Development Staff
-
Fine Tune Skills
-
Gain Actionable Tools
-
Practice in a Safe Environment
We have decades of experience mentoring and advising development staff in fundraising fundamentals and advanced major and principal gift best practices, principles, and execution. The Bold Asking® training and coaching program is designed to help your staff become just that, a bold, high-performance team, individually and collectively. We help individual development officers optimize their interpersonal skills and hone competencies in the technical aspects of portfolio management, gift strategies and boldly closing gifts.
All sessions are highly interactive, including individual and small group exercises, and role-playing to provide constructive real-time feedback. The entire development team is guided in honing new skills, arming them with game-changing tools such as their own personally crafted “Signature Language” and “Bold Listening” habits that help support everything from discovery calls to meaningful donor conversations and effective solicitations.
Workshops and small group training sessions are always customized for the development team’s distinct needs, timely challenges, and opportunities whether you are preparing for a campaign, expanding the major donor pipeline, or exploring new opportunities.
Major Gift Workshops
-
Based on a pre-assessment of staff competencies and the organization’s philanthropic culture and achievements, a three-part series of workshops is customized for each team. Each workshop is also available as a stand-alone session. We work with clients to customize a program that meets their team’s needs. All sessions include actionable toolkits, donor scripts, small group exercises and role-playing that provide real-time feedback to support learning.
-
Description and Objectives:
A deep dive into Bold asking fundamentals
The philanthropic culture that inspires giving
Anatomy of the bold ask
Attributes of a high performing major gift officer and how to cultivate them
Workshop 1 is a prerequisite to other workshops.
-
Description and Objectives:
Explore and leave with a deeper understanding of how to plan and manage a quarterly and annual engagement of donors and prospects
Tools for managing effective prospect management
Creating gift strategies
Visit planning is designed to transform the development officer’s work to enhance donor relationships and elevate successful major gifts
Building strategic partnerships with executive leaders and board members to enhance your work, donor engagement and closing gifts
-
Description and Objectives:
Explore the secrets to managing a dynamic pipeline of major gift prospects
Create annual plans that integrate the institution’s strategic plans and goals
Tactics in managing donor conversations; framing the conversation; how and when to make the ask and with whom; donor psychology
Interweaving conversations about planned gifts and gifts of assets
Asking the right questions and the power of listening
Creating your “Signature Language”
The power of ritual in preparing for donor meetings
Creating and training powerful partnerships with institutional leaders and volunteers in effective pipeline management and closing gifts
Are you a bold asker? Honing your attributes and skills to build relationships and close major gifts
Role-playing a variety of scenarios is used extensively in this session.
Health Care Specific Workshops
-
Learning Objectives:
Energize your annual giving program and build your major donor pipeline. This session focuses on the fundamentals of getting and making highly effective discovery and qualification visits with grateful patient and family members to drive your major donor pipeline and annual giving program. The session includes scripts, steps for supporting board outreach and communication tactics to support the program.
-
Description and Objectives:
Facilitating physician conversations and building trusted partnerships that transform your grateful patient program with these critical partners.
Where to start? Asking the right questions.
Rebuilding after failed starts.
Developing champions and influencers, and strategies for partnering with your board and volunteers.
-
Description and Objectives:
Designed to elevate and optimize the C-suite and board’s strategic and meaningful engagement in grateful patient and family fundraising in dynamic, complex, and demanding healthcare environments.
Understanding the psychology of giving in the health care environment.
Strategies for effectively partnering with your development colleagues to enhance outcomes.
Leading from Big Vision to create Big Gifts!
-
Descriptions and Objectives:
Building trusted relationships can start at some of the most unsuspecting times. Visits in the hospital are sensitive and can be deeply personal.
This session covers do’s and don’ts, involving the staff, CEO, and physicians, and conversation scripts that are critical to creating supportive grateful patients and families.
These interactive sessions will equip the healthcare development staff with tools to transform and elevate their grateful patient and family giving program. Some of the most meaningful relationships occur with grateful patients and families, but for new and even skilled major gift officers, approaching grateful patients and families can be wrought with sensitivities unique to the hospital setting. These sessions provide practical toolkits, thought-provoking discussions, and role-playing to increase their confidence and skills.
Small Group Training Modules
-
Description and Objectives:
This interactive session integrates cases studies that focus on the importance of Big Vision in tough times
Gift vehicles that are best suited for recession-era needs.
Discussion-based approach covering specific gift strategies applicable to the development program.
-
Description and Objectives:
Steps in qualifying major gifts prospects
Getting and making highly effective discovery calls to elevate your major giving program.
How to get the appointment
Utilizing C Suite partners
Scripts for opening conversations and moving forward
-
Description and Objectives:
What does it take to be a successful major gift officer?
We will assess raw skills and attributes and how each development officer can cultivate and nurture new skills and essential attributes for a meaningful career in major gift and transformational fundraising
Transforming Grit into Passion
-
-
Description and Objectives:
This session explores the evidence-based science of rituals and how those practices used by performers, artists, musicians, and athletes can serve the major gift development officer well.
This interactive session looks at case studies of how rituals and practice have successfully been used to prepare for some of the most important solicitations or donor meetings.
Group exercises and discussion are utilized throughout the session to begin identifying your own rituals and practice.
-
Small group training deepens the major gift team’s skills. These shorter sessions are designed to optimize the development officer’s unique skill sets in the major gift process. Major Gift Workshops 1, 2, and 3 are prerequisites to these training modules. The sessions are highly interactive and include actionable toolkits that can immediately be put to use to increase Major Gift revenue!
Entry Level Development Staff: Major Gift Fundamentals
-
Description and Objectives:
What is a major gift?
Where do major gifts fit in your organization’s comprehensive development program?
Always start with why
Effective prospecting in your organization
Using discovery visits to build the pipeline
How can you become a bold asker? Building effective partnerships and alliances with volunteers and others in your organization
-
Description and Objectives:
Identify a strong culture of philanthropy and practical steps you can take to build it from the ground up at your organization.
Leading from Big Vision
Step by Step Approach to moves management for major gift fundraising
Employing moves management tactics in your work from qualification to cultivation, pre-solicitation, solicitation and stewardship
Small group discussion and report out
-
Description and Objectives:
Hone communication and listening skills that optimize donor conversations for trusted relationships and major gift giving
Effective donor conversations, where to get started
Creating your Signature Language for Bold Asking
Small group work to prepare for role-playing
Role-playing a variety of donor scenarios to practice learned skills and new tools.
-
Available for Development Leaders and Major Gift Officers
A post-assessment is conducted after each training session to identify ongoing needs. One-on-one access to consultant coaching will be available for up to three to six months following training sessions for the development leader or individual development officers. Coaching objectives will be identified in advance to guide the process and ensure successful outcomes.
Three-Part Series: Introductory Training Series for New Development Staff. Workshops are highly interactive, using small group exercises and role-playing. Practical toolkits and scripts are included.
Thank you, Vision Philanthropy Group, for sharing your knowledge and skills with the United Way of Williamson County’s Board of Directors, CEO, Major and Planned Giving Staff and Task Force! The investment in your workshop was critical in helping us launch our Endowment Campaign. Thanks to VPG’s leadership and guidance, we are better equipped to have a successful Endowment Campaign. The Bold Asking Workshop and subsequent Lunch ‘n Learn, were instrumental in preparing our Board and staff to build relationships and make the “bold” ask. In addition, it provided each of us with critical prep work, tips and talking points that are necessary even before making the first call. We made a wise investment when we collaborated with Vision Philanthropy.
– Pam Bryant, former President and CEO, United Way of Williamson County
Contact us
Susan Holt, President and Senior Consultant
401 Bowling Avenue Unit 1
Nashville, TN 37205
615-423-0675
susan@visionphilanthropy.com
Christy Passmore, Senior Advisor
