Major giving is on the rise across the nonprofit sector. According to a Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis, wealthy donors gave nearly $300 million more to nonprofits in the first five months of 2024 than they did over the same period last year.
Your nonprofit’s wealthiest donors have the capacity to give to your nonprofit, but are they inclined to do so year after year? Building genuine relationships is key to fostering trust with these supporters and boosting major donor retention.
While solicitation is undoubtedly an essential part of the fundraising process, effective nonprofit leaders focus on stewarding relationships first. Use the following tips to build authentic, mutually beneficial relationships with major donors.
1. Personalize your outreach.
Creating individualized outreach may not be possible for all your nonprofit’s donors, but you should devote the time necessary to personalize major donor outreach. These supporters give your organization’s largest donations, and it’s not an exaggeration to say their support helps keep your nonprofit afloat. Therefore, they deserve highly personalized outreach that speaks to their unique needs and preferences.
Follow these steps to effectively personalize your major donor outreach:
- Research your major donors. What are their demographics? Why do they give to your cause? What are their giving goals? Leverage online resources like LinkedIn and
prospect research databases to learn more about donors’ backgrounds. You can also send personalized surveys to major donors to get these questions answered. Store data about your wealthiest donors in your nonprofit’s CRM to reference in future communications. - Track your major donor interactions. Use your CRM to note every interaction you have with major donors. This can include everything from when they open an email to when a staff member speaks with a donor in person. Noting the time, date, and content of every donor conversation you have will be invaluable for building relationships authentically. Any staff member can reference your notes to get up to speed and pick up conversations right where they left off, creating a seamless experience for major donors.
- Go beyond traditional outreach strategies. Traditional major donor outreach channels like emails, phone calls, and direct mail certainly still have a place in your overall communications strategy. However, we recommend incorporating unique touchpoints along the way, too. This might involve sending donors a personalized thank-you video, sending a quarterly personalized impact report, engaging with donors on social media, or inviting them to join a feedback committee to provide insight into the giving experience from the donor perspective.
Go out of your way to plan special moments and create engaging materials that show major donors how much your organization values and cares about your relationships with them. Keep the 3Cs of digital storytelling in mind—content, connection, and community. Donors want to learn something from their interactions with your organization, develop genuine relationships with other stakeholders, and join a community of like-minded people. When you find ways to personalize these types of outreach, you can more effectively capture donors’ attention and retain their support.
2. Encourage engagement beyond donating.
Invite donors to connect with your cause on a deeper level and see your mission from a different perspective. Send personalized invitations based on interests donors have expressed, whether
in personal conversations, on social media, or via their giving priorities. For example, they might be interested in:
- Volunteering with your regular volunteer program or to support a special effort, like a major campaign
- Attending events, such as appreciation events, gala dinners, or fundraising events
- Leading a campaign committee
- Taking on a board or leadership role
- Giving advice or offering pro bono services, such as legal advice, event planning support, or graphic design assistance
Getting involved in your organization’s mission beyond just donating helps major donors feel a greater sense of connection and community. Plus, they’ll be able to see firsthand how their gifts positively impact your organization and allow you to take on a variety of projects to work toward your goals.
3. Report on donors’ impact.
Sharing major donors’ impact is crucial to retaining their long-term support. Of donors who give regularly, 75% want information about the nonprofit’s impact. They’re specifically interested in
fundraising and overhead costs, projects the nonprofit is involved with, and the extent to which the organization is leveraging best practices.
The UpMetrics guide to impact reporting recommends taking the following steps to make your reports as compelling as possible:
- Choose relevant metrics. Report on the metrics that matter most to major donors. This includes the number of beneficiaries their donations have helped, your organization’s fundraising return on investment (ROI), beneficiary satisfaction rates, and completion rates for major projects.
- Use qualitative and quantitative data. Support your hard facts with qualitative data, including beneficiary testimonials and case studies.
- Incorporate multimedia elements. Make your reports more engaging with videos, photos, and interactive infographics, such as maps or charts showing changes over time.
Your reports should not only give donors a clear picture of how you’re using their gifts, but they should also provide a well-rounded overview of the health of your organization and its finances. Sharing details about your fundraising ROI and how you allocate funds allows major donors to see that their gifts are being used to directly benefit your mission.
4. Recognize donors for their contributions.
Thanking major donors is another aspect of donor stewardship where personalization will go a long way. Focus on individually meaningful appreciation efforts. What works for one donor may not work for another, so respect each supporter’s preferences by noting them in your CRM.
Also, ask donors whether they’d like to be thanked publicly or remain anonymous. Depending on their preferences, you can follow up with a variety of private and public donor recognition efforts, such as:
| Private donor recognition efforts | Public donor recognition efforts |
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Show your appreciation in your actions as well as your words. That means paying attention to the little things, like creating a comfortable environment for in-person donor meetings, remembering donors’ birthdays, and sending congratulations cards for major milestones, like their retirement or wedding. These special moments make donors feel appreciated for more than just their monetary contributions.
When refreshing your major donor stewardship approach, it can be helpful to work with an experienced third-party consultant. According to Averill’s fundraising consultant guide, these experts can assess your current fundraising efforts and make recommendations to strengthen your internal operations, including your major donor relationship-building efforts.
Whether you work with a consultant or not, the key to building successful major donor relationships is making them as authentic and fulfilling as possible for supporters.
