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Research reveals major gifts success is not confined to larger organisations and challenges conventional wisdom.
This article was first published 18 Feb, 2020
The Australian major gifts benchmarking study provides details on major gift strategy, management and implementation with data from 19 organisations in Australia. The ACNC selfselected subtypes of organisations in 2019 were (in descending numbers): health, social welfare, human rights, environment and religion. In total, the study analyses $38.8 million in major gifts from the past year.
As well as descriptive statistics, of particular interest are correlations with the success factors for the major gifts programs. These are: gross and net major gifts income, number of major donors, return on investment and major donor retention (by both count and dollar value).
Study participants receive detailed analysis of the how-to factors of major gifts success. These cover, for example, average gift size, proportions and numbers of prospects and major donors in stages of the ‘pipeline’, average time between identifying prospects and a first major gift, and use of prospect research.
