It’s June which means the fiscal year deadline looms for Advancement colleagues trying to reach donor and dollar goals. For 25 years I worked in annual and major giving, toggling between the urgency of getting a gift THIS YEAR and understanding the need to take one’s time to cultivate a relationship that nurtured a major donor’s interest in making an impact on the university.

At one college, a major gift did not count as an annual gift and donors were required to make an additional unrestricted gift to be counted as a participant. At another university, a major gift counted toward participation in the Annual Fund, no matter the amount or designation.

I’ve participated in a rebranding exercise to rename unrestricted – it turns out the donors were literal and understood that unrestricted meant, well, unrestricted. What they didn’t understand was the need, the urgency or the impact of making an unrestricted gift. Marketing and communications addressed that and giving to “unrestricted” went up once the case was made and the impact shared, but participation continued to go down.

The decline in participation maps against the change in the economic disparity in America – the top 1% of American households own 40% of the wealth, more than the bottom 90% combined. According to Giving USA, the impact on fundraising is that fewer people are giving, but those who do give are giving much more. In 2017, donors gave $410.02 billion dollars to charitable causes and 70% of those dollars were given by individuals.

So how do we address declining participation while finding those wealthy donors who can make an impact on the dollars raised? This should not be an “either/or” decision, rather a “yes/and” solution. The first step is data analysis to understand your trends – who are you retaining and who are you losing? Where is the wealth for your organization? Who is inclined to give? Knowing more about which constituents to target and how to communicate the impact of giving to your organization allows you to use your precious resources wisely. Strategic and intentional fundraising can help raise dollars AND donors.