Making the Ask: Dev. Methods
Course Description
The successful development cycle includes identification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship of donors. Students will explore these aspects of the development cycle and best practice approaches through efforts including annual campaigns, major gifts, planned giving, capital campaigns, corporate relations, crowd-funding, and donor recognition. Emphasis will be placed on building relationships with and managing donors in the context of organizational mission, and training and motivating the board and volunteers to serve as partners in the development initiative.
Learning Outcomes
- Assemble a working knowledge of the elements of the development cycle.
- Assess the diverse approaches to fundraising and understand their role in the overall sustainability of organizations.
- Integrate the various internal stakeholders within the development process.
- Experiment with relationship-building strategies that lead to sustained and meaningful engagement with donors with varying capacity.
- Construct meaningful asks, a skill that requires honoring a donor’s passion and purpose within the context of an organization’s mission.