I meet lots of NHS charities who think they will never be able to build a major gifts programme. I’m here to tell you not only is it absolutely possible but you are already missing out on donors by thinking you can’t ask for major gifts!

Fundraisers tell me that they can’t raise major gifts successfully because:

1. Their hospital won’t give them a great project to fundraise for.
2. They are not Great Ormond Street.
3. Major Donor Fundraisers are hard to recruit.

I would love to dispel some of these myths!

I saw phenomenal growth from major gifts over a 13 year period at Addenbrooke’s. Before we started the programme we were receiving c.£200k a year from unsolicited gifts e.g. local trusts, course fees from clinicians. When I left we had raised £36 million for two major campaigns (over 4 years).

When we first started the proactive programme it was run by a fabulous, ambitious, knowledgeable colleague of mine who first introduced our major giving club in 2011. I learned so much from her and she mentored me to become a major gifts fundraiser. She challenged me to make my first ask of £50,000 within a few short months of learning on the job. The prospect said no. I thought I would be horrified but I wasn’t because it taught me so much about the art of asking!

To launch our very first major gifts programme we took several important steps:

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1. We created a giving vehicle to make it easy for donors to give (and to make asking easier)

The 1766 Club, named after the year Addenbrooke’s was founded, had three levels:

£1,000 - Member

£5,000 - Benefactor

£10,000 - Guardian

Each of these levels had different levels of stewardship and personalisation. The Club had its own logo, heritage look and elegant feel, but worked as a sub-brand to our charity brand. We had special brochures, folders, letterhead, logo and banners to make it feel exclusive.

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2. We created a prospect list by analysing our database.

In 2011, our prospect list was made up of donors who had given £1,000 or more as a personal (not a fundraised) gift during one year. There were several reasons for this;

• We would often receive first “gratitude” gifts of £1,000 from patients in thanks for their care. £1,000 is a significant first gift so this led us to think that great stewardship of our grateful patient donors could lead to multi-year gifts. This proved to be true! Many of our donors told us they thought they would only give once and yet ten years later are still giving and have now pledged legacies.
• We didn’t know how successful our major gifts programme would be so we wanted to broaden our horizons as much as possible.
• Our hospital had never had a major gifts programme so we were gently introducing the concept to an organisation which didn’t have a culture of philanthropy.

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3. We hosted a launch event for the Club prospects

We hosted a launch event at one of the Cambridge colleges and invited our President plus three clinicians to talk for 5 minutes each about a project they had had funded by the charity. We inspired them and surprised them. And gave them a fun evening.

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4. We asked guests for money.

We asked guests to join the Club and talked about the tax effective ways of giving (that’s a whole different article - but more fun than it sounds!). Having giving levels is a lovely way of making asking easy for early-stage fundraisers. It’s safe, easy and builds confidence. To ask well, you need practice, you need to follow some key steps which we teach in our workshops, you need to listen and you need to ASK. So many people don’t ask and honestly, it really irritates donors!

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5. We put in place great stewardship systems making sure we had touchpoints in place throughout the year to regularly thank donors, show them their impact, and build their trust in the charity by demonstrating how we spent our funds well. We invited 1766 Club members to special stewardship events, sent bespoke thoughtful updates, newsletters with handwritten notes, letters from staff and christmas cards. The more someone gave, the more personalised their stewardship e.g. personal meetings with the CEO, clinician-signed letters etc.

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6. We asked them to give annually.

3 weeks before the anniversary of their gift, or towards the end of the tax year we would write a personalised letter asking donors to commit to another gift.

In the first year we had one fundraiser working on major gifts and I remember how unbelievably excited we would all get whenever we received anything we classed as a major gift. Our first £10k blew our minds! We soon established a baseline of c.£100k proactively fundraised per year on top of the unsolicited income we received. This was with just one fundraiser.

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Lessons learned:

• Major gifts is not wizardry. Major gifts thrives and dies with fundraisers who are great at building relationships, and most importantly know when to stop talking! Anyone can learn how to be a great major gifts fundraiser with some really good training and mentoring.
• All of the income from our original 1766 Club was unrestricted and supported our grants programme.  We didn’t have a capital project to fundraise for but we made a great case to donors to invest in the charity. Our gifts got much bigger when fundraising for restricted projects however!
• We weren’t GOSH. No-one is - they are phenomenal. But they have also built an incredible brand and major gifts programme since the 1980s. We can learn a lot from Great Ormond Street but the fundraisers there are so humble and eager to drive their fundraising forward that they will also seek out great ideas from other charities (like Addenbrooke’s). They’re a phenomenal charity which is great at continuous improvement!
• Major Gifts Fundraisers are really hard to recruit. And if they aren’t very good they also don’t stay in one place very long. Controversial but very true indeed!
• The best way to grow a robust major gifts programme is to train all of your fundraisers in major gifts because the skills apply to corporates, trusts, individual giving, community and legacy fundraising. Invest in the stars you already have and develop your own thriving major gifts programme!

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Advancement Resources has been developing and delivering research-driven fundraising training for over 30 years to fundraisers around the world. Level-up by investing in yourself and your team. Get some good advice and start to build a major gifts programme. If you combine it with a grateful patient programme, your income will soar!

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