How to Qualify a Major Donor Prospect

Most nonprofits define a major donor as someone who gives over a certain amount each year.  And I agree;  anyone who gives you above an amount that is considerably larger than most of the gifts you get is a sizable donor.  However, if that amount is what the donor gives you every year, the gift they are giving is NOT a major gift.

A major gift is one that is transformative.  It transforms the donor as well as your organization.  The gift must be larger than the amount you identify as a major gift, but it also must be much larger than any gift that donor has made before.  As a rule of thumb, it should be 20 times larger, though we’d all probably be happy with any gift  larger than what the donor has already given.

Note that I am assuming that the major giver is already a donor to your organization. While it does happen, it is very rare for someone to make a first gift that is truly major.

Getting a true major gift means a lot of cultivation.  This is not a one and done situation.  Indeed, it can take months and sometimes years to get someone to make this kind of commitment.  Clearly, you need to be sure that your prospect is really a major gift prospect and not merely someone who has wealth.

This is, of course, not to say that wealth is unimportant.  But it is not the most important qualification for a major donor.  Caring about your cause and your organization is truly the key.  And it is critical that there is a connection.

Qualifying a donor typically consists of two steps:

1.     Identifying those prospects and donors who met the criteria set for being a donor at a certain level.  Typically, these criteria include:

a.     Capacity.  You can judge capacity by someone’s net worth, their income, the assets they have and subtract from those the financial obligations they have.  Of course, you’d probably need to do a fair amount of research to find this information, but there is a lot you can find out from public sites online, chatter from people who know your prospects, and, of course, from the prospects themselves.                                     

b.    You can learn about a prospect’s commitment to your organization by looking at how often you can count on their support.  If they’ve given recently, you can feel confident that they currently care about what you do.  And, of course, the size of their support will tell you much—especially if their support grows on a regular basis.

c.     Connection to your organization, is shown through their involvement.  Do they volunteer for you, attend events, respond to your mail (e and snail) appeals? Relationships with those involved—whether a peer or staff—also cement that connection as does a long history with the organization.

2. The second step is where you rate the prospect’s level of commitment, and their willingness to be cultivated and solicited for a major gift. This means looking at their affinity to your organization as well as their stage of life. This usually involves personal knowledge of the prospect. There are three distinct ways to get this information:

a.     A qualifying call or visit.

b.      Gleaned from information gathered over the years; this can work well if the prospect has been a consistent donor at a major gift level and has interacted with staff, who has documented those interactions.

c.     Screening and rating by board members and other leaders of your organization.  These can be done in groups or individually.

Prioritizing your prospects is a critical step that should be done on a regular basis (at least annually/preferably twice a year and ideally, quarterly).

  Prioritize by first rankingyour prospects based on the strength of their commitment to your organization:

•       Give them a 3 if you are one of the top 3 organizations in their philanthropic priority list;

• Assign a 2 if you are important but there are at least 3 other organizations that are more important than you are

• Assign a 1 if they simply support you but you are not high on their philanthropy list

 The next part is to look at their stage of life:

   3’s will include those who:

o    Don’t have children or whose children are adults and self-sufficient

o   They are single, or their spouse is healthy (or deceased)

o    They clearly have wealth and are at the point where they are ready to dispose of (at least a large portion of) it.

·      2’s are those who:

o   Are at the height of their careers and/or will be inheriting a great deal

o   Their children are starting their own families

o   Wealth is being accumulated but they are not yet disposing of it

·      1’s  are:

o   Young

o   Children are home

o   Mid-level career wise

o   Supporting their parents

 Multiply the numbers assigned to each prospect by each other. For example, if they are very strong in their commitment to your organization, but are young, with young children at home, you would multiply 3 by 1 and they would be rated as a 3. On the other hand, someone with high commitment and are at the stage of life where their children are grown, they and their spouse or partner are healthy—well, 3 times 3 equals 9.

The higher the priority, the more likely it is that they will make a major gift to your organization. Those with a score of 9 should take precedence.  These are the folks who you are focused on.  Those who are identified as 6’s should be in your second tier.  Those who rate below that should be moved back into your prospect pool for annual gifts.