Odds and Ends: The Giving Kind
CURRENTS Article Devoted philanthropists John and Tashia Morgridge talk to CURRENTS about the importance of writing small checks and the challenge of giving large gifts in a public manner, offer advice on how to become informed and engaged philanthropists, discuss possible changes to the U.S. charitable giving deduction, and reminisce about some of the projects they've helped make possible.

Onward and Upward
CURRENTS Article The vice president of development of the College of the Holy Cross in Massachusetts reports on new efforts at his institution and others to cultivate more gifts from midlevel donors as leadership gifts have become more scarce during the recession.

Treasure Chase
CURRENTS Article Advancement leaders from around the country and the world acknowledge the downturn in mega gifts to education during the Great Recession and discuss the best strategies for dealing with the new economy.

Reaching for the Top
CURRENTS Article Author Elizabeth Harvey, a major gift officer at Mills College, surveys eight small and medium-sized colleges and universities to discover how the institutions are scaling the very top of their giving pyramids.

Cinderella Doesn't Live Here
CURRENTS Article The annual fund is the most obvious place to go looking to develop your major gifts, but it is also the most overlooked. Here are concrete strategies for building your pipeline.

The Pluto Principles
CURRENTS Article The quest for the planet Pluto teaches the need for persistence, research, strategic planning, and thinking out of the box--and why it's smart to sweat the small stuff. Astronomers discovered Pluto's existence by noticing wobbles in nearby planets. So if something in your development programs appears a bit off, it bears looking into. The discovery will be donors who want to make larger and more meaningful gifts.

Vision Quest
CURRENTS Article What motivates major donors to give? This article goes straight to the source - the donors themselves. Nine benefactors of education institutions of all types talk about why they give, what they hope to achieve with their giving, what they expect from the institutions they support, and what they expect from the campus development officers who cultivate them. Philanthropists are still interested in supporting education, they say, provided the institutions’ needs are real.

AdvanceWork: Sitting Pretty
CURRENTS Article Affluent individuals require a minimum of $1 million to $10 million in assets to feel financially secure, according to the "Wealth & Values Survey 2003" conducted by Community Foundations of America and HNW. Major gifts officers must therefore work even harder to convince these prospects that they can afford to support charitable causes.

Respecting the Collections
CURRENTS Article Development officers must work closely with special collections librarians to solicit appropriate gifts of rare books, manuscripts, photos, and artifacts. Getting the right gifts means understanding the library’s niche, the additional concerns that come with gifts-in-kind, and why librarians chafe at having to do special exhibits for cultivation and recognition. This article is of interest to major gift officers, fund raisers for libraries and special collections, and advancement service professionals who deal with gift acceptance.

Goals and Assists
CURRENTS Article Prospect researchers and development officers must form a partnership to identify potential donors' ability, interest, and desire to give. This article provides three guidelines for building a productive relationship and includes a table showing the differences in the information that researchers and development officers are likely to uncover. This article is of interest to development officers and prospect researchers.

Closing Remarks: Mad Money
CURRENTS Article In this humorous parody of a fund-raising call report, a fictional development officer misses cue after cue from a top donor prospect. This Closing Remarks column is of interest to fund raisers and advancement services professionals who work on donor relations, cultivation, and call reports.

Making Peace between Annual and Major Gifts
CURRENTS Article The difference between annual and major gifts lies more in their purpose and their relationship to the donor’s capacity than in their actual dollar amount. To ensure that the annual and major gift programs work together successfully, development leaders must articulate clear donor strategies, use the annual fund to feed the major donor program, and promote the “dual ask”--the practice of asking major donors for continuing annual fund gifts.

Values, Vision, "Embodied Opportunities"
CURRENTS Article A principal gifts officer defines six elements to attracting principal gifts. Institutions must define their core values, identify campus priorities that go beyond parochial interests, and let potential donors know the stories behind these priorities. Such stories must resonate with the prospect's own core values. Development officers also must reach out to the prospect's intimate family and friends.

Shifting Gears
CURRENTS Article Cornell University development officers successfully shifted to a project- and team-based approach to fund raising, leaving behind the previous organizational model based around schools and units. This new approach has allowed the university to raise funds for priority projects without launching an institution-wide campaign. As an example, the authors describe the successful team-based effort to fund renovation and expansion of Cornell’s music building.

A Steady Ascent
CURRENTS Article Rather than follow the up-and-down cycle of campaign after campaign, fund raisers may want to consider a new approach: an ongoing major gifts effort. The author describes what he sees as the flaws of campaign-based advancement, and suggests that institutions develop continual, mission-based fund-raising programs.

AdvanceWork: Measuring Generosity
CURRENTS Article Worth and Slate magazines print annual lists of leading American philanthropists.