Keys to Midlevel Donor Success: Collaboration and Engagement

Midlevel donors are an important but often overlooked source of gifts at many nonprofits. The reason midlevel donors receive less attention has a lot to do with the relationship between direct-marketing fundraisers and major-gifts officers.

Fundraising experts say that at many nonprofits, major-gifts officers look down on their direct-marketing counterparts, who in turn resent their major-gifts colleagues and, as a result, offer them little help.

As a result, interactions between the two camps can resemble a genteel version of the posturing or mistrust seen between rival gangs — the development office’s version of Sharks vs. Jets without the knives or, sadly, the Jerome Robbins choreography. As a result, mid-level donors, who don’t fit neatly into either group’s areas of responsibility, can get lost in the middle.

But fundraising experts say ignoring a donor who has the potential to give more than modest sums, but might be unlikely to give $1 million, is folly. These donors matter more than many fundraisers realize.

When you exclude the very top donors, only about 1 percent of most nonprofits’ donors fall into this middle category, but they account for 34 percent of the money raised by charities, says Mark Rovner, the founder of Sea Change Strategies, a fundraising consulting firm.

Fundraisers should take notice of that and find ways to overcome their culture-clash mentality, says Mr. Rovner.

“These donors contribute an enormous amount of loyalty and an enormous amount of money,” says Mr. Rovner. “They can be the bedrock of an organization because, if they’re managed right, they’ll give year after year and tell their friends about your organization.”

Managing them well is key: It requires close collaboration among direct-marketing officers and big-gift fundraisers, and a willingness to share ideas and tasks.

The Sierra Club’s mid-level donors program has been successful because its direct-marketing and major-gifts officers place a premium on collaboration, says Vicky Barrett-Putnam, the nonprofit’s senior director of donor development and acquisition strategies.

Whereas the two departments used to be on separate floors, they now operate in a shared space. And while they have distinct duties, the staffs work together on a regular basis. This approach has helped make the most of everyone’s skills and better serve the group’s mid-level donors. Ms. Barrett-Putnam offered some advice on how the two sides can join forces:

• Get your direct-marketing and major-gifts staffs to meet on a regular basis to talk about the programs for which each is raising money and find areas where it might be possible to collaborate to reach mid-level donors.

• Compile a report for the heads of direct marketing and major gifts noting which donors in the direct-marketing pool are starting to give at higher levels. Then have the major-gifts officers research whether those donors have the potential to give more. Do this on a regular basis to make sure no donor falls through the cracks.

• Collaborate on mailings. Use the expertise of your direct-marketing staff to get better prices from vendors on materials for your mid-level donor mailings. Then employ the expertise of your major-gifts officers to select higher-end materials (such as better paper stock and envelopes without cut-out windows) for mailings to mid-level donors.

• Work together on communications. Get your major-gifts officers involved in crafting detailed communications for mid-level donors about the nonprofit’s work and programs and how their money is being used. Ask your direct-marketing staff to lend a hand in making sure those communications get packaged and mailed out.

While an internal partnership to manage mid-level donors is crucial to the program’s success, understanding that these donors deserve more than a simple direct-mail appeal is just as important.

“These donors are increasingly expecting more personal levels of engagement,” says David Bennett, chief development officer at National Geographic Society. “They want to share things on social media, and over all, they want more participation.”

Human Rights Campaign’s mid-level donor program has found success by getting and keeping its donors involved as volunteers around the country. According to Christopher Speron, the nonprofit’s vice president of development, donors in the program helped raise more than $6 million last year. He advises:

• Encourage your mid-level donors to become volunteer partners to help with events, outreach, and fundraising so they have a stake in your organization’s progress on a regular basis.

• Put trust in your mid-level donors and listen to their ideas on fundraising and other matters.

• If a mid-level donor has a good idea, act on it.

• Provide specific training for them on how to recruit others to the cause, how to make a pitch, how to network, and how to build a prospect pool.

• Keep them informed with a regular quarterly newsletter or another publication specifically for them.

• Set up a once-a-quarter conference call and invite all of your mid-level donors to participate. Use the call to provide updates on your group’s work, and build in time for their questions and suggestions.