6 Ways to Grow a Major Gift Fundraising Program With Limited Staff and Budget

1. Evaluate your major gift fundraising program’s maturity and ROI

Before scaling your major gifts strategy, you need to assess your baseline and fundraising tools. Evaluating your program’s maturity and return on investment (ROI) reveals what’s working and what’s draining resources without results. Use a year-over-year comparison to spot trends in donor attrition and major gift performance, including average gift growth and time-to-close.

Look at:

• How many major donors are currently engaged
• The average size and frequency of major gifts
• Conversion rates from cultivation to giving
• Costs tied to staff time, events, and outreach compared to dollars raised

You may find that spending time cultivating major donor relationships may yield better financial results and impact than planning one or two of your annual high-cost events. Also, a maturity assessment ensures your growth strategy builds on strengths rather than spreading your team too thin.

Pro tip: Track key major gift metrics monthly—like active prospects, proposals sent, gift close rate, and average gift size—and review them as a team to adjust your tactics.

With DonorPerfect, you can set up dashboards and saved reports to track key major gift metrics and fundraising progress.

2. Prioritize high-impact major donor stewardship

Your greatest growth potential often lies with the major donors already in your database. And stewardship is the key to turning one-time gifts into long-term support. By demonstrating impact and building trust, you encourage major donors to deepen their commitment and give more over time, helping to sustain your mission.

Focus on:

• Personalized impact reports that show how their gifts made a difference
• Invitations to exclusive updates or behind-the-scenes tours
• Opportunities for peer recognition through events or publications, aligned with your donor recognition policies 

Investing in meaningful stewardship yields higher long-term returns than constantly seeking new donors.

Pro tip: Tier your stewardship among donors (A/B/C) and lock in a 12-month cadence. For instance, for A-tier donors, add two personalized touches (handwritten note, quick thank-you video) over two quarters to deepen affinity without spending too much or adding a heavy lift.

With DP Video, you can send a personalized video directly to donors in seconds! This makes stewardship easy and timely.

Strong stewardship shows donors they’re true partners in your mission. When you make them feel seen and valued, they’re far more likely to reinvest in your work year after year.

Want to take these strategies further? Check out The Major Gift Fundraising Workbook for templates and guided exercises to strengthen your stewardship, track key metrics, and grow a resilient major gifts program.

3. Automate major gift stewardship with your nonprofit CRM

Manual processes can quickly overwhelm lean development teams. A nonprofit CRM helps automate key tasks, saving time and ensuring consistency, so your team can focus on building donor relationships.

With automation, you can:

• Set follow-up reminders for donor touchpoints
• Automate receipts or thank-you messages on giving anniversaries
• Pull real-time reports to forecast gift pipeline and donor behavior

This allows your team to spend time getting to know donors before outreach, ensuring a high-value, personal donor experience while routine processes run in the background.

Pro tip: Automate anything you repeat 5+ times—instant acknowledgments, 30/60/90-day follow-ups after meetings, and LYBUNT alerts—so staff time shifts to meaningful outreach and conversations.

For example, you can use DonorPerfect’s SmartActions to automatically send alerts to your team when key donor actions take place, helping everyone stay on top of important next steps without extra reminders.

4. Expand donor engagement channels strategically

For small shops, major gift growth often comes from expanding into high-leverage giving channels, and not by adding more tasks. Options like donor-advised funds (DAFs), stock gifts, and qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) allow donors to give in ways that are tax-smart and personally meaningful.

Consider:

• Donor-advised funds (DAFs) for donors who prefer giving through philanthropic accounts
• Stock gifts that allow donors to contribute appreciated securities
• Board-led introductions that expand your network of major donor prospects

Choose the fundraising channels that align best with your donors’ preferences and your organization’s capacity.

Not sure what these terms mean? DAFs are charitable accounts that donors set up with third parties, while stock gifts involve donating appreciated securities. Both offer major tax advantages and are easier to accept than you might think. To learn more about DAFs and how to incorporate them into your fund development strategies, download a free copy of A Fundraiser’s Guide to Donor-Advised Funds. 

Pro tip: Pilot one new channel per quarter. Start with DAFs or stock gifts, and make it frictionless with a “Ways to Give” page and a short intent form routed to staff.

With DonorPerfect, you can track non-cash gifts like DAFs and stock, configure custom gift types, and roll them up into your reporting for a clear picture of donor giving trends.

5. Make the case for investment in major gift fundraising

To grow major giving, you’ll eventually need to invest in staffing, training, or better fundraising tools. The key is framing this not as a cost, but as a revenue-growth strategy. Board members respond to data. Use projections to show how an additional staff member, CRM upgrade, or training series can increase the number and size of major gifts over 12–18 months.

To secure this investment, frame it as a multiplier:

• Show your board the return on investment (ROI) from previous major giving initiatives
• Present projections for how added resources could accelerate giving
• Emphasize how investing in major gift fundraising supports long-term financial sustainability
• Share benchmark data with like-sized or peer organizations in your community 

When leaders see major gift fundraising as a reliable revenue engine, they’re more likely to support its growth.

Pro tip: When you ask leadership for more resources, keep it simple. Show them where you are now, what’s holding you back, and how a little more support (like added staff time or better tools) could unlock more gifts over the next year.

For example, DonorPerfect fundraising dashboards and pipeline reporting help you model expected revenue growth and create board-ready visuals in just a few clicks.

6. Systematize success with your donor management system

Systematizing fundraising success builds organizational resilience. With clearly documented fundraising workflows, defined data standards, and a centralized donor management system, your major gifts program can grow, even through staff transitions or funding shifts.

A nonprofit donor management system allows your team to:

• Document major donor cultivation and stewardship touchpoints 
• Ensure continuity through staff or volunteer transitions
• Standardize reporting for board meetings and leadership check-ins

Build consistency by creating a shared framework for major gift cultivation. When every major gift officer follows the same steps—from qualification to stewardship—your program becomes more efficient and predictable. With the right systems in place, you can maintain momentum even through staff transitions or shifting priorities.

Pro tip: Systematize your fundraising playbook. Outline your cultivation process, assign follow-up responsibilities, standardize data entry, and set a review rhythm to keep quality high as your program grows.

With DonorPerfect, you can map out donor journey stages or configure Moves Management stages, assign solicitors, and use SmartActions to require key fields and prompt next steps, helping your team stay consistent and on track.

Growing your major gifts program doesn’t have to mean burnout. With clear systems and donor-centered stewardship, your team can deepen relationships and drive philanthropic engagement year after year. Ready to grow your major gift fundraising program? Download The Major Gift Fundraising Workbook for practical exercises and step-by-step guidance to grow your major gift program.