Securing major gifts is essential to your nonprofit’s ability to achieve its mission, but you need the right tools to streamline and track your efforts. After all, it takes time and resources to identify, verify, and cultivate donors who are likely to make major donations. Fortunately, once you’ve chosen the right prospects, you only need a few core tools to position yourself for major donor cultivation success.
Whether you’re preparing for a capital campaign or just looking to build out your major gifts program, you’ll need the following resources in your toolkit.
Prospect Research Tools
Prospect research involves screening the donors in your database for the wealth, affinity, and propensity markers that indicate they might be a good major giving candidate. While you typically conduct prospect research during the identification phase of the major donor fundraising cycle, this research remains vital in the cultivation stage.
During the cultivation process, you’ll need to review, supplement, and leverage your prospect research data to personalize outreach for each prospective donor.
To collect this data, you need access to several prospect research tools. Donorly’s major gifts guide lists several tools to consider:
- Google and Wikipedia
- Your internal donor records within your CRM
- Internet archive tools like the Wayback Machine
- Social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook
- Government records, including SEC records and the FEC’s political contributions data
- A matching gift database
- Prospect generator tools to source other organizations’ donor lists
- Prospect research and wealth screening databases with third-party data
You can access many of these tools for free, as tools like Google, LinkedIn, and many government records are publicly available online. Others (like a prospect generator or wealth screening tool) require an investment.
If you determine it’s not cost-effective to purchase these tools yourself, you can also partner with a consultant with access to professional-grade tools. Many of these tools are hard to navigate independently, especially if your team isn’t experienced in prospect research. Consider outsourcing your research needs to a professional who can scour all the above data sources for you and interpret their findings.
Robust Donor Profiles
Next, you need a place to store prospect research data and other details about your major donor prospects. Typically, this means you need a constituent relationship management (CRM) system or donor database to organize your data into donor profiles.
Double the Donation’s nonprofit CRM guide explains that, at a minimum, your database’s profiles should store donors’ contact details, communication preferences, donation and engagement histories, and personal connections. Along with these basics, your CRM should enable you to create custom fields and leave detailed notes in each profile. These notes will be vital for managing relationships with major donor prospects.
Let’s say you want to cultivate a mid-level donor named Jane to secure a major donation for your nonprofit’s youth literacy program. Her donor profile might look something like this:
- Name: Jane Smith
- Contact details: 555-555-1234, jsmith@email.com
- Communication preferences: Prefers phone calls, Do not text
- Donation history:
- $750 on 11/26/24 for GivingTuesday, debit
- $5,000 on 9/17/24 for Annual Fund, check by mail
- $3,000 on 3/16/24 for Youth Literacy Program, DAF grant
- Engagement history:
- 12/12/24 Attended Annual Holiday Gala, bid $700 in auction
- 11/10/24 Check-in phone call
- 10/9/24 Attended donor appreciation dinner
- 9/19/24 Thank-you phone call
- Connections: Daughter of Jannette Smith, former board member, 2001-2006
- Notes:
- 11/10/24 Check-in call – Jane loved the appreciation dinner and is looking forward to reading the annual report, emphasized that she wants to see results of the summer reading program. Daughter’s doing well in school
- 9/19/24 call – Thanked Jane for her annual gift, spoke for 20min about youth literacy updates and upcoming holiday gala. Her daughter Julie graduates in May — ask about her on next call
The combination of personal details and cause-related preferences in this donor profile will help you cultivate a stronger relationship with her. You know which programs Jane is most interested in, the type of events she enjoys, and how to connect with her over the phone. Use this data to personalize the cultivation plans we’ll discuss next.
Individualized Donor Cultivation Plans
A thorough cultivation plan will guide your team through your relationship-building efforts and ensure you spend enough time on cultivation before making an ask. A cultivation plan is more than just a communications calendar or a list of steps—it’s a tailored roadmap to improving relationships and ultimately securing a major gift from a specific donor.
Your cultivation plans should include several activities and communications to help you engage prospects and deepen their connections to your cause. Typically, this includes:
- Personal phone calls to check in with prospects, get to know them, and gauge their readiness to make a major gift.
- In-person conversations about your nonprofit’s work where you can learn more about their interests and prospects can become more invested.
- Regular email updates about programs and initiatives they’re interested in.
- Invitations to get further involved, such as by attending events, taking a tour, volunteering, or telling their story to the public.
- Opportunities to get to know leadership, including board members, your major gifts officer, and other relevant stakeholders.
- An in-person solicitation meeting where you make your fundraising ask and iron out the details of their major gift.
Each part of your cultivation plan should be personalized to individual prospects. Share information about the specific aspects of your cause that interest them, and invite them to the events or opportunities that resonate with them most. While one prospect might love a behind-the-scenes tour of your program facility, another may enjoy sitting at an event VIP table to discuss your work with other key players in your organization.
Refer back to your data to determine the best ways to individualize cultivation plans, and don’t be afraid to adjust them as you learn more about each prospect. Take notes on their engagement with each activity and the new details you learn to tailor your plans further.
Bonus: A Fundraising Consultant
While hiring a fundraising consultant isn’t absolutely necessary, a professional can be an invaluable asset for securing major gifts. This is especially true if your organization is new to major donor cultivation or you don’t have the resources to hire a full-time major gifts officer.
Nonprofit consultants specializing in prospect research or major giving strategies have access to the best tools and know how to appeal to major donors. You might hire a consultant to help develop your cultivation strategy or improve your solicitation success. Some consultants will even step in as temporary major gifts officers if you need more hands-on support.
If you’re interested in hiring a consultant, discuss the idea with your board and explain why it would be worthwhile. Explore the websites of several potential consultants, then set up a meeting to discuss how they could help your organization thrive.
With these tools in your toolbox, your nonprofit will be well-equipped to develop strong, impactful relationships with potential major donors. Once you’ve gone through the cultivation process with these tools, evaluate their effectiveness and make any adjustments as needed.