When you work in nonprofit leadership, you spend a lot of time focused on the here and now: raising enough to meet this year’s goals, delivering on today’s promises, and making sure nothing falls through the cracks. 

But at some point, maybe during a board meeting, a donor conversation, or even a late-night budget review, a new kind of question pops up: 

What would it look like to create something more permanent? 

An endowment can feel like the answer to that question. It’s a tool that helps organizations plan beyond the next campaign or fiscal year and instead invest in their mission for the long haul. But for many nonprofits, especially small and midsized ones, the idea of starting an endowment can feel confusing, intimidating, or just… out of reach. 

In this post, we’re not here to tell you whether you should start one today. Instead, we want to help you think through whether an endowment belongs in your organization’s long-term strategy, and what to consider before you begin. 

Major donors often provide the largest gifts to your organization, making them a vital part of your long-term fundraising strategy (especially if you're working toward building or growing an endowment).

While economic conditions may shift, your mission and your community’s support remain steady. According to Fortune, some giving may slow during a recession, but people still give to the causes they care about. Susan Hirschman, Director of Wealth Management for Schwab Wealth Advisory, puts it best: “No matter what the market is, people will always give to charities.”

It’s easy to focus on maintaining relationships with your current major donors—and you should! But if you're thinking about long-term financial sustainability through an endowment, it’s equally important to expand your network of support. There are donors out there who are aligned with your mission and ready to invest in your future—you just need to invite them in.

We’ll help you get started with three of our favorite best practices for identifying, cultivating, and stewarding major donors.

If your nonprofit has an endowment or board-designated reserve, you’ve likely asked (or been asked) a version of this question: “How much of this can we actually spend?” 

It’s a reasonable question. But without a clear, written policy in place, the answers often vary depending on who’s in the room, how the market is doing, or what the budget looks like that year. 

That uncertainty can lead to confusion, tension, and decisions that feel reactive rather than strategic. 

A spending policy changes that. 

It gives your board and leadership team a shared understanding of how much you can draw from your invested funds each year, and helps ensure those decisions are grounded in purpose, not pressure. 

In this post, we’ll walk through what a spending policy is, how it works, and why it’s one of the most important financial tools your nonprofit may not be using yet.

Once your nonprofit receives a major gift, you should immediately enter the stewardship phase to strengthen and retain that relationship. Start by showing sincere appreciation, recognizing the donor’s impact in a meaningful way, and planning thoughtful, ongoing ways to keep them engaged with your organization’s mission.  

Managing all of these activities can quickly get overwhelming, especially if you have a small team. The good news? Your nonprofit’s fundraising tools can help. With the right approach, you can use your technology to engage major donors, improve relationships, and ultimately increase giving. Here are a few tips to help make the most of your tech stack.

Legacy gifts are among the most impactful contributions your nonprofit can receive. Most donor pyramid models put planned gifts at or near the top, even above major contributions from repeat donors. Plus, bequests (the most common type of legacy gift) make up nearly 10% of the entire charitable giving landscape and are growing in their combined value, according to Giving USA 2024.  

If your organization doesn’t have a solid strategy for soliciting and managing planned gifts, now is the time to create one! One of the keys to a successful legacy giving program is building strong donor relationships. Stewardship is especially important with planned gift donors, since their pledge and actual gift can be years apart. 

In this guide, we’ll walk through four strategies for showing gratitude to legacy donors and retaining their lifelong support. Let’s dive in!

Every major gift officer understands the pressure to close big gifts. When it comes to securing these contributions, the key to long-term success isn’t moving faster; it’s slowing down and building genuine, lasting relationships. 

Major donors often seek a deep connection with the causes they support. Cultivating these relationships requires a thoughtful, individualized approach. It takes time, patience, and consistency, but the payoff is well worth it! 

Strong relationships with major donors lead to greater lifetime giving, increased donor retention, and more meaningful impact. Let’s explore proven strategies to help you develop lasting partnerships with these supporters, from the first gift to long-term stewardship.

The surrounding community provides nearly limitless opportunities for nonprofits to grow and expand their reach. Community outreach is a key strategy for acquiring donors and developing strong relationships with your organization.  

As your nonprofit explores new ways to improve outreach, it’s important to consider strategic partnerships, which can significantly enhance these efforts, providing additional resources, visibility, and support. In this guide, we’ll explore how to build and strengthen community partnerships to advance your fundraising goals.

Donor stewardship goes beyond securing a one-time gift; it’s about building donor relationships, deepening their loyalty, and encouraging recurring support. Strong donor relationships mean your nonprofit has a steady base of support, making it easier to grow and withstand market fluctuations that can interrupt strategic plans.  

A Donor Stewardship Matrix is an effective tool for prioritizing and personalizing engagement with donors, ensuring that your organization builds meaningful relationships and maximizes donor retention. It categorizes donors based on two key dimensions: 

1. Level of Giving (e.g., major gifts, mid-level gifts, recurring gifts, one-time gifts)
2. Engagement Level (e.g., active involvement, event participation, responsiveness to communications).

Each donor falls into a quadrant or segment, allowing you to tailor strategies based on their behavior and contributions. This guide explores how your nonprofit can create a donor stewardship matrix in five steps and how it can help you attract more gifts. 

Storytelling is a powerful tool for any nonprofit's communication strategy. The stories we tell resonate, build connections, and inspire action. 

Beyond telling stories about your cause or beneficiaries, there's a goldmine of potential in sharing the stories of your donors. These narratives not only showcase the impact of their contributions but also inspire others to get involved as donors.

In this blog post, we'll explore how you can effectively capture and use donor stories to enhance your nonprofit’s marketing and communication efforts. Consider this your quick guide to making the most of the stories your donors have to tell.

Once your nonprofit receives a major gift, it’s your job to maintain that relationship by showing appreciation and communicating the donor’s impact. You might steward major donors by sending program updates, inviting them to VIP events, and publicly recognizing their support. All of these efforts are effective, but you can make them even more impactful by incorporating storytelling. 

Telling stories is vital to successful nonprofit communications, even in the stewardship phase. Use these strategies to fine-tune your approach and improve major donor relationships through the power of storytelling.