1. How to Create a Mid-Level Donor Program

2. Mid-level Donor (MLD) Overview
Top 5 Program Necessities
Group Discussion
30 Day Plan
Q&A

3. “Too many nonprofits are rewarded for how little they spend — not for what they get done.”
– Dan Pallotta
2 minutes
Dan Pallotta
American entrepreneur, author, and humanitarian activist
Created multi-day charitable event industry with the long-distance Breast Cancer 3-day walks, AIDS rides bike journeys, among others
182k participants raised over $580m in 9 years
Author of Uncharitable - How Restraints on Nonprofits Undermine Their Potential, best selling title of all time at Tufts University Press

4. 2 minutes
Lackluster treatment
MLD=middle child
Neglect leads to reduced retention and inadequate major donor pools

5. Donors @ $1k - $10k 1% of Donor Population 1/3 of $ Given
5 minutes
-Why is this important to you?
- money left on table
- donors are ready for taking to the next level
- competition is tough – spend time on what will have the greatest ROI
They’re overlooking a committed and productive audience: middle donors
These are donors who give more than low-dollar direct marketing donations, but less than major gift targets
Donors at $1k - $10k represent 1% of the donor population but are giving more than 33% of the dollars
Overall donor retention is down from 33% in 2005 to 25% in 2014
Many fundraisers and experts agree that mid-level donors are exceptionally valuable
Many also agree that orgs haven’t made investments necessary to make the most of this immense opportunity

6. Mission Focused Loyal Retention Ready Upgrade Potential 5 minutes
You know the value of mid-level donors. They give several times what general donors give in the course of a year, but you can’t afford to spend your major gift officers’ time cultivating them. If you handle them right, enough of them will upgrade to become major donors to keep that high-value program growing and healthy.

7. Meaningful Content Time to Evaluate Staff Bandwidth
Leadership Capacity
Staff Bandwidth
Anti-silo Structure
Meaningful Content
Time to Evaluate
10 minutes
Leadership
Adjust strategies and investment priorities to bridge the gap
Create teams that can collaborate to:
a. Prospect and upgrade donors to a mid-level;
b.Care and nurture for donors at this level (mix all types of donor tactics)
c.Create a pipeline of future major donors; and,
d.Measure success
Staff
-Assign credit
-have metrics
-reduce ask frequency
Silos
MGOs as masters of the personal touch – birthdays, articles, rich/sophisticated communication; but timing is uncertain and scaling is tough
Internet as master of broad communication but impersonal
-Direct marketing great at analytics, broad communication, high volume; but impersonal and one dimensional
Content
Substance, consistency, focus on stewardship, branding
Time
-results take time
-must listen to donors and what they want
20 minutes
Activity: Grade your organization (scale of A-F) for each category and why; talk about with a partner; talk with whole group

8. 5 minutes
-Abundance all around, especially with individuals
-MLD must be motivated and taped
- $1 billion is given each day
-over $373 billion was given philanthropically in 2015, 80% from individuals – that’s not our limit; philanthropy has been stagnant (2% of GDP still) for the last 10+ years
Growth last year was a bit slower but returned to pre-recession levels
Foundations give 16%; corporations only 4%
International charities are thriving (17% growth), education/arts/environment/public benefit are about the same (6-8% growth)
Break: 15 minutes

9. 2 minutes
How much will this cost?
What is the ROI?
Will I have to give it time?
Is more staff required?
etc.

10. Grade your organization Get buy-in from leaders 2
WEEK
TASK 1
Grade your organization
Get buy-in from leaders 2
Choose one immediate change
Design reporting structure 3
Devise plan for additional changes
Create metrics 4
Look at costs and staffing
10 minutes
Be patient
Report out often
Create metrics

11. % of Effort and Investment Strategy
Touch
Effort
Tier
% of Effort and Investment
Strategy
Cultivation and Solicitation Approach
Desired Outcomes
High Touch
High 1
50%
Very Personal
Strategic Moves
Upgrade to Major Gift Donor
Medium 2
30%
Upgrade to Tier 1 Donor
Low 3
20%
Less Personal
Tactical Moves
Upgrade to Tier 2 Donor
10 minutes
Discuss RFM
Donor segmentation by tier allowed us to develop a customized work plan for donor cultivation based on recent giving history and wealth capacity. These efforts should be complemented with personal cultivation, donor visits, donor receptions, etc. Understanding the importance of ROI, we more deeply analyzed the file and prioritized the portfolio across all tiers in order to guide the strategy for personal cultivation. The donors were prioritized based on the following criteria:
Priority A – Major Donors (last gift of $2,500+ or lifetime giving of $10,000+)
Priority B – Mid-Major Donors (last gift of $1,000-$2,499 or lifetime giving of $5,000-$9,999)
Priority C – Middle Donors (last gift of $500-$999 or lifetime giving of $1,000-$4,999)

12. Spend (considerable) time Use (achievable) metrics Be (VERY) patient
Spend (a little) money
Spend (considerable) time
Use (achievable) metrics
Be (VERY) patient
2 minutes

14. Emma Gilmore Kieran
Principal
Pilot Peak Consulting, LLC E:
C: (703)