only from individuals, our focus is on all partnership-based philanthropy, including from corporations and foundations. This allows you to be a more effective leader by securing more relationship-focused gifts from multiple sources.

What changes

You stop fundraising to people and start building with them. Almost everything that makes this work feel bad (the performing, the dread before the ask) comes from treating a donor as a target. Change that, and the work becomes fulfilling.

You're imagining a future and turning it into an action plan with the people who want to help you make it a reality. By fully embracing your organization's why, values, and vision, and your donor's priorities, you find the strongest intersection between the nonprofit and the donor.

You don't need all the answers. Good questions, active listening, and a willingness to explore become the core of the method. Ideas emerge from the conversations that often feel messy. That's the whole point of co-creating with a donor partner, all while staying true to your values, vision, and strategic plan.

In addition to individuals, this applies to corporations and foundations. Institutional funders often want a relationship deeper than a one-time funding opportunity. Relationships you already have through grants and sponsorships are a great place to grow sustained partnerships.

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When an ED invites a donor to join in the nonprofit's future rather than fund a line item, one plus one starts to equal 3, 5, or 10. The donor isn't writing a check — they're stepping up as a partner in addressing your community's needs and turning an imagined future into reality.

Sarah Grebow (Program Co-Leader)

Our Signature Program

Three components. The Intensive gives you the method. The consultations apply it to your organization. The community is where you take regular action alongside others in similar shoes.

The Intensive

A small cohort for actively engaging, asking questions, practicing, sharing experiences, and workshopping next steps.

Three-part live online seminar (2.5 hours each)

Session 1. Why, Values & Vision: the driver of major gift philanthropy.
Session 2. Conversational Interviews: methodology for learning and exploring potential donor partnerships.
Session 3. The Ask: preparation, the solicitation, and what comes next.

Three Individual Consultations

Where the method gets applied to your organization, your board, and your actual prospects.

Three one-hour Zoom meetings

Direct time with Sarah & Chris.
Integration and application of approach and material.
Discussion of your specific major gift challenges.

Six-Month Membership in Our Ongoing Live Community

The heart of the program, because major gift philanthropy becomes part of how you lead and your abilities keep expanding as your organization thrives in new ways.

Sarah and Chris as your guides bring

Monthly content presentation: a specialized major giving topic; live, with recordings available
Twice monthly hot-seat coaching: everyone gets a turn quarterly
Weekly office hours: drop in, learn, and problem solve with your fellow EDs
Member-run accountability teams: regular progress on the goals that matter most to you
Twice-monthly tips and wins: emails to inspire, sharing motivation and member wins

Our Signature Program is a unified offering, not a menu. The three components are built to work together: learning the method, applying it to your situation, and taking regular action with a group of peers doing the same.

What you'll walk away with

A short list of the people you're actually going to talk to, and a reason to call each one.
Language for your why, your values and your vision that you can say out loud without wincing.
A way to open a donor conversation that doesn't feel to you like asking.
A first solicitation you've planned, and people to work through it with when it happens.

Investment

$1,900

The Intensive (a three-part seminar), three consultations, and six months of membership in the community

Three steps

Apply

About 15 minutes. We read every application ourselves and review on a rolling basis.

Apply for the fall/winter cohort

Confirm your acceptance and complete a short pre-seminar assignment

A short pre-seminar assignment, under 30 minutes. You'll reflect on a relationship with a champion — someone who already embodies the highest level of partnership with your nonprofit.

Begin

Three live sessions, three one-on-ones, then six months of working the method in the community.

Questions we've been asked

Most of these came from the people who went through the pilots. We answered them then, and we're answering them here, because if they wondered, you probably are too.

Is my organization too small for this?

Probably not, and budget alone is the wrong test. The pilots included EDs running one-person shops who got as much out of it as anyone in the room. What matters more is whether your organization is established (at least five years old) and has a board that functions, and enough stability to think past this quarter. Often, a minimum annual budget of $500,000 is the best fit.

Is this only about individual donors?

No, and this is the part that surprises people most. It covers partnership-based major gifts that grow from customized strategy and personalized engagement, including those from corporations and foundations. Institutional funders often want a deeper relationship than a single funding cycle, and an existing grant or sponsorship is usually the most fertile ground you already have.

Can I send my development director or board chair, or bring them with me?

Not for this program! This one is for executive directors, and we hold that line for a reason rather than out of formality. What changes here is how the person leading the organization thinks about donor relationships, and that is not something that can be received secondhand and handed along. The cohort also works because everyone in the room carries the same job and can be candid about it. If your development director or board would benefit, get in touch with us.

What if I can't make one of the three Wednesday dates?

Full and active participation in all three sessions of the Intensive is important. The sessions build on each other. If something unavoidable comes up we will work with you to catch you up, but we ask for you to commit to uninterrupted attendance at all three. So if you already know you will miss one, contact us by email to let us know you're interested and sign up to stay in the loop for future programs.

Can I join the community without doing the Intensive?

No. The Intensive prepares everyone to most benefit from the community as it is a crucial foundation of our approach.

Can I pay over time?

Yes. However, paying in full when you accept your place is what we prefer and it keeps things simple. If that timing is difficult, ask us about three payments, with the last one due before the third day of the Intensive. Asking has no bearing on your place in the cohort.

What if the cohort fills, or the timing is wrong?

We are committed to keep each cohort small to allow for active participation and attention, so the fall/winter cohort may fill. If it does, we will ask whether you would like to be an alternate. An alternate is not a runner-up; it is someone we want and expect to have a place for, in this cohort or the next. Either way, our “Stay in the loop” list gets you future cohort dates as soon as we set them.

Ready to apply?

The application is open now. We read every one as it arrives.

Apply now!

Not ready to apply yet? Stay in the loop and we'll write when the next cohort opens.

What previous seminar participants have said

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What resonated with me the most is getting myself, my staff and volunteers to really examine the Why behind what we are doing… That really stood out to me to move beyond the mechanics of what we do and focus on the impact, the stories, the people affected, the lives changed.

Executive Director, Youth advocacy nonprofit (Past seminar participant)

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I went into it thinking, oh, this is nothing new. But when I actually took the time to do the exercises. Oh! There's so much going on that it's easy to dismiss things and not give them the time they actually need to be valuable.

Executive Director, Environmental education nonprofit (Past seminar participant)

Who we are

Sarah Grebow

Program Co-Leader · Major Gift Philanthropy Consultant

More than two decades exclusively in major gifts: the strategies, relationships, conversations, gifts closed, and stewardship. Sarah's career has been in front-line major gift fundraising, and training, coaching, and collaborating with executive directors, deans, new major gift officers, and other senior leadership and Development staff during her full-time positions in higher education, K-12 schools, and nonprofits.

Since 2017, as a major gift consultant, she has empowered and supported nonprofits with personalized strategies, donor plans, and actions in all parts of high-level donor engagement and philanthropy. Sarah designed her approach to probing questions for major prospects throughout the fundraising cycle through her intensive training with the late Jerold Panas (a pioneer of major gift fundraising known for establishing best practices for engagement through donor questions).

LinkedIn →

Chris Templeton

Program Co-Leader · Storytelling Strategist & Interviewer

Founded Influence Spotlights, where he does conversational interviews and works on storytelling methodology, with more than 30 years in relationship-focused marketing. He is also the founder of Oh The Stories We Tell, a framework for authentic leadership.

Chris came to the sector from outside fundraising, but he has served as a nonprofit board president as well as an advisor for multiple nonprofits. As Sarah puts it, his approach is "major gifts in action": learning through questioning, strategy through simple inquiry.