Five years ago, in the early days of Covid-19’s arrival in the United States, it would have been impossible to predict how the era of pandemic lockdowns would ultimately upend the status quo of fundraising. Major-gift officers in particular, who had historically relied on face-to-face meetings with wealthy donors, were forced to pivot on a dime.
Some of these adaptations were not merely temporary. The pandemic remade how donor relationships are forged and major gifts are won. Many of these changes were overdue and could even be positive in the long run, say experienced leaders.
“We’ve crossed a threshold into a new historic era,” says Abby Falik, co-founder and CEO of the Flight School, which offers fellowships to young community activists taking a gap year between high school and college. “There’s more comfort with the messiness and long-term nature of philanthropy.”
Falik and two other nonprofit leaders spoke with the Chronicle about how donor motivations and the nature of major-gift fundraising have changed since 2020. Here are some of their takeaways for attracting big gifts in a post-pandemic world.
Take a Hybrid Approach to Donor Meetings
Falik says before 2020, she routinely would travel to meet major donors on their home turf, logging many sky miles in the process. But Zoom is not merely an artifact of the Covid era — video calls have become the default in her donor outreach, which makes it easier to get her foot in the door, she says.
“We are all the same size on Zoom. It makes people more accessible,” Falik says. “I’ve had really profound connections with people on video. I’ve raised major gifts from people I have not met in person.”
However, there are tradeoffs. She says it is always easier to deepen her relationship with donors when they can connect face-to-face, “breathing the same air.” She prefers a hybrid approach now, arranging an in-person visit after getting to know a prospect online or to keep the relationship going.
Aria Florant, co-founder and CEO of Liberation Ventures, started her group in 2020 to raise money for harm-based reparations for Black Americans. As a first-time nonprofit leader, she recalls that her lack of preconceived notions made it easier to adapt to Zoom fundraising.
These days, your wealthiest supporters are more likely to want to see your group in action.
“I don’t know what the ‘before’ was like,” Florant says. “I don’t see meeting face-to-face as a requirement.”
She says that while she prefers conferences and other in-person events to make new contacts, a video call with a prospective donor is usually the result of a referral from an existing supporter, which puts them on common ground from the start. She also likes that on Zoom, she can screen-share documents and data in a way that feels more natural and seamless than it does during in-person meetings.
Her comfort with video means she doesn’t need to travel as much to meet with donors; in fact, she says they rarely request it. She reports that her group has raised $25 million using a Zoom-forward approach.
That said, she always makes time if a donor comes to her. “If they’re in New York City, they’ll say they want to have lunch, and I love that,” she says. “On Zoom, you have to work harder to form that personal connection. When you’re in person, it feels easier.”
Throw Mission-Aligned Events
Black-tie galas have long been used to court major donors, but 2020 scuttled almost all of these events. These days, your wealthiest supporters are more likely to want to see your group in action, which can be done in ways that are more innovative and mission-focused than hosting an exclusive party.
Catholic Charities of Baltimore, the largest provider of human services in Maryland, has had success with outside-the-box events, like its biennial dragon boat race in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, says Jocabel Michel Reyes, its chief development officer. Inspired by an ancient Chinese sport, the event pits teams of 25 contestants — including 20 paddlers, a steerer, a drummer, and three relief rowers — against each other in an open-water boat race.
Trust-based philanthropy is in the water now. It acknowledges the long-term messiness of investing in people.
Major donors are invited as both spectators and competitors, and having the race out in the community where the group operates democratizes participation, says Michel Reyes. The most recent race, in 2023, raised nearly $350,000, and the next event is in the works for September.
“When we think of engagement, we want them to make that major-gift commitment, but we also want them to engage their families and their colleagues,” she says. “It gives major-gift donors the opportunity to invite their loved ones and deepen that engagement on multiple levels.”
Connect with Donors’ Values
When Covid started, Falik led Global Citizen Year, another youth-focused group she founded. What she has learned over the past five years is that many wealthy philanthropists who emerged from the pandemic richer than before are keen to do more to address systemic inequities.
Falik says today’s donors are eager to find nonprofit leaders who align with their personal philosophies. “Trust-based philanthropy is in the water now. It acknowledges the long-term messiness of investing in people,” she says, noting that unrestricted gifts have been on the uptick among philanthropists inspired by MacKenzie Scott’s no-strings-attached giving strategy. “I’m finding fewer major donor partners are giving without thinking about who the leaders are. There’s a doubling down on investing in visionary, entrepreneurial leaders.”
With this in mind, she has discovered that being open about her values helps her find like-minded supporters who are interested in investing in her mission and sticking with her for the long haul. Particularly in education, she observes, the savviest donors have learned to look beyond outcomes on tests and graduation rates, so she no longer relies on those data points when soliciting gifts: “Those are not proxies for anything we actually care about.”
There’s a doubling down on investing in visionary, entrepreneurial leaders.
Instead, she talks about her vision of disrupting the education system and helping young people become leaders outside of the classroom.
Falik says earlier in her career she recognized an uneven power dynamic between donors and recipients. She used to feel like she was looking for patrons, whereas now she looks for partners: “I’m more discerning, as donors are, too. People are clearer on what their values and priorities are. It’s not just the money. The scarcer resource is humans who are willing to use their time and creativity to solve intractable problems.”
Use Multiyear Campaigns to Inspire New and Existing Supporters
During a Covid-safe outdoor breakfast under a tent in 2021, Catholic Charities of Baltimore launched its Greater Promise campaign in preparation for its centennial in 2023. A primary goal was to raise enough money to renovate a former elementary school to house programs that address intergenerational poverty in Rosemont, a neighborhood in West Baltimore.
The multiyear campaign attracted new supporters and inspired existing donors to augment their giving, resulting in an increase in gifts over the $25,000 threshold, says Michel Reyes. The group broke ground last spring on its new $32 million community center, which is expected to open this summer.
“Without major gifts, it wouldn’t have been possible,” says Michel Reyes. “For people who hadn’t donated to us before, helping us solve a need was important.”
Fundraisers can judiciously use AI while still satisfying donors’ needs for authenticity and personal connection.
Florant says Liberation Ventures is in the early phase of its Reparations Grantmaking Blueprint, a 10-year strategy to raise $220 million for its racial-justice work. Beyond fundraising, she says a secondary goal of this campaign is to develop a dedicated group of donors who view themselves as community organizers to advance the group’s mission.
“We think of fundraising as donor organizing,” Florant says. “Other successful movements had a committed community of donors who gave in alignment with each other. Our next goal is to build a donor collaborative to fund that blueprint.”
Enhance Stewardship With AI
Generative AI has become an indispensable tool for streamlining operations at nonprofits since ChatGPT hit the market in 2022. Fundraisers can judiciously use the new technology while still satisfying donors’ needs for authenticity and personal connection, the experts say.
“AI is extraordinary in helping us keep our team lean,” Falik says. The Flight School leverages AI chatbots as virtual assistants as well as for live transcription and on-the-spot language translation, all of which support its donor outreach.
We think of fundraising as ‘donor organizing.’
Catholic Charities also uses AI in its stewardship work. Michel Reyes uses DonorSearch for predictive modeling and to identify major-gift prospects, and ChatGPT to help draft fundraising appeals and mass emails to the group’s donor base.
She says the organization combines AI technology with more traditional stewardship activities, like handwritten thank-you cards and personalized videos after a big gift comes in, and thank-a-thon events, where volunteers pick up the phone to call major donors. The blended approach has been successful in increasing donors’ giving levels over time, she says.
“Pre-Covid, it was all very analog, but now we are able to use digital tools to kick stewardship up a level,” she says.
The technology also enables them to increase the number of donors they can cultivate, she says: “We provide stewardship at all levels. You never know when a donor who gave $100 will become a major-gift donor.”
