About Retriever Development

Retriever Development Counsel specializes in 1) jump starting gift planning programs or campaigns; and 2) integrating gift planning into capital and endowment campaigns; 3) working collaboratively with you and your key donors to help maximize philanthropic opportunities.

Specific services include development and planned giving audits, planning studies (to facilitate endowment or capital campaign planning and to determine fundraising potential), campaign management, major gift and planned gift development, board and volunteer leadership development, staff development, strategic and long-range development planning, on-going one-on-one coaching, and training or motivating presentations to boards, staff and donors. Its primary focus is on organizations and individual clients in the western United States.

Kevin Johnson Principal, has more than 24 years of experience in a variety of roles with public service organizations. Among them are college Vice President, Director of Development for a national environmental organization (The Nature Conservancy), Acting Executive Director for a large children’s service organization, Endowment Director, and Planned Giving Officer. He has earned the designation of Certified Specialist in Planned Giving (Institute of Philanthropic Studies, California State University).

• Development audit and strategic assessment of $35 million capital campaign.
  
  
• Ongoing assistance with planned giving donors.
  
  
• Creation of a planned giving program and targeted activities to build a heritage society.
  
  
• Development assessment followed by targeted coaching of the executive director, board development committee, and development staff as they prepared for a major capital campaign.
  
  
• Planned giving coaching for the development director and executive director as they expand their program.
  
  
• Delivery of a workshop targeted for area legal and professional advisors and opportunities for land preservation and planned gifts.
  
  
• Planning and implementation of $20 million endowment campaign.
  
  
• Targeted gift planning consulting as the Foundation builds toward its multi-million endowment goal.
  
  
• Board strategy session as they determined next steps in their $2 million capital campaign.
  
  
• Creation and implementation of strategy for $20 million endowment campaign.
  
  
• Delivery of a workshop on how to market planned gifts for more than 30 nonprofit's that have endowments at a parent foundation.
  
  
• An assessment of the feasibility of a $2 million capital/endowment campaign.
  
  
• Training for land trust directors and board members in how to start and row planned giving programs.
  
  
• Development assessment to assist the director and board as they target fundraising efforts to raise $3 to 5 million to create a unique outdoor art
  museum of world-class contemporary art.
  
  
• Campaign to build endowment and a pipeline of planned gift income for a statewide organization.
  
  
• Assistance to create a planned giving program and start a gift annuity program as well as integrating planned gifts into an ongoing capital campaign.
  
  
• Ongoing planned gift support for the central development office and the 25+ development officers serving the university as part of their capital campaign, which includes a $10,000,000 planned gift objective.
  
  
• Assessment of feasibility of an endowment campaign.
  
  
• Ongoing planned giving and major gift fundraising assistance; training workshops, campaign planning resulting in a successful effort to raise more than $1 million in a special 90-day campaign and leverage another $7.9 million in a public bond issue during that same period.

Representative Clients 

Boys & Girls Aid Society, Portland, Oregon.
Faith In Action (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/Wake Forest Univ.)
Grand Canyon Trust, Flagstaff, Arizona.
Greenbelt Land Trust, Corvallis, Oregon.
Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, Inc., San Francisco, California.
Halcyone, Inc., Newfane, Vermont.
Humane Society of the Willamette Valley, Salem, OR.
Jefferson Land Trust, Port Townsend, Washington.
KUED, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Lake Oswego Adult Community Center Foundation, Lake Oswego, Oregon.
The Library Foundation, Portland, Oregon.
Loaves and Fishes, Portland, Oregon.
Maryhill Museum of Art, Goldendale, Washington.
Oregon Children’s Foundation, Portland, Oregon.
Oregon Community Foundation, Portland, Oregon.
Oregon Humane Society, Portland, Oregon.
Oregon Maritime Museum and Center, Portland, Oregon.
Northwest Land Trust Alliance, Seattle, Washington.
Pearl Arts Foundation, Portland, Oregon.
Planning and Conservation League, Sacramento, California.
Portland Schools Foundation, Portland, Oregon.
Portland Rescue Mission, Portland, Oregon.
Metropolitan Family Services, Portland, Oregon.
NE Lincoln High School, Nebraska.
Portland State University, Portland, Oregon.
Salem Hospital Foundation.
South Dakota Public Broadcasting.
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance .
The Black United Fund of Oregon.
Three Rivers Land Trust.
Tuality Healthcare Foundation, Hillsboro, Oregon.
University of Utah, Salt Lake City.
Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Participants in the Planned Giving and Endowment School include among others: Catlin Gabel, 1000 Friends of Oregon, OMSI, Edwards Center, Alzheimer's Association, Pacific Northwest College of Art, Vision Northwest, Cascade Festival of Music, Volunteers in Medicine, Deschutes United Way, Boys & Girls Clubs, the Columbia Land Trust, and others.

Individual Clients *

 Example One: When the consultation began, the donor thought he would made a few gifts of $10,000 each but was elated to discover that he could do more and solve a number of personal objectives. Planned a special needs trust to provide for a disabled son; a charitable remainder trust to provide for money management for his wife should he pass first, made charity the beneficiary of his over-funded pension plan. Total face value of gifts: $900,000.

 Example Two: Assisted a donor as she thought through the options (and opportunities) of giving one of her homes ($1 million value) outright, or as a retained life estate, a charitable trust, or as part gift (bargain sale) or a gift annuity.

 Example Three: Assisted a successful businessman with selecting charities in which to become involved and to contribute time and money.

 Example Four: Assisted a donor making strategic decisions about the charitable allocation of $6 million of his estate and to identity and qualify nonprofit's matching his interests and values.

*Names of individual clients are not listed to ensure privacy".

Professional Associates:

Wes Milligan has specialized in planned giving since 1997, first running the planned giving program at the University of Portland, and at The Nature Conservancy in Oregon since 1999.  He is currently the president of the Northwest Planned Giving Roundtable, the professional organization in the region for gift planning professionals. He has extensive experience in handling real estate gifts, as well as marketing and soliciting all types of planned gifts. Previously, he worked as a branch manager for Norwest Corporation for 14 years. Wes received his B.S. in Finance from the University of Oregon.