How to Infuse Data into Your Major Donor Cultivation Plans

It takes more than a single request or a generic outreach plan to secure major gifts. Before you try to solicit a major donation for your nonprofit, you need to strategically build relationships with prospects that inspire trust, excitement, and belief in your organization.

Building these relationships requires time, thought, and plenty of data. In this guide, we’ll explain how to create major donor cultivation plans infused with accurate, actionable data to help you succeed. With the right data at your fingertips, you can tailor your outreach efforts to each prospect and boost the chances of securing major gifts. Let’s start with which data you need.

01. Conduct prospect research

If you haven’t yet conducted prospect research and selected a few major donor prospects, take this step now. Prospect research is the process of identifying, qualifying, and prioritizing major donor prospects by researching their likelihood of giving a major gift to your nonprofit.

In this process, you’ll use a variety of data sources to search your supporter base for individuals with:

• Capacity markers. Also known as wealth markers, these data points indicate that a prospect has the financial capacity to make a major gift. Using public databases or a wealth screening platform, look for markers like real estate ownership, business affiliations, and stock holdings.

• Affinity indicators. Affinity, or “warmth,” indicators point to a prospect’s personal connection with your cause. This includes data from your CRM, such as an individual’s past donations and involvement with your nonprofit, along with information like their relevant political donations that you can find through public resources.
• Propensity markers. Propensity refers to whether a prospect has an established habit of charitable giving. Data like donations to other organizations, board service, and fundraising event attendance can help you identify those with the propensity to give substantially. 

You can do this research on your own or with the help of a dedicated fundraising consultant. Working with a consultant saves your team time and effort and often provides better results, but the DIY approach is a good option if you’re on a tight budget.

If you choose DIY research, keep in mind that you may need additional tools. Make sure to prioritize options that integrate with your existing technology to streamline data management. For instance, 360MatchPro’s list of nonprofit Salesforce apps includes prospect research tools that integrate with Salesforce so you can automatically record the data you find in your Salesforce database. 

02. Compile detailed profiles in your CRM

As you conduct prospect research, record your findings in the donor profiles in your database. Ideally, prospective major donors will already be in your CRM (since you should only pursue major giving prospects who your nonprofit already has a connection to, rather than trying to acquire brand-new donors who are unfamiliar with your work). But if you’re missing someone, take time to create a new profile for the prospect now.

In addition to the data you collected from prospect research, these profiles should include each prospect’s:

• Contact information
• Donation history
• Preferred donation methods
• Past involvement
• Known charitable interests

You’ll also want to add detailed notes about each prospect to their profile throughout the cultivation process. For example, you might write down their daughter’s name, their upcoming vacation spot, or the times during the week that they’re typically available for a phone call. Make sure that your CRM allows you to store these notes directly into donor profiles so you can access them easily.

03. Tailor outreach and cultivation activities

With your data at the ready, it’s time to create and personalize your donor cultivation plans. A basic cultivation plan should include several outreach activities, like sharing information about your nonprofit’s impact and goals, having in-person conversations, and inviting them to get more involved. However, you can—and should—tailor these plans to each individual prospect.

Use insights from your data to discover what matters most to your prospects. This includes programs or initiatives they might want to learn more about, events or meetings they might want to attend, and more. Then, turn these insights into personalized cultivation activities.

What does this look like in practice? Donorly’s donor cultivation guide provides the following examples:

• If one prospect’s donation history includes gifts to healthcare nonprofits and political campaigns, share information and impact reports that showcase your organization’s healthcare advocacy work.
• If you learn through conversation that a prospect is passionate about helping unhoused children and young adults, you might invite them to tour the public shelter you’re building.
• If a prospect served on another organization’s board, set up a meeting or dinner to introduce them to your current board members.

In each example, the nonprofit’s prospect data points to a specific way they may like to engage with your organization. When you tap into these interests during cultivation, you’ll show prospects that you’re listening to them and care about the same causes they do.

04. Adjust your plans as you learn more

As you start implementing your cultivation plans and learning more about your major donor prospects, record everything in your CRM. Take notes on each phone call and meeting, recording both charitable and personal interests as well as other relevant details. Then, use this data to tweak and improve your cultivation plans as you go.

For instance, say that you have a prospect named Guilherme who you’ve been discussing your forest preservation work with. After sending him an impact report and inviting him to a panel discussion about forestry, you discover that he’s actually more interested in local sustainability work. From here, you pivot your cultivation plan, inviting him to speak with volunteers at your community garden and sharing your plans for an environmental advocacy campaign.

The data you gather now will also help you retain donors after they give, leading to lasting relationships and the potential for more major gifts in the future.

If you noticed during cultivation that Guilherme appreciates public recognition, for instance, you might add his name to your virtual donor wall after he gives or highlight his commitment to your cause on social media with a shoutout.