A system to identify major donors even if you don't currently have any.
(Includes worksheets and templates to get you started right away).
You want to diversify your funding.
You know major donors offer a great return on investment.
And because the wealthiest have more financial resilience and are getting wealthier, engaging with major donors provides more stability during times of financial crisis.
BUT you don't know where to begin looking.
You're a small organisation.
You're local.
Your trustees don't know Richard Branson.
What if I told you that you have major donors all around you?
Donors that can give a gift at a level that would be a major donor for your organisation.
Donors that can be partners in achieving the impact you are creating.
How is this possible?
By reframing what a major donor looks like.
- Asking ourselves and others what we think a major donor looks like
-Reframing it away from this person (Richard Branson) or that person (Bill Gates)
-Focusing on how major donors engage with organisations
Then we need to put our detective hat on and get to work.
When we reframe what a major donor looks like, two awesome things happen:
1. We approach prospecting in a very different way and see there are many ways to do it
We realise that major donors are all around us - even for small organisations
Here's the problem though. Most people are completely focused on major donors as a specific person.
Especially board members, maybe even charity CEOs, perhaps ourselves.
They list names of major donors and use those names as reasons why the organisation can't do major donor fundraising.
Or
It places barriers from the very start.
There is a solution to this.
And it doesn't involve getting Richard Branson's email address.
It's about redefining what a major donor is.
Coming up with a range of strategies to identify people who fit this new definition.
And then putting on our detective hats and getting to work.
Welcome to How to Identify Major Donor Prospects
A step-by-step approach to identify major donors for your organisation.
Learn and apply in under
Caroline Gaskin, Together for Animals
Identify the RIGHT major donors
Learn a range of approaches to identify, because there is no one size fits all!
Redefine a major donor
for YOUR organisation - you'll see that major donors are everywhere.
Engage trustees and other allies
With meeting scripts and a list of actions that trustees can easily undertake.
Save time by prioritising donors
Learn a ranking system that focuses your time on the most important prospects.
Connect with prospects
Using templates that can be personalised for your organisation and your prospects.
Evaluate whether you are ready
With a Major Donor Ready checklist that can be shared with senior management.
As a solo fundraiser for a small organisation, this really helped me break up the task of finding new donors into manageable actions.
All the webinars and courses I've done to date have always worked on the assumption that your organisation has a CRM or regular givers or some sort of supporter network that you just tap into to identify potential high-value donors. This course didn't make any assumptions, and that was refreshing.
The length of the course is great, short insights in short actionable sections.
You're getting everything you need to get a prospect list up and running.
Watch between meetings, during your lunch break or on your commute. All bite-sized.
Network identifier list, prospect prioritisation system, gift table model, outreach templates and meeting scripts. All done for you.
Ways for Trustees to Engage and Are you Major Donor Ready. Tick it off as you implement.
How to calculate a major donor donation level, a tool for donor mapping and an action sheet.
To confirm your learning and help you put ideas into action.
Hello! I'm Michelle Stein
I'm a fundraising coach and trainer. I specialise in high-value fundraising from major donors, corporates and trusts & foundations. I've worked in the UK and South Africa for a range of organisations including The British Museum, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa and WaterAid.
Building a strong prospect list is the key way to start and grow your major donor programme. These are the techniques I've used for myself and for my clients to create that prospect list.
Sheldon Delport, Head of Impacting, Step Advisory
Yes! It is created with small and medium-sized charities in mind. It makes no assumptions and includes a range of techniques so you can choose ones that will work for your organisation.
It will take about 90 minutes. But it is made up of short videos ranging from 6- 13 minutes. So you can watch between meetings, on your lunch break or during your commute.
There are lots of templates, checklists and scripts that would take a bit longer to read through.
You'll have lifetime access.
If you are an organisation based in the Global South and your exchange rate makes this course unaffordable, please contact me and we can arrange a price that works for you.
handmadefundraising@gmail.com