If you ask a consultant the question “What is a Major Gift?” you will no doubt get the answer that “it depends.” Of course it does! But how does one figure it out? Surely we don’t guess what it is, do we? Lots of people consider $1,000 to be a threshold number. But what if a $100 gift would you give you goosebumps? Is that a major gift for your organization?

“What is a Major Gift?” is a major question worth some deliberation, but let’s set the stage for that discussion with a structure based in actual data upon which we can rely. In fact, you might consider that there is an Actual Major Gift amount and a Strategic Major Gift amount. Allow me to suggest…

Actual Major Gift vs. Strategic Major Gift

In order to have a meaningful conversation about the dollar amount that defines a major gift, we need to know what giving amounts actually happen at our organization.

Once we look at the actual giving data, we can move on to discussing how we might want to lower or raise the bar (we almost always raise the bar!) on that amount based upon our fundraising strategies and goals, to land on a Strategic Major Gift amount.

Actual Major Gift Data

There are so many fun ways to explore your giving data! And if I don’t mention your favorite, it would be nice if you would comment and share here.

Using your most recent one, two, or even three fiscal years of total annual giving by donor, following are a few ways to slice and dice the pie:

• Calculate the mean, median, and mode. You remember those formulas, right? Excel even has a Data Analysis ToolPak anyone can install that calculates this automatically from your file.
• Figure out the 80/20 Rule on your donor file. The Pareto Principle or 80/20 Rule suggests that 80% of your fundraised dollars comes from 20% of your donors. Using your list of donors with total annual giving for each, you can figure out the largest gift amounts that total 80% of all giving and then look at how many donors it took to reach that 80% of giving.
• Subjectively evaluate the top gifts over the past three years. Are you noticing gaps in between the low and high or higher gift amounts? Are there clusters of giving at certain amounts? What do you know about how your organization fundraises that could be causing those results?

Over at the Prospect Research Institute, I develop learning materials. If you need more help exploring data like this, you can find tutorials and practice exercises in the Learning Community Research Connectors members-only section or as part of the Generalist Research on-demand Training.

Once you have the Actual Major Gift data to discuss, you are ready to add your Strategic Major Gift amount. This is the one that will help you achieve your ambitious goals.

Strategic Major Gift Amount

Once you are ready to start a major gift program, whether that is a campaign or simply intentional effort and dedication of resources, or if you are evaluating your major gift program for any reason, there are a few lenses through which you might consider your major gift amount strategically.

Following are three that make the top of my list:

• Capacity of your donors. If you submit some or all of your donor records for a wealth screening, you will have a big picture view of potential capacity. How does your actual major gift amounts and your actual amount raised from those gifts compare to the capacity of your donor file?
• Protection against undue influence. Before you get too excited about the prospect of asking for a colossal gift, consider that you don’t want a tiny number of donors to have undue (perceived or real) influence over your organization because of their support. Campaigns are a popular way to leap your major gift amounts to a higher plane because they offer discrete, one-time opportunities for impact. What percent of your annual budget would be too much for a donor to give?
• Value of gift opportunities at your organization. It’s a “good” problem to have, but if you have donors capable of making transformational gifts, but your organization has no plan for transforming, there’s a dangerous disconnect. Donors need a gift opportunity that matches the level of their gift. It doesn’t have to be naming or endowment or even restricted giving, but it has to further your mission responsibly and meaningfully.

The Value of Thinking it Through – with Data!

There are so many things we take for granted in this world and the definition and meaning of industry words and phrases – including “major gift” – is way up there on the list. Having a conversation about how you define major gifts at your organization is not as simple as at first it might appear.

And hopefully it will lead to important discussions about fundraising and mission strategy. Surely that makes it a worthwhile conversation!

Additional Resources

• Major Gifts: It’s Not the Donation Amount that Matters—it’s the Strength of the Relationship | Dave Sternberg and Nick Parkevich via AFP | Undated
• Fundraising Fundamentals, Section 7.3 – Cultivation of Major Gifts | Higher Education Funding Council for England via CASE | Undated
• Major Gifts: Defining and Enhancing Your Strategy | Katherine Swank, J.D. via npENGAGE | 2017