What do we need in an Appeal? A committed Board. An enthusiastic Leadership. A supportive Community. A competent Campaign Director. And, a team of Askers.

And, the most important of all? The Appeal Chair and the Appeal Executive.

I will not start an appeal unless I have confidence in the leadership. I know that with the right Leadership, the rest will follow.

So, what do we look for in a Chair? I had an old colleague who swore by "Captains of Industry and Knights of the Realm"!

I place greater stock in personality than in titles. I have never had a patron in any appeal because I have found that people who "allow you to use my name" give little else. A Campaign Team must be 100% Givers and 100% Askers. Never ask for less. Never settle for less. There is no room for freeloaders in fundraising!

Too often when I talk to a Board about the Appeal Chair, they come up with either the local "fund-raiser" who organises everything from pub raffles to pie nights, or, they suggest someone who is retired and "has plenty of time."

I don't want a chook raffler - they sell dollar tickets. I want someone who thinks in multiples of $10,000. I don't want a retiree with time on his hands. I want someone whose contacts and influence are current and compelling.

For the top jobs - Appeal Chair and Deputies - I want the Owner, not the Manager, I want the senior Partner, not the Clerk, I want a current achiever, not a past hero.

So, to find a Chair, we start within our organisation and look for chairman material amongst our supporters. We widen the search to others who are known to us and may be involved. The Chair may come from within the Board but I have not yet had an Appeal Chair who was also the Board Chair.

In appointing an outside leader, we also move the appeal from the narrow confines of the institution to the outside community and we open new networks.

So, what do we want in a Chair?

Consider the task: we need large gifts and we need the people who can ask for them. Our chair must be a leader: she or he must be of such standing that those who we want in our team will want to join because of the leadership as well as for the cause. Our Chair will attract the team and will also open the doors to the leadership gifts.

Thus, we want someone of high repute, community standing and commitment to the cause.

Ideally, the Chair kicks off with the lead gift - but not always.

In a review of my first thirty two appeals: in fifteen, the Chair gave the largest, individual donation. In seventeen, he did not. Where the chair did lead, the effect was certainly positive in that we smashed through the goal. And where the Chair was a follower in giving, mostly we just met target.

However, there are some strong appeals that live in my memory where the chair gave at a comparatively low level but was of such personal community standing that the goal was passed at a gallop and left far behind.

So, let's not be too doctrinaire about this. To me, qualities of leadership and standing and public commitment - and the ability and willingness to ask big - are the most important: if we can get the top gift as well - we're laughing!

We do not raise mega-million dollars with dollars and cents donations or with dollars and cents thinking. We must deliberately and selectively target large gifts.

Certainly, we do accept smaller gifts. But the Appeal must target the larger gifts first then progressively seek others in a planned and orderly fashion. Each gift provides the motivation for those that follow.