[Guest Post] 6 Steps to Build a Major Gift Program for Your Nonprofit
*As a nonprofit professional, you’ve likely heard of the principle that the majority of your funding — about 80% — comes from a small handful of donors. These individuals are your major donors.
Because major donors are such an important funding source, it’s essential for your nonprofit to build strategies to reach, build relationships with, and cultivate contributions from major supporters.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through the essential steps to build a successful major gift program for your nonprofit. Plus, we’ll provide an overview of the basics and benefits of starting a legacy giving program. These steps include:
Define what “major gift” means to your nonprofit.
Find major prospects within your donor database.
Prioritize and qualify major donors.
Cultivate relationships with major donors.
Create a solicitation strategy to make the ask.
Consider developing a planned or legacy giving program.
According to Bloomerang’s major gift fundraising guide, your major gift program should prioritize creating strong, long-lasting relationships that benefit your organization well into the future. These tips will help create a sustainable program that fosters greater connections between your organization and its major donors.
1. Define what “major gift” means to your nonprofit.
Every organization has a different definition of what a major gift looks like. Therefore, to start building your program, you must define giving tiers for your organization and determine what constitutes a major gift.
Large educational institutions may consider any contribution over $30,000 to be a major gift. Meanwhile, your local animal shelter may consider any gift of $1,000 or more to fall into that category.
One way to determine what a major gift is for your organization is to calculate the average donation amount from your top ten donors. Be sure to exclude any foundations, sponsors from corporations, or outlier contributions from this calculation. Now that you have the average, round up to the nearest $5,000. For example, if the average donation size is $9,400, you would round up to $10,000. Anything at or above this amount is what you’ll consider a major gift.
As you define your major gift tier, be realistic, yet optimistic in your estimations for these gift sizes. The purpose of building your major gift program is to grow your major gift revenue, so optimism is key. However, unmeasured and unrealistic optimism can lead to unmotivated team members if they’re unable to attain the set level of support.
Gifts of all sizes play a key part in your fundraising strategy, and some donors may consider their gift to be “major” even if it’s lower than your definition of a major gift. But defining the amounts you’re looking for will also help you determine the part the contribution will play in your larger strategic plan. For instance, your major donors are key players in capital campaigns that are designed to increase capacity, develop new programs, or build new facilities.
2. Find major prospects within your donor database.
You’ve already located the top donors in your donor database. However, these aren’t the only prospects for your major gift program. Comb through your donor database to find other potential candidates for this program.
While it can be tempting to turn to outside sources to find prospective supporters, major gifts rarely come out of the blue. You’re much more likely to find prospects to launch your program from within your current base of support.
Look for supporters who are highly engaged with your cause and have a high capacity to give:
Engagement level
When we discuss supporter engagement, we’re not only referring to the frequency and recency of donations. What matters when considering engagement level is the total engagement of the supporters. For example, compare the following two donors:
Donor #1 gave a $1,000 donation to your organization last year, a sizable gift, but not quite a major contribution. However, they did not attend any of your events and didn’t open half the emails you sent them.
Donor #2 also gave a $1,000 donation to your organization last year. Unlike Donor #1, they attended three of your events and opened 80% of the emails you sent. They also volunteered to help several times throughout the year.
If you were asked who is the more valuable donor, the answer would clearly be Donor #2 because they’ve shown that they’re more engaged with your mission. If they have the capacity to give in large amounts (or the potential to reach that capacity), they could be a potential prospect for your new major donor program.
Look for information in your donor database and pull helpful reports such as event analytics or campaign participation to determine which supporters have been most engaged with your cause in the past.
In addition to the information you already have in your CRM, you might want to use other prospect research tools to look for additional indicators of a supporter’s affinity to give. Double the Donation’s list of prospect research software highlights solutions like DonorSearch, IntellectSpace, and Dataro as some of the top tools that your nonprofit can leverage to find this information.
Capacity to give
Researching donor capacity provides insight into how much a donor would be able to give to your nonprofit if they choose to contribute. There are publicly available wealth indicators that you can analyze to determine if a supporter has the potential to give your major donation amount.
For example, some of the essential wealth indicators to look for during the wealth screening process include:
SEC holdings
Real estate
Donation history
Political contributions
Profession
Examine your donors’ engagement and capacity to give to your organization. Then, compile a list of prospects based on these indicators. After you’ve sorted and qualified your prospects, you’ll be able to create a segment in your donor management software specifically dedicated to major prospects for your major gift program.
3. Prioritize and qualify major prospects.
After you’ve identified your initial prospect list, you’ll need to prioritize and qualify them. Not everyone wants to be wined and dined by your organization in order to develop a relationship that leads to major gifts. The best way to start your major gift program is to qualify your major prospects, ensuring they’re interested in developing a deeper relationship with your organization.
You can start qualifying your supporters by taking a number of steps to determine the donor’s level of engagement. These steps could include the following:
Sending an initial letter, introducing your major gift officer or other fundraising professionals to the donor
Calling the supporter, thanking them for their past engagement, and inquiring about what motivated them to give to your organization
Sending a letter following up on a conversation or after leaving a message on their answering machine
Sending a survey to inquire about the prospect’s interest in your organization and mission
Following up with prospects on various marketing channels, whether that be social media, email, or direct mail
Making one last phone call to see if they’re interested in joining the program
Take several or all of these ideas to determine if your prospects are worth pursuing as a part of your major gift program. This will help you save time and resources in pursuing only those who are most likely to “bite” and eventually contribute to your cause.
4. Cultivate relationships with major donors.
After you’ve determined who in your list of prospects wants a relationship with your organization, you can start cultivating those relationships. This requires your organization to start setting up intimate experiences to engage these important supporters.
In addition to your usual events and activities, set up experiences specifically for your major prospects. For example, you can:
Create exclusive event opportunities. When you host events, provide specialized VIP opportunities for your major prospects. For example, as you plan for your upcoming gala, assign a VIP table with specific perks like early admission, cocktail hour, and opportunities to meet with your major gift officer.
Send tailored communications. Create a segment in your donor database specifically dedicated to your major prospects. Then, communicate with them often and with the information they really want to know. For example, give them the inside scoop on your next big project before the news is released to the public.
Give them feedback opportunities. Provide opportunities for your major supporters to share their insights and opinions about your nonprofit’s operations, such as a survey after events or a meeting after they’ve volunteered with your cause. You can also call and ask them questions over the phone.
Give them firsthand experience with the mission. Volunteer opportunities are a great way for your supporters of any level to get an up close and personal experience with your organization’s mission. Offer your major prospects opportunities to join in on the wins with your organization so they can see the difference they’re making when they make a major gift.
Hold one-on-one meetings. One-on-one meetings are essential for making the ask, but you don’t always need to have a money-focused agenda for these meetings. You can also meet up with prospects to discuss upcoming projects, events, or their feedback.
Relationship building needs to be a two-way street. You can’t expect your supporters to contribute their time and energy to your cause if you don’t also give time and energy to them.
Cultivation and relationship building go hand-in-hand, requiring your organization to set up intimate experiences with qualified prospects. In a donor retention study completed by Adrian Sargeant, 18% of lapsed supporters didn’t contribute again due to insufficient communication from the organization. Don’t let this happen with your major gift program!
Communicate often and in a variety of ways (email, phone calls, social platforms, face-to-face, Zoom, etc.) to keep up with these supporters and provide them with plenty of individualized opportunities to engage with your organization.
5. Create a solicitation strategy to make the ask.
You’ll never receive a contribution if you don’t ask for it. Set up an intimate meeting place with your prospects to make your ask. Generally, hosting this meeting in a home office or living room is best to avoid distractions and allow for additional privacy. However, keep in mind that your supporters may prefer meeting in a public place or virtually. Their preferences should always be taken into consideration for your location.
Next, you’ll need to choose the language that you’ll use to make the ask. Don’t just jump into the ask portion of the conversation. Instead, explain to the prospect the impact they’ve made at your organization so far and express your gratitude for their involvement. Then, frame your ask as a “consideration” and name the program or initiative that the donation would fund. For example:
“Would you consider donating $10,000 to the Environment-First program?
Be ready to lower your ask if they seem hesitant or can’t make a contribution quite that big at this time. You might lower the $10,000 to $8,000 and then $5,000 depending on what they can contribute.
Remain confident throughout the ask. If you’re nervous or uncomfortable, that will show in how you solicit the contribution.
6. Consider developing a planned or legacy giving program.
Legacy or planned giving is a way for donors to make major contributions to nonprofits as part of their wills, endowments, or other structured giving avenues.
Creating a legacy giving program is an effective way to plan for the future. Unlike other major gifts, these donations are often not immediately accessible. However, by thinking strategically about planned giving now, you can ensure that your organization receives more of these major contributions in the years to come.
Follow these steps to launch your legacy giving program:
Create a legacy giving landing page for your website with information about how to join the program.
Highlight the benefits of legacy giving on your website, social media pages, and email messages. Bequests, in particular, are a simple and flexible way for donors to make charitable donations. Plus, they offer tax benefits to a donor’s loved ones who are managing their estate.
Discuss legacy giving opportunities during donor meetings.
Legacy giving allows donors to make an impact on the organizations that mean the most to them for years into the future. Make sure your major donors are aware of these opportunities and understand the benefits of participating in your planned giving program.
After you’ve asked for donations from your major supporters, show appreciation for their generosity through donor recognition walls, appreciation letters, and other thank-you strategies.
Continue building these important relationships with your current prospects. Down the line, you can start sourcing new prospects to continue growing the important program you’ve just started and discover more potential legacy donors. Examine your mid-tier donors, look for prospects outside of your database, and try reaching out to those who were filtered out during your qualification process this round. With this new list of prospects, you can start the cultivation and solicitation cycle over again.
Author: Jay Love
Co-Founder and current Chief Relationship Officer at Bloomerang
Prior to Bloomerang, he was the CEO and Co-Founder of eTapestry for 11 years, which at the time was the leading SaaS technology company serving the charity sector. Jay and his team grew the company to more than 10,000 nonprofit clients, charting a decade of record growth. He is a graduate of Butler University with a B.S. in Business Administration.