An Overview of Major Gift Programs
By Mike Perkins, Senior Consultant
Petrus Development
(This article is the first of several in a series that will appear in the next few editions of Petrus E.D. Beginning with offering a broad vision for understanding the role of major gifts in any effort to expand an organization’s effectiveness and ability to achieve its highest goals and ultimately best serve those who benefit most from its mission.)
At the core of a successful development program are strong relationships with persons who share a passion for your mission and choose to support that mission with gifts of money, time and volunteer activity. Every component of your development program is essential to your process of building a network of benefactors, but the simple truth is this: to truly expand programs and employ skilled staff to implement them, you must obtain gifts of a significant size. By focusing your cultivation effort on individuals, foundations and, perhaps, corporations, you can ensure that the financial support required to achieve your goals is available to you on an annual basis as well as in campaigns.
The definition of what constitutes a “major gift” varies with each organization. Some quantify it by size; perhaps a gift over $10,000. Others consider a major gift to be one that far exceeds a normal gift obtained through any annual funding effort. Throughout this series of articles, we will define a major gift as one that requires personal interaction, cultivation and a face-to-face solicitation planned and solicited by a team of persons in leadership roles in your organization.
Major gifts are the most cost-effective means for raising funds. Development activities such as direct mail programs, special events and other annual fund components identify major giving prospects and justify an investment in those strategies. Additionally, major gifts are cost effective simply because the size of the gift raised far exceeds the investment required to obtain that gift. Because they significantly enable your organization to grow and raise the sights of everyone deeply involved in your mission, their value far exceeds meeting monetary goals. Quite simply, major benefactors make projects happen.
Creating a Structure for Major Gift Success
Successful major giving programs require organization and focus. Prospects must first be identified and their cultivation carefully orchestrated in a series of planned interactions. You will work to discern (often through earlier activities in your development program) those persons who have the highest capacity and propensity to give. Born of a strong interest in your work, propensity to give to your organization usually grows and strengthens over time, requiring accurate record-keeping and a concentrated focus on relationship building. When staff is limited, organizational skills and priorities must be acutely honed.
A quality database is critically important in effectively tracking your progress in identifying, stimulating interest from and involving prospects of high capacity and interest. It is the tool by which you can determine where you are in the cultivation process of the successful solicitation of each prospective benefactor to best plan the next step leading to a successful solicitation. Equally important, a database is a tool that facilitates excellent stewardship of gifts received, helping plant the seeds that can lead to much larger gifts in the future.
Understanding Key Roles in Major Gift Programs
Major gift programs demand the highest interaction between key volunteers, board members and professional staff members. Development directors conduct a symphony of persons, each with an important part to play in the harmonious process of cultivating and soliciting major gifts.
Volunteers help identify prospects and provide insight in determining a tailored and personalized cultivation and solicitation strategy for each prospect. Board members should personally be giving at the highest levels, and are therefore ideally suited for cultivating prospects of the highest capacity. In fact, volunteers and board members active in these ways are the ideal candidates for populating your development committee.
Board members have the added responsibility of proudly representing your organization in the community and setting policies essential to good management. They welcome the opportunity to cultivate prospects at the highest levels, because they too are already giving at the highest levels.
Paid development staff members and senior administrators orchestrate the entire major giving effort. Staff members most often make the initial visits that elevate suspects to prospects, conduct research to discern interests and match volunteers and board members to a particular cultivation and solicitation process. Staff members make the final decision about the right person to make the right ask for the right amount at the right time for the right cause in the right way.
Conducting a highly successful major gift program requires expertise enriched with fervent passion. As we continue to unravel the details of major gift programs in the months ahead, we will explore the particular traits of ideal major gift prospects, their motivations for giving, and the nuances of a successful ask. We will outline the qualities inherent in the best major gift professionals and inspire you to enhance the repertoire of personal qualities and skills you offer as assets to your own organization.
Development Directors are called to make a difference in organizations that make a difference. Working as a team of staff members, leading and resourcing board members and volunteers, will guide your organization toward its brightest future.
Mike Perkins is veteran fundraiser with 26 years of experience in university development, not-for-profits, and educational institutions and a Senior Consultant for Petrus Development.