Have you ever closed a gift that left you underwhelmed and feeling like you left money on the table? 

Maybe you thought they had more to give and their passion for your cause seemed extremely high. But the amount they decided to give fell short of your expectations.

Alternatively, have you ever been surprised by other donors who weren’t even on your radar for major giving but they gave unexpectedly large amounts?

Here’s what you need to realize – wealth capacity is like an iceberg. You can only see about 10% of an iceberg. The rest is underwater. You can’t see what exists below the surface. 

Or, sometimes a donor’s wealth is tied up. It is not accessible now, but it will be in one, five, ten or twenty years. Most people leave their largest gift for after their lifetime.

Wealth capacity changes. That’s why gift officers and nonprofits need to think long-term about their donors, not just about the latest gift. 

Fundraising automation enables you to operate with long-term thinking, but without having to do all the work it would take to execute that strategy using human capacity and abilities.

Imagine This Scenario

Suppose you receive a noteworthy first gift from a new donor and it captures the attention of your CRM reports. It’s noticeable, but not that big. So, the donor gets classified as a mid-level donor.

As a result, they receive follow-up through your mid-level cultivation strategy (assuming you have one). This often means perhaps one thank you phone call, and ongoing bulk communications to other donors like them. You’re treating them differently than low-dollar donors, but you’re not developing a personalized relationship with them either. This also means they aren’t prioritized for major giving.

This goes on for a while.

Then, years later, you discover this same donor has just given a six-figure gift to another charity.

What happened?

Real-life example

Major giving consultant Kevin Fitzpatrick recently shared a story like this. He talked about a donor who once gave $1,000 their first year with an organization. Then, in successive years, their giving was as follows:

$2,500
$5,000
$7,500
$7,500
$25,000
$30,000
$50,000

While their first gift was relatively small, within eight years they were giving large five-figure gifts, year after year. 

Imagine if the nonprofit working with this donor just took that first $1,000, thanked them, and then never followed up because they didn’t see this donor as a major donor. What a lost opportunity!

The truth is, they were always a major donor – at heart. Whether they had the wealth capacity at the time of their first gift to give big, or if they simply increased their net worth after a few years, this donor always wanted to be generous. 

The charity benefitted, because they sustained their relationship with this donor in a healthy way.

What Even Is a Major Donor?

Nonprofits need to broaden their definition of major donor. There are three kinds of major donors:

1. Known to have capacity to give big now
2. Newly wealthy donors you may not be aware of
3. Future wealthy people who are major donors at heart

Too often, wealth screening data and RFM reports fixate on donors who are already able to give big. Other times, the data is restricted only to those who have already given big in the past.

But this overlooks huge swaths of potential major donors. Wealth changes. Job situations change. Inheritance happens. Retirement bonuses are awarded. People sell businesses. Stock options mature. You don’t know who has how much money in any given year. 

And, the simple fact is, people who aren’t wealthy now will become wealthy later. 

Right now, they might be giving $50 per month. But in their hearts, they want to give much more. Nurture that relationship using fundraising automation from MarketSmart, and you will still be there years later when this average donor has transformed into a major donor.

How to Respond to a Smaller Than Hoped First Gift

When a new donor, especially someone you thought might be a major donor, gives a smaller than expected gift, there are several steps you should have in place as part of your response strategy. 

• Recognize the possibility of the wealth capacity iceberg

The less you know about a new donor, the more cautious you need to be about assuming how much they’re capable of giving. Many major donors are hiding in plain sight doing things like volunteering and giving monthly in normal amounts. 

With a first gift, you simply don’t know what most donors are capable of – how deep the iceberg really goes. And this applies even if you do have more data from a wealth screening report. That data can be wrong and outdated, for one. But it can also be misleading. For example, how much of their net worth is wrapped up in illiquid assets like property or retirement accounts? 

• Don’t get discouraged by a smaller gift

Because you don’t know what most donors will be capable of giving in the future, don’t get discouraged if that first gift isn’t what you hoped. This is especially true if you have worked through your major giving qualification and cultivation process.

Maybe you’ve done a good job at this. Maybe you’re even using MarketSmart and know this donor’s actual wealth capacity, reasons for wanting to give, active engagement with your nonprofit, and their preferred timing.

You reached out, were patient, took your time, respected their preferences, and stewarded the relationship. And yet after all that, the gift wasn’t nearly as big as it could have been. 

Don’t get discouraged. Your discouragement suggests this gift was more about what you wanted than what the donor wanted. You may need to reset your perspective on fundraising. 

If the donor is happy with their gift and if your relationship with them is healthy and positive, keep at it. Stay in touch. Thank them. Keep giving value. 

• Give this relationship time to grow and deepen

Relationships take time. This is true with major giving as well. The first gift is just the beginning – as long as you’re able to sustain and deepen your organization’s bond with this donor in the coming months and years. 

Too many nonprofits keep pushing gift officers to ask, ask, ask. Keeping asking. Ask and you shall receive. All these cliches about asking shroud the reality that giving major gifts is about relationships, and relationships take time. 

You want to be thinking in terms of ten years, not ten weeks. Especially when you factor in planned giving.

• Give value back more than you ask for things

Instead of constantly asking, you should be constantly giving. This is the secret to nurturing relationships that keep donors connected to your organization for years. 

Find out what matters to them, and give them that. With MarketSmart’s Engagement Fundraising automation system, you can do this with thousands of donors at once, with your gift officers barely having to lift a finger. Our system continually contacts each donor with personalized communication. It sends surveys, asks questions, and then responds based on what each donor says and does. Plus, it even helps them arrange a meeting with you.

So if one donor says they want to get updates about the progress of a long-term capital project, send that information to them. Other donors might not care about that project at all, but instead want individual stories in video form about how your mission is changing lives. Other donors might show interest in being invited to various in-person events. And some just want to meet right away either in-person or virtually.

All of this is giving value. When you do this more often than you ask for money, donors deepen their bond with your organization and will be more receptive to making big gifts once they’re ready.

• Enable this donor to share their life

Why did this donor give this particular first gift? What motivated them? Why that amount? 

Many donors want to be asked these questions. They want dialogue. They want to talk about the values, concerns, and beliefs that matter most to them, and that motivate them to give. But how many nonprofits ever ask about these things? How many seek to truly engage with the donor’s perspective?

With MarketSmart’s fundraising automation system, you can do this, at scale, and nurture far more donors and potential donors than is possible relying on human gift officers.

• Ask this donor about the right timing for bigger gifts

So much of major giving is about timing. Maybe their first gift wasn’t bigger because the timing was wrong, but they still wanted to give.

For example, suppose a new donor has recently found your nonprofit. They’ve been passionate about your mission for years but never had a local organization to support until they found yours. So they’re thrilled to be involved, and they want to give big.

But, what if this same donor has three kids in high school and is planning to pay for all of them to attend college? They’re getting ready to spend potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. Even if they’re worth seven or eight figures, that huge expense will make it harder to feel good about giving a huge gift at the top end of their wealth capacity.

So, they opt for a small gift, say $10,000. Yes, they could give much more, but for now, the timing isn’t right. But – if you keep working with them, deliver value, seek to understand their interests and values, and wait for the right timing – you may end up receiving that transformational gift you know they are able to give. It just might be five years later.

Is five years worth the wait for a six or seven-figure gift? 

Watch this video to learn more about MarketSmart’s Engagement Fundraising system.

Related Resources:

• 5 Steps to Take As You Prepare For Outreach to Major Giving Prospects
• The 4 Habits You Need to Develop for Productive Major Donor Outreach
• How to Determine Which Prospects Are Prioritized for Outreach
• How to Help Major Donors Give More By Knowing Their Own Motivations for Giving

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