How to Succeed with Major Donor Fundraising
Let’s be honest, major donor fundraising can feel terrifying at first!
You’ve put in a ton of effort to find a wealthy donor interested in your cause, you’ve teed up the intro and the relationship, and now you have one shot to make that big “ask” for a big check. It’s a lot of pressure and a lot of fundraisers fall prey to self-doubt.
Even one donor meeting gone wrong can set back a fundraiser’s confidence for years.
But after decades of raising money and training fundraisers, I am certain that you CAN become a master fundraiser—if you put in the work.
You do not need to be an extrovert or an expert and you don’t need to love fundraising to do well at major donor solicitations.
In this article, I lay out three sets of skills you can easily practice to strengthen your own fundraising—and raise more money for causes you care about.
Fair warning, it might be overwhelming to try to learn all of these skills at once. Instead, start with a few at a time. Practice and hone your skills, then add more.
If you really want to take your major donor fundraising to the next level, you can also check out my full course: Major Gifts Master Class.
Preparing for a Major Donor Fundraising Meeting
The goal of every fundraiser should be to create the conditions for a successful fundraising ask. That means you need to start preparing for the ask long before the big major donor meeting.
Get ready to build rapport with the major donor.
Master fundraisers find some way to make a connection with donors. If it is the first time you are meeting someone, do your homework. Read their bios, social media profiles, resumes, and anything you can get your hands on. Consider setting up Google news alerts for the donor and/or following them on LinkedIn to see what they care about and post about. Even once the meeting starts, keep noticing, such as looking at what the donor has hanging on the wall or sitting on their desk.
Use this information to start the donor meeting by making an important connection. Find some way to share something you have in common or even to laugh together.
“Use this information to start the donor meeting by making an important connection. Find some way to share something you have in common or even to laugh together. ”
For example, I studied up on one program officer and learned we both might know the same former legislator in Texas. Once the meeting began, I said, “Hey I noticed you used to lobby in Austin. Do you happen to know XYZ person? She immediately lit up and shared a hilarious story. I countered with something cheeky…matching her energy and rapport. I walked out with a guarantee for $250K and an additional $50K in capacity-building dollars. This was my first meeting with her.
Hone your pitch to create a spark for donors.
One of the most important ways to successfully raise money is to be able to light a fire in the belly of a donor.
Expert fundraisers spend lots of time thinking about the work they are fundraising for. They turn their issue inside out, upside down, right side forward, and examine it ad nauseam. They should workshop their pitch with different people until they learn to create that spark. You can do the same!
You can also improve your pitch by listening to your donors and the people you serve. Gather testimonials about what your organization means to them. You will be surprised that the language you use and the language they use will not match perfectly, but it may provide insights.
For example, I led a progressive coalition in North Carolina that everyone seemed to think was important, but when I took over they were struggling to explain their value in the sector. This organization was a permanent coalition we were calling a “state table.”
I used a metaphor of a symphony orchestra to explain our role. “The field of NC organizations is rich. They are each like talented musicians making beautiful music on their own. But if you get them all in one room, it would sound like noise unless you had a conductor.
Our organization brings all these talented organizations together to make beautiful music together, but it requires someone to leverage the strengths of the collaborative to get it right.” Needless to say, this metaphor helped me raise millions of dollars.
Be pithy in describing your goals and strategy.
Sometimes, explaining your work in a new and insightful way is all you need to unlock a connection in the donor’s mind. Putting forth a very compelling or even controversial take on an age-old problem could immediately create intrigue. Many startups do this by calling their approach “disruptive.” (I know it’s overused but It gets funders' attention.)
For example, imagine telling a donor: “We want to do a few things well instead of 20 things poorly. That’s why we are focused like a laser beam on X before we can solve Y. Our strategy is the long game.”
While fundraising for climate change, I found this little kernel resonated with donors: “In every social movement where we have made progress since the ‘60s, we have won by making it about people. In climate, we are too busy talking about polar bears, degrees of temperature change, and parts per million. If we want to win, we must put humans back in the story.” Donors would light up when I said this.
Be aspirational in donor conversations.
Master fundraisers are not deterred by a lack of metrics or proof of impact. They can weave a story of what is possible, creating a compelling vision and getting the donor to see that their gift can be applied to great things ahead.
For example, Imagine a prospective donor saying, “Tell me about your impact” and you can easily respond with, “Well, we’re young so we don’t have any yet. But let me tell you why our newness excites me. We don’t have any bad blood in the community and we aren’t jaded. We’re hungry to succeed.”
Build your final pitch around showing, not telling.
Practicing your pitch is essential to landing major gifts (that’s why I created a whole course on perfecting your pitch).
Master fundraisers don’t bore donors with endless statistics, charts, and metrics. They tell stories—especially the stories of individuals, not groups. You can’t tell the story of 50,000 people who are suffering, but you can tell the story of one person who is suffering.
One or two charts may be okay as part of your pitch, but make them very compelling. Data should mostly be used in a pitch if it is dramatic.
For example, you can describe the problem of oil spills in a community, or you can come into a funders office with a jar of petroleum that your organization cleaned off a duck!!
Do you have a postcard written by a young person you taught to read? Bring it to the donor meeting. Do you have a picture of a college student who received a scholarship, wearing their graduation cap? Bring it!
If you don’t have real stories, you can use a fictional one to illustrate your point.
“If you don’t have real stories, you can use a fictional one to illustrate your point. ”
“Imagine a young person in rural Kansas really struggling with addiction and also their own self-worth. There are few local resources to help them cope. Our helpline will help kids in those situations.” Have a composite story in your mind and tell that story.
Hone These Skills BEFORE Your Major Donor Fundraising Meeting
Even if you’ve done a ton of preparation for a specific major donor meeting, you still need to be prepared to navigate the conversation in the moment.
The good news is you can practice all of the fundraising skills below in your daily life. Think about every conversation you have with board members, volunteers, or even staff—and use these opportunities to practice!
Learn to LISTEN to donors.
Listening is magical. Companies listen to their customers. Angel investors listen to their startup entrepreneurs. And fundraisers need to listen to donors.
By listening, you can hear fear, aspiration, word choices, and allusions to other things that help you build rapport and make the ask. One of many things to listen for are pain points. You can even ask probing questions to determine the donor’s priorities, passions, or interests.
Listening is also good for uncovering language. You may think the main reason your programs are awesome has to do with one thing, but the donor may reveal that they think another part of your work is “cool.” Your donors are giving you data. Master fundraisers are always listening and learning.
For example, the climate change think tank I was leading for four years did several things well. I had a hunch that the social science research we compiled and distilled was “sexy” to donors. But one day, a funder mentioned that they loved that all our work was free. They could easily share our work with all their grantees. This was so obvious that I missed it in my first year.
I started every future cold email and LinkedIn message to a foundation program officer with: “Hi, I am not reaching out for funding. I want you to know that my organization compiles resources that are free for your grantees. If you want to join us, it’s free.”
Of course, once they joined for free it allowed me to invite them to be a funding partner to scale up the tools their grantees could get. This helped me more than triple the number of foundation funders for the organization in four years.
Practice pivoting in donor conversations.
Good fundraisers need to be able to pivot in the moment. During a donor meeting, the donor may say something that requires you to shift your approach or your ask. This means you must know your organization’s activities and budget well so you know what you can do to help this donor get to yes! (Learn more about Major Donor Fundraising in my Master Class).
For example, if a donor thinks a new training initiative would be needed in the world, and you were already thinking about something similar, a master fundraiser can quickly seize the opportunity and assure the donor they have a great idea and that if they want to create the seed funding to launch the initiative, they would gladly work on it.
Be opportunistic in finding an entry point with donors.
The word “opportunistic” has gotten a bad rap. Master fundraisers have their antenna up for any opportunity to fund their mission. Don’t think of it as “mission creep” and just chasing the money. It’s about entrepreneurial creativity. It is forged by listening, reading, research, and preparation. Be like water. Water finds a way down…through cracks into the soil and into the sea. Find a way in.
For example, you may know that a donor in your community cares a lot about LGBTQ issues but that isn’t what your organization is focused on. You have been looking for funding for professional development for years.
Could you approach that donor to fund a coaching and professional development fund for organizations in your community and each year LGBTQ groups would be guaranteed spots in the program?
Study up on human psychology (because donors are people, too).
Master fundraisers use tactics all the time that rely on basic psychology and human intuition to tap into people’s worries and dreams.
We all know that people are not logical, they are psychological. We all make decisions that are impacted by things like biases, cognitive dissonance, fear, peer pressure, etc. Learn how people make decisions and use these basic realities when telling your organizational story. Check out my series on TikTok.
This isn’t about manipulation, it’s common sense. It is about basic human needs and connections and understanding how people tick. Peer pressure works. Show them how others like themselves are participating. Use group identity to speak to things they value, like “freedom,” “safety,” or even “clean air.”
Get creative with networking to find major donors.
Fundraisers whose sole job is to court people with deep pockets will sometimes make a dedicated effort to network with CPAs and financial advisors.
It is very common for high-net-worth individuals to need to make donations at the end of the year in December. This quick turnaround time sometimes means that donors don’t know where to make a donation quickly, so they ask their CPAs, financial advisors, or even their tax attorneys how much to donate to offset extra income and who they could donate to quickly.
Start building a network of these professionals and then step up your networking in November and December.
Common Mistakes to Avoid With Major Donor Fundraising
Even with all the preparation above, I’ve still seen fundraisers make several common mistakes during major donor conversations. Avoid the missteps below, and you’ll be well on your way to securing even bigger gifts for your nonprofit!
Don’t be the buyer and the seller in major donor asks.
It is very tempting, in an effort to not be seen as aggressive, to offer someone an excuse not to give. And yes, this is more common than you might realize!
For example, imagine you’re in a major donor meeting. You tee up the ask and finally say: “We could really use 10K…(pause)...I know times are tough so if that is too high, I understand.”
This is called being the buyer and the seller! If you are asking someone for money don’t try talking them out of it.
Your job is to be the seller. The donor is the “buyer.” Let THEM decide if they want what you are selling.
Take advantage of the Ben Franklin Effect.
Part of building rapport is being human. Showing your humanity can feel risky in major donor meetings, but it is helpful to have some humility and use self-deprecating humor to make yourself relatable. When the moment is right, feel free to make fun of yourself or add a relevant and relatable story to the conversation. These little building blocks add up.
Also, it may seem counter-intuitive but sometimes asking for a favor brings you closer to a person. People want to be helpful, especially if you are already meeting with them.
The favor you ask could be small like, “Hey I noticed a great piece of art up in your office, would you mind getting me more information about the artist.” The act of asking for help creates vulnerability and a bond. T
he other person agrees. In a microscopic way, you are indebted to the donor now. This is called the Ben Franklin Effect—which I explain in more depth on LinkedIn and TikTok.
You might think, “Why in the hell would I ask for a favor right before asking for money?” But sometimes asking for a favor shifts the balance of power even more toward the donor. It allows you to gush with “thank you’s” a little bit which bonds you further with the donor.
Know when to wait.
Sometimes you just know it isn’t the right time to ask for money. Maybe you just met the person you are talking to. Maybe they are distracted. Maybe they hinted that their investments are in the toilet this month. Be patient and instead focus on the relationship. Then, plan for a future visit under better terms.
Don’t treat major donors like ATMs.
Donors are not automated teller machines. They don’t exist for you to visit only when you need money.
Remember to connect with donors multiple times a year, when you don’t need money. They will notice. This isn’t performative. Don’t treat these “touches” like a chore. They are fundamental to building relationships and community. Some donors may fall on hard times and you should continue the relationship regardless of giving potential in the short term.
DO treat major donors like they are special.
One of my favorite things to do with major donors is add them to an exclusive email list of VIPs.
VIPs don’t need to be only major donors! Remember, smaller and mid-level donors may have the potential to grow into major donors.
“VIPs don’t need to be only major donors! Remember, smaller and mid-level donors may have the potential to grow into major donors. ”
For example, you can follow up a donor meeting with a message like: “Hi Steve, thanks for meeting today. I’d love to add you to a small email list of 20-30 folks that I consider really critical to our mission and these emails are outside the normal e-blasts. They are brief, insider updates about the organization and the field. Could I add you to that? You’ll only hear from me about once every other month.”
This is a powerful and free way to make people feel special and give them special updates throughout the year. But one big note: Never use this list to ask for money. These updates are about the organization only.
Conclusion: Mastering Major Donor Fundraising
Believe it or not, these tips are just the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to major donor fundraising. Here at the Nonprofit Fixer, I’ve helped hundreds of executive directors, board members, and development staff hone their fundraising skills and raise more money.
If you’re looking to unlock major dollars from major donors, check out my Major Gifts Masterclass.
If you prefer reading and ready-to-use templates, then grab my Fundraising Power Pack Book!
