Mid-level donor strategy for nonprofits is no longer just a fundraising “nice to have.” It is becoming one of the most important business tools for building stronger major donor pipelines, improving donor retention, and making better decisions from the data already sitting inside your CRM.
In this episode, Kirsten Wantland, Principal Industry Strategist at Bloomerang, joins Julia Patrick for a lively conversation about the “magic” of mid and major donors—and why that magic depends on structure, ownership, visibility, and disciplined relationship management.
Kirsten points to a critical trend: nonprofits may be raising more overall, but more major gift revenue is coming from fewer donors. That means the pipeline is narrowing. As she explains, “It’s not that generosity is decreasing… they’re just coming from less donors.” For nonprofit leaders, fundraisers, CEOs, and board members, that raises a big operational question: are you actively building the next layer of donors, or simply hoping they appear?
This discussion moves beyond the old idea that donor portfolios are based only on personal relationships. Kirsten challenges nonprofits to look at donor characteristics, giving patterns, generosity indicators, recurring giving behavior, and relationship touches that actually move someone from mid-level to major giving.
She also addresses one of the quiet problems inside many organizations: unclear donor ownership. When relationship knowledge lives in someone’s head—or in a side spreadsheet—it creates risk, confusion, and missed opportunities. “The problem comes down to visibility,” Kirsten says. Your CRM should help your team see who owns the relationship, what has happened, what should happen next, and where the donor may be headed.
This is a business conversation about fundraising discipline: analyze your data, define your donor levels based on real giving patterns, revisit your plans often, and shift from quantity-based activity to higher-quality donor cultivation!
Key Takeaways:
Major gift revenue is increasingly concentrated among fewer donors, making mid-level donor pipeline strategy more urgent.
Donor portfolio ownership should be based on giving behavior, motivation, and capacity—not only personal relationships.
CRM visibility helps prevent relationship confusion, staff transition risk, and hidden donor management gaps.
Nonprofits should define mid-level and major donor thresholds using their own data, sector benchmarks, and realistic growth goals.
Fundraising plans should be reviewed regularly so teams can adjust campaigns before revenue gaps become emergencies.
Higher ROI comes from more intentional donor cultivation, not simply increasing the number of mailers, touches, or asks.