The major donor journey: moving transactional givers to relational donors that make transformational gifts

Lacey Jackson: Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining today. I am so looking forward to getting to introduce our presentation, where we’re gonna be digging into the major donor journey. I’m gonna give it a couple of minutes. We’ll introduce ourselves here and just allow folks to trickle in.

While you’re waiting, feel free to go ahead and use the chat and drop your name and your organization. Let us know where you’re logging in from today. What’s the weather like? My name is Lacey Jackson, and I’m a senior product marketing manager here at Bloomerang. I’m joining from Indianapolis, looking right out my window, where it’s not a winter wonderland like it was a couple of days ago. It’s fully melted and raining. I am joined today by Mark Duncan, CEO of The Fund Coach. Mark, I know we were just chatting in the practice session. I know you’re in Delaware, and you have nicer weather than I do today.

Mark Duncan: Yes. It is sunny and gonna be 51 degrees. So the snow that we got earlier this week will probably be gone, and that’s okay with me.

Lacey Jackson: Yeah. For the seasonal vibes, it’s nice to have it be nice and white outside, but at least it’s not slick.

Mark Duncan: Exactly. That is huge around here.

Lacey Jackson: I’ve seen we’re having some folks. Ellen’s in Wisconsin. I’m sure that was also very cold recently. And we’ve got Missouri, 46 degrees. Not too bad. This is so Midwestern for me, to make banter while folks come in about the weather.

Mark Duncan: About the weather. Yep. Oh, we have some other folks in Delaware too.

Lacey Jackson: Oh, good. Cool. Oh, and in Alaska. It’s always so fun just to see where everyone is at. Okay. Well, I think we’re at a pretty good count now, so I will go ahead and let us get started.

Now that folks are in, we are gonna dive in and kick things off. But before I pass the mic to our host today, I’m gonna cover a couple of housekeeping items. During the webinar, you can feel free to keep using the chat. If you haven’t already, feel free to share your name, your organization, and where you’re logging in from. You can use the chat during the webinar to share any comments, feedback, questions, or kudos for Mark, or engage with your fellow attendees as we go through the content. At the end of the session, we are gonna save a few minutes for Q&A. If you have a question that you would like Mark to answer live, drop that in the Q&A section. You’re gonna find that at the bottom of the screen. If it’s not already there, it’ll be under the “More” button. I’m going to be pulling questions and getting those answered live in the last ten minutes or so. After the webinar, we will email you the recording, as well as any resources or links that Mark shares in the chat, so that you can revisit that content at your own pace. This is being recorded. Lastly, before we close things out, I will pop up a poll so that you can opt in to receive more information from Mark about the content in today’s session, or from Bloomerang.

I’ll do a little spiel about Bloomerang as well. If you’re not familiar with Bloomerang, we’re a giving platform built for purpose, created to help nonprofits build stronger relationships and grow their impact. Our tools include things like donor management and volunteer management, as well as online fundraising, peer-to-peer campaigns, and donation forms, just to name a few. Those are all tools designed to help organizations of all sizes thrive. We really believe that when fundraisers have the time and insights they need, they can focus on what really matters, what we all care about, which is making a difference in our communities. So if that resonates with you, you can engage with the poll at the end, and we’d love to support you as you work toward your mission.

One last update from me before I pass the mic: a spotlight for our upcoming event this spring, GiveCon. GiveCon is our annual gathering of nonprofit professionals. It’s a space to connect with your peers, compare what’s working, pick up ideas for things that you can use, and learn more about Bloomerang. It’s gonna be a great event this year, very exciting. If you’re interested, you can use the QR code on the screen to learn more about the event or go ahead and register.

That is enough from me now. I’m thrilled to get to introduce Mark Duncan, CEO of The Fund Coach. Mark, welcome. Take it away.

Mark Duncan: Alright. Thank you very much, and thank all of you for your time and attention today. For those of you who are here with me live, I’m gonna go ahead and share my screen, and let’s get started.

Of course, today’s topic is my favorite thing in the world to talk about, and that is this whole idea of securing significant gifts for your organization. That is what has been my specialty throughout my career, and it is what I teach as a coach. Today’s topic is the major donor journey: moving transactional givers into relational donors who make transformational gifts. That is our purpose for today. So let’s get started. Let’s talk about what the real problem is.

In most organizations, when you drill down, you don’t necessarily have a donor problem. What you have is a relationship depth problem. Giving doesn’t necessarily equal believing. Transactions don’t actually equal transformation. And activity does not equate to trust. Major gifts don’t come from pressure. They come from you building a partnership with people that you know who have capacity.

One of the things I often talk about, if any of you follow me on LinkedIn or especially listen to my podcast, is link, interest, and ability. That is the criteria that you are trying to find in all of the people that are in your universe, to be able to convert them from transactional givers into relational donors who are gonna make transformational gifts. Link means a link to your mission, and that link could be that they’re already a donor, they’re already a user of your services, or they’re an alum, or they’re a parent, or they’re a friend of a board member. Interest means they have an interest in your mission. Your job is to strengthen that interest, and we’ll talk about how that happens. And ability is their capacity to give at a significant level, a major gift level.

One of the things I always stress, and I’ll look at the chat a little bit later, is I always ask: do you have a minimum amount that you consider a major gift for your organization? Is it $500 and above, $1,000 and above, $2,500 and above? This isn’t for me. This is for everybody on this call. Go ahead and put your major gift minimum amount in the chat. I would love to see how many people have that. If you don’t have that, just say we don’t, and that’s perfectly fine. But I would encourage you to think about what that is, because that is what helps you define how you spend your time when it comes to building these relationships.

So why does this matter now? The fundraising landscape has shifted. Donors are definitely more discerning now about what they’re supporting, as it relates to what’s important to them and the impact that it’s gonna have. Trust is definitely harder to earn and much easier to lose. I always say you get one chance to make a first impression, and when it comes to your organization, you wanna make sure that you’re making a strong first impression.

Wealthy donors want meetings, not mailings. That’s not to say that you are gonna stop mailing, because mailing is what gets you to the wealthy donors. That’s the transactional aspect of it. But once they become managed relationships, you can probably stop putting them on your mailing list to receive annual requests. Relational donors don’t ask, “What do you want from me?” What they do ask is, “How can I be a part of this?” They want to make a difference. They want to make an impact. They’re taking a look at your mission and how you’re serving the people that you serve. They also need to know whether you’re doing that in a way that is financially sound and beneficial to the people being served, all of those things.

So let’s take a look at transactional versus relational donors. Transactional donors respond to appeals. Here we are. It’s December. I am certain that most, if not all of you, are right now waiting for responses from your annual appeal, your year-end appeal, regardless of when your fiscal year is. This is always a great time. Those are the folks who are responding to those appeals. They’ll give to programs. They’re motivated by urgency. That’s why campaigns like an appeal that ends on December 31, or a 24-hour giving campaign that starts at midnight and ends at midnight the next day, work. That sense of urgency is what helps transactional givers give that $25, that $50, that $100 to support your organization.

Relational donors invest in your vision for the long term. They’re thinking about your mission and how they can become part of the life of what you’re doing. They’re giving because they trust. They trust your mission and your ability to impact the lives of the people that you serve. But most importantly, they trust you. They trust you as a leader, and that trust only comes from building rapport and relationship with them. Not by having them go read your bio, not by you posting a video on social media, but by you building a personal relationship with them. They’re motivated by impact and belief. They really believe in what you’re doing. They wanna make a difference, and if their dollars can help do more for your mission, they’re gonna be part of that.

And as a result, these transformational gifts only come from relational donors. If anybody here has received a six-figure gift online from somebody that you’ve never heard of before, or somebody that responded to a direct mail piece, I would love to meet you, and we can chat, and I’d love to hear how that transpired. I guarantee you the likelihood is slim to none among organizations. These big gifts come because of a connection to the mission, and that is through becoming a relational donor who makes a transformational gift.

Now I wanna talk about something that I’ve been talking about for some time. Earlier in 2025, I was at a conference, and I was on a panel. It was myself, as a fundraising expert, especially in the major gift space, on a panel with somebody who was a multimillion-dollar donor. We were talking about this very thing, which maybe you are aware of, maybe you’re not. Let’s talk about the teaser gift.

First of all, what is a teaser gift? Some major donors don’t start big. They’re testing you. They start curious. There are high-capacity individuals out there, and this person on the panel with me was talking about a group of individuals that he hangs out with who are of the same capacity as he is. They will choose organizations to make an online gift. These gifts usually will fall in the $200 to $750 range. Not big gifts. They’re not even considered a major gift, but they are larger than the typical online gift of $25 or $50. They’re making these modest gifts, and many of them are doing it. These gifts are about the experience. They wanna know, and they wanna see, and they want to experience what happens next. What are you, as the organization, going to do next? What they’re quietly asking themselves is, is this organization worth trusting?

So they make these teaser gifts just to see what will happen. This is not at all done in fun or in jest. They’re not playing. They see an organization that they may be interested in supporting, and so they will make these teaser gifts as a way of introducing themselves to you as a potential serious donor, and they wanna see how far you’re gonna go. What they’re testing is not your system. They’re testing your culture, your culture of philanthropy. They’re watching to see: am I gonna receive a real thank-you, not just the automated one that comes from the online gift that’s made? Am I gonna get a separate handwritten thank-you? Is somebody going to reach out to me personally? Will the executive director call me? Will a board member call me to say thank you? That’s what they’re looking for when these teaser gifts are made. And most importantly, is the next touch or contact another ask, or is it an invitation to connect?

Here’s what happens. I want you all to be thinking about whether or not you have actually had a teaser gift land at your organization: somebody that you haven’t heard of before, or maybe who’s been on your mailing list or email list but has never given before, and they make a gift in the $250 to $750 range. They are testing to see what you’re going to do next. If the next thing you do is ask them for more money, and here’s what I mean by that: you get the gift, they get the automated thank-you, and then you just move on. You don’t call, you don’t follow up, it didn’t pique your interest enough to take the next step. Or, more importantly, you don’t have a policy in place that says, when we get a first-time gift that’s in this size range, we need to be paying attention to that. What happens is the next time they hear from you is several months later when you’re doing your appeal, and because they opted in, because you have their email address or their mailing address because they made a gift, now you’re treating them like a transactional donor, and they will likely stay that way.

They want to know whether or not you’re going to take the step to invite them to connect, versus just soliciting them. So they’re asking, do they treat me like a transaction or a person? Here’s what’ll happen. If you treat them well, they will lean in and they will engage more. If not, they will quietly disappear. You won’t see that gift again, and it’ll go completely unnoticed if you are busy and you’re so focused on hitting your goal for this campaign. It’s important to pay attention to who’s giving and then go a little bit deeper. The response to a teaser gift will tell a donor everything they need to know about you.

What you should be doing when this happens is take the step to thank them. If a gift comes in and it’s a first-time gift, either you, as the executive director, call, or, if you have a development committee that has responsibility for calling new donors who come in at a certain level or higher, take the step to connect with them beyond the automated thank-you, and invite them to perhaps meet with you if that’s feasible. Because now your objective is to bring them closer to the organization. At the same time, wealth screen them. You wanna know if that person has significant capacity. You’ll probably be shocked to know that the person who made the $500 gift online may have a net worth of $5 million, $10 million, $15 million. That means there’s more there. That’s what the teaser gift is all about.

So I’ve just revealed kind of a secret. It’s probably not a secret, and some of you may already be aware of this and pay attention to it. But it is important to pay really close attention to those unusual gifts that pop up, because that’s an opportunity to convert a transactional giver into a relational donor who can make a huge transformational gift. If a high-capacity donor makes a $500 gift to your organization, how would they be treated? Who would notice? What would happen next? And most importantly, would they feel invited closer or quietly processed? Because small gifts often reveal how prepared we are for big ones. This will scream loudly about the system you have in place. If you don’t have a system that will lead to the kind of follow-up that you need to engage in, you’re gonna be leaving money on the table, without question.

So we’ve talked about the teaser gift. Let’s talk about the journey, the major donor journey, and we’ll start with the roadmap. We’ll talk about each of these in a moment. We’re gonna move from awareness to engagement to connection to partnership to transformation. The goal isn’t to move the donors fast, it’s to move them deeper. You want them to be deeply connected to your mission and to your organization, and you want to make sure that you’re meeting them where they are and where they wanna be as it relates to what you do.

First, awareness. Obviously, donors know you exist. They’re curious but cautious. Giving is low risk and transactional. It could be a teaser gift, or it could be an even smaller gift. It’s not a big deal to them, but they are aware of who you are. What they need is clarity, credibility, and consistency. They are interested in making sure that you are worthy of their support.

The second stage is engagement. Donor interactions must be more frequent. They resonate with stories, and they start paying attention. The engagement step is when you start to build that relationship. The awareness happens because you’ve caught their eye, they maybe found you online, or they connected with you because of somebody they know. But when they start to engage with you, you start engaging with them. It’s important that you’re focusing on bringing them closer. They’re looking for relevance: relevance as it relates to them and what’s important to them, and relevance as it relates to your mission and what it’s doing for the people that are being served. They’re looking for meaning, and they are looking for evidence that their support matters.

That evidence can come in a couple of different forms, and this is where paying attention to the language that the donor speaks comes in. I’m not talking about French or Spanish or German or any other language like that. I’m talking about paying attention to what motivates them to take action. Are they more cerebral? Are they thinkers? I call it head versus heart. Are they more driven by emotion? The evidence that you would share that conveys that their support matters should be couched in whichever of those languages resonates most with them.

Somebody who is a thinker, somebody who’s more cerebral, is gonna be more concerned about how your organization is run, how many years you’ve had budgets that have closed in the black, and what your cost to raise a dollar is. Some of the things that you think about every day, they’re thinking about too. They’re more concerned about whether what they want to invest in is worth their investment from that perspective. Feelers are gonna be more concerned about hearing from the people that you serve: testimonials, and data that shows that you have moved the needle from here to here, in terms of feeding a certain number of people more than you did last year, or reducing or eliminating abuse in families in your community. Whatever your mission is, they’re gonna wanna see that you are making a difference, and they’re gonna wanna hear from the people that are being served directly, whether that’s through video, written quotes, or meeting them in person. That’s the evidence that I’m talking about.

Connection. This is where everything changes. Trust begins to form during this time. Donors feel seen and they feel known. They’re known by name. They’re known because you’re building that relationship with them, and it becomes much more personal. The key shift here is that you’re trying to move them from becoming just a supporter to becoming an insider. Becoming an insider can mean a number of things. Obviously, getting them closer to the organization, but also there may be volunteer opportunities that you want to have them involved in: volunteering to help with an event, volunteering to help with day-to-day operations, especially if you’re providing a service of some sort, or volunteering through serving on a committee or the board itself. Again, these are tools to get them closer.

Partnership. The donor is no longer outside of the mission. They are close to the organization, and the objective here is to bring them closer. They understand the vision. They ask thoughtful questions, and these thoughtful questions are usually informed by what they’re seeing and hearing from you already, because they wanna have a stronger understanding of what you do. They want alignment with your organization and with you as a leader, not necessarily persuasion. And this is where major gifts are invited, not asked for. You’re inviting people to give. You’re presenting them with the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of the people that you’re serving. You’re not just asking for $10,000 or $15,000. This is a partnership, and it’s all about the people that you serve. They are at the center of this.

And now we get to the final stage, transformation. Transformational donors who are making these transformational gifts give generously and joyfully, and they give because they’re being asked specifically to give at a certain level. You may be planning, based on the research, on soliciting somebody for $25,000 or $50,000. If you aren’t careful and you’re not in control of the process, they may wind up writing you a check for $10,000 or $15,000 because you haven’t asked them specifically. So giving generously comes from that dialogue and from being clear about what you want to ask them for. They think long term, and they feel ownership and responsibility for the mission itself. They are playing a role. They’re investing. They wanna see you make a difference. So that transformation actually happens on both sides. Mission grows, donor grows. That’s it, at the end of the day.

So let’s talk about why most organizations get stuck. This is probably going to strike a few nerves. If you know me, you know I talk about this particular topic often. Here are some common breakdowns.

You’re treating every donor the same. That happens particularly in the transactional space, and there’s really no way around that. But when you start treating donors the same way regardless of their capacity to give significantly, this is where things can be problematic.

Confusing communication with relationship. You send an email and think, “Oh, I’m in a relationship, a strong relationship, we have a connection.” You could just be sending them an email to tell them where to park, or the mass emails that go out. That’s not relationship. Relationship is the person-to-person connection that happens between you and your donors. It isn’t always about the organization per se, because you are learning things about them on a personal level. You’re gonna find out things about their family life, their home life, the number of kids they have, the number of grandkids they have, because these are the things that people will talk about. And these are the things that you need to tuck away, because it will be good for you, one, to recall that and ask them how those things are going, but also to make sure that you’re not crossing the line in any way, shape, or form. Whatever they’re offering to share, it’s okay for you to recall with them as you build that relationship.

Sometimes we ask too soon. We’re more driven by the fact that December 31 is coming. We have somebody who has been giving to us in a small transactional way. We now realize that they have capacity to do more. And oh my gosh, we’re running behind on meeting our goal for this year, and this person could help us get over that. Who is that about when you’re thinking that way? That is about you and not about your donor. Sometimes we’ll ask too soon for that gift, and donors will be able to see through that. Or sometimes we won’t ask at all. We have a hesitancy about soliciting for those big gifts.

But there’s a deeper issue here that I want to talk about, and this is what I call the invisible barrier. Fundraising doesn’t fail because of strategy alone. It can fail because of beliefs. You don’t wanna be pushy. You’re concerned that they’re going to say no, or you may even question your own worthiness. Personally, who am I to ask for that much? Are they gonna respond to me because I’m asking? These are deep-rooted things that don’t often get talked about, but can be a barrier to success. This is about your money mindset. It sets the ceiling for your fundraising.

One of the things I want you to consider is your first money memory. This is not something that you necessarily need to put in the chat, but I would challenge all of you: if this whole idea of asking for large gifts for your organization is uncomfortable for you, I would encourage you to take a moment. If you journal, that’s great. If not, just take a piece of paper, and I want you to write down your very first money memory. What’s the first thing that you remember about money? It’s gonna go back to your childhood. It could have something to do with allowance. It could have something to do with perhaps overhearing your parents paying bills and maybe having conversations that may not have been as positive. Or maybe you heard them talking in the context of everything is fine and you’ve got all that you need. Whatever that may be, those things are what shape your connection to money, your relationship with money, along the way.

When leaders struggle with money mindset, sometimes the conversation just stays surface level. I’m talking about the conversation with donors. You’re just kind of hanging out in this space with them where you’ll have coffee with them, you’ll talk about the organization, and then you’ll wrap the meeting up. Maybe you’ll invite them for a tour, and show them around, and then you’ll wrap things up. Keeping things at the surface level because you are hesitant about getting to that point. And sometimes donors are under-invited, meaning that they’re not asked to give or they’re not asked to connect as much as they should be, when you have a struggle with money mindset. And then, of course, there’s that worthiness thing: who am I to ask for that much money?

Donors sense this hesitation. They really can. And they’re not going to help you, necessarily. They’re gonna follow your lead. And if your lead leads to you being vague when you ask, because there are many times when nonprofit leaders will ask for a gift from somebody who has the capacity to give them $15,000 or $20,000, and I’m talking about annual gifts, we’re not talking about campaign gifts, annual gifts of $15,000, $20,000, $50,000, even six figures, there’s a hesitancy there, and you wind up getting a $5,000 gift when you could have gotten a $50,000 gift, because your ask was vague. “We hope that you can support our organization this year.” Many will consider that an ask. In my view, that’s the beginning of the ask. You can ask them to support the organization, but you’re hoping that they will do so at the $25,000 level, at the $100,000 level, and then you take it from there.

Donors trust confidence, not pressure. Sometimes we go in too hot, or we don’t go in at all. But the confidence, or lack thereof, will definitely come through if it’s evident.

So let’s reframe the role of the ask itself. An ask is not a favor. It’s not a demand. It’s not a test. An ask is an invitation, and it’s an opportunity: an opportunity to make a difference, an opportunity to make an impact, a doorway to impact. When your belief as a leader is strong, asking becomes generous. You think about the people being served, and you’re asking on their behalf.

Relational fundraising actually starts internally, before donors move from being that transactional donor to that transformational giver. Leaders must move, in terms of mindset, from scarcity to abundance, from fear to trust, from selling to serving, and your confidence gives donors permission to be bold. So this whole idea of money mindset, coupled with all the steps that you need to take to move that transactional giver into a relational donor making a transformational gift, that’s the secret sauce: making sure that those two things, that and your money mindset, are in top condition.

One thing I will say about money mindset: when you are sitting down and writing out your first money memory, I want you to think about how you feel as a result of that. What is at the core, what’s bubbling up emotionally? Write that down too. Again, this is a very personal thing. The objective here is very simple, though. This isn’t about you taking a deep dive and trying to correct what has been learned over the years. This is about awareness. You can’t go back, and you can’t unring a bell. You can’t fix what has happened in the past in terms of your relationship with money, but awareness is actually the key here. Because once you become aware of this, you will recognize that the story that you are telling yourself is yours and not the story of the person who’s sitting across from you.

So what does healthy major gift cultivation feel like? Natural, not scripted. Curious, not convincing. Again, you’re bringing them along, and you will present them with an opportunity to give. Vision-centered, not dollar-centered. If it feels manipulative, then there is something that is misaligned. If you’re leaning into the relationship in the right way, you’re gonna be fine. It is gonna feel natural. You’re going to evoke this curiosity that is within the donor, and you’re gonna stay focused on the vision, the mission, the people being served, and you’re gonna be fine.

The real work as it relates to major gift fundraising is not about tactics first. It’s not about ticking off lists of things. It’s about clarity of vision. You have to be absolutely clear when you’re talking about your organization and what you do. I know many of you probably have an elevator pitch that is well rehearsed in your mind: “My name is so-and-so. I am the executive director, director of development, whatever that may be. And we are [name of the organization], and we do [this].” Whether that’s your mission statement or just an elevator pitch that you’ve come up with, that’s great. It’s great that you have that. But that clarity of vision has to be there, because maybe your elevator pitch is more heart-driven than head-driven. You may get some questions that are going to want more clarity on things that may not be prevalent in your elevator pitch, so just be prepared to answer those questions. There’s depth of relationship, there’s strength of belief, and your strategy supports belief. It cannot replace it. It supports the belief. It doesn’t replace it.

So here are some things that, as we wrap up, I want you to take with you. Where do your donors tend to get stuck? This is something that you just need to ponder. Make a list. You’re revealing an internal pattern that may be happening here. And where do you feel hesitation in the journey? Where do you get stuck as a leader? These are two questions to reflect on beyond our time together today.

What changes when you get this right? An organization that focuses on the full donor journey has fewer one-time gifts. That’s because the objective here is that you want these transformational donors to be transformational donors year after year after year. We’ve all heard the saying, your best donors are your current donors. This is how you build current major gift donors. Keep them engaged so that they continue to give. You’ll be engaged in more meaningful conversations. You’re gonna get larger, more joyful gifts. You’re not gonna ask for the same amount every year. You’re gonna ask for a little bit more. You get a $10,000 gift one year, maybe the next year you’re gonna ask for $12,500, or you’re gonna ask for $15,000. If you do all the right things in between the time that you got the gift last and the time that it comes to ask again, that increase is going to be seamless. If they haven’t seen you since you asked for that $10,000 gift and got it the first time, and then it’s time for you to ask again, and they haven’t heard from you in any way, shape, or form, the likelihood is very slim, and you may not even get what you asked for before, because you’ve taken what is meant to be relational and converted it back to transactional when you aren’t taking those steps in between. You’ll have stronger donor retention as a result of this, and less burnout for fundraisers. I know that’s a big deal. It’s always been a big deal. A lot of us in this space can burn out, and burn out quickly. But when you’re in deep relationships with a number of donors that you enjoy spending time with, who enjoy spending time with you, who enjoy hearing about all the good work that your organization is doing, the likelihood of you burning out is gonna be pretty slim, because you’re gonna enjoy your work. We are, by nature, connectional people.

So transformational gifts don’t come from better scripts. They come from clear vision, strong relationships, and confident leadership. When donors believe in you and you believe in the mission, generosity flows, and it flows in a significant way.

That is the end of my presentation, and I’m going to stop sharing my screen. I’m here to answer any questions. I did not get a chance to look at the chat. I saw out of the corner of my eye things lighting up.

Lacey Jackson: Oh, yeah.

Mark Duncan: Hoping it’s good stuff.

Lacey Jackson: The chat was absolutely, I think, singing your praises. I was very excited to see some of the amazing conversation going on. You’re spurring on things that folks are thinking about, and as people were asking questions, there’s some really great content there. I’ll go ahead and drop that link.

Mark Duncan: Yeah. So the QR code, that’s why I went right from it. She’s dropping the link in the chat right now. That would have been what you just got from the QR code. That is a way to stay in touch with me. If you wanna follow me on LinkedIn, subscribe to my podcast, there’s a whole host of things to look at. I don’t need to get into all that now, but enjoy going through all of those, and there’s a free resource there for you too.

Lacey Jackson: I also just launched a poll that folks should be able to see, and that will be a great way to get added to any lists. We’ll be sure to share those out if you are interested in getting more information from Mark or about Bloomerang. I also just have to share, your very soothing voice, you have a great voice for radio. I'm sure you hear that all the time. You did get some shout-outs for that too.

Mark Duncan: Well, thank you. I have a history in that space. Actually, my plan was to have a career in radio. That didn’t happen, but ironically, I wound up being the senior VP and chief development officer of an NPR/PBS organization in Central PA. My very first day, I was on air asking people to give during All Things Considered.

Lacey Jackson: Wow. That is an amazing story that really hits home, especially for what we’re talking about today. You’re getting more. Be sure to read the chat if you wanna get your compliments in there. But I’ll go ahead and start bringing up some of the questions. There were loads of questions. For anyone who didn’t add them to the chat, I was able to capture those. I think I’ll start with one that came up early and is maybe a softball. How do you go about determining what should be considered a major gift? That was a question that came up a couple of times.

Mark Duncan: Excellent. Again, the research piece is actually the most important thing here. It’s the only way you’re gonna be able to confirm whether or not somebody has capacity. There are a lot of research tools out there: DonorSearch, WealthEngine, Windfall, tons of them. If you haven’t subscribed to any of them or don’t have any of them, I would highly encourage you to invest in that. It’s worth every penny, because it’s gonna answer the question of the three things: link, interest, and ability. That’s the criteria. Of all three of those things, ability is probably the most important, because what you don’t want to do, and this is gonna sound horrible, is spend time building relationships with people who can’t truly make a significant difference. Taking somebody to lunch who can only give you $50 is not a good use of your time. I’m not saying anything bad about that person or that donor, but this is about you leveraging your know-how, your professional position, to connect with people who have capacity.

Link. What’s the link to your mission? Is the link that they are somehow connected to the organization from the past? Maybe they’re a prior user of your services. They’re a parent. They’re a grandparent. They’re a former employee or an alum. They know a board member, or they are a board member. That’s the link. There has to be some link, because without that link, you’ve got a bigger hill to climb, because they know nothing about you, and quite frankly, you don’t know if they’re interested. Link, interest, and ability. The interest piece is the piece that you’re trying to develop. You’re trying to grow their interest. As long as there is interest there, your objective is to see how strong that interest is and what, particularly, they’re interested in about what you do. So make sure that you look at all three of those things. If everybody checks those boxes, now you’ve developed a pool of major gift prospects that you can lean into.

Let me say one other thing related to that. Even though there’s a link there, one of the questions I’m sure is probably gonna come up is, “Well, okay, but I don’t know them.” Then help find the person, or a person, who can open the door for you to that person. So let’s say it is a board member who knows that person. Go to that board member and ask them to make the introduction. That can be done via email. That could be done through what I call a tag team coffee, where they join you to meet and make what I call a warm handoff. So if you need that warm handoff, find somebody who knows that person, obviously better than you do, and get the assist from them, and then you take it from there.

Lacey Jackson: So much very valuable content in there. One thing that you did touch on, and I think it hits on a question that came up a couple of times about wealth screening, was DonorSearch. We had some folks asking about that. Bloomerang does integrate with DonorSearch and can populate that information into the actual donor record, so you have the relevant information right there where you’re looking. That’s Bloomerang-specific.

Mark Duncan: Yep. And I would say, as it relates to that, make sure you’re looking at your people. With DonorSearch, you have the ability to go out and find anybody. When I first used Bloomerang, when I was working for a nonprofit, which is how I found you guys, we had the DonorSearch tool. There were times I would be playing around, looking at, “Oh, if I could,” and I would come up with this list of folks, but I didn’t even know them. How are we gonna get to them? So that’s when I abandoned that and realized, you’ve got to look at your own people. By the way, screen all of your constituents. This is one of the biggest oversights that I see with my clients in particular: they will only screen their donors. Some of them are only putting their donors in Bloomerang. Don’t just put your donors in Bloomerang, put all of your constituents in Bloomerang. Because those constituents can be converted into donors, and some of those constituents have capacity, and there’s that link, interest, and ability that you can use to help convert that transactional gift into a transformational one.

Lacey Jackson: One hundred percent. Let’s go back to one over here in our main questions. For those that give through a donor advised fund or another fund, so their contact information isn’t always obvious, is sending a thank-you to that DAF or fund getting to them? Is it worth doing?

Mark Duncan: It is definitely worth doing. It’s absolutely worth doing. Let’s hope that whoever it is, whether it’s a community foundation or a major financial management firm, they’re passing on that information to the donor. They know that donors wanna see that, so write a nice note. I know it might be hard to get to them, but find a way to get to them. Call, especially if it’s a community foundation. Do you think I could get permission to, and this is what you would say to the community foundation or even the firm itself, would it be okay if I had the opportunity to chat with this person? If they truly wanna remain anonymous, fine. But you’re not gonna know unless you ask, and some of them may be waiting for you to ask. Those who ask are probably the ones who are gonna wind up getting more, because you have an opportunity to develop that relationship with them.

Lacey Jackson: Let’s get into another one here. This was an anonymous submission: “I work for an organization that partners with therapy animals, and many of our donations come in as memorial or tribute gifts. These are often set up as one-time contributions and can sometimes be $1,000 or more. I’m wondering how best to approach stewardship in these situations, as they are understandably sensitive. I recognize the importance of thoughtful follow-up and connection, but should memorial or tribute gifts be handled differently than other donations?”

Mark Duncan: That’s an excellent question. And not to say you shouldn’t do anything further. I think there’s an opportunity for you to do something further while maintaining that sensitivity. That would be to convey to those donors how important their gift is, even though they gave it because it was in memory of or in honor of a family member or a friend who lost a beloved pet. Emphasize the impact. Thank them again. You’re not necessarily gonna get people who are gonna lean in a little bit, but you may. You may also wanna test their interest in how much they love animals. Is it the person that they love more, who they gave for, or is it because they also loved that animal, or animals in general? You’ll be able to get that out of them once you connect in that space.

So thank them in that regard. Help them understand that these memorial gifts make a difference in terms of the organization. And if there’s a way you can get them to opt in to staying connected with you, there may be two or three things that you may wanna ask. “Hey, if you wanna learn more about adopting a pet, please click here,” or “if you wanna learn more.” It gives you an opportunity to, at the very least, see where there may be a stronger tie, versus “I just gave because my best friend’s dog passed away, and that’s it.” But that’s as far as I would go, because it’s definitely a sort of third-party contribution. I’m saying do something, and I would suggest you do that, but I wouldn’t push, if that makes sense.

Lacey Jackson: Yeah. I mean, obviously, as someone who deeply loves my pets too, I feel like that’s a great segue. I might be open to a volunteer opportunity too and be a constituent down the line. Of course, we’re talking about very large gifts here, but that definitely hits home for me too. We have a couple of minutes left. If you haven’t used the poll, and if your question hasn’t been answered, make sure to use that poll to get additional follow-up. I’m gonna grab another one here. Some of these are very big questions and require long answers. But let’s do Shannon’s here. What are your thoughts on donor recognition lunches after a fundraising event? Could we be doing more thoughtful events throughout the year?

Mark Duncan: Those lunches are obviously an opportunity to thank them, but here’s the bigger picture. It’s an opportunity for you to get permission to follow up with them personally. Anytime you do an event, whether it is a donor recognition lunch, a golf tournament, a gala, or a 5K run, it doesn’t matter. Sometimes we get so mired in the event, and the success of the event, whether it’s a fundraiser or friendraiser, that we lose sight of the fact that we have the people that we wanna build relationships with all in one room. If you do the research and you find those where the interest and ability are strong, then those are the people that you will say, “Hey, thanks for coming to this event. I’d love to get coffee with you. Would you be open to that?” That’s what I call seed planting. So I would use those kinds of events to do additional seed planting, so that you can naturally follow up with the people who are there and start building those relationships that will lead to a larger gift.

But do your research first and use those events as opportunities for seed planting, so that, first of all, it saves you a lot of time. Imagine doing that inside of 20 to 30 minutes of walking around. “Hey, thanks for coming. Can we grab coffee?” “Oh, great.” “Okay, great. I will give you a call.” And then find out what’s the best way to reach out to them, and all of that. And then follow up. Follow up no sooner than two days and no later than ten days after an event like that. You wanna be able to maintain momentum. If you say you’re gonna call them and you wait three weeks, the likelihood of them agreeing to meet with you has gone away, because the momentum has waned. So do it sooner rather than later. Now, don’t do it from the parking lot. But give it a couple of days. I always say that the magic time frame is really day three, four, and five. It’s right in there. So that would be my response to that.

Lacey Jackson: I wanna be mindful of time. I know we’re over, and there were so many great questions in here. Mark, do you have time for one more, or are we gonna wrap up now?

Mark Duncan: I do have time for one more. Somebody’s asking something about the link.

Lacey Jackson: Yes. I just noticed it. “I can’t seem to be able to copy this link. Can you send it?” I cannot send the chat after the event, but I can include Mark’s link in that email to make sure that folks are able to have it.

Mark Duncan: If you click on the link, it’ll be there for you even after the call. Hopefully that helps. I could do one more question.

Lacey Jackson: Okay. Let’s try one more. We have a lot of thoughts on events here. Let’s do Becky’s right up front. Oh, no, not that one. Sorry. I think Becky was just replying. Okay, so this was another one that had come through. We had a former board member who gave every year. I think this is a big question. But lately, she commits to give but does not meet her pledge. What would be the issue, and how might you re-engage?

Mark Duncan: Oh, I would love to have a one-on-one conversation with this person about this, because I’ve got a lot of questions that I would want answered before I could give you any advice on this. I’d love to know the nature of the relationship. If that person pledged, and they’re a former donor, was that right? Or a former board member, rather?

Lacey Jackson: Board member.

Mark Duncan: Yeah. So what’s the relationship like now? I know they’re not on the board, which means they’re probably not involved as frequently, but are you managing that relationship like you would a major donor? Or has it been somewhat transactional: “Yes, I’m gonna pledge,” and then they don’t fulfill it? If that is the case, then I would suggest meeting with this person, getting in front of them, and reconnecting in a new way. They’re no longer a board member, but now they need to be treated like a major donor, where you are meeting with them, not necessarily a ton of times, but staying connected with them at a higher frequency. Whether it’s through email, and the email could be sharing good news about something that happened at the organization. Maybe it’s a picture, if it’s a kids’ organization, of the kids engaging in some activity. “Just thought of you.” Those kinds of things are gonna keep that person connected, and they will likely give. But then you can also meet with them and just get some sense: “Hey, is there something that we need to be doing more of?” And you can mention, in a tactful way, the fact that they have not fulfilled their pledge, and if they wanna revisit what that looks like, you open that door to communicate that, and you’ll likely resolve whatever is going on. Hopefully, it’s because they need to feel more connected. As board members, they were on the inside, and now they’re out. You’ve got to keep them in, but in a different way.

Lacey Jackson: Yeah. I loved your comment earlier about “how can I be a part of this?” There were a lot of comments in the chat about that as well, really resonating with that idea of getting them to be thinking “how can I be a part of this” rather than “what can I give?”

Mark Duncan: Exactly.

Lacey Jackson: Mark, I so appreciate your time and the extra five minutes today. Apologies to everyone, there was such great content and such great answers and questions here, very thoughtful comments and questions, so we didn’t quite get to everything. But again, Mark, thank you. I think this was a really great way to spend a few days before the holiday break and before everyone’s really ramping up. I know it’s a very busy season for everybody who is on this call.

Mark Duncan: Yes. And thank you all for being here, for your time and your attention. Follow me on LinkedIn, subscribe to my podcast, and grab my free resource, “Five Habits for Executive Directors Who Land Big Gifts.” It’s a great tool that you might want to grab. It doesn’t cost you anything. Thank you all. Happy holidays to everybody, and much success in 2026.

Lacey Jackson: Yes. Thank you so much, Mark. Bye, everybody.