gift pyramid for a capital campaign?

Alicia Valtierra

Our majors gifts director is asking for this, but I have no idea what he's referring to. Im still new to non-profit world + RE. Using RE7 for reference.

Austen Brown

Hi @Alicia Valtierra - I am not a fundraiser, but I suspect they are referencing a Gift Table. Maybe something like this: https://askgenius.com/how-to-use-a-gift-table-to-elevate-your-fundraising-strategy/

Tracy Forkin

Hi, Alicia. I know what the gift officer is looking for. This is developed with prospect management using wealth ratings, affinity, and capacity. Feel free to email me at tforkin@jwu.edu. I can share an example.

Marie Stark

I was asked to create a report for this at one time, similar to the one in article that Austen is referencing. However I was given the values in order to populate the report.

Faith Murray

@Austen Brown is spot on - the “gift table” is exactly what your director is asking for. It's called a Gift Pyramid because the line at the top has the smallest number of donors, and the bottom has the largest number of donors.

The Gift table on the site Austen linked is a good starter template. However, from there you have to modify based on your own campaign needs and your prospect capacities. Before creating a pyramid, it's essential to have already done your wealth research, profiling, affinity ratings, etc., so you have a realistic idea of capacity and can make better success estimates.

For example, the standard formula for a pyramid is a 25% success rate: for each gift of $25K that you need, you need to have identified 4 prospects to ask because only one out of four will give. In reality, your success rate will depend on the strength of your portfolio. At our org, our success rate is closer to 35-40%, and so I can comfortably slot fewer asks if we need to squeeze a bit at the higher levels. An org that has mostly cultivated a direct mail acquisition donor base, on the other hand, may have a success rate much lower than 25%.

Also, unlike the example on the website, the very top tier of your pyramid needs to supply between 15-25% of your total goal. On the website, its lead gift is just 3.5% of its total goal, and so that would work for a direct mail target, but not a capital campaign. If you realize that your top 10% of donors cannot supply 90% of your goal (or 80/20 depending which rule you follow) then you need to take a step back in deciding if you actually have the resources you need or need to rethink your campaign objectives.

Faith Murray

PS. This pyramid is not something that you can simply generate out of RE. You will need to procure donor lists, with giving histories, next ask amounts, affinities, then sort and categorize. You'll be doing a lot of work in excel!

I'm surprised your MG director is asking you for this, if your role is DBM. Unless you yourself have a donor portfolio and your director is simply asking for your own personal portfolio pyramid … creating a major gift gift pyramid is a strategic and planning role, such as for a development director, data analyst, campaign coordinator, or the MG director themselves. That's because in order to plug in which donors can fit which giving levels, you pretty much have to make a strategic decision on donor ask amounts and designations for the upcoming year. I wouldn't think your director would want someone else making those decisions on their own portfolio??