FundSvcs Community

 View Only
  • 1.  Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-22-2025 12:08 PM

    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!



    ------------------------------
    Robyn Wilson
    Operation Eyesight Canada
    wilsonr@operationeyesight.com
    ------------------------------


  • 2.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-22-2025 12:26 PM
    In reporting terms, this is a question of aggregation.

    You want to aggregate all gifts by a donor in any given reporting year, and correspondingly assign a giving level " Major gift donor" Based on this combined amount.  Is that correct?

    From the reporting side this is fairly easy to do in any business intelligence tool. This could be done at the end of a fiscal year and then perhaps assigned some sort of customized field or attribution in your CRM.   

    Dave Woodley
    Unlock*Share*Connect
    Chief Data Officer
    University of Alaska Foundation





  • 3.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-22-2025 01:59 PM

    Hey David! Thanks for your response! We already have that system in place to classify donors based on total giving in a year. What my team is asking is to go back and adjust each individual gift type from annual to major once a donor hits that $10K threshold in a given year. I think providing them with two separate report types will be the correct course of action in the end.



    ------------------------------
    Robyn Wilson
    Operation Eyesight Canada
    wilsonr@operationeyesight.com
    ------------------------------



  • 4.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-22-2025 02:05 PM
    Robyn, I agree that what is being asked for is not appropriate. These were not major gifts. They were individual "minor" gifts and likely unrelated to one another.

    In my mind, a "major gift" is a single gift of that amount to a single purpose. Only when smaller payments are tied together through a single pledge would the cumulative amount be considered a major gift.

    John

    John H. Taylor, Principal
    John H. Taylor Consulting, LLC
    2604 Sevier Street
    Durham, NC     27705

    919.816.5903 (cell/text)

    Serving the Advancement Community Since 1987







  • 5.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-22-2025 04:53 PM
    In our shop every gift made by a major donor gets a major donor gift fund and counts toward the totals of the Major Gifts Team. One way total revenue raised by the Major Gifts Team is calculated is by using the gift fund. 

    Counting gifts under $10k towards the totals of one team and the gifts over $10k for the other team has always led to conflict in our shop. But it does matter what leadership does with totals raised. 

    I think you need to understand what the request behind the request is. Why are they asking you for this change? Do they have new KPIs that measure how much every gift officer or a portfolio as a whole has raised? Are they trying to get credit for making these gifts happen? Are they getting their ducks in a row to justify an investment in the Major Gifts program? 

    Yana







  • 6.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 08-26-2025 01:31 PM
    Robyn, I agree with you - they aren't major gifts, even though the giver might be a major donor. You can illustrate with examples. Let's say your largest givers also made a $50 gift on Giving Tuesday. Is that $50 a major gift because the donor also gave $1m earlier in the year? It would be a nightmare for gift maintenance, reporting, and automation to go down that road. 

    Instead of approaching the issue head-on, you might make more progress understanding their reporting goals or relevant use-case, so you can design a more appropriate solution. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:







  • 7.  RE: Major Gifts vs. Major Donors and Revenue Reporting

    Posted 09-08-2025 12:48 PM

    Thank you, Isaac!



    ------------------------------
    Robyn Wilson
    Operation Eyesight Canada
    wilsonr@operationeyesight.com
    ------------------------------