Major Gifts - How Reports Can Help
Ever since my days as a student in the Humber Fundraising Program, I noticed that Major Gifts (commonly abbreviated as MG) fundraising has always been seen as the role to be in at a Development Office. I totally understand where my classmates were coming from - working with high-profile prospects to secure massive transformational gifts to build a new hospital is an amazing job.
However, after working in the industry for more than 10 years, I realized that in order to have a successful Major Gifts program it takes some key tools. You need a robust CRM database, well-documented processes, and reporting that is efficient and actionable.
I would even say that having good reports is the MOST important part of having a healthy and successful Major Gifts program. If we look at MGs through the lens of the sales industry, having good reports means you can efficiently measure your growth and shortfalls, analyze areas that are or are not doing well, and strategize on how to improve via re-aligning processes.
Similar to other reports that are commonly used in a fundraising office (such as new donors, revenue by channel, donor retention, etc.) there is always a set of essential reports you should be running on a scheduled basis. Most CRMs on the market would have these reports available as part of their services. However, not everyone realizes that they are there and one of the first things on the list we have when working with clients is to review what their reports (outputs) look like.
In conjunction with these typical reports, there are a few important reports you should be looking at if you want to upgrade your Major Gifts program:
Opportunities/Proposal Reports
The bread and butter of tracking Major Gifts fundraising in your database (I am using the terms most common to me from Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge since this is the system, I am most familiar with). Major Gift Officers (MGO) are responsible for tracking their activities with their pipeline of prospects using the Donor Cycle format.
The Donor Cycle consists of mainly the following stages – Identification, Qualification, Cultivation, Solicitation, Stewardship, Declined/Cancelled. Opportunity Reports will allow the MGO view the progress of their prospect pipelines, the number of prospects in each stage, how likely prospects will close their gift, measure timelines, prospects upgraded to donors requiring stewardship, and those who need to be resolicited.
Actions Reports (Specifically for Major Gifts)
Action Reports are commonly used by Development staff to track touchpoint activities with donors and should be used or at least be familiarized by all staff. Actions are especially important for MGOs since they provide detailed information for each tangible touchpoint conducted by the officers with their prospects (e.g. meetings, emails, phone calls, etc.). Actions are also used as reminders on follow-up touchpoints for the fundraising staff/volunteers, they are key metrics when measuring the success of your MG program and extremely important to guide the movement of the prospect solicitation experience within the Donor Cycle.
Solicitor Reports (Relationships)
Keeping track of Solicitor Relationship records is extremely important – for both your MGOs and your volunteer solicitors. A typical Major Gift takes on average 6 months to a year from initial meetings to confirming a gift (signing a gift agreement), so every officer wants to make sure that their hard work is documented and recognized at the end of the year. This is also how most systems track your actions and opportunities. As the saying goes, if it is not in the database – it did not happen.
Gift Report – (Largest/Smallest, Average Gift, Frequency, Pledge Balance)
Financial reports provide valuable information to the Development Office, as this is how you measure the total number of funds raised in the current and previous year as well as helping you budget expectations for next year. When we deal with large Major Gifts, in many situations the donations would be paid over multiple months or years.
Tracking pledges is instrumental. It allows your MG and Finance teams to calculate how much has been received, how much has yet to be paid, how much they can expect to receive this year, and how long it will take for the pledge to be fully paid off. Especially in a Capital Campaign scenario where there is pressure to pay off construction and renovation costs by the organization – managing pledge payments to effectively pay off these costs is key.
Gift reports are also important for officers to comb through existing donors within the database to identify new prospects to be added to their prospect pipelines.
Conclusion:
This is just a small sample of the types of reports that help you build your Major Gifts program. While these reports are a good place to get started you may need more information. Depending on the size of your gifts and Campaign goals, number of prospects, number of solicitors, and other variables you may need to create custom reports. Reports that track your own shop’s specific goals and are readible to your team.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss further, we are happy to chat and work with you here at Sentinel Consulting. Reach out to us here.
If you would like us to tackle a topic or problem of interest to you, in future articles, please let us know here.
Additional resources:
For additional resources that can help you dig deeper into MG reporting see the links below.
11 Metrics Every Major Gift Fundraiser Should Track
8 Must-Have Fundraising Reports Every Nonprofit Needs
Sentinel Consulting is a consulting firm that focuses on helping non-profits strengthen their operational efficiency. We speak the same language as our clients because we were all fundraisers at some point in our careers.