What’s my favorite fundraising tool? That’s easy: show me a gift chart.

If you’re like me, you need to understand how many donations, at what amounts, are needed to reach your goal.

If the information is presented in a visual, easy-to-understand way, that’s even better.

A gift chart can be used to:

• Test the feasibility of your goal
• Organize your campaign
• Solicit your donors

Creating a gift chart is a helpful way familiarize your board members, volunteers, and co-workers with the basic principles of fundraising math. When someone says, “We’ve set a goal of $50,000; let’s find 50 people to give $1,000 each,” you can respond, “Your math is impeccable, but that’s not how fundraising works. Let me show you why…”

Fundraising math made simple

In most donor fundraising campaigns – it might be a capital campaign, special project, or annual fundraising – the mix of contributions looks something like this:

10% of the donors give 60% of the money
20% of the donors give 20% of the money
70% of the donors give 20% of the money

In other words, most nonprofits rely on a handful of major gifts to generate the bulk of their unrestricted income. When training your colleagues, create this simplified version on a flip chart:

Donors	Dollars
10%	60%
20%	20%
70%	20%

Facilitating the exercise

Explain that the purpose of this exercise is to create a gift chart (sometimes called a gift pyramid or gift table) by setting a goal and then calculating how many donations you’ll need at each level to reach that goal.

Pass around samples (you’ll find them here). Give people a few minutes to review.

To build the chart, start by setting a campaign goal. Assume that your largest gift (or lead gift) needs to equal 10% to 20% of your goal. Your second-tier gifts will each be 5% to 10% of the goal.

Using the math outlined above and the samples provided, construct your gift pyramid on flip chart paper. Recruit one person to help with calculations while everyone discusses and decides on appropriate gift levels.

This isn’t meant to be a prospecting exercise. (I’ll share that in a later post.) However, you should emphasize that for each gift, you’ll need two to four prospects, because many people choose not to contribute at all, or give at lower levels.

Therefore, you must identify many more prospects than the number of gifts needed to complete the chart and reach your goal. 

How to debrief this exercise

Once you’ve built the chart, ask your team the following questions.

• How do we feel about our fundraising goal? Should it be lower or higher?
• Have we chosen a large enough lead gift? Are we challenging ourselves?
• We’ll identify potential donors later – but at first glance, do you know people we can approach for donations at the top three levels?

Once you create your chart, you can test its feasibility through a prospect rating exercise. In a future post, I’ll show you how.

How to use your gift chart

Gift pyramids can help you in three ways.

1. Feasibility testing. Once you build the chart, it’s a straightforward task to brainstorm the names of potential donors at each level. These could include foundation grants or corporate gifts, though most will be individuals.

If you can’t come up with enough names, especially at the higher levels, then your goal is probably too large. You might have to scale back your expectations.

2. Organizing your campaign. A gift chart functions a like a stripped-down fundraising plan. Ask enough donors, fill in all the levels – and you’ve reached your goal.

3. Soliciting gifts. Imagine that you’re meeting with potential donors. “Here’s our gift chart,” you say, handing them a copy. “I’m uncertain about how much to ask for. I don’t want to insult you by picking a number that’s too high or too low. So please – take a look at the options and choose an amount that’s meaningful to you.”

For many solicitors – especially board members and other volunteers – this is WAY easier than determining (and asking for!) a specific amount.

Learn more here

This post is adapted from Train Your Board (and Everyone Else) to Raise Money, which I wrote with Andrea Kihlstedt. It includes 50 exercises you can use to train yourself and everybody within your organization to raise more money.

You don’t have to be a skilled trainer – we’ve provided thorough instructions and samples.

Check it out!