Ready to Level Up Your Midlevel Giving Program?
Boost engagement with these 5 new ideas to amplify the impact of midlevel donors on your bottom line.
By Rasheeda Childress
Senior Editor, Fundraising
November 17, 2025 | Read Time: 5 minutes
Midlevel giving programs typically focus on people who donate $1,000 to $10,000 annually and can provide organizations with 30 percent or more of their annual budget, according to research on the programs. With federal funding shrinking and some private grant makers shifting priorities, many nonprofits are looking for ways to turbocharge their midlevel giving programs.
Here are some techniques that veteran midlevel fundraisers say can increase donation amounts, expand the number of donors, and better show how the midlevel giving program is making a difference.
Give donors a reason to give more.
The International Rescue Committee has come up with a neat way to encourage midlevel donors to increase their contributions. Fundraisers create a proposal mailing that shares the work the organization is doing and describes how important the donor’s support is in making it happen. The proposal is similar to the kind prepared for major donors, but it’s aimed at midlevel donors with the goal of persuading them to give significantly more than they have before.
“We’re telling them: We know you care, that you want more information,” says Ishmam Rahman, who heads up the midlevel giving program at IRC. “This is all the work that you’re making possible. Can you make a stretch and give us an upgraded gift?”
The stretch gift suggestion is often double the previous gift, so for a $2,500 donor, the appeal asks for $5,000, or for a $5,000 donor, it will ask for $10,000.
“That mailing has been super successful to get really large gifts,” Rahman says. “We just got a $150,000 gift. Last year, [this mailing] raised about $1 million. The response rate might be slightly lower because you’re asking for such large gifts, but your overall revenue is going be higher — and you are going to get more upgrades into major gifts.”
Ask them to make a gift for a matching campaign.
Another way to nudge midlevel donors to make bigger gifts is to ask them to make a contribution the organization can use as a match, says Ashley Dittmar, chief development officer for the Adventure Project, a charity devoted to ending extreme poverty.
In past fundraising roles, Dittmar says she’s been able to encourage donors to upgrade their gifts, with the prospect of using their typical gift as a match that inspires others to give.
“What I’d do is call a $5,000 donor and say, ‘Hey, we want to do a campaign and use your annual gift this year — if you’re planning on making one — to be our matching donor. I’m looking for someone to do $7,500,’” she says. “Then 99.9 percent of the time, people will agree to do it.”
Have donors spread the word.
Many midlevel giving programs have names so donors feel like they’re part of a larger group. Capitalizing on that can encourage donors to bring their buddies onboard.
“Asking your midlevel donors to spread the word on your behalf has been a strong strategy for some organizations I’ve worked with,” says Alia McKee, principal at the consulting firm Sea Change Strategies. “Some organizations have mixers, cocktail hours where they have people bring a friend. Or I’ve had board members host events at their homes with the express purpose of trying to bring in some high net-worth individuals.”
Some organizations use mini-circles within their midlevel giving group to both broaden the pool and increase the amount members give.
Some organizations use mini-circles within their midlevel giving group to both broaden the pool and increase the amount members give, says Paul Yeghiayan, a senior consultant at the fundraising firm Benefactor Group.
He suggests asking donors within the giving group with similar interests to come together and focus on a specific area of the mission. “Encourage them to say, Who else like you would be interested in the mission that we have?” Yeghiayan says. “And how can we help you perhaps put together a salon, some type of mini gathering with say five, 10, 15 other like-minded individuals who would be interested in supporting a program like this.”
That smaller group within the circle could have their own goal, Yeghiayan says. This is where historical donor data comes in handy. If there are 10 donors in the mini circle, see how much they gave last year.
“If collectively they give $10,000 a year, your donor relations officer can meet with them,” Yeghiayan says. “Say, last year you contributed $10,000. How about we do a stretch goal this year of $15,000? And start having that conversation with them.”
Consider monthly giving.
Sometimes organizations worry that if they were to encourage midlevel donors who give an annual lump sum to instead spread that over monthly donations, it would somehow cannibalize or threaten the midlevel program, Yeghiayan says. But he says that’s not true. Donors who give more often — monthly instead of annually — tend to give more.
“These individuals are very likely willing to upgrade,” Yeghiayan says. “So if someone is making a $1,000 a year gift, I would be looking to encourage them to become a $100 a month donor instead. So that would be an immediate 20 percent increase in the giving that they do.”
Donors who give more often — monthly instead of annually — tend to give more.
On the flip side, monthly donors who aren’t quite giving enough to meet the floor of your midlevel giving program can sometimes be encouraged to give a little more each month, with the right nudge.
“A lot of people who become monthly donors are doing so because they believe in your mission, but they haven’t necessarily been presented with an opportunity to do more or shown what more could be,” Yeghiayan says. With the right information about what’s happening, it “will trigger for many of them an opportunity to say, I could do more.”
Focus on overall program metrics.
It’s important to think about the overall metrics of the program rather than look at the results of each specific campaign, says Rahman at the International Rescue Committee. Donors tend to be long-term supporters, who may easily increase their donations or may spend longer lapping up the benefits of stewardship before making a move.
There are three metrics Rahman focuses on: the share of midlevel donors who continue to give each year, the share who are increasing their gift amounts, and the share who are moving up to the major gifts program.
“This gives you more flexibility in how much you can spend in cultivation efforts because it’s about how that’s moving that overall needle,” Rahman says, “not that one thank you card that went out that didn’t get a shift.”
