Major Donor Development
Baby Boomers are the wealthiest generation of Americans ever — AND the most generous. Right now, they’re in the midst of the largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history. Before it’s done, Boomers will hand down or give away more than $25 trillion. Many of them are — or could be — your donors.
This represents a huge opportunity. But only organizations with well-managed development programs will receive their fair share through planned giving, bequests and cash gifts.
With a well-oiled major donor development stategy, your ministry can go for its share of the more than $25 trillion that will be given away by Baby Boomers.
Unfortunately, if there’s an area where nonprofit organizations are likely to need help, it’s major donor development. No wonder . . . Many nonprofits don’t look at major donor development as a critical need. And even if they did, it’s a real specialty. Few people have the necessary background and skills to be effective in major donor development.
What we most often find is that ministries, particularly smaller organizations, can’t afford a full-time major donor development officer. So that work is delegated to someone who may not have the time or qualifications to do it well.
Because the need is so common — and the potential so huge — Masterworks has made major donor development one of our primary offerings. We provide a wide range of services to help ministries build deeper and more productive relationships with their major donors:
Assessment
We work with you to determine what is working in your major donor efforts, what needs to be changed and how your program can be more productive.
Training
We provide training for ministry staff to help identify key current and potential donors, set realistic goals, create strategic plans and develop communication strategies to increase giving from major donors:
- Our Asking Institute is the premier major donor development training experience, a comprehensive “immersion” into all aspects of major donor fundraising. (One marketing director who attended our Asking Institute was able to develop and implement her organization’s first-ever major donor year-end strategy, which raised more than $200,000 — twice what they raised in previous years.)
- A Day of Discovery is an intensive audit of your major donor development programs, conducted on-site by our experienced major donor development expert, that will help you take your major gift fundraising program to a whole new level.
Consulting
We provide ongoing guidance to help you better integrate your major donor initiatives into other development strategies, create events and other specialty programs, and continually evaluate and adapt your efforts to maintain maximum return.
Through this wide-ranging service, you’ll be able to energize your development program in a way that will help you enrich and deepen your relationships with key donors and achieve major gift fundraising success.
For more information about Masterworks’ major donor development programs, we invite you to contact Rory Starks at
