Major donor fundraising
Howard Lake | 17 December 2018
At Money Tree Fundraising, we’ve been tirelessly working with a variety of charities for many years, assisting them with kickstarting major donor fundraising programmes.
Being fundraising consultants, this is the core of our expertise, which we adapt to take a different approach to each of our core areas of operation.
Our Senior fundraising consultant, Mike Bartlett specialises in this transformational area of fundraising which highlights the fact that you only need a few donors to make a mammoth difference.
Are you looking to raise more funds in order to expand the life changing and monumental work that you do? We’ve got you covered. We will seamlessly guide you through the initial steps to accomplish this which include some of the following:
- Recognising, researching, determining and cultivating donors
- Building a sound case for support, strategically intended for High Net Worth individuals
- Asking for and getting organisational support with conviction and that you can trust.
To implement a successful major donor fundraising programme you must have and maintain the following:
- An authentic programme plan
- A donor-centric culture
- A leadership culture that understands major gifts
- Sound and accessible financial project information
- A constant and stable donor-process
- Measurable outcomes
Money Tree Fundraising will guide you every step of the way, with all our work delivered by Beth Upton (CEO) and Mike Bartlett, Senior Consultant and their team.
We can deliver the following:
- An orchestrated approach to recognising and prioritising your donor prospects
- Input into your case for support or even drafting a case from scratch for you
- Comprehensive donor research
- Sound, expert advice on planning your stewardship
- Establishing organisational buy-in
- Mentoring and coaching of staff
We also specialise in Trust Fundraising and Capital Fundraising, so let us work with you to ensure that you invest your time and energy in the right way, with targeted focus. We will equip you with the skills and experience to run a successful fundraising programme for many years to come. We endeavour to make every venture we participate in as successful as possible and yours will be treated no differently.
If you’re looking for this assistance, get in touch with us for a no-obligation call on 07940 570251 or contact us via our website.
Major donor fundraising is the art of securing large gifts to charity from a small number of individuals.
Most charities raise funds from the public, focusing on the quantity of gifts and donors that they can attract. This can ensure a steady and reliable income, and expand income by introducing other types of gift, such as event participation and legacies.
But the average gift will typically remain small.
For this reason, some charities focus on securing major donations from a small number of individuals. There is no standard definition of a “major gift”: indeed, individual donors will differ widely in what they choose to give, from a thousand pounds to a multi-million donation.
Similarly charities define major gift in many ways, or operate on a sliding scale of what constitutes such a gift.
Where to find major donors?
Who are major donors? Often they are already known to the charity and its fundraiser or fundraisers. It could be an existing supporter, the founder, a trustee, or a former client or beneficiary, depending on the charity’s work.
Equally, many charities find through research that a donor who has given modest sums over a period of time does have the potential to give a much larger gift. It is just that the charity’s fundraising asks have always focused on the £10 or £20 level.
Sometimes major donors will give at this level for a while to see how the charity responds, to check that it is a worthy recipient or partner for a much larger gift.
So major donors are not always a breed apart. They can often be found amongst a charity’s existing supporters.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.