Importance of Major Gifts - Capital Quest, Inc.

Handmaker Jewish Services for the Aging
Tucson, Arizona
Raised: $5,150,000

Importance of Major Gifts
Major gifts will be the key to any successful campaign.

Major gifts establish credibility and give the leaders a sense of accomplishment and confidence. Major gifts also set the tone for other donors’ giving patterns.

Most campaigns can be summarized using the 80-20 rule. This rule says that 80% of the funds raised will come from 20% of the donors making gifts.

With a very new development program just starting, this campaign was still able to meet its goal through personal solicitation of key individuals and companies. Services for the aging now include assisted living through full-medical nursing home care.

For example, a traditional $1,000,000 campaign would need a lead gift of 10%, or about $100,000. It would also need two gifts of $75,000 to bring the total to $150,000. The next five gifts should total about $250,000, or $50,000 apiece. (The top ten gifts should equal about 50% of the goal). After that, ten gifts of $25,000 each will bring the campaign to $750,000, a little less than 80%).

If a $1,000,000 campaign can secure these gifts, the remaining gifts should be fairly easy to find.

top of page

Site Map and Contents