One of the reasons fundraising can be so exhausting is that nonprofit leaders spend too much time chasing small gifts, or relying too heavily on government contracts with too many hurdles.
One way to diversify and grow a nonprofit’s financial model is to attract more major donors. And I’m not just talking about major individual donors. Major donors are individuals, foundations or corporations whose gifts to a nonprofit are solicited and stewarded in a one-to-one, as opposed to a many-to-one, relationship.
But you won’t find them by chance. You find them by creating a thoughtful, systematic plan.
The Social Velocity Attract Major Donors Step-by-Step Guide helps you create a plan to secure more major donors. Typically major donor campaigns are undertaken by larger, older nonprofit organizations. But I believe that any nonprofit can turn their board and staff into an army securing larger gifts for their organization.
Here is an excerpt from the Social Velocity Attract Major Donors Step-by-Step Guide…
Attract Major Donors
What constitutes a major gift varies by nonprofit organization and depends on the size of the organization and the depth of their donor base. A major gift could be as little as $100 for a small, grassroots organization and as large as $1,000,000 or more for a large, established organization.
The first step in your major donor campaign is to determine how much you think you can raise from major donors in the first year of your campaign. In order to get at that goal you need to:
- Define a major gift level for your organization
- Analyze your current major gift activity
- Determine what investments in fundraising infrastructure you are going to make this year
Let’s take these one by one.
Defining a Major Gift for Your Organization
A major gift is a giving level at which you currently have a few donors, but the vast majority of your donors are below. So for example, if you currently have a handful of donors at or above $500, but most of your donors are below $500, $500 would be a major gift for your organization. Keep in mind that the major gift level for your organization can change over time as you bring in more donors and they start giving at higher levels.
Analyzing Current Major Donor Activity
Once you know what a major gift is for your nonpro!t, you will want to review how much you are currently raising at and above that level and from whom. Pull a report from your donor database that lists all gifts over the past 2-3 years at or above your major donor level. This will give you an idea of how much you currently bring in from major donors.
Determining Your Fundraising Infrastructure Investments
Your major donor goal depends in part on the resources you will devote to the major donor campaign.
- Do you have any plans to invest in your fundraising infrastructure? Do you plan to hire a Development person to focus on major gifts, or add other position(s) in order to free up current fundraising staff to focus on major gifts?
- Do you plan to upgrade your donor database to be more functional and efficient?
- Will you create marketing materials for major donor prospects? The fact that you are putting together this major donor plan will ensure some gains in major donor activity because strategy itself is a great resource investment. If you plan to invest in the backend of your major donor fundraising effort, you can expect to see some gains in major donors.
Once you have these three elements, you can determine a reasonable goal for your first year of a major donor campaign. It should be an increase from what you discovered in #2 above, and that increase is dependent upon how many changes (#3 above) you are willing to make to how you are currently securing major donors.
Once you’ve determined your major donor goal for the coming year, you will want to create a gift range chart that breaks that goal into goal into gift amounts, # of donors, and # of prospects so that you have a sense of what it will take to get to your goal…
To read more, download the Attract Major Donors Step-by-Step Guide.
And you can view all of the Social Velocity Step-by-Step Guides here.
Photo Credit: Chris Potter
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