Fundraising and Research: Demystifying Major Gifts: A Guide to Major Donor Moves Management | Association of Fundraising Professionals (2024)

I’ve lost track of the number of times friends and colleagues have expressed fear or anxiety around asking for money in my fundraising career. My instinct as a social worker is to unpack the underlying motivations for those common fears. Most often, what I’ve found is their anxiety around making an ask is based in fear of rejection, guilt or simply not knowing what to say.

As a former major gifts officer and now development director, I help colleagues, board members, and development committee members understand major donor moves management and demystify the steps to facilitate a successful ask. Major gifts work is about understanding the donor cultivation cycle and having a solid understanding of commonly used terminology.

This article outlines key strategies for major gifts moves management so that fundraisers can bring these skills back to their organizations and maximize their major gifts revenue.

Moves Management Sounds like Jargon. What is it?

David Dunlop, Cornell University senior development officer, developed the moves management concept. Dunlop described moves management as “changing people’s attitudes so that they want to give.”¹ “Moves” are any actions that an organization takes to move someone from cultivation (prospects) to solicitation (donors). The moves management cycle has five phases that are described below.

Major Donor Moves Management Cycle

Adapted from Newman Consulting: Fundraising Counsel & Management

Phase 1: Identification

The first phase of moves management is to identify potential donors and prospects who could support your organization. This phase requires that key development staff create a portfolio of internal and external prospects. Internal prospects are current donors, lapsed donors or constituents who already exist in your organization’s database. External prospects include individuals who are not already in your database but who might support your cause.

Some strategies to identify new external potential donors include:

1. Asking your board members to generate a list of individuals based on their connections and any knowledge of those individuals’ civic or philanthropic involvement;
2. Looking at the annual reports from similar organizations; or
3. Identifying executive leaders through local business publications.

Phase 2: Qualification

Qualification involves determining if a previously identified individual is a viable prospect by conducting research, performing a donor analysis, or meeting with the prospect. When researching a prospect, remember that not all research is accurate—take it all with a grain of salt. Research is a great preliminary tool to narrow down prospects, but meeting with the donor is always the best way to gather the most accurate information.

Consider first for your research using free tools like Google and social media searching or simply asking board members if they know particular prospects. For fee-based help, you can explore online databases such as WealthEngine, Wealth-X, iWave, DonorSearch or hire an external wealth screening company.

There are several ways to qualify prospects using donor analysis. If the prospects are already in your database, staff can conduct a Recency, Frequency, and Monetary (RFM) analysis on the database. An RFM analysis ranks donors based on how recently they gave to your organization, how frequently they give, and the size of their gifts.

Staff and board members can also qualify prospects using the Three Keys:²

• Capacity: How much wealth can this person afford to donate?
• Affinity: Is this person passionate about your cause and/or organization?
• Propensity: Has this person given to nonprofit causes before?

Once a donor has been qualified as a viable prospect using these tools, staff can move them to the Cultivation Phase.

Phase 3: Cultivation

The Cultivation Phase is critical to moving a prospect toward the Solicitation Phase. Cultivation requires spending intentional time getting to know the donor, understanding their interests and philanthropic motivations and educating them about the important work of your organization. How to start cultivating prospects depends on how the prospect came to you. Was it through a warm connection? Was it a cold prospect via internet research? Is this person an existing lower-level or lapsed donor?

For warm connections from staff or board members, the first step in cultivation is the fundraising staff member sets up a meeting with the relationship “connector,” gathers information on the prospect, and determines the next steps to engage. Engagement opportunities may include a volunteer day at your organization, inviting the prospect to an event or house party, or setting up a one-on-one meeting to speak about the work and learn about the prospect’s philanthropic interests and priorities.

Research is a great preliminary tool to narrow down prospects, but meeting with the donor is always the best way to gather the most accurate information.

The Cultivation Phase takes time, and a solicitor should not make a major gift ask in the first or even the second visit. The purpose of this phase is simply to get to know the donor, bring them into the work, and make them feel compelled to give.
Here are some sample questions to ask the prospect during a cultivation meeting:

1. [If the prospect is an existing donor] What drew you to our organization, and what has compelled you to keep giving over the years?
2. I’m curious about what kind of social issues interest you. Are there any issues you’re particularly passionate about?
3. What do you know about our organization? Are there particular parts of our work that are most interesting to you that you’d like to learn more about?
4. What are your philanthropic priorities?

Phase 4: Solicitation

Once a staff or board member believes that enough personal touchpoints have been made with the prospect and they understand the work, it is time to solicit them for a major gift. Based on the information gathered to date and the conversations with the prospect, the solicitor should have a good sense of the prospect’s capacity, affinity, and propensity and can make an educated determination about a reasonable ask amount. To determine what that ask amount could be, the solicitor can refer to past giving as an indicator of capacity and any collected wealth information.

The best practice is to ask a major donor prospect for a specific amount toward a particular initiative. The solicitor should come prepared to an ask meeting with a personalized written proposal; however, the ask should be made during a warm conversation rather than as a document delivery. Give the proposal to the prospect as a tangible takeaway from the meeting.

During a solicitation meeting, the solicitor should first recap what’s been done or discussed to date and thank the prospect for their time. The solicitor should then tell the prospect about any giving incentives, such as matching gift opportunities, upcoming events to direct their gift or timely initiatives. Some keywords and phrases to use during an ask include:

1. What would it take for you to consider a gift at the $XX,XXX level?
2. I want to invite you to be a partner in this work by making a gift at the $XX,XXX level.
3. The XX program still needs philanthropic support to scale our work. Can we count on you to make a $XX,XXX gift?

Once the ask has been made, the tendency is often to qualify the ask or fill the quiet space with more words. The solicitor should allow for silence so that the prospect can formulate a response. If the response is “yes,” the solicitor should respond with thoughtful gratitude and a plan to follow up with more information to fulfill their pledge. The staff person then moves the donor to the Stewardship Phase.

If the response is “no,” the solicitor should follow up with more questions to get to the root of the “no” response. Often a “no” is rooted in one of three concerns: the amount, the timing or the initiative. The solicitor should reply with investigative questions, such as:

• What would make the ask more reasonable for you?
• Is there something in particular that you’re hesitant about?

Depending on the response, the solicitor can change the ask or thank the prospect for their time and plan to follow up later. Prospects may also ask for time to consider the proposal and respond later via phone or email.

The cultivation phase takes time, and a solicitor should not make a major gift ask in the first or sometimes the second visit. The purpose of this phase is simply to get to know the donor, bring them into the work, and make them feel compelled to give.

Phase 5: Stewardship

The Stewardship Phase is critical to maintaining a strong and warm relationship with the donor. Stewardship at its core includes saying “thank you” in many forms, recognizing the donor in their preferred ways and providing regular updates and opportunities to continue to engage with your organization. Stewardship also includes making sure that the donor feels their contribution has made an impact. Solicitors should set regular reminders to touch base with the donor throughout the year, at least every quarter. Stewardship tactics may include engagement opportunities, educational documents, thank you cards and calls, event invitations, asking for feedback, and sharing success stories.

Conclusion

Solicitors should keep in mind that major donor moves management is more of an art than a science. A solicitor should tailor their approach to moving individual donors through the phases, as every prospect or donor meets and engages differently.

Great solicitors use their best judgment and personal knowledge when engaging with potential donors to ensure a smooth engagement. Major donor moves management requires patience and intentionality. According to Philanthropy Works³, a support and training organization for frontline fundraisers, securing a major gift typically takes between six to 36 months to secure, depending on a few factors:

1. The size of the gift. More significant gifts will take longer and will require more moves.
2. The donor’s positive perception of and trust in the organization’s good stewardship of the gift. If trust and confidence need to build, it will take longer.

The moves management approach and duration also depend on the phase at which the donor enters. A warm introduction from a board member, for instance, may allow you to skip straight to the Cultivation Phase, whereas a cold prospect would require starting at the identification phase. Major donor moves management is a critical skill set for your organization’s stakeholders to build, as it allows for a high return on investment for long-term sustainability.