You are about to sit across from real money. Let's make sure you are ready.
A larger-gift case, DAF readiness, legitimate wealth-access routes, meeting preparation, and stewardship architecture.
Donor-advised funds, family foundations, and private wealth move enormous sums, and comparatively little of it reaches organizations like yours.
Not because the work is unworthy. Because those environments run on conventions nobody explains — how the ask is framed, what documentation is expected, how advisors and gift officers sit between you and the donor, what happens in the year after the gift.
Walking in without knowing the conventions can cost more than the gift — the relationship, and the referrals behind it.
- Founders about to sit across from significant money for the first time
- Organizations receiving DAF gifts without knowing how to reach the people behind them
- Groups with a supporter whose capacity is far above what they have been asked for
- Anyone who has had the meeting and could not tell what went wrong
- What your case needs to carry at this gift size, which differs from grant language
- What documentation and financial clarity these environments expect
- Which DAF sponsors, family funds, and advisory routes appear realistically reachable
- Who the intermediaries are and what they need from you
- What questions you are likely to be asked and where your current answers are weak
- What stewardship has to look like after the gift for the relationship to continue
Where the evidence does not support a conclusion, you get that too — named, not filled in.
- A larger-gift case written for this audience rather than adapted from a grant
- DAF readiness: what to have in place and how gifts actually arrive
- Researched wealth-access routes with the intermediary path for each
- Meeting preparation — the questions, your answers, the hard follow-ups
- Stewardship architecture for the year after
- What to say when asked something you do not know
Examples of the kinds of things that surface. Yours will be your own.
- Recurring DAF gifts arriving with no donor identification and no process for tracing back to the advisor
- A supporter giving modestly for years whose disclosed board and professional position indicated capacity well above what had been asked
- Financial documentation adequate for grant reporting but short of what a wealth advisor reviews before recommending a gift
- Get Me Ready for the Room™from $2,500The case, routes, and full preparation
- DSG Studio™By conversationHuman-led work on a major campaign or a specific significant relationship
Lower price means narrower scope, not lower rigor.
- We have never received a large gift. Is this premature?
- No. The most expensive version of this is being unprepared when the opportunity arrives, because it may only arrive once.
- Do you introduce us to donors?
- No. We research the routes, prepare the case, and prepare you. We do not broker relationships, and you should be cautious with anyone who offers to.
- What is a DAF, plainly?
- A donor-advised fund is an account maintained by a sponsoring 501(c)(3). The sponsoring organization has legal control of the assets; the donor or donor advisor retains advisory privileges over distributions and investments. DSG can help you understand the access and stewardship conventions around these gifts, but it does not control the sponsoring organization's grant decision.
- What if the meeting is next week?
- Say so before you buy. We will tell you what is achievable in the time and whether to move the meeting.
Get Me Ready for Larger Gifts™ · From $2,500, scoped
What you leave with
A larger-gift case, donor-advised fund readiness, meeting preparation and a stewardship structure you can run after the meeting.
Covers: One organization, one giving-level strategy
The files you receive
- Accessible PDF case and stewardship plan
- Meeting preparation pack with the hard questions and your answers
- Editable stewardship calendar
Format
Accessible PDF plus a live practice session
Your work
- Supply financials, board decisions and your current donor history
- Sit the practice session and do the meetings yourself
DSG's work
- Build the case and the preparation
- Run one practice session and correct what needs correcting
Timing
Agreed in writing before payment
Human-reviewed work begins when intake is complete, not when payment clears. If anything needed is missing, we ask for it and the clock starts when it arrives.
Check this schedule against your deadline before you pay. If your deadline does not fit, tell us first — we would rather turn the work down than miss it.
Corrections
Set in the written scope
What this is not
- No introductions to donors, advisors or fund holders are made in this product, and none are implied
- No promise of a gift
- No investment, tax or legal advice
Money back
Because this is human work performed to order, it is not refundable once the work has started. If you are unsure whether it fits, contact DSG before you pay and a person will tell you plainly.
You are prepared for this conversation. If it opens a campaign, a multi-year commitment, or a structured gift, that is a different order of work. DSG Studio™ puts a Capital Architect alongside you for it.
Not sure this is the one?
Start with Know the Room™. Tell us who you are approaching or what you are trying to get done, and we will point you at the right work.
Know the Room™ · $175The self-directed tools are finished work in their own right. Use one, keep the output, and stop there if that is what you needed.