How big is the "big" in big gift fundraising?

"Big Gift, Major Gift, Major Donor - call it what you will - Fundraising" isn't defined by a set gift amount. It is defined by its approach: taking the time to develop a relationship with a person over time in order to ask for a commitment.

This approach makes sense with the tip of your giving pyramid: those who do (or can) give the highest amounts. This offers the best return for your investment of time, effort, energy (and budget). How far down you go depends on the gift potential versus the cost of time, effort, energy (and budget) making sense.

The line of economy in my sketch above marks the point at which it is no longer economically valid to adopt a one-to-one approach with that donor and so you move to a one-to-many approach.

I can’t tell you where that point is for you without doing some analysis. Nor can you. It is never in the same place for two different organisations. You can see a couple of examples on our website.

Money Tree Fundraising can help your organisation to get over any barriers to major donor fundraising caused by not understanding the relationship-building approach - not getting why, or how, often combined with a fear of asking. We can work with you to work out your own line of economy and take some of the guess work out of investing in this area of fundraising.

Contact us for a no-obligation (and confidential) exploration of your situation to see which of our tried-and-tested tools will help unlock your organisation's high-value potential.