Generative provides advising and support to customize major gifts programs for organizations seeking to create or expand investments from major donors.

Over two-thirds of charitable giving comes from individual donors. However, when disaggregated, that data is heavily skewed toward very large organizations and religious entities. The majority, small to average size nonprofits (budget size of $5M and under), are often very reliant upon foundations or government funding - sometimes with just one or two sources comprising 90+% of their annual revenue.

What holds many nonprofits back from investing in individual and major gifts? On the surface, it can feel time-intensive and inefficient to raise multiple individual donations. Why put in the work to identify, cultivate, and steward 25 $10,000 donors to raise $250,000 when one can secure the same amount through one successful grant application? Three big reasons:

• It’s less risky. The reality is that over-reliance on government and foundation partners is risky, as these entities are subject to shifts in the market, ever-changing strategic priorities, or changes to leadership.Gifts from individuals lowers this risk and can serve as a renewable source of revenue for years to come.

• It allows for more nimble and responsive leadership. Funding from government sources and, oftentimes foundations, are restricted for specific uses or are time bound. For example - reimbursement from local government for staff implementing a tutoring program from August - May. Or capacity building grants restricted to investing in infrastructure and systems. Gifts from individuals provide unrestricted, general operating support so that the organization can be nimble and responsive to its highest priority needs and most strategic efforts.

• It brings more champions who can accelerate your mission. Most importantly, major gifts fundraising draws upon the very personal nature of an individual investing their own resources into a social mission that they care about. Major gifts programs thrive when individuals can see themselves as key partners who are helping to move your mission forward. And, if done right, a major gifts strategy can catalyze the growth of your organization by amassing more champions and resources to strengthen and scale programmatic impact. 

At Generative, we partner with nonprofit leaders to build customized major gifts programs that leverage the unique assets of your organization in order to achieve your financial and programmatic goals. While our specific approach varies with each client, we lead and support teams through each of these six phases:

Assess

• Assess your donor history to determine your major gift threshold

• Build a case for support, unique to your organization

• Evaluate your organization’s external threats and opportunities

• Assess the feasibility of a major gifts program

  Create the Strategy

• Partner with you to set ambitious but achievable goals, aligned to your vision and strategy

• Build budgets tailored to specific strategic goals or projects

• Segment your donor base by tiers and create a targeted strategy for each donor segment

  Build the pipeline

• Create and qualify current donor lists 

• Prospect new donors who are connected to your organization (current volunteers, friends of current donors), who care about your cause (currently give to similar organizations), and have the capacity to give at the targeted gift levels (as determined through prospect research)

  Train and prepare external fundraisers

• Train fundraising leaders on the principles of major donor relationship building and how to confidently and effectively make asks 

• Provide cultivation plans that are targeted by donor segments

• Provide materials and strategy for major donor meetings

  Support fundraisers to cultivate and make the ask

• Curate a plan for donor cultivation activities (meetings or events) based on the Assessment phase and donor segments

• Coach and prepare fundraisers to create and host donor meetings and/or cultivation events

• Provide research and strategy for how to make the highest and most targeted ask

• Support fundraisers with ask events or ask follow-up

  Thank and re-evaluate

• Support fundraisers to meaningfully thank donors and steward their ongoing connection to your work

• Assess your organization’s progress and make recommendations for future major donor program implementation

Confronting the Hurdles

The Myth of Scarcity

As organization’s launch their first major gift program, leadership, staff, and board often have to confront the very natural fear that people won’t want to make a large investment in your cause. This scarcity mindset is driven by a common myth in philanthropy: resources are finite and people already give to the causes that they care about.

This misconception has had detrimental effects on the sector, fostering an atmosphere of competition among organizations as they vie for what appears to be constrained resources. The truth is, there's more than enough support to go around, and the most common response donors give to the question “Why haven’t you donated to X organization in the past?” is “I was never asked.”

Generosity and philanthropy aren't subject to a mysterious cap. Embracing a perspective of abundance when launching a major gift program is inherent to its success.

Where Will I Find the Time? 

Once a leader determines that major gifts fundraising is the strategy they should deploy, another common challenge they encounter is team capacity and time constraints. The antidote to this is to:

1. Get buy in

2. Get help

3. Create accountability

Get buy in. We’ve all heard the phrase “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” During the organization’s next fiscal and or strategic planning discussion

• Ensure that major gifts fundraising is on the agenda

• Provide the vision for this strategy and how it aligns with the organization’s vision for growth

• Provide evidence that major gifts fundraising is a vehicle to achieve this mission

• Work with your board and staff to set forth a commitment and build in an aggressive yet achievable major gifts goal into the budget for the quarter or the year ahead

Get help. The reality is that successful major gifts programs will only be as successful as they are resourced. This includes staff, board members, volunteers, outside consultants, and (most likely) a combination of all of the above. 

We recommend a team approach: 

• Development staff

• 1-2 board members

• 1-2 current major donors

This team is led by either the ED, the development director, or (if capacity allows) a major gifts officer. At Generative, we coach the team leader and the team - providing proven frameworks and industry expertise to ensure the major gifts program reaches its intended goals. 

Create accountability. Major gifts programs are made up of many (often tedious) steps. The team has to stay committed to plug away at these little-by-little each day, week, and month. Therefore, a map for the months ahead alongside key performance metrics is essential. Each person has a job to do. As the leader, yours is to:

• Make sure that the weekly and monthly tasks and commitments are completed

• Monitor progress against your performance metrics

• Make pivots to the plan when necessary

This is where an outside coach or consultant is also key as they can provide relevant field experience and expert guidance to help the leader ensure the project’s success. Generative provides customized major gifts plans for organizations seeking to create or expand investments from major donors.