“A must-read for all of us who have the amazing privilege and responsibility to foster true, authentic, deeply personal and joyous philanthropic relationships.”
- Connie Kravas, President of the University of Washington Foundation

“In Belief and Confidence,… Schiller offers the master key to unlocking the philanthropic partnership by sharing profound insights from donors themselves about their motivations and expectations, their decision making and prioritization, their satisfaction and even frustration in choosing to make a significant gift to a given organization.”
- John Lippincott, President Emeritus, CASE

Nonprofit professionals rarely ask, and donors rarely discuss, how a giving experience compared to other giving experiences, and how they come to decisions about the few organizations with which they form their deepest philanthropic partnerships. Incorporating the words of “serial” philanthropists—donors who have made large gifts multiple times and to a variety of organizations—this book describes the factors that set donors’ most satisfying and, in their view, successful transformational and major giving experiences apart.

Belief and Confidence is written for philanthropically minded individuals and families and for all current and emerging nonprofit leaders who want to experience the joy and satisfaction of engaging with philanthropists and supporting their work. While informed by the author’s own experience and the experience of nonprofit professional colleagues, this book’s lessons come primarily from philanthropists.

Highly active board members and donors share details of their most satisfying transformational and major gift experiences and highlight the factors that distinguish these experiences, and the motivations behind them, from the rest.

CASE item 29617

About the Author

Ronald J. Schiller is founding partner of the Aspen Leadership Group and the Philanthropy Career Network. Ron’s career as a chief development officer includes stints at Northeastern University, Carnegie Mellon University, the University of Chicago and then president of the National Public Radio Foundation. He is a regular speaker at conferences, including the Council for Advancement and Support of Education’s Winter Institute for Chief Development Officers and annual Inspiring the Largest Gifts of a Lifetime conference.