6 Tips for Cultivating Lasting Major Donor Relationships
For most nonprofits, the majority of their funding comes from a handful of major donors. These supporters are the lifeblood of your organization, and in return, they need personalized, long-lasting relationships with your nonprofit. To develop these connections, your organization must have a major donor cultivation strategy.
In this guide, we’ll explore six tips for building relationships with your major donors that will last for years to come. These include how to:
These strategies apply to all sorts of nonprofits seeking major donors, from churches and schools to enterprise-sized nonprofits. After all, while every major donor is an individual, most of them generally make major contributions for the same reasons, such as supporting a good cause and earning tax benefits.
1. Assess donors’ giving affinity.
When it comes to building relationships with major donors, you first need to know who your prospective major donors are. It’s an easy mistake to identify supporters who have the capacity to be major donors and stop your research there. However, just because a donor is financially capable of making a major donation doesn’t necessarily mean they will.
Instead, expand your prospect research process to include assessing donors’ giving affinity and their philanthropic habits. Identify supporters with a high giving affinity by researching their:
Past charitable contributions to your nonprofit as well as similar nonprofit organizations
Political donations, paying attention to the types of issues and candidates they support
Engagement with nonprofits outside of donating, such as volunteering
Prospect research tools are flexible and can be used by all types of nonprofits. For instance, 99Pledge’s guide to school fundraising platforms shares how schools can leverage prospect research tools to find prospective major donors in their communities.
2. Document all interactions.
To form relationships with major donors that last for years, your major gift officers should carefully track their engagements with each prospect. This allows major gift officers to make strategic decisions about when to ask for donations and ensures consistency if major gift prospects are ever reassigned.
Your organization’s donor database should enable you to create detailed donor profiles. For major donors, build these out to include information about their preferences, interests, and history with your nonprofit. Major gift officers should be able to easily amend these profiles to add details about recent meetings with their prospects.
3. Demonstrate impact.
Major donors make a considerable investment in your organization, and as such, they want to know that the nonprofits they give to make proper use of their contributions. You can accomplish this by keeping careful track of your budget and programs to provide your major donors with details about how their contributions are being used.
In some cases, this may be more straightforward than others. For instance, in a capital campaign, major donors' gifts most likely support a project the donors can easily see for themselves, like the construction of a new building. In these cases, you might even go the extra mile to demonstrate impact by offering major donors tours of the building and program sites that their gifts fund.
Most major donors provide restricted gifts, meaning their contributions must be spent on specific projects or initiatives. However, if a major donor provides general funding support, still be sure to provide adequate records of what your nonprofit has accomplished since receiving their gift. This will demonstrate to your major donors that you have put their donations to good use.
4. Make the ask at the right time.
Your major giving prospects are more likely to say yes to a donation request made at certain times than others. Unfortunately, the exact right time to make your ask depends on the specific major donor and their relationship with your nonprofit.
However, there are a few opportune times for requesting donations. For instance, you might ask your major gift officers to consider requesting a donation in these situations:
The end of the year. Chances are that many of your major donors are already looking to donate in the final few months of the year. They may be inspired by the holiday giving season or looking to get their donations in for the year so they can be counted on their taxes. Either way, be sure your major giving officers are preparing their fundraising request pitches for this time.
Before or during a fundraiser. Having a big donation kick off a new fundraiser can be exhilarating and motivational for the rest of your supporters. For instance, a school might ask major donors for pledges to match the donations students bring in during a read-a-thon, encouraging kids to increase their efforts.
After a major incident. Major incidents or disasters related to your nonprofit’s field call for immediate funding, and some of your major donors may be willing to step in to help. This might be national news, like a natural disaster hitting your nonprofit’s area, or specific to your organization, like a pipe breaking and damaging your office space.
Of course, even if your nonprofit would appreciate funding in the moment, be sure to listen to your major gift officers. If they say a major donor is unlikely to respond well to a funding request at this time, take their advice. A chance at momentary funding is unlikely to be worth risking a potential long-term major donor relationship.
5. Respect rejection.
Sometimes, a previous major donor or a major giving prospect may decline your fundraising request. When this happens, acknowledge their reasoning and respect their decision. Usually, major gift rejections take one of two forms:
A major giving prospect does not wish to be a major donor. In this situation, respect the donor’s wishes and resume treating them like you would any other moderate donor.
A previous major donor cannot give at this time. Major donors may decline to give for all sorts of reasons, such as not having the financial means to give at the time of the request or not being familiar enough with your organization yet.
In the second situation, rejection may be awkward, but there are solutions. For instance, if a donor is unable to give your requested amount, it may be appropriate to suggest a smaller amount or a different type of support they can give. However, do not take this approach if the donor indicates any giving is beyond their means.
If your major giving officer misjudged the appropriate asking time, simply thank the donor for their consideration and continue the cultivation process. Remember that a rejection does not need to be the end of your relationship with that donor, and if they indicate they are open to giving in the future, they should continue to be pursued as a giving prospect.
6. Show appreciation.
While every donor deserves a thank-you for their support, major donors require more appreciation than an automated thank-you email. For instance, it’s best practice to call donors on the phone or arrange one-on-one meetings to thank them for their gifts.
To go the extra mile, consider constructing a donor wall. Double the Donation’s guide to donor recognition walls goes over a few types of these structures:
Walls are permanent displays that list your major donors’ names. These are commonly constructed to honor major supporters of a new program, project, or building. For example, a school might host a capital campaign to construct a new wing and create a donor wall to recognize the major contributors who made the building possible.
Signs are a lightweight, non-permanent display that’s useful for showing appreciation at events and campaigns. For example, at your annual gala’s venue, you might place signs at the entrance that honor that year’s top major donors.
Plaques are a convenient alternative to a donor wall if you only have a handful of donors you want to acknowledge. Rather than creating an entire wall to display donor names, you would instead create a plaque acknowledging a single donor. Additionally, you can always make new plaques to display as you earn more major donors you want to recognize.
By showing these donors you value their contributions, you can continue your relationship with them past their initial gift. This can open the door to future gifts, which may get larger over time as the major donor gets increasingly familiar with your nonprofit.
Major donors provide essential support for your organization, and you can ensure they stick with you long-term by cultivating relationships that cater to their interests, demonstrating your organization’s worth, and respecting their contributions. Get started building these relationships by going over best practices with your major gift officers and investing in the right tracking tools.