Gail Perry Group

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A quiet little crisis lives in a lot of major gift programs.A fundraiser has 80, 100, maybe 150 names on their "portfoli...
08/28/2026

A quiet little crisis lives in a lot of major gift programs.

A fundraiser has 80, 100, maybe 150 names on their "portfolio." They're touching all of them: emails, event invites, holiday cards. The numbers look active.

But almost nothing is moving toward a gift.

Here's the conundrum: a portfolio is a focusing tool. Its whole job is to keep your time on the highest-ROI relationships available right now. When it turns into a holding tank instead, it stops producing.

Your fundraising flex: stage your portfolio into four categories: qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship.

A healthy portfolio of 100 prospects looks something like this: 25 in active qualification, 45 in cultivation, 15 in active solicitation, 15 in stewardship.

Pull your list right now and put every name into one of those four buckets. Anyone you can't quickly stage is probably stagnant. Anyone sitting in cultivation for 18-plus months without movement is a flag worth raising to yourself.

Stagnant portfolios are one of the most common failure modes in major gifts. Thirty minutes will tell you exactly where yours stands.

This is exactly what we dig into when we focus on portfolio management in Gail Perry Group's Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp.

When you staged your list just now, which bucket surprised you most? Tell us in the comments.

Registration is open: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

08/26/2026

Not every campaign leadership team splits donor relationships the same way, and that ambiguity can quietly stall momentum.

It comes down to one word: portfolio. Gina Vaughn, Vice President of Client Service at Gail Perry Group's, explains why "carrying a portfolio" means something different for an Executive Director than it does for a Development Director, and why that distinction matters more than most teams realize.

This comes from The Nonprofit Boost, hosted by Immaculate Pamintuan on the Double the Donation YouTube channel, in a conversation with Gina on campaign team dynamics.

Catch the full episode:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/8-p8CALkEvc
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7HKbdix5qsqhJD74JSFoeK?si=-y1isNFcQjic3G0JuPEJeA
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-owns-the-campaign-navigating-the-executive/id1847874670?i=1000775790991

New to the channel? Subscribe for more conversations like this one.

Best year-end ever. Up 50% over the year before.That's what happened at Pima Council on Aging after Lana Baldwin's team ...
08/25/2026

Best year-end ever. Up 50% over the year before.

That's what happened at Pima Council on Aging after Lana Baldwin's team went through the Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp.

Registration is open now for the Fall cohort. Learn more and register: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

Every fundraiser has that name.The prospect they keep meaning to reach out to. And keep not reaching out to.You're not c...
08/24/2026

Every fundraiser has that name.

The prospect they keep meaning to reach out to. And keep not reaching out to.

You're not close enough to ask for a gift. But you can't really afford to wait either. Move too fast and you damage the relationship. Wait too long and the momentum just evaporates.

So most of us do nothing. The prospect sits in the portfolio gathering dust, and we feel a little guilty every time we scroll past their name.

Your fundraising flex: there's a way through this, and it's probably the most underused tool in major gifts. The advice visit.

Pick one prospect you've been avoiding. Send them something like this:

"I've been thinking about [specific program or initiative] and would genuinely value your perspective. Would you have 20 minutes for a conversation? Your insight would mean a great deal to us."

That's the whole ask. You're not asking for money. You're asking for their wisdom, and donors who get asked for their wisdom tend to become donors who feel real ownership over what happens next.

One catch: the topic has to be real. A genuine challenge your organization is working through, not a manufactured excuse to get coffee.

Write it. Send it before you close your laptop today.
We've had a participant use exactly this approach with a prospect they'd cultivated for a long time. No formal ask was ever made. The gift came in at $1.5 million.

We spend a great deal of time on the advice visit in Gail Perry Group's Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp, if this is a muscle you want to build.

Registration is open: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

08/21/2026

Bigger portfolios and bolder asks aren't always the answer.

Our Chief Operating Officer Cassie Rice shared this story: a nonprofit's team went through our Major Gifts training and picked up one shift: more transparency in donor communications. That alone helped land a four-year, seven-figure commitment, and it's not a one-time result. Cassie has heard versions of this story from cohort after cohort.

Trust moves gifts. Communication builds trust.

Here's a question that reveals a lot about a major gift program: how does someone get OUT of your portfolio?In a lot of ...
08/21/2026

Here's a question that reveals a lot about a major gift program: how does someone get OUT of your portfolio?

In a lot of shops, the honest answer is "never."

A donor comes in through a wealth screening and just stays, sometimes with zero real evidence they're actually ready for a major gift conversation. The portfolio fills up. The fundraiser stays busy. The pipeline produces almost nothing.

Here's the conundrum: identification finds prospects. Qualification confirms them. A lot of programs quietly skip step two, and then wonder why the portfolio never converts.

Here's this week's Fundraising Flex: pick five prospects sitting in qualification, or five who've stalled out in cultivation. Run each one through three questions:

Have I confirmed giving capacity in a real conversation, beyond what the wealth screening told me?

Do I know what they care about, and what they want their philanthropy to accomplish?

Are they open to further engagement? Have they actually agreed to a next step?

All three a yes? Keep them, and build a real cultivation strategy around what you just learned.

Any one a no? Make the call: schedule a qualification conversation in the next 30 days, or release them back to annual giving and request a fresh name.

That last part is the hard part. But a released prospect makes room for one who's actually ready, and that trade is almost always worth it.

We spend real time on this exact skill, qualifying and staging a portfolio, in Gail Perry Group's Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp.

How many names on your list right now would pass all three questions? Tell us in the comments.

Registration is open: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

08/19/2026

Before you announce a campaign goal, do you actually know if it's the right one?

Gina Vaughn, Vice President of Client Service at Gail Perry Group's, says that number shouldn't be a guess. It comes from real study of your donor data, done before anything goes public.

In case you missed the first two clips from this conversation on The Nonprofit Boost, catch up on the full episode with Immaculate Pamintuan on the Double the Donation YouTube channel.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/8-p8CALkEvc
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/7HKbdix5qsqhJD74JSFoeK?si=-y1isNFcQjic3G0JuPEJeA
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who-owns-the-campaign-navigating-the-executive/id1847874670?i=1000775790991

Return on investment questions are fair. Here's one answer: 18 to 1.Brenda Riehl, Director of Development at Lancaster H...
08/18/2026

Return on investment questions are fair. Here's one answer: 18 to 1.

Brenda Riehl, Director of Development at Lancaster Health Center, saw that number after her team went through the Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp. Eighteen dollars raised for every dollar spent on the program.

Registration is open now for the Fall cohort. Learn more and register: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

September 16 is closer than it feels.If you have been sitting on registering for the Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp, the c...
08/17/2026

September 16 is closer than it feels.

If you have been sitting on registering for the Major Gifts Officer Bootcamp, the calendar just made the decision more urgent for you. The 2026 cohort starts in less than a month.

Classes start soon. Register today: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

Every major gift officer starts the same way: building their own process, learning through trial and error, hoping it ho...
08/14/2026

Every major gift officer starts the same way: building their own process, learning through trial and error, hoping it holds up. Teams that train together skip that. They start aligned.

When your MGOs share a common language, consistent qualification criteria, and aligned conversation strategies, results compound. Less time re-aligning. More time closing.

That is what team training gives you that trial and error cannot.

Registration is open for 2026: https://gailperrygroup.com/major-gift-officer-training/

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