Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Through the Higher Ed lens
Qualification sprints translate almost exactly to reunion and homecoming lists: alumni who volunteer for their class or give small gifts every year without fail are the connection signal this module ranks above capacity, even inside a shop with wealth-screening tools most other sectors lack. The module's warning, capacity without connection is a research project, is aimed directly at a big shop's temptation to fill portfolios from screening data rather than conversation. Portfolio sizing here often runs at the higher end this module describes, seventy-five to a hundred fifty names for a full-time officer, because a large alumni base can sustain more relationships in active development than a small shop ever could.
Continuing education
1.25 points
Relationship Building · Securing the Gift
Learning objectives
- Qualify a prospect on the three signals of connection, capacity, and inclination, and explain why connection plus inclination outranks capacity alone.
- Size a portfolio from the hours available for relationship work and name the conditions under which a name comes off it.
- Run a two-week qualification sprint that sorts fifteen to twenty names into qualified, later, or released, with the reason written down.
- Write a one-page moves management plan with a stage, a working hypothesis, and the next three dated moves.
- Identify the moves that carried a loyal donor from a qualification sprint to a six-figure commitment over twenty months.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 23 min
Video lesson
Who belongs in your portfolio (and who doesn't)
III Discern · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 19 min
Field guide· PDF
Qualification sprints that fill a caseload
III Discern · Relationship Building
- 20 min
Template· DOCX
Moves management plan template
VI Accompany · Relationship Building
- 16 min
Case study· PDF
Case study: a first $100K gift
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Donor Communications & Stewardship
The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Monthly Giving That Compounds
Sustainers are the closest thing to endowment a small organization has. Launch and grow a program built to last.