An Effective Major Gifts Plan Template: Just 4 Simple Steps (2024)

FAQs

An Effective Major Gifts Plan Template: Just 4 Simple Steps? ›

The major gift fundraising process is broken into four distinct phases: identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. This fundraising cycle helps you find your prospects in and beyond your community of supporters, then lead them to become dedicated major donors for your cause.

The major gift fundraising process is broken into four distinct phases: identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. This fundraising cycle helps you find your prospects in and beyond your community of supporters, then lead them to become dedicated major donors for your cause.

Define what major gifts look like for your organization. Determine major prospects with the capacity to give in the range identified. Look first at your donor database, then start doing prospect research in the community. Create a cultivation strategy to start building relationships with your prospects.

For example, a major donor may give to your annual fund one year and then give to it again a few years later. Instead, enter into each cultivation process with the knowledge that you're in it for the long haul.

There are four steps in the major gift fundraising cycle: (1) Identification; (2) Cultivation; (3) Solicitation; (4) Stewardship.

Major gifts are the largest donations an organization receives from a single source in a single fiscal year. There is no industry standard for how much money counts as a major gift. Each organization must look at their own donation pool and decide what it means to them.

The right donor is defined as (a) One who has capacity to give, (b) One who wants to talk to us – i.e. is qualified, and (c) One whose passions and interests match the needs of the organization. Putting these two principles into one big “sort” results in making decisions that are a confluence of relationship and money.

Job Responsibilities

Setting individual goals based on donor history and potential, and then creating and delivering on individual stewardship plans for donors that include regular updates about the impact of their gift, polished publications and marketing materials, and genuine personal contact.

While major donations could be entirely cash or property, principal gifts can be a combination of those and more. One of the primary roles of a fundraiser in developing principal gift relationships is to inform the individual or corporation about all the giving options.

A such, the real difference between major gifts fundraising and planned gifts fundraising is language use. A typical major gift is immediate, solving here-and-now issues standing between a nonprofit and its mission. Planned giving focuses on the future.

Who is considered a major donor? ›

A major donor is anyone who makes political contributions totaling $10,000 or more to California state or local candidates, their controlled committees, ballot measures, other political committees or political parties within a calendar year.

Both types of gifts share three elements which must be met in order for the gift to be legally effective: donative intent (the intention of the donor to give the gift to the donee), the delivery of the gift to the donee, and the acceptance of the gift.

Requirements. To make an effective gift inter vivos or causa mortis, the law imposes three requirements: (1) the donor must deliver a deed or object to the donee; (2) the donor must actually intend to make a gift, and (3) the donee must accept (see Figure 36.1 "Gift Requirements").

Use the 2 / 10 Range to Determine Your Ask Amount

My general rule in this case is to ask for between two and ten times the donor's normal gift. In other words, if your donor usually gives $1,000 annually, your starting figure is going to be between $2,000 and $10,000.

What I will tell you is that hiring an experienced major gifts officer is a great investment. Ultimately, they should be able to raise five, ten or even more times their salary.

Build your gift chart by starting with the top gift which should be at least 20% of your campaign goal. Then work down, increasing the number of gifts as the size of the gifts goes down. The number of gifts in the first column should increase in a rational pattern as the size of the gifts decreases.

It takes between six months and two years to secure a major gift. Scream this from the mountain tops folks. Your leadership and board need to take the pressure off of you and your team. They simply can't expect you to close major gifts quickly.

In the article, “Fundraising 101—Fundraising Cycle,” it states there are five stages of the donor fundraising cycle, which are identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation and stewardship.

All 3 legs, or, the 3 Cs of fundraising – capacity, commitment and connection should be firmly in place prior to raising money for a building renovation or endowment campaign.

Why are major gifts important? ›

Major gifts make up most of your organization's total revenue for the year. They enable a nonprofit to fund its programs, and in turn, empower it to positively impact the lives of its many beneficiaries.

Etiquette says that gifts at work should flow downward, not upward (meaning that your boss can give you a gift, but employees shouldn't be expected to give gifts to their managers).

Meetings, meetings, meetings. Managers are often responsible for an area of the business. This requires several meetings including operational, team 1:1s, project specific, strategic and ad-hoc. The main issue with the meetings is that they can consume so much time and leave you no time to do your deliverable work.

The Director of Major Gifts executes and manages cultivation and stewardship strategies in support of fundraising campaigns, gift planning and major gift procurement, donor relations, and annual giving.

A major donor committee is an individual or entity (e.g., corporation, firm, business, or proprietorship) that makes one or more contributions to state or local candidates, ballot measure committees, or other committees (including political parties and PACs) totaling $10,000 or more in a calendar year.

Major gifts make up close to 80% of an organization's total funding for a given year, and they come from less than 20% of the donor base. One nonprofit might consider a $1000 gift to be a major gift. For another, a large gift might be more like $250,000 or even $1 million.

All these motives for giving major gifts tie back to what we said at the start. Donors want to give because their own story matters to them. They want to visualize themselves making a difference in the world that affects others. They want to identify with at least one person their gift will help.

According to Janet Brewer, J.D., the top giving characteristics of donors, with respect to planned gifts, include being consistent in donating over time, having no children, having given the greatest amount ever donated in any one year in life, having consistency in reporting a funded trust, being female, having wealth ...

Billionaires and others who give away millions of dollars at a time can be called philanthropic “megadonors,” a term also common for political funders with deep pockets.

The four pillars—knowledge, strategy, culture, and emotion—can be applied in a wide variety of areas. Knowledge is essential because it lays the foundation for all of our actions with donors.

How do you make donors happy? ›

The 4 gift rule is very simple: you get each of your children something they want, something they need, something to wear, and something to read. Depending on your kid's age, you might ask for their input on some or all of these gifts, or you might choose them all yourself.

The five gift rule says that you should give five gifts to your loved ones: one for each of the following categories: something they want, something they need, something to wear, something to read, and a special gift.

Instead of monetary gain, gift economies often rely on intangible rewards like a sense of contribution, community, honor or prestige.

Typically, a full time major gift officer has a portfolio of 75 to 125 prospects. People with other assignments besides major gifts should be assigned smaller portfolios.

Money etiquette experts suggest spending $10 to $20 for classmates while expanding the budget to $25 for close friends, $50 for relatives and upwards of $100 for your own children.

A gift range calculator is an online tool that allows you to enter a monetary goal for your fundraising campaign, and see how many gifts you will need to raise at each level in order to meet your goal.

Choosing Your Major Gift Amount

If you're still not sure, here's a good rule of thumb: An appropriate level for a major gift is an amount where approximately five percent of your donors can (and will) give at that level. It should be high enough that when you receive one, it's cause for celebration at your office.

The simplest way to determine a major gift level is to run a list of your top 10 donors for the last 12 months. Exclude any foundations or corporations on the list.

What should I look for in a major gift officer? ›

For fundraisers working with major donors, you need gift officers who can detect the emotions of the supporters and donors they're meeting with – while they're meeting with them. The best gift officers can detect anxiety, compassion, nervousness, empathy, and many other emotions that their prospects may be feeling.

The Director of Major Gifts executes and manages cultivation and stewardship strategies in support of fundraising campaigns, gift planning and major gift procurement, donor relations, and annual giving.