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Funding Development Services
FAQ Series: Starting a Major Gift Program
- What is a Major Gift program?
- Where do we start?
- How do we rate our donors?
- We don’t know anyone with big money, where do we find them?
- How can we get them interested in the library?
- What is a gift club?
- Do we include corporate and foundation gifts or gifts from service clubs in this program?
- Are there resources we can use to help with our research?
What is a Major Gift program?
Each organization must determine its own gift levels and what it considers a Major Gift. There is no one gift threshold that applies to everyone. One way to decide your major donors is to use your top 10% of annual donors. In general these are your best donors and your candidates for major giving. What you’re trying to identify is a group of loyal donors who are giving to you at the highest donation level and give them more personalized attention. If you’ve got a lot of donors who are just below that level you may want to include them as you develop the program, or you may want to start with just a small group until you feel comfortable in running the program.
Where do we start?
Once you’ve established the gift threshold for your major donors, you’ll need to determine what kind of recognition you can provide for more donors at this leadership level. However, typical donors in this group are not very concerned with recognition. A standard recognition package is not going to be the motivator to keep donors giving at that gift level. Leadership donors are giving at that level because they can and it makes them feel good to be able to contribute. A major gift program is really all about tailoring the donor experience for that particular individual and determining what it is that interests them about the library and using that motivation to engage them.
We don’t know anyone who’s wealthy, where do we find them?
I’ve heard this comment a lot – many libraries have never had to go to the community for investment before, so they have not thought about who might give major gifts. It’s often surprising to find out who might have the resources to be able to do this. One simple way to find out who in your community has the capacity to be a major donor is to visit the local hospitals and colleges and see who is listed on their donor walls. This might give you some ideas of who would be a good prospective donor. Also there are characteristics that broadly define people who might be better prospects than other people for major gifts. These include: age (people over 55 donate more often and in large amounts that people who are younger), education (people with post-secondary education are better donors), volunteers (people who volunteer are better donors than those who don’t participate in civic activity), faith communities (people who are active in their faith community are better donors to charities).
How can we get them interested in the library?
There are a number of ways we can develop interest in the library as a good place for major gift donors to invest their philanthropic dollars. We call this process cultivation. Different strategies include: having a good external communications plan to create a positive community profile; having a compelling case for support; having projects that require significant private investment; having a current strategic plan so you and your community know where you are heading; building an advisory committee that uses influential donors and community leaders; and, creating a gift club to encourage leadership giving.
How do we rate our donors?
Rating or qualifying donors is a process of determining if the prospect is ready to be asked for a major gift. There are a couple of simple methods for rating donors to rank donors to decide who should be seen first and help you set your priorities. Rating donors is something that can be important in the early stage of a capital fundraising campaign. But it’s not a mandatory process that a library with a small pool of donors would use. If there is a link to the library, the ability to make a major investment and the interest in what the library is doing, then there is not reason to delay setting up a meeting to see the donor. The biggest decision will be who the best person to make the call is. The canvasser should be a peer of the donor and a leadership donor himself or herself.
What is a gift club?
Gift clubs are created as a strategy to develop some exclusivity in stewarding and cultivating interest for a higher level of giving. It’s used as a way to upgrade donors to give gifts at a leadership level, while donors realize specific benefits associated with giving at that level. It’s a good way to attract new donors at high levels, and retain those donors who like the idea of belonging to a ‘club’. As an example, you could decide to create a gift club called the Carnegie Club, and encourage membership from donors who are good prospects to give at say the $1,000 level. The privileges of membership might include a special newsletter, listing their name on the library website, an annual reception at the library, and a copy of the annual report. Donors at this level often don’t need a lot of tangible rewards; they have the disposable income and the interest to give it to the library. They don’t want the library to use their investment to purchase things to give back to them.
Do we include corporate and foundation gifts or gifts from service clubs in this program?
This is an individual choice for your library. Often it is difficult to differentiate between a donor and their business or private foundation. Some might request that their business name be used for recognition. It is often determined by how the program is being developed, how gifts are being solicited and who the prospects are. The focus for a major giving program is the individual and their philanthropic interests. The approach could differ in a campaign directed to local business or service club or an application to a corporation or foundation.
Are there resources we can use to help with our research?
There are quite a few tools you can use to research prospective donors. These use publicly available information that you can research to develop profiles of potential donors. For instance, Statistics Canada has a lot of demographic information organized by postal code that is easily searchable. Doctors and lawyers associations have databases of their membership, current and retired. Who’s Who in Canada and the Globe and Mail have search functions to research individuals of note. Infospace.com is a good resource for published phone numbers. Some good resources that require a subscription include: Big Database; PRO online; and, Imagine Canada’s Directory of Foundations and Corporations. Each of these has information on individuals as well as corporations and foundations. You can find out giving history, giving areas of interest, who to contact and how, where to send applications, and other important information to assist your program. However, the best research is conducted by word of mouth and by personal contacts. The most effective way to expand a major donor program is by personal solicitation.