Million Dollar Donors

Photo by 401(K) 2012

I spent some time tonight perusing the Coutts 2013 Million Dollar Donors Report.  Hey, a guy can dream can't he?  It is an interesting read if you are leading a non-profit like I am (in my case, more of a non-profit network). Did you know that nearly 2,000 people gave million-dollar or more donations in 2012?

A couple things are sticking in my mind:

1. If I'm going to lead my organization to the next level in terms of support-raising, I will need to be able to clarify specific goals (both long and short-term) and determine a method of providing some kind of measurement of the impact of gifts.

2. I cannot accomplish item number one without dedicated staffing.

3. How do organizations avoid being controlled by larger donors? How to they maintain their vision at times when large donors try to steer them off course?

I also like the quote by Andrew Carnegie which is featured on the report, "It is more difficult to give money away intelligently than to earn it in the first place."  If that's true, I'm wondering if anyone out their would hire me to give away their money.