How to Run a Major Gifts Program When You’re the Only Staff Member
For small nonprofits, major gifts can feel out of reach. When you’re the executive director, development officer, marketing team, HR department, grant writer, and event planner all at once, the idea of building a major gifts program may seem impossible. It’s easy to construe the size of your nonprofit with the size of gifts you are allowed to ask for. But the truth is that tiny nonprofits can, and do raise significant gifts often faster than they expect when they stop trying to do everything at once, and start focusing on what actually moves revenue.
You don’t necessarily need a large team of paid staff. Does it help? Absolutely it does, but you don’t need a full-time development department to raise significant dollars. Here is some advice for small shops that want to move from small-dollar survival mode to true philanthropic growth.
Shift Out of Low-ROI Fundraising
Before you roll your eyes, hear us out. Small nonprofits often stay small because they spend most of their time on activities that simply produce very little revenue. There is a natural tendency to fill the calendar with things like events, mailings, grants, or broad appeals because they feel productive in talking to a lot of people on a very superficial level. These things create visible activity, and some fundraising revenue, but not always meaningful return for the time we spend on them.
The unfortunate reality is that a one-person shop must guard their time ruthlessly. That means identifying which activities generate the most money, and which produce noise without meaningful results. When every hour counts, low-ROI fundraising activities becomes a drain on the entire organization. This shift alone frees up bandwidth for the work that truly matters: building relationships that produce major gifts.
Recruit and Train Fundraising Volunteers
Like we said earlier it is definitely much more difficult for a one-person shop to run a major gifts program alone. But while you do need people, they don’t have to be paid staff. Fundraising volunteers, including board members but not limited to them, can transform your reach. Volunteers can help identify prospects, open doors, join visits, tell their own story of why they give, and help steward donors after the gift.
The key to this, and what most nonprofits don’t do correctly in this regard, is training. It’s a big ask for people to volunteer in this way without any substantial training in their role. Volunteers need structure like defined roles, expectations, training, and scripts. Raising money becomes less intimidating when they know exactly what to do and what not to do. Fundraising truly is a team sport, and small organizations thrive when they stop trying to play solo, without paid staff.
Identify Your Top Prospects Intentionally
Even the smallest nonprofits have people in their orbit with the potential to give significantly. They may be long-time donors, residents with deep community ties, business owners, former board members, grateful families/patients, or people quietly connected to your mission.
Prospect identification for a small shop does not need to be complex. A short list of 10 well-researched, high-capacity prospects can be more powerful than a database filled with thousands of potential low-dollar donors. Start where you have relationship strength. Look at consistency of giving, alignment with your mission, and likelihood of being open to conversation. Small shops succeed when they stop chasing quantity and start cultivating depth rather than breadth.
Create a Simple, Clear Case for Support
A major gifts program cannot exist without a clear, compelling reason for someone to invest at a higher level. Small nonprofits often assume their mission speaks for itself. We’re sorry to be the one to tell you: it doesn’t. Donors need to understand from you directly:
what precisely you want to accomplish
why it matters now
what it will cost
what their investment will change
Your case for support does not need to be a 20-page booklet. It can, and should be a clean, one or two-page document or a short narrative. What matters here most is clarity. Without it, prospects don’t know what they’re being invited to do, and volunteers don’t know what they’re asking for.
Focus on One Thing: Meaningful Conversations
A major gifts program rises or falls on conversations. If you’re a one-person shop, your goal each week should be simple:Talk to people about why your work matters and what you’re trying to accomplish.
Visits and conversations with donors are the highest ROI activity in fundraising. They are also the most overlooked. Even scheduling a handful each month can change the trajectory of your revenue.
Ask for Bigger Gifts Than You Think Possible
Small organizations often underestimate their donors’ capacity. They become accustomed to small-dollar patterns and unintentionally project those limits onto the community. But donors often give at the level they’re invited to consider. If you’ve only ever asked for $500, it’s no surprise that no one gives $25,000.
A one-person shop does not usually have the luxury of timid asks. You must be clear and specific. Donors respect an organization that knows what it needs and has a plan for scalability and growth, and is confident in asking for it correctly.
Running a major gifts program as a solo staff member is absolutely possible, but it is much more difficult without clarity and some level of support from volunteers. When you stop investing time in low-ROI fundraising, the needle of your revenue really starts to move.
Need help scaling up your fundraising program? We have helped hundreds of nonprofits drive more revenue to their missions. Reach out to us and we would love to learn more about your nonprofit!
