When it comes to starting a new nonprofit, securing donations is probably one of the first things on your mind. After all, your charitable cause needs funding to fulfill its mission, and individual contributors—particularly major donors—provide the majority of nonprofit funding.
However, few supporters are willing to become major donors immediately, and these relationships don’t just materialize by chance. Rather, to secure these contributions, your nonprofit needs to take a professional approach to donor development that leverages supporter segments to maximize your major gift earnings and optimize your nonprofit’s resources.
This guide outlines five strategies for organizing your major donors and making use of donor segments in the major gift cultivation process.
1. Use a donor management platform.
As your nonprofit secures more donors, your fundraising strategy will become more complex, and you need software that can keep up with it. To keep your major donors organized, your nonprofit should invest in a donor management platform.
Qgiv’s guide to top nonprofit software solutions explains that most donor management software is functionally identical to a CRM (constituent relationship management system), and the two terms can be used interchangeably in most situations. Qgiv also cites that just above two-thirds of all nonprofits use a CRM.
Donor management platforms vary in complexity and sophistication, but most small and medium-sized nonprofits will find success in managing their major giving programs with a user-friendly, out-of-the-box solution. Specifically, look for a platform with the following features:
Donor profile creation. Almost every donor management platform will come with the ability to create and manage donor profiles. These profiles store key information about your donors, such as their personal information, contact details, and any notes about their engagement with your organization.
Segmentation tools. In addition to creating donor profiles, your donor database should provide you with the ability to organize, search, and group these profiles. For instance, you might have several major donor candidates who have shown a preference for direct mail. Your CRM should allow you to group these donors together and ensure their preferences are accounted for.
Wealth screening capabilities. Not every donor database comes with wealth screening features, but if you find one that does, it deserves extra attention, especially if you’re investing in a CRM specifically to improve your major giving strategy. These tools analyze your donors’ information and compare it against external databases to detect which of your supporters have the capacity to make a major gift.
With a donor management platform, your nonprofit has the ability to track your donors’ information, organize your donors in useful ways, and identify prospective major donors.
2. Perform prospect research.
To segment your major giving prospects from the rest of your donors, you will need to perform prospect research. Prospect research involves researching donors to discover their capacity and affinity to become a major donor.
Capacity is a measure of a donor’s financial capability of making a major gift. A few markers of a high giving capacity include:
Net worth
Business connections
Real estate holdings
Stocks and investments
However, just because a donor has the ability to become a major donor doesn’t necessarily mean they are interested in doing so. A donor’s likelihood of agreeing to make a major gift is their affinity. You can assess affinity by researching donors’:
Contributions to your nonprofit or other similar charitable organizations
Volunteer history
Use prospect research tools provided by your CRM or another fundraising tool or service to identify major giving candidates. Then, create a donor segment in your CRM for these major giving prospects.
3. Create a major gifts chart.
When it comes to segmenting donors, you should consider your major donors’ giving capacity. By dividing donors based on their giving potential, you can better estimate your nonprofit’s fundraising potential.
Bloomerang’s major gift fundraising guide shares an example of a major gifts chart:
Major gift charts consist of the following elements:
A fundraising goal
Gift amount tiers
How many gifts you need to receive at each level to reach your goal
The number of prospective donors for each giving tier
The total amount you need to raise
For instance, you might have ten prospects who could give approximately $10,000, five who could give $15,000, and three $20,000. While not every prospect may give the amount you expect, segmenting your major donors into giving tiers allows you to plan and budget for major fundraisers.
4. Organize by affinities.
Different major donors are invested in different parts of your nonprofit. By making note of your major donors’ interests in their donor profiles, your major gift officers can tailor their engagement strategy to each supporter.
While your major gift officers will form individualized relationships with each major donor, segmenting them by their interests and charitable affinities allows you to plan events and refine your messaging strategy. For example, you might take note of major donors who have a history of volunteering and arrange tailored volunteer opportunities.
Additionally, segmenting donors by interests can help you build a community around your nonprofit. For example, at your annual gala, you might seat major donors who contributed to the same campaign together to encourage conversation.
5. Consider potential introductions.
Many of your major donors have extensive networks, and some of them may be willing to set up introductions for your nonprofit to other prospective major donors. For example, let’s say you inform a small group of major donors about an upcoming event and ask them to spread the word. They might point you toward business connections they have that could be potential sponsors.
Use your donor database to track these supporters’ connections to businesses, your staff, and other donors. By identifying which of your major donors are already in each others’ orbits, you can create tailored events and experiences for groups of major giving candidates. For instance, you might schedule a tour of your facility and invite a major donor and a business owner they put you in contact with to attend together.
Additionally, if your prospect research turns up potential connections, but the donor has yet to offer any introductions, still make note of these networking opportunities in their donor profile. While they may not be interested in being an ambassador for your nonprofit at this time, their opinion may change as they continue to support your nonprofit.
By organizing these distinct major donor segments, your major giving officers can refine their strategies and determine what asks will provide your organization with the greatest value.
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