Did you know that just a small percentage of your active donors give the majority of your fundraising revenue? This simple principle confirms the need for you to know who your top donors are and why they like to give to your organization.
In order to help you strengthen your major donor development work, here are a few things you need to do today:
- Know who your top donors are. Know their name, the mailing address, where they work, who they know from your organization, and what motivates them to give.
- Make sure these donors have received prompt and emotional communications from you recently. Thanking your major donors for their most recent donation is key to developing real relationships with your donors. If by chance it has been a while since your donors have heard from you, then stop what you are doing right now and write them a thank you note.
- Determine when and for what you will ask these donors for their next gift. Assuming you have Thanked and Reported to your donors, then you should be ready to ask them for their next donation.
The big takeaway from this blog post is this: know who your major donors and make sure that they receive communication from you on an ongoing basis. The more communication you have with them, the more likely you are to receive a major gift from them later this year.