Major gifts: What you need to know for fundraising success Blog Resources FreeWill

Explain that you’d like to follow-up on your previous discussions, and talk specifically about how they might be able to help your organization, project, or program. Since about 88% of all charitable giving comes from just 12% of donors, it should be apparent why nonprofits need to prioritize the implementation of a major gifts program. Now that you’ve 8 considerations for a new major gifts campaign brushed up on the basics, follow these steps to create a detailed major gift fundraising strategy for your organization.

Cultivation

That’s why it’s essential to communicate the ROI that their gift delivers in clear, specific terms. If not, thank them for their time and ensure their information is in your CRM in case you want to reconnect with them at a later date. Keep these benefits in mind when building out a planned giving program to help you stay motivated. You can start marketing your Planned Giving program simply by letting your supporters and donors know you accept bequests. You’ll also want to have the discussion with your board members and biggest donors.

Major Gift Fundraising – Everything You Need to Know in 2025

As mentioned, it’s unlikely that this person is brand new to your organization and your mission. They’ve gotten involved in several other ways, whether through donations, volunteer work, or event attendance. Tell them about the impact they’ve made and how much you appreciate their support.

How to Be Confident When Approaching Major Donors

These high-impact gifts typically support strategic priorities like capital projects, new programs, or multi-year initiatives. For more insights and tools to help you build and manage your planned giving program, explore Momentum’s AI Donor Engagement Platform. We’ve partnered with Giving Docs to develop cutting edge tools for planned giving fundraisers.

Transform your fundraising here. ♡

Starting is often the biggest hurdle, so dig in and start researching to identify those major donors with the capacity and inclination to contribute significantly to your cause. Look for individuals or organizations with a history of philanthropy and an interest in your mission. Some nonprofits could categorize donations above $1,000 as a major gift, but the scoring benchmark is the 80/20 rule. A major gift is better qualified as attributing 80% of donor revenue to 20% of the donors. Note that this measurement should also be used as a reliable indicator to determine if your organization is flush with large donations or could stand to grow your donor database through donor acquisition.

Why are major gifts so important for nonprofits?

SHP, a New Jersey-based Catholic college preparatory school, serves young men of diverse cultural and economic backgrounds. The school had worked with Averill Fundraising Solutions on previous successful capital campaigns and reached out again for guidance. This new campaign centered on building a new science center, developing an athletic complex, and growing the school’s endowment. You’ll want to set your fundraising goals with the two fundraising-focused phases (i.e., the quiet phase and the public phase) in mind.

Donor stewardship is the process of engaging and retaining donors after they make a gift. While this should always involve thanking donors, your stewardship efforts should also include a range of additional activities designed to keep your new major donor informed and involved. If you don’t have the budget to hire a new staff member, discuss the options with your leadership team. You might ask one team member to take on most of the major gift fundraising responsibilities or distribute them throughout the team.

Hire a major gift officer to lead your program

• A strong major giving program will serve your nonprofit for years to come.
• Whether you’re starting fresh or building on existing experience, this course gives you everything you need to master the field—and command respect doing it.
• Building a successful planned giving program takes time, effort, and strategic planning.
• It’s ideal to go to the ask meeting with two people from your organization — preferably the executive director and a board member.
• They also offer your team the chance to build trust in low-pressure environments, while acknowledging donors’ contributions.
• Share with them specific stories illustrating the direct impact of their past gifts.

Schedule a complimentary strategy session with me to discuss your campaign goals and how we can help bring them to fruition. Track each interaction you have with your supporters and prospects in your CRM to understand how far along in the cultivation process each prospect is and how the relationship is evolving. They allow your nonprofit to remain in operation and tackle major undertakings, such as implementing renovations or establishing new programs.

• Angela E. White, CFRE, provides to JGA clients a high level of consulting expertise in philanthropy, strategic planning, data analysis, facilitation and presentations.
• Then there’s the donor who gives an organization a piece of swampland which is unsalable.
• In other words, the donor can deduct the full value of the stock from their taxable income and avoid paying taxes on any increase in the stock value if it goes up.
• For example, DonorPerfect allows you to assign and track major gift portfolios with visual dashboards and donor journey mapping tools.

Major gifts are your nonprofit’s largest donations from individual donors. Every nonprofit has a different amount that they consider to be a major gift, ranging from $1,000 to millions. No matter what size donation you consider a major gift, these donations typically make up a large portion of your overall fundraising revenue. While every nonprofit leader understands that major gifts are important, a study by Bloomerang reported that up to 58% of nonprofits don’t have a dedicated major gifts strategy. If you want to secure more major gifts for your organization and increase your fundraising capacity long-term, creating a major gifts strategy is essential. You don’t want your prospects to feel as though they’re being ganged up on by your team.

These gifts are direct donations of cash or checks to your organization. While it’s uncommon for a donor to sit down in your office and make a massive lump sum payment, it can happen occasionally. However, convincing a donor to drop a major gift in one payment is more challenging, and it typically only occurs among your highest net worth, most passionate major donors. According to Giving USA 2024, very large “mega-gifts” totaled $8.07 billion in 2023. A major gift fundraising strategy helps ensure that more of these massive donations are coming your nonprofit’s way. When it comes to an ask of this magnitude, it’s essential to highly personalize the appeal and use data to ask for a major gift the prospect would be willing and able to give.