In my organization, we consider a major gift to be anything $10K and above. We have some donors who give multiple gifts throughout a year, each less than $10K individually, bringing their total giving in one year to $10K or higher - the major donor level. (Including a couple of monthly donors who give $1,000/month.)
We report our revenue based on each individual gift; i.e. Each month/quarter/year we raise $X in Annual Giving and $Y in Major Gifts. I am now getting questioned by our Director of Development and Major Gifts Officer, who would like the <$10K gifts from these major donors re-classified into the Major Gifts category after the fact.
I am opposed to this for many back-end Salesforce automation reasons that we have spent many years configuring, but I am curious to hear if there are other organizations that have struggled with this question before too...
I have suggested that perhaps if we have a documented gift agreement from a donor in which they commit $10,000 we can document them collectively as one major gift, paid with a pledge schedule. However, our front line fundraisers are hesitant to request this of donors just for our back-end purposes. But without a commitment upfront, I can't foresee a system in which we re-categorize and re-report on revenue multiple times per year.
Any insights anyone has would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
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Robyn Wilson
Operation Eyesight Canada
wilsonr@operationeyesight.com------------------------------