You Don’t Need a Major Gifts Program.
While that title might be clickbait, it is also true not every non-profit needs a major gift program. As consultants, we often hear from clients that they need a major gifts program to change the trajectory of their fundraising. While it is true major gifts and a major gifts plan can and do elevate overall giving, it is not something you can just whip up. Small changes/improvements can often be made to existing systems that can yield the ever sought-after increase in funds raised. Major gifts are a result of a developed and well-stewarded donor pipeline. Many smaller organizations lack the donor base, stewardship resources, and staffing needed to adequately support their current giving, let alone a major gifts program. If you have a one or two-person development team that manages all individual giving, grants, events, etc., trust us when we say they cannot add major gift solicitation to their list of responsibilities.
For every board member and executive director that feels their organization needs a major gift program, we would ask you to reflect on a few questions:
Do you have a donor database that is up to date and used to its full potential?
What is your current donor retention rate?
How engaged are the board and senior staff in fundraising currently?
Do you the reserves to support a major gifts officer's salary and benefits for the first 18 months?
Are the Executive Director and Board willing and able to dedicate a significant portion of time to supporting a major gifts function in the organization? (It is not part of one person's job nor the job of just one FT person).
Do you regularly receive positive feedback from your donors?
Far fewer organizations have accurate, up-to-date, and functional databases than you would guess. Many organizations have outdated data, incomplete records, and poor tracking of interactions. More often than not, lack of staff time is cited as the reason for this. Simply put, if you can't keep your database up to date, you do not have time for building relationships with major donors.
Suppose your donor retention rate is low, under 45%. In that case, you could be doing a better job stewarding your donors and building a relationship with them where repeat (and often increased) gifts happen. If your senior leadership and board of directors are not actively engaged in fundraising and donor cultivation now, they won't be ready to help with major donors. The connections and referrals, especially from the board, are where many of your early major donors may come from. While they are not your only source, they are an important one. Having the board used to reaching out to their contacts and making introductions is an integral part of the fundraising pipeline. The organization's executive director and the board will be a vital piece of any expanded fundraising plan and need to be willing and able to actively engage in the process.
Having a solid multi-channel individual giving program with solid retention rates is important for the well-being of your organization. It is also the base on which a major gifts plan is built. Working to strengthen your individual giving program, making sure you have the support of your board, and ensuring your database is being utilized to its full potential are all steps to be ready to launch a major gifts plan. These, coupled with the financial resources to fund a major gifts officer, are the bare minimum you need to implement a major giving plan.
Along the road to developing a major giving program, your organization will need to strengthen and grow its development systems and individual giving programs. As this is accomplished, you will find many of the gains you were hoping to get from a major giving plan will come to fruition just from getting the organization's systems in order. These steps are often far more achievable for an organization than launching a major gifts program. If done right, they will yield increased giving. Investing in properly managing your database, training and engaging your staff and board, and increasing quality interactions with your existing donors is often what an organization needs to successfully increase their giving.
Doing all of this will change your organization for the better, and you may find you are able to raise enough and have a solid donor pipeline that you don't need a major gifts program after all. And, if you dome forward with a major gifts program, you will have built a solid foundation that will help you successfully launch your major giving plan.
