ICG Seminar - Seize The Opportunity

2009 Seminar Dates

Fees
Seminar Fee: $585.00 (US)

Download a form
for checks, POs and credit card to mail or fax. (PDF 188k)

2007 Seminar
Locations & Hotel Accommodations

What’s New in Major Gifts Fundraising
Learn what’s new in the quest for major gifts. It’s important you know. Find out where the field is now and what the future holds. There has never been a time of more dramatic change. Discover how to anticipate the problems and opportunities—and come out of it a winner.

The Anatomy of
a Major Gift
Discover the dynamics of prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation. Discover what makes major
gifts different and how that affects our approach.

Case Studies in Major Gifts Strategies and Solicitations
This dynamic session will hone skills and trigger ideas by examining and evaluating case studies of actual major gifts solicitations, and the strategies and tactics used.

Inside the Head & Heart of a Philanthropist

At each of our Seminars, we attempt to have a philanthropist join us for a very special session. Registrants have an opportunity to examine and probe the thinking and spirit of a philanthropist.
Read more

Scholarship Application
A limited number of partial scholarships are available. The Review Board of the Institute will be particularly encouraging to relatively new organizations, those that serve primarily a minority constituency, or those especially affected by cutbacks in government funding. Application.pdf

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2008 ICG Seminars

Seize The Opportunity
Developing a Fail-Proof Major Gift Program

“My second time taking SEIZE and I learned just as much as the first time. I learned how to make our program more organized, focused and how to give it new energy. I can’t wait to start implementing all I learned.”
—Seminar Attendee

“This is the best seminar I have ever been to. It far exceeded my expectations. I now have a framework to work from. I am confident this will lead to our program moving to the next level.”
—Seminar Attendee

The Houston Seminar begins on Monday, February 11, at 8:00am and ends at 5:00pm. Tuesday’s schedule is the same. A continental breakfast will be served each morning at 7:30am.

The Chicago Seminar begins on Monday, March 17, at 8:00am and ends at 5:00pm. Tuesday’s schedule is the same. A continental breakfast will be served at 7:30am each morning.

The Costa Mesa Seminar begins on Sunday, May 18, at 1:15pm and ends at 5:00pm. Monday’s session begins at 8:00am and ends at 5:00pm. Tuesday’s session begins at 8:00am and ends at noon. A continental breakfast will be served at 7:30am on Monday and Tuesday.

Further schedule details will be included with your registration confirmation letter.

Seize the Opportunity is our mothership Seminar and a consistent favorite since its introduction. Seize was an innovative breakthrough in the field when it was first offered. Now it has been honed to perfection. You will be treated to an unprecedented, career-advancing opportunity to discover the dynamics of major gift fundraising.

You’ll discover the anatomy of a major gift and understand how to market these gifts properly. There will be an extensive review of a donor and prospect management system that you will be able to take home and put to immediate use. We call it Moves Management®, and it is taught in a way that makes it fail-safe and easy to use. There’s a meaningful self-evaluation of your capacity and potential as major gift officer. This is based on exciting new research.

You will examine the dynamics of prospect identification, cultivation, and solicitation— plus the important role of stewardship. There will be tools, material, and instruments (unique to the Institute) to assess your work.

The future belongs to the organization that has a strong, vital major gifts program. Never has the need been greater for an effective approach to asking and winning. The major gifts will come to the fundraisers and institutions that understand the factors and values that influence donors. From prospecting to closure to stewardship, this Seminar embodies it all.

The Program

The Marketing Of Major Gifts
Marketing is vital to successful fundraising. You’ll discuss such strategies as institutional positioning, market segmentation, donor profiles, and gift options— and how they affect securing the major gift.

Managing Moves Management
A pragmatic, workable framework for managing the long-term relationships involved in major gifts fundraising.

How Moves Management Assures Success
Cultivation: Ideas, Techniques, and Strategies
Matching Strategy to Giving Capacity

What Motivates Donors
What we know, and perhaps more importantly, what we don’t know about major gift prospects.

How to Make The Ask
The key determinants of success in making a gift solicitation. This will actually take you through the steps of asking for the gift.

Things to Remember About Your Prospects
Personal Solicitation Tips
Techniques for Closing the Gift
How to Involve Board Members and Volunteers
The Key Factors that Determine Your Success
How to Script Your Solicitation

Learn How to Close
Role-playing sharpens fundraising skills as well as focus the solicitation in the proper direction. This session allows for peer interaction and a sharing of experiences within small groups.

Managing The Major Gifts Process
A potpourri of significant and practical items, including:

The Creative Packaging of Endowment Gifts
A Practical Prospect Tracking System with Examples of Some that Really Work
Major Gifts for Bricks-and-Mortar Projects
Examples of Effective Proposals

Extensive ParKBenching Throughout the Seminar with Faculty

ParKBenching is the name the Institute gives to its special program for bringing Seminar registrants together with a partner— a seasoned fundraising executive.

Time is provided to meet with faculty members to ask the kind of questions which affect personal and professional effectiveness and production.

It was somewhat by accident that we first introduced ParKBenching in our Seminars. It is now one of our most popular and important activities.

On Sunday and Monday afternoons, the day closes with a Cracker Barrel Session. The faculty leads an informal, freewheeling discussion concerning the topics covered during the day, situations unique to your institution and fundraising program, or any item you wish to discuss.

“ This seminar was exceptional. It was great to be able to bring staff with me.”
—Seminar Attendee

Download a form for checks, POs and credit card to mail or fax. (PDF 188k)