Comments on: Secret Millionaire In Your File

By: Bill Huddleston

Bill Huddleston — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 20:07:32 +0000

I believe that in Ken Burnett’s book The Zen of Fundraising there’s a similar story, except that the donor made the gift before dying. When asked why the donor hadn’t let the non-profit know years earlier that he was planning on making such a gift the reply was a 3 word answer that Mr. Burnett identifies as one of the most important lessons for any fundraiser,

“May change mind.”

Regards and thanks to Ms. Groner for her generosity.

Bill Huddleston
http://www.cfcfundraising.com
BillHuddleston1@gmail.com

By: Mazarine

Mazarine — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 03:33:43 +0000

Here is where I agree with Matt. It’s important to preserve a donor’s anonymity.

That said, it’s also important to try to get to know each donor. If someone had taken the time to realize Ms. G.’s age, and done a planned giving visit, they might have realized, then, what she was capable of giving.

Know your donor.

http://wldwomanfundraising.com

By: Bob Bland

Bob Bland — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:02:50 +0000

I have several experiences with situations like this. I cite them again and again, as recently as last week when a neophyte online fundraiser assumed that large planned gifts came from major donors. There was once a scrawled note on a renewal form that mentioned a million dollar revocable trust which the data people handed to the major gift officer, who tossed it away since it came from a $10 donor. Her secretary pulled it out of the trash and the Exec Dir called the donor. The major gift officer was terminated before the end of the day. And then there was the $20K CGA established as a result of the acknowledgment of the first gift, which was of a frequent buyer coupon, not even the donor’s cash. The donor then did annual CGAs for the rest of her life.

There is gold in them thar files!

By: Matt Bates

Matt Bates — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 19:40:21 +0000

I have no doubt but that your intentions are to honor Grace Groner, but I wonder if Ms. Groner would have approved of your research into her assets, then publishing of them in this blog, if she were alive today. It seems to me she went out of her way to keep this information quiet in her lifetime, and I suspect she did so in part because she abhorred the wealth screening, ratings and identification tactics you’ve employed upon her passing. I don’t think the lesson here is that these tactics need to be altered to account for donors like Ms. Groner. I think the lesson is they need to be abandoned entirely so that donors like Ms. Groner can feel free to engage fully and publicly in their charitable pursuits– in their lifetimes– without fear that professional fundraisers will use this information to badger them with additional solicitations and falsely conflate material wealth with maturity relative to a charitable cause.