The most important capital campaign tool is the gift range chart. This chart demonstrates how many gifts (and donors, and prospective donors) at each level (amount) it will take a reach your goal.
Traditionally this tool has been used exclusively for capital campaigns, but the principles apply equally to raising major gifts for your annual fund.
Not only that, this chart will also help your board members understand — visually — how fundraising works.
Gift Range Charts Bust a Popular Fundraising Myth
There’s a persistent myth in fundraising. It goes like this:
If you need to raise $100K, all you need to do is ask 100 people for $1,000 each.
But getting 100 people to give $1,000 each is harder than it seems.
The gift range chart helps dispel this myth, because it clearly shows that not all people give equal amounts. In addition, you may not need nearly as many donors as you think to reach your goal.
Top Donors Give Significantly More
In fact, fundraising works because a few people at the top of the chart give significantly more than the people at the bottom of the chart.
Let’s look at a sample gift range chart…
Take a look at the sample gift range chart below. Notice that the top five donors provide 55% of the gifts needed to get to the goal. Take any one of these top gifts away and you need dozens (or event hundreds) more gifts at the bottom levels.
Gift Range Chart — Goal: $1 Million
To raise $1 Million in this scenario, you only need 57 donors (and 139 prospective donors).
Traditionally, this tool has been used during capital campaigns. However, there’s no reason you shouldn’t use it to raise major gifts for your annual fund. The exact same principles apply.
Here’s another example…
This time, let’s use a goal of $100,000, instead of $1M. Simply remove a “0” from each amount and you’ll have a perfect chart for raising $100K.
Gift Range Chart — Goal: $100,000
If you can identify two individual, corporations, or foundations to ask for gifts of $20,000, then you can be fairly certain that you will raise a gift of that size. That will get you to 20% of your goal.
Identifying Your Top Level Donors
The key is being able to identify someone who CAN and MIGHT give you a gift of $20,000. That person should have the financial capability and inclination of making gifts of that size. You’ll know that because they’ll already have made serious philanthropic gifts in the past. They also need to be committed to your organization, mission, or cause. Thus, the people you will ask for gifts of that size are already current donors.
If you can identify prospective donors for each of the prospects needed in your gift range chart, you likely have set an accurate goal. Whether you are raising $100,000, a million, $10 million or more, the same exact principles apply.
Have you ever used a gift range chart for your major gift fundraising, or do you plan to do so? Let me know in the comments.
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