No Major Gifts Program? No Problem. Here's How You Can Start

Many nonprofit organizations that reach out to me assume that a formal major gifts program is something you build after you've reached a certain size, a certain budget, or a certain milestone. Once we have more staff. Once we hire a Development Director. Once the database is bigger, or peppered with wealthier people.

Here's what I've learned in 30 years of fundraising: you likely already have what you need to start— if you're willing to take the first steps. Not a perfect system. Not a full team. But the relationships, the loyalty, and the donor potential that make major gifts possible.

A major gifts program doesn't have to begin with a big infrastructure. It begins with a deliberate decision to focus on the right donors, entering into meaningful conversations, and building a plan to engage, inspire and solicit those prospects that matches where you are right now.

Here's how to do that.

Making the case to your board

Before you move forward, your board needs to understand why this matters — and why now is the time to begin.

The discussion is about helping them see what's already possible inside the organization they're leading.

Start with your own data. Show them the donors who have given consistently for five or more years. The donors who have given cumulatively above your current major gift threshold. (And if you don't have a major gift level, now is the time to set one!) The people who keep showing up, keep giving, and have never once been invited into a deeper conversation.

If the board feels that now is not the time to invest in major gift efforts, then you'll need to make the case for return on investment, or ROI. Raising $100,000 through major gifts requires far fewer resources — and builds far deeper relationships — than raising the same amount through an event or a mass mailing. It is among the most efficient forms of fundraising, and the relationships it builds tend to produce ongoing and increasing support over time. That is the sustainable fundraising model that every nonprofit needs.

Present a realistic 12-24 month vision and plan. Not a promise of millions overnight, but a grounded picture of what building this program looks like, starting with identifying your best prospects and leading, eventually, to the first meaningful Asks.

When board members understand that major gifts fundraising is a strategic investment in — and fuel for — the mission, they tend to be supportive.

Setting realistic goals

Your first-year goals should be focused on activity, not just dollars. This matters because relationship-building takes time, and measuring only revenue in year one will discourage you before the program has had a chance to build momentum.

Some reasonable activity-based goals for year one:

• Identify and qualify 50-100 major gift prospects from your existing database, as well as those currently giving at that level
• Conduct discovery conversations with 25-50 of them — meetings focused on listening and learning, not asking
• Secure 10-15 gifts at or above your major gift threshold
• Note that a good and reasonable portfolio size is approximately 100 to 150 households, with a mix of current major gift level donors as well as major gift prospects

Your biggest initial investment will be time — likely from your Executive Director or Development Director. Beyond that, budget modestly for prospect research tools, CRM upgrades, and coffee meetings. These are not overhead. They are the infrastructure of relationship.

The impact of building a major gift program will be that certain people in your annual program(s), such as monthly donors or mid-level donors, may rise to be major gift donors. All revenue is welcome, but in early days some teams may feel they will "lose" revenues when giving at the major gift level rises.

The first 90 days

The first three months are about discovery, qualification, and building the internal habits that will sustain the program.

Month 1: Find the people.

Run reports and identify your top 50-100 potential prospects based on loyalty, cumulative giving, and engagement. Craft a one-page case for support you can share in donor conversations.

Pro Tip: I suggest that the case for support is a topic for discussion, rather than offering the prospective donor an actual paper or brochure. When we put tangible materials in front of a donor or prospect, we lose their eye contact and attention as they read AND listen to us.

Set up your Customer Relationship Management tool or CRM to track relationships, conversations, and next steps — because the data you collect and store in year one becomes the foundation for everything that follows.

Month 2: Start reaching out.

Begin making personal calls to connect. You are in the "discovery phase" to learn about the donor, so lead with curiosity. A simple approach is to start with thank you calls. An easy script may look like this:

"Hello, Ms. Smith, this is <name> from <nonprofit>.Thank you so much for being such a loyal supporter/ supporter of <program>/ attending <event> a few months ago. I'm calling to say "Thank you!"
[pause] "I'd love to hear more about what matters about the work <nonprofit> does. Will you share with me why it is important for you to support?" Let the conversation flow naturally and take notes on what you've learned.

If you have had several conversation with the supporter, you might be at the point [pause, and if the conversation was warm and fruitful] "I'll be in your area next week. Might we find a time to grab coffee so I may learn more about what keeps you connected to our work, and share some updates. Might we find a time in the next two weeks?"

This is not an ask. It is a relationship question with a permission-based opening — and it works precisely because it feels like what it is: genuine interest.

Engage your board members too. Give them a short list of loyal donors to call and thank personally. Board outreach in the early months signals that this program has real organizational commitment behind it.

Month 3: Listen and qualify.

Conduct your first round of conversations. Your only goal is to listen and learn. What do donors care about? What do they want to understand more deeply? What in the mission has mattered most to them?

From those conversations, you'll begin to know who is ready to go deeper — and who needs more time. Identify three to five prospects who seem ready for an invitation to give in the coming months.

When it's time to hire a Major Gift Officer

If you're running this program yourself — as an Executive Director, Development Director, or solo fundraiser — there will come a point where the relationships outgrow your capacity to manage them thoughtfully. That's a good problem to have!

Watch for these signs:

• You have 125-150 qualified prospects and/ or current donors who need consistent, personal cultivation
• Your Executive Director is spending 25-30% or more of their time on major gifts — and something else is suffering
• You can realistically project that a dedicated Major Gift Officer would raise three to four times their salary within 18-24 months

A Major Gift Officer is not overhead. They are a focused investment in relationship-based revenue. When the time is right, making that hire is one of the most strategic decisions a growing organization can make.

The tools you'll need

You don't need an elaborate system to start. You do need a few things working well together.

A solid CRM is essential — and I suggest a nonprofit-specific platform. This will be the one place where relationships, conversations, and next steps are tracked consistently. Without it, the relationships you're building live in people's heads, incomplete spreadsheets, and email inboxes, which is a fragile foundation.

For prospect research, start with what's free: LinkedIn, your organization's own giving history, board connections, community knowledge. As the program grows, tools like DonorSearch or WealthEngine can deepen your understanding potential financial capacity for giving. I believe in starting simple with solid tools and later add tools as your major gift program may need them.

Simple templates for gift proposals and stewardship reports are also worth building early — not because they should feel templated, but because having a structure frees you to focus on the relationship rather than the format.

Q: How do I start a major gifts program at a small nonprofit?

Start with what you already have — your existing donor relationships, their giving history, and the organization's origin story and vision for transformation or making a difference. Identify the donors who have been consistently loyal, given cumulatively above a threshold that matters to your organization, or shown signs of deeper connection to the mission. Those are your first prospects. From there, the goal in year one isn't a transformed fundraising program — it's building the habits, the conversations, and the systems that make major gifts sustainable over time.

Q: Do you need a large staff or budget to start a major gifts program?

No. Many organizations start their major gifts work with one person — often the Executive Director or Development Director — dedicating focused time to a small number of priority relationships. The investment is primarily time and attention, not headcount or budget. What matters most in the early stages is intentionality: knowing which donors to focus on, having a clear purpose for each conversation, and building the internal systems that let you track and nurture those relationships over time.

MORE: The Ultimate Guide | Major Gift Officer | Identifying Prospects | Cultivating Donors | Major Gift Ask | Stewardship & Donor Retention | Building a Major Gift Program | The Role of Technology | Common Challenges | Case Studies