Why it matters
For a small shop, a major gift might be $1,000 or $10,000. What matters is that you pick a number based on your own file and treat everyone above it differently: a personal thank-you from the director, a real conversation about impact, and a plan for the next gift.
Major gifts usually come from donors who have given smaller amounts for years. Watch your loyal mid-level donors closely. They are often your next major donors.
How Steward shows it
When you set up a Major donor journey in Steward, it asks what a big gift is for you and fills in a suggestion from your own gift history, with the gifts behind it one click away. A major donor journey outranks the first-year welcome, so a large first gift is treated as a major gift first.
Related terms
- Moves management Moves management is a structured way to plan and log each deliberate step, or move, that brings a donor closer to a gift: from identifying them, through cultivation and the ask, to stewardship after.
- Portfolio A portfolio is the group of donors and prospects assigned to one fundraiser, who is responsible for building a personal relationship with each of them.
- Planned gift A planned gift is a gift a donor arranges now that usually reaches you later, most often through a will, a trust, or a beneficiary designation on a retirement account or life insurance policy.
The free Lost & Found audit reads a giving export in your browser and shows your lapsing donors and what they used to give. Nothing is uploaded. Then bring the same file to a 20-minute demo.