Is This the End of Major Gifts?

I have recently returned from an AFP Central New York luncheon, hearing a talk given by Bill Abrams (of Infinize), and my mind can’t stop spinning about what Bill said. Let me share with you a boiled down version of his message:

As communication among humans gets faster and better, and as content and services become cheaper and/or free (think Uber over taxi and Skype over long distance phone calls), wealth and power will become more evenly distributed.

I interrupted Bill’s presentation to ask, “So, where will organizations’ major gifts prospects come from, then?” Bill answered that my local auto mechanic is much more likely to have as much income and wealth in the future as my banker does now – the Millionaire Next Door idea but cranked up several hundred RPMs.

And that’s when I started trembling, because now the number of prospects that my clients need to cultivate through personalized, special attention has gone from the top 5% of their constituency to – well – everyone. And I imagined major gifts programs melting down into a huge, stratified, boundless annual giving program.

This article shares my subsequent research along with some of Bill’s ideas to illustrate where this vision comes from.

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