Today, our guest on The Philanthropy Podcast is Pete Cullen Conway, Director of Major Gifts at Misericordia in Chicago. Pete shares with us some great major gift advice including how he utilizes introduction letters to open doors with benefactors, how he handles first visits, when and how to close the file on reaching out to a donor, and how he uses twitter to get supporters to start rowing the boat in the same direction.  Our discussion with Pete reveals a lot about how Misericordia, an organization with some of the most diverse ways of reaching out to the community, utilizes relationships to explore these avenues. Pete's ideas are great for putting into practice right away and also for simply keeping in mind as we go about our work. Pete shares a sentiment that I believe many of us share "I'm in the development office, but I work for the families" (Click to Tweet) and much more...   Pete shares a number of great ideas and we have some great discussions about making sure that you never let someone's age stop you from connecting with digital communications (Click to tweet), how to use Twitter to ensure that your benefactors are rowing along with us in the boat (click to tweet), and how to get your benefactors involved in advocating for your communications now that they're part of the team (click to tweet).   As you enjoy the show, remember you can connect with me on Twitter where I'm @PhilanthropyPod and use the hashtag #philanthropypodcast (click to tweet) or on Facebook at The Philanthropy Podcast Facebook Page. If you share the show and tag us with #philanthropypodcast on Facebook or Twitter, sometime in the next two shows I'll try to give you or your organization a shout-out on air.   Thank you for listening to today's show. Be sure to join us next week when I'll interview Patrick Van Der Tuin of St. Louis Bike Works about how nonprofits can think outside of the box about funding as we explore @StlBicycleWorks and their amazing youth bicycle program which has now grown into Bworks to include computers and authorship as well!   Take care and have a great week!   Sean   Today's Links:   Misericordia Archdiocese of Chicago   Mercy Home for Boys and Girls   Christian Appalachian Project