Attracting Major Gifts

For many charities seeking funds, major gift fundraising is often one of the last areas to be developed or fully exploited.

For some, it is a bit of a mystery or is seen as windfall fundraising, where luck plays more of a role than judgement. In fact, where it is properly planned and consistently executed, major gift fundraising can become a valuable and ongoing source of support. So how should you go about it?

Identifying Prospects

Most major donors will already know the charity, so start from where you are and examine your donor file. Can you identify people with obvious wealth, i.e. with the potential to make a significant gift? This may be possible by looking at giving histories and address postcodes and by asking those familiar with your donors.

If this does not give you a good starting point, you will need to have your database screened for wealth indicators, which is still possible under GDPR, though you will need to make sure your privacy policy allows you to do this (if not, update this first). When commissioning a wealth screening, it is best initially just to ask for basic information in order to create a long list of prospects. You can then home in on the most promising ones to build a short list and add additional information about each one in more detailed profiles. Remember you will need to identify a lot more prospects than will eventually make a gift, so think of it like the traditional sales funnel, with more names going in at the top than will emerge at the bottom.

If your existing supporter base really does not show any potential for major gifts, you will need to look more widely for cold contacts, i.e. people, with a known interest in your cause, if not yet your organisation. Again, this sort of research can be commissioned externally but bear in mind that the payback period will be longer for colder prospects.

Why Should They Give?

It is important before you begin to engage with any major prospects that you think through what you want from them and why they might want to give to your cause.

Major prospects have their own motivations for supporting a charity, just like any other donor. Reasons might include an affinity to the cause, a desire to give something back, the need to make a difference or simply because the right person asked them at the right moment. You need to get to know your prospects and find out what motivates them before you start to ask them for money.

Most major donors will want a lot of information about your needs and impact, as well as to know that your charity is well run, does not waste funds and can be trusted to use their money wisely. They will check out your website, read your accounts and ask around as part of their own homework (this is a two way process and they may be looking at a range of charities before deciding which to support).

Major donors are likely to want to support one-off projects, not day to day spending, so you will need to create a suite of suitable projects with a range of price tags for different donors.

Building the Relationship

Where you already have a relationship with the donor, it can still take up to two years to secure a major gift. You cannot rush this process (if you do, you risk losing the support). Donors will want to go at a pace they are comfortable with and you should develop a solicitation plan for each that takes account of their relationship with you and anything you have gleaned about where they have got to in their journey towards a decision. Think friend raising before fundraising.

Engagement will probably take many forms and may include one to one meetings, invitations to events, phone calls, emails and more. You will get a sense of how close they are to making a decision and often they will ask you what they can do for you before you ask for a donation.

Think carefully about who should make the ask. Ideally, it should be done peer to peer, not by a staff member, although it is common for fundraising staff to drive the process and to accompany those asking for the gift to meetings.

Major donors will expect to be handled by trustees or senior staff, including your CEO, so these should be prepared for this and my benefit from some basic training. Remember, people give to people, so it is crucial to get this aspect right.

Compliance

As mentioned above, especially in connection with prospect research, it is vital to ensure you are compliant with date protection legislation in how to collect, process and store information on individuals, especially if you hold any sensitive data on people. Bear in mind too that data is like bread and goes stale quickly, so do not hold on to data longer than you need to and be prepared to refresh it if you have not used it immediately.

As with corporate fundraising, you will also need to have an ethical donations policy in place to set out who you will and will not take donations from. For example, a donor may have gained some of their wealth from a sector that clashes with your charity’s values, so you will need to screen out such prospects before you go too far down the engagement road.

Seek Advice if you Need it

If you do not yet have a developed major donor programme or need a review of your work to date, think about investing in some external support. The type of services you should consider include:

A review of an existing programme, to make it more effective

Advice and support to get started in major gift fundraising

Prospect research, including screening your donor file and creating detailed profiles

Training for trustees and senior staff in how major gift fundraising works and what their role is

Further Information

If you require advice or support in reviewing or developing your major gifts, or just need to talk through the issues, please call us today for a free initial chat on 01903 723519 or email Ben at ben@wgconsulting.co.uk