What does ‘major’ mean?

I am often asked ‘what is your definition of ‘major’?’ in reference to developing a major donor programme.

The way that charities usually define it is by a specific amount; “any donor who gives over £1,000″ for example. There are a number of problems with this approach. Firstly, it excludes any donor who gives regular amounts cumulatively below that level. So, a donor who gives £300 per month is a more likely candidate but would be missed on the ‘largest gift’ cut. There is another problem with this approach.

What if there are 500 donors who have given £1,000+ and there is only 1 major donor fundraiser? It is not possible to adequately devote the time and attention to developing a personal relationship with all 500 donors. They require further qualification.

I have always found the best approach to start with the largest donors cut by largest AND cume giving and work down. Incidentally most direct marketing reports start from lowest to highest so you need to request an upside down report. Then it is important to run at least 3 or 4 years’ data to look for patterns. In most reports that I view there are large annual gaps — the result of a lack of ongoing donor relationship building. This is especially the case where charities build their major donor programmes on events, dinners, and Balls. It is very rare to find many donors from these events who turn out to be consistent, worthwhile, engaged and committed donors.

When you have identified your caseload, you will find that there will be approximately 100 donors on there that are capable of being managed by each full-time fundraiser. That is how I define ‘major’,  by the available internal resource. So, 2 full-time MD fundraisers will give us 200 donors by definition.

In addition to those donors who are qualified, I would also have a further 20% of unqualified that will come onto the caseload once they have been qualified. But remember, the donors on your caseload are actual donors who have given – by cume value. They are not prospective donors that have been screeened by a wealth overlay. Those donors will remain on a prospect list.

So start to look at your definition in more of a multi-dimensional way than simply by single largest gift and always focus on those donors who can be cultivated to give on more than a one-off gift basis.