Major Gift Solutions

We exist to help your nonprofit maximize fundraising potential through major gifts. Many of today's giving platforms are good systems. They engage donors using a good rhythm, and they utilize data well. But the temptation they present, the habit they allow you to fall into, is to turn human donors into de-humanized data points. Not only does this raise a number of ethical questions. It doesn’t work. Our goal at Major Gift Solutions is to help you retrieve the donor as subject. A major gift donor should not merely be a step on a fundraiser’s journey toward success. Donors are active. They give. They participate. They are partners in your shared work, and they have real needs that, when addressed, empower a deep sense of fulfillment and connection. Fundraising leaders who know this tap into a well of abundance that can unlock giving potential. Donors who are connected to your mission want to give to your mission. Although careful data analysis and a detailed plan for donor outreach are vital for a major gift program’s success, at the end of the day major gift donors respond to a relationship. They respond best to direct attention, carried out through personal interaction and direct cultivation developed over a lengthy period of time, usually anywhere from 12 to 24 months, sometimes more. At Major Gift Solutions, we do our best to combine insights from trends in big data with old fashioned, relationship-building -- the “soft skills” that led many of us into the nonprofit sector in the first place. Donors are people. And people want to be seen. They want to be included. They want to be needed. And they want to be appreciated. Experienced fundraisers will observe that these four claims correspond to the four stages of the donor pipeline: qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. Visit www.majorgiftsolutions.com/our-process to learn more about our process.