Mastering Major Donor Fundraising

A practical and in-depth training programme

Mastering Major Donor Fundraising is a four-part training series that covers every aspect of developing and running a successful major donor programme.

You won’t find anything more practical and detailed available elsewhere.

Over four days, you will learn the theory and the implementation of all of the essential elements that create a successful major donor fundraising programme: compelling donor-friendly proposals, a pipeline of potential donors, genuine relationships, organisational commitment, asking for gifts.

A money tree planted in a white ribbed ceramic pot, with white stones covering the soil, sits on a wooden table against a white wall.

By the end of the course you will be able to confidently build, run and grow a major donor programme that brings transformational gifts into your organisation.

Do these issues sound familiar?

It's a challenge to access clear projects from the organisation

It's a struggle to connect with potential or existing donors

It's tricky to know if the programme is delivering its potential

It's hard to know when to ask, or how much to ask for

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This in-person four-part training programme covers all aspects of developing and running a successful major donor programme.

You can book the whole series or you can book just the days you need.

The programme has been designed for anyone with responsibility for setting up or growing major donor fundraising. It tackles these common issues and much more besides.

Mastering Major Donor Fundraising

Persuasive Proposals is about the pitch to the donor, which may or may not be in writing.

You will leave the day knowing what donors want to hear about, with tactics to help you acquire that information internally.

You will understand what makes a persuasive proposal and the psychology of philanthropy that’s at play here.

You’ll have ideas as to how to keep the members of your home-team on-message about this proposal.

Bring with you the most common objections you hear and we will work on robust answers to those objections, together.

Prospect Pipeline is about both finding and engaging with your prospective major donors.

You will leave the day knowing how to uncover potential major donors from within your database without necessarily using wealth screening.

You will know how to do network mapping interviews with those people you know who are well-connected, and what to do with the information that comes from those meetings.

You will understand the purpose and value of cultivation and how to do it well.

You will practice conversation skills through exercises and in more genuine situations, so that you build confidence in using these different techniques in your work every day.

Practical Management is about the business of running a major donor programme from record keeping to budget setting.

You will leave the day knowing what the management of a major donor programme looks like, from individual plans all the way up to annual plans and budget.

You will know how to demonstrate progress, give confidence in your programme and push back against unrealistic targets.

You will know how to structure and manage a major donor fundraising team.

Bring an extract from your portfolio with you and we will undertake a portfolio review exercise with you on the day so that you understand exactly what a portfolio review is and how to do it.

Powerful Asking is about the right person asking for the right amount, at the right time, with the right set up.

You will leave the day knowing when the right time is to ask, and how much to ask for.

You will know what to do after you have asked, whether the answer is yes, no or maybe.

You will know what to do if you get it wrong.

You will practice asking, and you will be asked.

I want a thriving major donor programme - sign up here >>

Training designed and delivered by experts:

Kitty Hazell

For over 23 years Kitty has had a successful career in fundraising, soliciting and closing donations worth millions of pounds for charitable causes.

Her experience includes managing relationships with Philanthropists from Canada and the US to Thailand, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, and Indonesia. She has secured meetings and delivered support from CEOs and Chairs of some of the largest companies worldwide such as Morgan Stanley, Barclays Bank, and Bacardi.

Kitty develops and implements strategic plans and offers advice, guidance, coaching and training for staff and stakeholders on how to cultivate relationships and build sustainable giving programmes and has worked with children, cancer, animal, disability, volunteer, medical research, higher education, international development, and non-proliferation charities.

Prior to fundraising, Kitty was an events manager and worked in client relations for two multi-national investment banks.

Beth Upton

Beth started her fundraising career at Macmillan Cancer Support in 2002, working in the corporate fundraising team. From there she moved to smaller charities, working across healthcare, research, palliative care, the arts and international development.

In that time she worked in community, corporate, major donor and trust fundraising, raising money for revenue and capital projects. By the time she set up Money Tree Fundraising in 2010 she was operating at Director of Fundraising level.

Money Tree Fundraising specialises in high-value fundraising: raising money from trusts and major donors for revenue and capital appeals.

Beth believes that every organisation has the potential to take advantage of high-value fundraising and has set Money Tree Fundraising the mission to embed sustainable high-value fundraising within charities of all size through their expert advice and delivery.

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You will learn:

Powerful writing skills already implemented into your proposal on the day

Knowledge to develop the programme successfully

Tools, templates and checklists to manage a growing programme effectively

Confidence to build relationships and, at the right time, ask for gifts.

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You will benefit from:

Small group training

Inspiring central London location

Breakfast (optional), lunch and plenty of snacks and drinks

Personalised input on the day from two major donor fundraising experts

Embedding your learning live as you bring your real work to the session

And that's not all...

Each day you will be given helpful templates and tools developed by Money Tree Fundraising and used in our consultancy work. You will be able to focus on developing the relationships not developing the tools.

All those who participate in the full series will gain exclusive access to our WhatsApp group that provides support between participants AND additional access to the trainers.

I need better donor relationships - sign up here

"The best time to plant a tree was twenty years ago. The second-best time is now."

Chinese proverb

The Practicalities:

Cost:
£489 plus VAT per day

Discount:

20% discount for bundle booking

10% early bird ADDITIONAL discount until 12th April.

These discounts, combined, bring the price per day to £352.08 plus VAT per day.

Location:
WallaceSpace, Holborn

Time:
9.15am to 4.30pm. The venue is open from 8am for breakfast.

Dates:

Persuasive Proposals - 25th April

Prospect Pipeline - 16th May

Practical Management - 6th June

Powerful Asking - 27th June

I am so ready for this - let me book in NOW >>

Endorsed by course participants

I just wanted to say a massive thank you for yesterday. The content of the course was so useful and I got so much out of it.

Just to say thank you very much for the training last week. It was super helpful, with great people and I'm looking forward to the next one.

Very informative content. Enjoyed the real-life experiences and stories.

The practical components and expertise from Beth & Kitty (and the other delegates) was super useful in solidifying my thoughts.

Thanks you both so much for such an informative, supportive session yesterday. I learnt so much and feel so much more empowered and less unskilled to build and a major donor fundraising programme.

Really insightful and engaging.

Master Major Donor Fundraising

Designed by fundraisers for fundraisers - we have developed major donor fundraising programmes in-house and as consultants. We know what successful major donor fundraising takes and we want to share our knowledge with you.

We will teach theory but we will focus on the practical application of theory. If you bring your work to the session we will work with you to implement the learning on the day.

You won't find anything more practical and detailed available elsewhere.

I am ready to Master Major Donor Fundraising