Category: Major Donor Fundraising

If you are a Board Member at a not-for-profit, most likely your mind starts swimming when you think about the fundraising needs of your organization.

You become anxious as you think about asking your friends for money.  You doubt your ability to come up with a great way to raise money. You don’t really know how to judge your organization’s fundraising, you just know whether you like it or not.

What if I told you that it doesn’t have to be this way?  That donor development work cannot only be fun, but fruitful?

Over the years, I have found that the easiest and most impactful way for you to become involved with fundraising as a board member is also usually very rewarding as well—thanking donors for their recent gift.

Thanking donors promptly and emotionally after their gift is essential to retaining them. As a board member, you can actively participate in this important work by writing thank you notes, making thank you calls or visiting with donors face-to-face to thank them for their gift. You will quickly see first-hand how donor development can be fun and fruitful!

All too often I hear of organizations taking their major donors out of their direct mail stream.  They don’t want to overwhelm their major donors with appeal letters and newsletters.

I applaud their desire to protect their major donors from too many communications, but I believe there needs to be a balance.

When you pull your major donors from your direct communications, your donors will give less because they don’t feel like they have good connection with your organization.  I strongly recommend that you send your newsletter to your major donors.

If your donors are going to write you another large donation, they need to be Reported to.  (In other words, they need to be told what their previous gift accomplished.)  And the primary purpose of your newsletter is to do just that; Report back to your donors what was accomplished because they gave a gift.

Feel free to upgrade the way the newsletter is delivered to your majors.  Give it a personal touch by hand-addressing the envelope.  One of our clients has great success by putting their newsletter in a large envelope (so they don’t have to fold it), hand-addressing the envelope, and sending it to their majors.

Whatever you do, make sure your major donors are hearing from you regularly.  If you don’t have the manpower to be personally in touch with them often, you should absolutely be including them in your mailings – especially your newsletter!

Have you ever heard of the fundraising “summer slump”?  It’s real and happening right now across North America.

Most (but not all) organizations experience a significant dip in their fundraising revenue during the summer months.  It happens because their donors are busy with summer vacations and the breaks in their normal rhythms.

If your cause or organization doesn’t have a natural reason to fundraise during the summer, this could be a great time of year to be Reporting back to your major donors on the impact their previous gift is having on your beneficiaries.

So take the time this summer to visit with your major donors and Report back to them the amazing things that have happened because they gave you a gift earlier in the year.

And if you are unable to meet fact-to-face with your major donors, then send them a text that includes a picture of a beneficiary they helped.  Or take a short video of a beneficiary or perhaps the building the donor helped build.  Set aside time in your day to call your donors and give them a quick update.

By whatever means possible, Report back to your donors during the summer months.  Why?  Because now is a great time to close the loop with each of your donors, earn their trust, so that they will be ready to give another gift during the last few months of the year.

What if the answer to one simple question could help you secure a million dollar donation?  Would you ask the question?  You bet you would!

Your job as a Major Gifts Officer is to figure out what that question is for each of your donors.

Great major gift officers have learned to invest more time asking their donors questions than talking about themselves or their organization.  You should ask each of your donors about their giving and their goals.  Once you truly understand what’s important to your donors you’ll be able to ask the right questions of them.

One simple question can result in you securing a major gift.  So start asking questions and learn all that you can about your donors and what makes them tick.  Then you’ll be able to ask them to meet the right need at the right price.

So, are you asking your donors to give gifts hoping that they will say yes?  Or are you asking each donor lots of questions to find out what they love – and then asking them for one specific gift that you know they’ll love to be asked for?

Bonus Thought: The knowledge you gain by asking your donors questions about their giving and goals helps you align your organization’s growth goals and strategies with your donors’ values.  Because if you are trying to grow in ways that your donors don’t love, you’re going to have a much harder time growing.

To anyone who does major gift fundraising, I want you to see your work as adding incredible value to the lives of your donors.

Too many people look at major donor fundraising as subtraction: they think that you’re taking money from donors in order to do something great.

But from the donor’s point of view, it’s not subtraction.  Great major donor fundraising adds value to a donor’s life by connecting their money to their good intentions.

Over my two decades of major gift fundraising I have come to realize that my job is less about the money and more about what my donors value.  My job (and yours) as a major gift officer is to help the donor connect their money with their good intentions.  When donors truly understand how their gifts do that – and are given compelling opportunities to do so – amazing charitable impact happens.

So now it is your turn.  Take what I’ve learned and put it into action.  Don’t look at your work as subtraction – taking money from major donors to do something great.  See your work as addition; a chance to add incredible value to the lives of the major donors by giving them opportunities to connect their intentions with their wealth.  Simply put, look at your job as connecting good people with good work.

When you look at major gift fundraising through this lens you begin to see the incredible value you provide your major donors each and every day.

Most major donors I know love to leverage their donations. They want their gift to go beyond funding operational expenses. They desire to help you acquire more donors and raise more money.

One of the best ways I know to increase giving amounts and acquire new donors is to offer a matching gift. Matching gifts can be used at special events, via direct mail or in personal when making an appeal.

On average, here’s what happens when you include a “match” in your fundraising:

• Average Gift Size increases 41%
• The # of Donations increases 110%
• Gross Revenue increases 120%

What major donor would say no to helping your organization do that?!?

Asking your major donors to give matching funds is a great way to increase their giving as well. When they know their gift will be leveraged for a greater use, they too will stretch their giving amount.

Matching gifts are a true “win-win” for everyone involved.

If your nonprofit organization is like most, you are about to enter into the slowest time of the fundraising calendar — summer.

One sure fire way to avoid the summer fundraising slump is to ask your major donors to make a significant donation right before summer starts!

Your major donors tend to have what we call a “high Organizational-IQ.” They know more about your organization, and how it works, than most donors.  Because of their high Organizational IQ you can give them more information about your operation —  including the financial issues surrounding the summer fundraising slump.

So what should you do?  Identify the amount of money you need to avoid the summer slump and then ask your major donors to give a gift to eliminate the slump!

It is really that simple.  Tell them the slump is coming, tell them how helpful their gift today will be, and ask them to give a specific amount (that you’ve determined beforehand based on their giving history) to eliminate the summer slump.

So don’t waste another minute. Identify your summer slump fundraising goal and start asking your major donors for help!

Almost every capital campaign has something in common:

A majority of the funding tends to come from just a few major donors.

In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country.  He observed that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth.  And it turns out that Pareto’s Principle is surprisingly helpful for fundraising as well – specifically in major donor fundraising and in most capital campaigns.

Over the years I’ve consulted on over 100 capital campaigns. The Pareto Principle hold true: in successful capital campaigns the majority of donations come from just a few major donors.

I recently consulted on a campaign to raise $4M to help build a new resource center for homeless moms and kids.  This project was funded by 3 major donors that gave $2M, plus an additional $1M that was given by a local association of builders who will donate time and materials.  Just 4 donors gave $3M of the $4M goal!!

My advice to you is to evaluate the giving potential of your top donors before you launch a capital campaign. If your top donors have capacity to give 80% of your campaign goal, then you can move forward with your campaign in confidence. If your top donors don’t have the capacity to fund your campaign, then you should adjust your campaign scope or identify new donors that can help cover the difference.

Major donor fundraising doesn’t have to be difficult and complex. I’ve been raising money from major donors for over 20 years and have discovered that success fundraising comes down to four important ingredients:

1. Identify who your major donors are. If you can’t name them by name or don’t know their giving history or giving priorities, then you have some work to do. Research your top donors, know exactly who they are, and learn as much about them as you can.
2. Your #1 job is to keep your current major donors actively giving to your organization. Do this by Thanking them promptly and emotionally when they give a gift. Then Report back to them what happened because they gave a gift. Odds are you have donors right now waiting to be Thanked and Reported to.  Don’t wait, reach out to them today!
3. Make your appeal in person. Stop hiding behind your email and phone. Get out there and meet with your donors face-to-face. Most (but not all) major donors desire to be in relationship with you and our cause.
4. Ask for more money than you think you can receive from your donor. The goal here is to stretch your donor’s thinking and then let them decrease the giving amount if it is too high.

Apply these ingredients to your fundraising and you will raise more money right away.  You’ll also build genuine, mission-driven relationship with your major donors – which means you’ll raise a LOT more money in the long term too.