MAJOR GIFTS

This is not transactional fundraising. This is long-term philanthropic revenue architecture.

Your major gifts fundraising strategy cannot rely on proximity to wealth or your major gift officer’s charisma. A successful major gifts program needs clarity, structure, and leadership alignment to turn capacity into commitment. I work with mission-driven organizations to design major gifts programs that are grounded in data, aligned with strategy, and built to produce sustainable, high-level revenue.

My Approach

With nearly 13 years of experience helping organizations strengthen, rebuild, or establish major gifts programs from the ground up, I’ve learned something important:

Ambition is great, but it must be grounded in reality.

I’ll look carefully at your giving history, donor base, leadership capacity, and prospect pool — and then we build from there. No pie-in-the-sky targets, inflated projections, or fantasy pipelines. Just clear, data-informed models aligned with what is truly attainable. Every recommendation is informed by:

  • Your historical performance

  • Current evidence-based best practices (not outdated fundraising lore)

  • Realistic close rates and cultivation timelines

  • The network(s) you have access to

  • Prospect capacity and concentration risk

  • The operational realities of your team

But data alone doesn’t raise major gifts; relationships do.

I help you understand not just what you could raise, but what you can realistically build toward, and I outline the steps you’ll need to take to make it happen. Taking a relationship-first mindset to philanthropy, I’ll focus on:

  • Strengthening your stewardship and retention practices with existing major donors

  • Guiding you in designing and executing a major gifts strategy to move your entire major gifts pipeline forward

  • Guiding you in designing tailored micro strategies to move your top donors and prospects through the entire donor cycle

  • Building efficient but high-impact cultivation strategies that your team can actually execute

  • Aligning leadership expectations and responsibilities with the realities of major gifts fundraising

I’m approachable and transparent in my guidance. I’ll thoughtfully share what I see as your strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities, because my priority is to help your organization grow.

  • A tangible major gifts target supported by a realistic donor pipeline, thoughtful major gifts pyramid, and sufficient prospect breadth and depth, and will be grounded in data and informed by your organization’s giving history.

    We don’t start with hopes and dreams. We start with math.

    This work may include:

    • Clarification of what qualifies as a “major gift” within your organization

    • A comprehensive analysis of your nonprofit’s historical giving performance

    • An assessment of your pipeline, its capacity, and concentration risks

    • Development of a major gifts revenue model tied to portfolio potential

    • Construction or refinement of a major gifts pyramid aligned with your organization’s pipeline

    • Evaluation of your team’s donor and prospect portfolios and coverage ratios

    The outcome is a target that is ambitious — but attainable. You’ll understand not just what you’re aiming to raise, but what it will realistically require.

  • Clear criteria for identifying, qualifying, and managing high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth donors with discipline and intention.

    Because success in major gifts fundraising depends on focus and determination.

    This work may include:

    • Defining portfolio size and structure

    • Establishing clear qualification standards

    • Mapping current donors into structured portfolios

    • Identifying high-capacity prospects aligned with mission

      • This may involve helping your organization find and onboard onto a new philanthropy screening software, or working with your development team to more effectively use a philanthropy screening software you already have access to

    • Designing movement stages from prospect to long-term partner

    • Building pipeline depth to reduce dependency on a small number of donors

    We move your fundraising from broad outreach to strategic prioritization and systematic moves management. The result is clarity around where your leadership and your development team’s time should be invested.

  • Personalized cultivation rooted in shared values, strategic alignment, and thoughtful stewardship — not one-off meetings.

    Major gifts fundraising is highly relational work. Strategy makes those relationships intentional.

    This work may include:

    • Individualized cultivation roadmaps for top-tier donors

    • Alignment of donor interests with mission priorities

    • Strategic ask planning and timing

    • Refinement of messaging for transformational opportunities

    • Design of stewardship frameworks that reinforce impact and partnership

    We shift from transactional outreach to partnership architecture. Donors feel aligned with you on shared goals, not pursued by you for their checkbooks.

  • Clarifying leadership’s role in relationship-building so responsibility is shared, not siloed.

    Because our sector’s most philanthropic donors crave deep engagement with the organizations they support, major gifts must also be the responsibility of program directors, organizational executives, and board members — not just the development team.

    This work may include:

    • Clarifying executive roles in cultivation and solicitation

    • Coaching organizational leaders in high-level donor engagement

    • Defining board expectations and accountability structures

    • Relationship mapping across leadership networks

    • Aligning program, finance, and development teams around shared revenue goals and responsibilities

    When leadership alignment strengthens, it shows… and donor confidence follows.

  • Moving beyond one-time gifts toward long-term partnerships that grow over time.

    Retention is the multiplier in major gifts work.

    This work may include:

    • Designing stewardship touchpoints by giving tier

    • Creating recognition structures aligned with donor values and interests

    • Developing upgrade pathways for growing donors

    • Structuring multi-year giving strategies

    • Integrating impact reporting into long-term relationship plans

    We build systems that support longevity — not just annual wins. Because the goal is not simply larger gifts, it’s predictable, repeatable transformational revenue supported by structure, clarity, and leadership alignment.

SERVICES OFFERED

I offer a wide range of major gifts consulting services, from revenue modeling to portfolio development and pipeline planning to training organizational leadership on major gifts fundraising. I also offer custom services tailored to your nonprofit’s unique needs.

WHO THIS IS FOR

My major gifts consulting services are ideal for organizations that:

  • Are preparing for ambitious growth, but aren’t sure where to start

  • Are establishing their first-ever major gifts program

  • Have meaningful donor potential, but lack structure

  • Depend heavily on a few top donors and want to grow their portfolio

  • Depend heavily on grants and want to diversify revenue streams

  • Need help getting buy-in and involvement from the board and C-suite

This is premium, strategic work for nonprofits that want to build a lasting major gifts infrastructure.

DELIVERABLES

My services are tailored to each unique client’s stage, capacity, and growth goals. Depending on the scope of our project, your organization’s work with me may result in:

  • A fully built and customized Major Gifts Pyramid aligned with a defensible revenue target

  • A structured, qualified Major Gifts Pipeline with clear movement stages

  • A comprehensive Major Gifts Strategy and implementation roadmap

  • A step-by-step framework for launching or rebuilding a major gifts program

  • Executive and Board alignment sessions to strengthen leadership engagement

  • Development team training on qualification, cultivation, solicitation, and retention

  • Portfolio architecture and donor prioritization frameworks

  • A structured stewardship and donor retention plan designed for long-term growth Clear metrics, performance benchmarks, and accountability standards

All clients receive:

  • Full access to the written Major Gifts Toolkit, including proprietary booklets, exercises, templates, and implementation guides

  • The Board Fundraising Training Deck for internal leadership use

  • Access to all password-protected tools and strategic planning resources on chermolle.com — including the Major Gifts Pyramid Calculator and advanced modeling tools

Each deliverable is designed to be practical, durable, and immediately usable — not theoretical.

outcomes

While outcomes will vary depending on the scope and focus of your engagement, clients generally experience the following shifts:

  • Revenue targets supported by defensible math

  • Increased major gift revenue driven by qualified prospects and disciplined focus

  • A healthier, deeper pipeline that reduces concentration risk

  • More consistent donor retention and upgrade pathways

  • Stronger, more confident major gift solicitations

  • Clear leadership alignment around fundraising priorities

  • A board that understands major gifts strategy, participates appropriately, and respects the long-term relationship-building process

  • Development teams operating with focus instead of fragmentation

  • Donors who feel genuinely connected to your mission and leadership

  • Reduced internal stress because roles, expectations, and priorities are clear

  • More transformational gifts that are achievable — and repeatable

Major gifts stop feeling unpredictable. They become intentional.

Revenue becomes less dependent on luck and more dependent on structure. Growth becomes sustainable instead of exhausting.

Instead of hoping for large gifts, you build toward them. Instead of reacting to donor behavior, you guide it.

Major gifts stop feeling mysterious, and become a strategic advantage.

If you’re ready to design a major gifts program that reflects the seriousness of your mission, let’S GET STARTED.

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