Major Gift Fundraisers Are Philanthropy Brokers is Hall Powell’s unique take on ethics and motivations when working with generous donors. Let’s hear what this celebrated fundraising veteran has to share:
Dave Rosser was the Vice President for Advancement at Morton Plant Hospital in Clearwater Florida when I met him at an Association of Healthcare Professionals (AHP) convention. We became friends and communicated with each other periodically on routine matters of hospital fundraising. He was instrumental in helping me to build an effective, ongoing comprehensive fundraising program for New Hanover Regional Medical Center in Wilmington, North Carolina. Being as we were serving our hospitals in non-competing areas; we were able to share program ideas and strategies for successful fundraising. The time came when Dave was really able to help me to determine the direction and the fate of our Foundation.
When I met Dave Rosser, I had been the Executive Director of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation for about a year. The Foundation was formed to be the philanthropic arm of the nonprofit hospital, which at that time the eighth largest hospital in the state. At the end of my first year as Executive Director, my administrative assistant and I had managed to seat a very effective Foundation Board of Trustees and had raised a significant amount of money. Because we had been greatly successful in our fundraising efforts, we had created a need for addition staff. For me that was a “healthy problem,” but for the medical center’s CFO it was a “problem”. Let me explain: The CEO of the medical center and the chief financial officer had been told by a well-intentioned, but hardly competent “consultant,” that all they would ever need for a successful fundraising program was to hire a fundraising professional and provide him or her with an administrative assistant and an office and they would raise “lots of money.” His formula was: fundraiser + assistant+ office = $$$. He was actually correct for the first year, but to go beyond the fruits of our first years’ efforts and results, we were going to need help. The (fundraising) fields were ripe for harvest, but I needed help. I needed to build a professional fundraising team. But, in order to do that, to bring more staff members on board, I had to convince my CEO and Board that it was the right decision. I had a plan:
Major Gift Fundraisers Are Philanthropy Brokers
I called Dave and explained my predicament and asked for his help in educating my CEO and the foundation board about how to build an effective, successful fundraising team. Daves’s answer was, “Hall, bring them down here and we’ll put on a show.” Fast Forward:
I convinced the medical center CEO (my boss), the medical center’s Board Chair, and the Medical Center Foundation Board’s Chair (my other boss) to go with me to Clearwater Florida to spend the day with each one’s counterpart at the Morton Plant Mease Hospital Foundation, to learn how to implement and manage a successful fundraising program for our medical center. A minor miracle!
When we arrived in Clearwater, we rented a car and drove to the Morton Plant Hospital Foundation’s Office which was in a separate facility across the parking lot from the hospital. They had their own separate office. In front of their building was a beautiful sign identifying the Foundation office. As we walked into the office reception area there was another beautiful sign that read: “Welcome, New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation.”
Dave Roser introduced us to the hospital’s CEO, Board Chair, and the Foundation’s Board Chair. We spent the rest of that afternoon learning about how to structure, staff, and operate a successful comprehensive fundraising organization that supports the hospital’s needs for those critical programs, equipment, facilities, research opportunities. and myriads of requests from doctors, nurses, and technicians who do not have the budgets to purchase what they need to stay on top of advanced medical research results that requires new training and equipment.
Initially, the four of us met with our counterparts to learn and understand each person’s role in supporting the foundation: CEO with CEO. Board Chairs with each of their counterparts, and myself with Dave Rosser. Dave shared with me how he staffed the foundation and how that all of his “Directors” (Director of Development for Cardiology, Women and Children, Orthopedics, Cancer, etc.) focused on their fundraising activities to meet the philanthropic needs of their area of medical specialty. All of the directors worked together as a team to ensure they were meeting the needs of the donor to give, even if it meant referring their prospective donor over to another director within the foundation. Dave explained their day-to-day activities as being “honest brokers” who helped donors connect their desire to “make a difference” with the right cause that satisfied that desire.
What is a “Philanthropy Broker? To answer that question, we must first understand what a broker does. A broker is an intermediate who ensures a transaction runs smoothly and that each party has the necessary information needed to satisfy the investor and the recipient of his or her investment.
A philanthropy broker is a woman or man who represents both donor and the nonprofit organization to help ensure that that the need the donor to give and the desire of the nonprofit to receive are harmonious. It is possible that a donor’s gift, while it might be a good gift her him or her to give, could not be a good gift for the receiving nonprofit. A case in point:
A philanthropy broker is a woman or man who represents both donor and the nonprofit organization to help ensure that that the need the donor to give and the desire of the nonprofit to receive are harmonious.
Early in my nonprofit fundraising career, I was in the midst of a major gifts fundraising campaign and had spent a good amount of time cultivating a prospective donor for a seven-figure gift. When I asked him for a gift of $1 million, he responded with “Hall, I will give you a million dollars if you will put me on your Board of Directors.” Now, on face value, that sounds like a great deal: a $1 million gift and a new wealthy board member. In pursuing the conversation, I uncovered the reason he wanted to be on our board was to make a change in the organization that would result in personal financial and ideological gain for himself. As the “honest broker,” I had to make a decision. It was a good gift for him, but not for our organization. I did not accept the gift. That decision turned out to be “a blessing.” As word got out within our organization about not accepting the $1 million gift, our credibility of being an organization faithful to our mission, without compromise, was greatly enhanced, and the role of the “honest broker” made clearer.
Broker or Tin-cupper? In my 41 plus years of serving nonprofit organizations as a chief development officer (CDO) and fundraising consultant, I have worked with legendary fundraisers like Doug Lawson and Jerry Panas. I have trained many development officers as a CDO, and mentored others as their consultant. The ones who were the most successful major gifts fundraisers and managers were the ones who viewed themselves as “honest brokers” in the great profession of philanthropy. The brokers lived by the calling, if you will, to be the mediator of the need of donors to give and the recipient organization’s desire to receive; knowing that it was a possibility that the best gift for the donor may be for another cause than one she or he was representing. The honest broker also knows that if he or she “loses” a gift by helping a donor make a decision that results in it not being designated for the organization she represents, the personal relationship with the donor has been strengthened with trust and mutual respect resulting in ways long-term relationships potentially produce: trust and involvement for future needs. I can recount many times when people, who did not support a particular campaign or project for which I was raising funds, did support other projects of mine by referring other people to me and my organization, resulting in significant major gifts.
A successful fundraising broker builds long-term relationships of mutual respect and trust. Dave Rosser was a philanthropy broker. He led his team of philanthropy brokers to raise millions of dollars for Morton Plant Hospital because his donors trusted him to satisfy their need to make their philanthropic investments make a difference in the lives of people who so desperately needed quality healthcare. Dave, because of his willingness to redirect donor gifts to other nonprofits in the greater Clearwater, Florida area, when it was in the best interests of the donor to do so, he was able to receive other life-changing, life-saving gifts to his organization because of donor trust. His honest assessment of the best way for donors to give, which sometimes were for organizations other than Morton Plant Hospital Foundation, created channel between area philanthropists and the foundation. You can trust an honest broker.
H. Hall Powell, Jr., MBA, CNC
Senior Vice President
Development Systems International
Major Gift Fundraisers Are Philanthropy Brokers was first posted at National Development Institute News.
For more articles like Major Gift Fundraisers Are Philanthropy Brokers VISIT HERE
To learn more about Hall Powell VISIT HERE
To meet Hall Powell VISIT HERE
Hall Powell has served as Senior Vice President of Development Systems International (DSI) for more than a decade and has 40 years of fundraising experience, including 19 as a fundraising consultant. He has provided campaign and development counsel to a wide variety of institutions throughout the country, with special emphasis in the healthcare field. Prior to joining DSI, Hall was senior consultant with the fundraising consulting firm Alexander Hass of Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, Hall served as the Executive Vice President of the Memorial Health Foundation, Inc. in Savannah, Georgia, and the founding Executive Director of the New Hanover Regional Medical Center Foundation, Inc., in Wilmington, North Carolina. He spent more than four years as the founding Director of the Amethyst Foundation in Charlotte where he played a significant role in the development of a nonprofit management seminar for Winthrop University. He also served as Director of Graduate Administration at Winthrop and was responsible for directing the Executive MBA Program as an Associate Professor in the Management Department. A seasoned lecturer in the nonprofit sector, Hall has also been an instructor with the Duke University Nonprofit Management Seminar. A Certified fundraising Executive, Hall Powell has served on the national board of directors of the National Society of Fundraising Executives, now known as the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP). He has also been instrumental in forming two AFP chapters. He holds an undergraduate degree from Guilford College and an MBA from Winthrop University. Hall Powell also engaged in graduate studies at Columbia International University. In his role as a fundraising counselor, Hall Powell is a strong advocate of the underlying philosophy of “donor-centered fundraising,” meeting the need of the donor to give, not putting the needs of the nonprofit organization as the primary motive for the donor/institution relationship. With this underlying philosophy for building comprehensive fundraising programs for institutions he served as Chief Development Officer, and for those he serves as fundraising counsel, he supports the Major Gifts Ramp Up model. The model, accurately presented in 13 chapters built upon tried and proven best practices for successful major gifts fundraising, emphasizes building capacity for the nonprofit organization and long-term donor relationships.
