I remember when I was managing my first capital campaign, and I had a very enthusiastic volunteer.

We had booked an initial meeting with an important prospect, and it was one of our first calls together. 

Little did I know at that very first meeting, he was going to spontaneously ask for a gift about 10 times bigger than we were planning! 

If you’ve never seen a donor almost falling off his chair with laughter, I hope you never do...

Since I first started fundraising in 1995, I’ve made all the mistakes there are to make - and then some! 

Today, I'm sharing some of my favourite fixes to the most common major gift mistakes - including the  important lesson I learned when that donor meeting with my over-enthusiastic volunteer almost went terribly wrong…

Emma Lewzey, CFRE is an award-winning fundraising expert

with 20+ years experience raising millions of dollars across the arts, education, health and human services sectors. If you want to raise more 5, 6 and even 7-figure donations your non-profit, you can download Emma’s free Blueprint for Major Gift Success, and learn the 4 crucial steps to raising big gifts (at any size shop!)