Two Jobs, One Ask: Defining CEO and Fundraiser Roles in Major Gifts

Major gifts are critical to the life of a nonprofit — and both donors and data tell us organizations can receive much more if CEOs are an integral part of the solicitation process.

The goal isn't to turn you as a CEO into a fundraiser. That’s already its own job with plenty of gifted people handling it.

It's to help clarify the specific, irreplaceable role you play in the major gifts process, and what it costs the organization when that role goes unfilled.

Here's a useful way to think about it:

The fundraiser's job: Everything that makes the ask possible. That’s all the foundational work including research, co-developing strategy with the CEO, meeting preparation, ensuring proper follow-up, and holding the organization accountable for stewardship.

The CEO's job: Building and stewarding the relationships that make transformational giving possible, co-developing the strategy with the fundraiser, and showing up to the solicitation prepared to make an ambitious ask with clarity and confidence.

When a CEO says, "That's development's job," it’s not that he or she is necessarily against playing the right role. They may be thinking of fundraising work as the reporting, prospecting, and grant writing. 

And if you’ve thought that way, you would be right. Most of that isn't your job.

But the major gift ask — and the relationship-building that precedes it — is a different category entirely. It's not administrative. It's relational. And it requires the credibility and authority that only you carry.

This is true whether you're working with individual major donors, foundation partners, or corporate funders. At significant levels of investment, executive-to-executive relationships matter. A development officer managing a six- or seven-figure relationship without CEO involvement is at a real disadvantage when renewal or growth conversations happen. 

Note that not every solicitation requires a CEO (just the opposite, actually). In fact, a CEO’s time and credibility are precious commodities and should be treated as such. Spending them indiscriminately diminishes their impact. The fundraiser's job is to identify the conversations where executive presence will make a material difference and protect the CEO's time everywhere else. Depending on where the organization happens to be in its growth cycle, that may mean that development staff can close a $10,000 gift solo without issue — or that a CEO is still essential to the process. A great fundraiser will know when and how to deploy the CEO to the best effect.

Ultimately, both fundraisers and CEOs have vital roles to play in the major gifts strategy process. For you as a CEO, it’s co-developing that strategy and taking an active role in executing it. The sooner you can embrace the role you’re playing, the easier and more fruitful the process will be.

This is the second in our three-part ‘Brave Leadership, Bigger Gifts’ series — check out our final installment featuring strategies development leaders can use to activate their CEOs and Executive Directors at the right time and place to close a major gift.