Author: mturner

Planned and Legacy Gifts

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

Planned and Legacy Gifts

Overview

Planned and legacy gifts often represent the largest gift of an individual’s lifetime and may be through gifts of appreciated assets such as stocks, bonds, real estate and other non-liquid assets or by will or bequest. An important component of any evolving development program seeking to create a pipeline of support at every level is a robust and sophisticated approach to encouraging planned and legacy gifts.

Raising Sights

S. Sutton & Associates Inc. also will provide direction to enable your organization to effectively engage your supporters in complex gift conversations, raising their sights and increasing the impact they can have on your mission.

S. Sutton & Associates Inc. offers advice and counsel to develop and maintain a program for planned and legacy giving including:

Prospect identification
Staff structure and processes
Direct marketing
Gift accounting for complicated asset transfers, including tax requirements and restrictions
Recognition and stewardship programs
Use of volunteer and expert advisory boards
Training for staff and volunteers

Services

Major and Principal Gifts

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

Major and Principal Gifts

Major and principal gifts represent the culmination of a highly orchestrated series of steps which require rigor, persistence and institutional support at every level. S. Sutton & Associates Inc. is poised to help guide your organization through the steps to achieve success in this arena.

Overview

Major and principal gifts represent an essential method of fundraising for institutions which have developed a cohort of donors who have been solicited and stewarded on a regular basis, albeit at lower levels. Though not exclusively, the vast majority of large gifts to an institution come from individuals already in its donor database. To be successful generating major and principal gifts a constellation of relationships must be built over time between a prospect or donor, the institution, volunteer leaders, subject experts and the gift officer who acts as the facilitator. All interactions are designed to engage, elicit and share information and create understanding of the impact of a potential commitment.

Major and principal gifts take time to cultivate and often evolve from small gifts to the annual fund. S. Sutton & Associates Inc. can help your team assess its readiness and develop capacity in major gifts staff and volunteers, analyze your major gift portfolio, and help you successfully apply best practices that blend well with your overall fundraising enterprise.

We can assist you to create structures of engagement to involve prospects in greater depth in your institution’s mission and priorities as well as effective structures to engage volunteers with prospect identification, cultivation and solicitation and stewardship.

Services

International Fundraising

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

International Fundraising

Building a global strategy, understanding philanthropic culture and practice, developing effective engagement programs, generating sufficient initiative and follow-up and utilizing institutional thought leaders can be a daunting task.

Overview

Thomas L. Friedman in his transformative tome, The World is Flat, gave voice to a phenomenon that “the global competitive playing field was being leveled. The world was being flattened”. His words are even truer today than when written in 2005. With steady globalization in the private sector there has been increased globalization in the nonprofit sector. S. Sutton and Associates has the experience and expertise to help you engage globally.

International fundraising presents a unique challenge, and implementation requires unique skill and expertise. S. Sutton and Associates can help your organization make the case for activity on the global stage, devise effective organizational structures and program strategies, identify and train the experienced major gift professional talent, build the right case for support, manage long distance and culturally diverse constituents and track and align global initiatives organization-wide.

Services

Interim Program Management

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

Interim Program Management

Overview

During a time of transition, S. Sutton & Associates Inc.’s consultants will work on site providing day-to-day management and oversight of your advancement program.

Expert Service – Raising Sights

The consultant’s time will be hands-on and tailor the activities to the needs of your institution which may include review and guidance around:

Prospect pool gift capacities, ask amounts and targets
Portfolios and individual assignments
Building staff skills in cultivation and solicitation and stewardship strategies
Work flow
Prospect management systems and accompanying reports
Measuring fundraising success
Enhancing the effects of your program

Services

Fundraising Campaigns and Strategic Planning

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

Fundraising Campaigns and Strategic Planning

Our consultants can assist your organization with all facets of strategic planning, preparation, and execution as well as pre, and post-campaign assessment

Overview

Fundraising campaigns are a powerful driver to address institutional needs, enlist and engage the support of constituencies and elevate philanthropic performance. The process to plan and prepare for a campaign is as important as its execution, and can inform short and long term success.

Strategic Planning

Strategic planning studies involve a number of our services, often including, but not limited to needs assessment and priority setting, developing the case for support, campaign branding and marketing, an evaluation of the existing donor pipeline, training for gift officers, development staff and executive coaching for institutional leaders.

Campaign Readiness

Feasibility studies or readiness assessments gage both internal and external readiness.

External constituent’s opinions, attitudes, and engagement and are key to developing a roadmap for your campaign’s success. We assess the potential and likelihood of both philanthropic and volunteer support for your proposed campaign, enthusiasm for the strategic goals of the campaign, and confidence in your institution, its leadership, and its fundraising programs.

Internal readiness is assessed in terms of staffing, structure, donor pipeline, processes and funding priorities articulated in the case for support.

Based on both internal and external readiness, evidence-based recommendations for ambitious, yet achievable campaign goals are recommended.

Services

Donor and Constituent Engagement

Post author By mturner
Post date September 9, 2016

Donor and Constituent Engagement

S. Sutton & Associates Inc. takes a holistic, integrated approach to maximize impact and efficiencies and provides the best possible strategies and approaches for each client’s specific situation.

Overview

What you say, how you say it, when you say it and the means to convey the message require careful orchestration and integration within an organization. Our consultants are adept in all aspects of marketing and communications related to organizational profile, development, and constituent engagement.

Whether the project is program specific or institution wide, the process of S. Sutton & Associates Inc. is the same:

Careful research

Data drives our process. We work with institutional leadership to gather all relevant information, research internal and external audience orientation, conduct audits of current communications including staffing, resources, channels, activities and audience segmentation.

Cogent and comprehensive strategy

Institutional objectives and goals are used to develop fundraising rationale that define and drive effective messaging. We then determine suitable channels and strategies along with processes, tactics, budgets, timelines and schedules, concluding in an actionable plan to implement and assess results on a periodic basis.

Creative writing and design

Our expert consultants have the experience, expertise and knowledge to bring you the most current and impactful campaign messaging and names, visual identity, branding guidelines, cases for support and collateral materials.