Challenges

• Board members are just now being solicited for personal gifts, in most cases for the first time, as the stations begin their new fiscal years. Getting this process in place is a critical step, both as a precedent for future board giving and to enable board members to approach prospects as giving peers.



• General managers continue to find themselves pulled in many directions, with major gifts competing for their time with many other priorities. It is an ongoing challenge to make time available for the in-person and telephone contact so important to donors.



• Development staff are pressed to juggle the time-intensive demands of major donor cultivation with the more urgent deadlines of events and on-air drives. The larger and longer-term payoff of major gifts work cannot compete with the smaller but immediate returns of events or drives.



• Many donors make their major gifts decisions toward the end of the calendar year, requiring stations to plan aggressive phone follow-up to year-end appeals to maximize results.



• Writing is still a challenge at most stations. There is a recurring temptation to rely on short letters with little substantive content because stations feel they lack the time or resources to make their case adequately in writing.