Eventually, everyone has their “moment inthe sun”. In the world of fundraising, that

“moment” has arrived for the long under-valued, and in most cases ignored, mid-leveldonor. As you will see in the pages of this edi-tion, the mid-level donor is now getting somewell deserved and long overdue attention.

Historically one of the most overlooked areasin fundraising, more and more organizationsare building programs to specifically targetand grow this level of giving. Smart organiza-tions are beginning to shift their focus to thisgroup of donors...and finding the effort isyielding tremendous results.

At KCI, we have begun to shift our thinking inearnest in the direction of mid-level giving.As we have explored this topic, we havefound “bridge building” to be an aptmetaphor for the concept embodied by a

mid donor program. For instance, mid donorprograms can build a bridge between small-er, annual gifts to the five and six-figure majorgift thresholds of most organizations. Or itcan also build a bridge between sporadic,transactional-type giving to regularized andincreased giving that realizes the potential of donors who will never be major giftprospects. And so, we’ve chosen to refer toour approach to mid-level giving as the KCIBridge DonorTM Program.

We tend to think of our donors, particularlythose who make smaller gifts to us, in termsof dollar amounts and/or by the programthrough which their gift comes in, a practicethat colours the way we manage our relation-ships with them. By its very nature, a mid-level giving program helps us to stop think-ing about our donors transactionally andstart thinking of them as dynamic anddiverse populations of people who areengaged with our organizations in a varietyof ways and for a variety of reasons. By

understanding them and their needs better,we can build deeper, stronger and more long-lasting relationships. Recognizing that it’s notpossible to do this with thousands, a mid-level giving program enables us to focus on amanageable number so we can get to knowthem, and get them to know us, better.

I’m really excited by the possibilities that existin a focus on mid-level or “bridge giving” andthink that it may be the key to unlocking the potential within organizations’ existingdatabases. I hope after reading this edition ofPhilanthropic Trends Quarterly, you will be too!

Have a safe and wonderful summer!

Marnie SpearsPresident & CEO

2012: Issue 2

2012 : Bulleti

The Bridge Donor Issue

SUMMER 20122

The donor pyramid has long served asthe model used to describe how chari-

ties should manage their donor pipelines.Illustrating how donors move from small,annual gifts, to making one or more majorgifts and finally culminating in a plannedgift, the donor pyramid is an importantmetaphor for understanding fundraisingmethodology as well as illustrating howdonors grow their giving over time. Andyet, as we have worked with countlessorganizations over the years, we have cometo discover that there is a small problemwith the concept of the donor pyramid...

It doesn’t exist in the vast majority of organ-izations.

While valid and something to strivetowards, the donor pyramid for most chari-ties really looks more like an hourglass.With a large number of donors at the bot-tom of the pyramid who give through theannual fund and a cadre of donors at the

top who make major gifts, most organiza-tions often have few, if any, donors in be-tween. As a result, smart organizations areturning their attention to this overlookedgroup, realizing that the next period oftime should be the era of the mid-leveldonor. As a result, many are creating formalized mid-level or bridge donor pro-grams that focus on growing the numberof donors in the gift space between annualand major gifts.

The importance of the “bridge donor”

There are a couple of factors driving theincreasing emphasis on the mid-level orbridge donor.

First is that focusing on the bridge donormakes good fundraising sense. Maturefundraising operations with well developedmajor gift programs need to constantlyrepopulate their pipeline with donors that

The potential of the “Bridge Donor”

Annual Donors

PlannedGifts

Major Donors

Annual Donors

Mid-LevelDonors

Major and PlannedGift Donors

THE THEORY THE REALITY

SUMMER 2012 3

have the potential and inclination to makemajor gifts. And sourcing donors out of theannual fund is often not the most effectivestrategy, as the space between an annuallevel gift and a major gift can be a “chasm”for many donors, both financially as well aspsychologically. As a result, giving donorsthe opportunity to make a mid-level giftcan help build the bridge to making amajor or planned gift down the road.“When we analyzed our donor base, we dis-covered a pretty big gap between the giftlevel generated through our annual fundinitiatives and our major gifts program,which has a $10,000 gift threshold,” saysRosalie McGovern, Vice President DirectMarketing, Sick Kids Foundation. “It’s madeus think that perhaps $10,000 is too big ajump, so we are thinking about how we canengage and approach donors meaningfullyand effectively at gift levels in between.”

In the case of organizations trying to getinto the major gifts game, like many allied

health charities and smaller arts and socialservice organizations, creating a mid-levelgiving program is an important intermedi-ate step. These organizations often havevery healthy annual funds but limited trackrecords in major gifts. And those that havetried to move directly into the major giftsspace have found it a challenge.

The Heart & Stroke Foundation/BC & Yukonis one organization that chose to focus on amid-level program as a stepping stone togrowing its major gift capacity – both thatof the organization as well as that of itsdonors. “About 10 years ago, we began toobserve that we had a cadre of donors whowere giving around $1,000 of their ownaccord,” says Sandra Cheung, ManagerAnnual Giving. “We decided that we want-ed to do something special to thank andrecognize these folks for their generouscontributions, and also began to wonder ifwe could attract more gifts of this size if wetook a more proactive approach. And so

in 2003, we established our Caring HeartsCircle Program, which recognizes all donorswho give an annual gift to HSF of $1,000 ormore.” Since its inception, the Caring HeartsCircle Program has more than quadrupledits revenues and seen a 40% increase in thenumber of donors.

The success of the Caring Hearts CircleProgram illustrates not only that mid-levelprograms can be helpful to “build thebridge” between annual size gifts andmajor gifts, they can also provide a mecha-nism to optimize the value of all donors.“Rarely is the first gift made by an individ-ual the biggest gift they could make to the organization,” notes Susan Storey,KCI Vice President and architect of ourBridge DonorTM Program. “With the rightstrategy and approach, they can and will give more. As a result, another bene-fit of this Program is that it helps to opti-mize the giving potential of each and every donor.”

What exactly is a Bridge DonorTM Program

Conceptually, a Bridge DonorTM Program isa program that focuses on donors whogive or have the capacity to give, at a levelbetween the donations they make throughmass appeals like direct mail and the giftthreshold represented by an organization’smajor gift program. As a result, bridgedonors refers to those that fall between

an organization’s broad based, mass-appeal solicitation or annual giving pro-gram and those whose giving warrants acustomized strategy and one-on-onecommunication with a senior staff person.

A Bridge DonorTM Program blends some of the volume and metric-based compo-

nents of mass appeal fundraising with elements of the high-touch, personalizedaspects of major gift work. Finding ablend between the two, this type of program often sees results quickly andorganizations can expect a medium rateof return.

A mid-level or bridge donor can mean dif-ferent things to different organizations.For some organizations, such as large artsgroups, universities and research hospi-tals, bridge donors would probably beclassified as those giving somewherebetween $5,000 and $50,000 to $100,000.For other organizations that are movinginto major gift fundraising, a bridge donormay be someone who could contribute$250 to $1,000. To define a mid-leveldonor for your organizations, analyze yourindividual gift results over the last severalyears to help you determine the naturaland most appropriate thresholds for you.

Mass Appeal ProgramsAsking a lot of prospects for small gifts

Major andPlanned Gifts ProgramsAsking small number ofprospects for large gifts

Bridge DonorTM ProgramsAsking moderate number ofprospects for moderately sized gift

• Generic message• Direct mail, online appeals, door-to-door• Short term/immediate gifts• Annualized giving• Low rate of return per donor

• Personalized message• Customized strategy• One-on-one,

personalized delivery• Long time horizon on results• Multi-year pledges• High rate of return per donor

• Customized message• Customized cultivation with some

automated delivery• Short term/immediate gifts• Regularized giving• Medium rate of return

T H E F U N D R A I S I N G C O N T I N U U M

Program Types & Characteristics

SUMMER 20124

And finally, a focus on the mid-level donorcan generate considerable revenues in theimmediate and short terms, which is anotherreason for their increasing popularity. Theexample below illustrates the potential ofmoving 1,000 donors from an annual gift of$75 (total revenue $75,000) through to a giftof $200 a year pledged for five years (totalrevenue $1 million), an increase of $925,000.While the individual gift level continues tobe modest, the bottom line consequencesbecome significant when we factor in thenumber of donors making gifts of this size.As a result, the revenue generating powercomes from the combination of an increas-ed, but still modest, level of gift made by alarge,but still manageable,number of donors.

We have the technology...

The advent of new technology is also mak-

ing the development and execution of suc-cessful bridge donor programs possible.As a result, another reason that mid levelgiving is getting so much attention of late isbecause we now have the technology andtools to support it – both to identify donorswho have mid-level gift potential as well asto execute on some of the cultivation andengagement activities needed to bringthese donors closer to the organization.

When it comes to identification,we’ve hit twoimportant tipping points with respect todata that make bridge donor programs pos-sible. The first is its availability. The amountand type of data that we can now collectand store in our databases enables us tohave far greater insight into our donors thanever before. And the second is that thanksto analytics tools, we now can do some-thing with that data. The data, and the tools

that help us mine it, make it feasible to domore nuanced segmentation of our donors.

Technology is also enabling us to build clos-er relationships with our donors, which is akey component of a successful mid donorprogram. Howard Jang, Executive Directorof Arts Club Theatre Company in Vancouver,says that the organization’s investment in aproper database was a game changer. “Weinvested in a database that enabled us tointegrate donor information into our ticket-ing system,” explains Jang, saying that oncethat was in place, it created a domino effectthat enabled Arts Club to really start toinvite people “into the family”. “When adonor calls to buy a ticket to a performance,the person taking the order is alerted thatthey are speaking to someone who hasmade a gift by a message on their computer

“ “

Is our case unintentionally excluding mid donors?

Building a successful bridge donorprogram is not just about identifying thedonors and creating the mechanisms tobring them closer to the organization.An organization’s case for support has acritical role to play as well.

“Generally, organizations tend to think oftheir case offerings at only two levels,”notes KCI Vice President Susan Storey.“Tosupport annual fund appeals, the caseoffering is ‘support the cause/organiza-tion in general’. And to support the majorgifts program, there are specific projectsand priorities with big price tags.” By nothaving case elements that are at invest-

ment levels available to mid donors,organizations ostensibly remove them-selves from the mid donor marketplace.

Part of developing case offerings of inter-est to mid-level donors is the creation ofappropriate giving vehicles. Some exam-ples of good vehicles include GivingCircles and Venture Philanthropy, both ofwhich give donors the chance to pooltheir giving and select the project(s) with-in the organization that they wish to sup-port. Another simple example, particular-ly for donors at the lower end of the mid-level gift spectrum, is monthly giving. Thekey with monthly giving is to equate the

donor’s gift to specific case offerings thatare fully funded by the donor’s monthlygift. Good examples of this are the childsponsorship programs of a number ofinternational aid organizations.

And so, as organizations build their mid-level programs, they need to examinetheir case for support to ensure there are opportunities available at the bridgedonor level. And as with all other parts ofthis program, what constitutes a goodmid-level case offering is dependentupon how the organization defines theirmid donor.

1,000 Donors grow theirannual support to $200

$200,000

1,000 Donors giving $200pledge a 5 year commitment

$1 million

1,000 Donors of $75$75,000

...the revenue generatingpower of the mid donor pro-gram comes from the combi-nation of an increased butstill modest, level of gift madeby a large, but still manage-able, number of donors.

SUMMER 2012 5

screen, prompting them to thank the donor.As a result, something that used to be pure-ly a business transaction has now become astewardship opportunity.”

The technology also enables ticket takers atthe door to know if the person entering thetheatre is a donor, and staff members are alltrained to say thank you. Jang finally notesthat while the technology has been critical,successful use of the tools involved a changein culture. “It required a shift in mindset onthe part of the box office and front of housestaff from one of ‘ticket and order taker’ toone that embraced the role they play indeveloping relationships with our donorsand subscribers.”

What do they look like?

As already discussed, your database and the analytics tools that enable its mining arekey to identifying prospective bridge donors.But what are the characteristics of a goodmid-level prospect? When looking for majorgift prospects, we assess potential using theLAI model – Linkage, Ability, Interest. Whenlooking for bridge donors, it’s the GHAB Mod-el – Giving History, Address and Behaviour.

Celeste Bannon Waterman, KCI’s SeniorConsultant, Research and Analytics, explainswhy these three factors are the best predic-tors of mid-level gift potential. “Address,which really serves as a stand in for contactinformation, is obvious,”she says. “You can’tinteract with your donor unless you canreach them, so an address and phone num-ber are minimum requirements.”

Financial commitment to your organizationis also an important qualifier, hence theneed to look at the donor’s Giving History.“When it comes to mid-level gift potential,we have found that a giving history ofincreasing gift amounts and/or a consistentpattern of giving, which we call givingvelocity, are good predictors.”

But, Behaviour, notes Bannon Waterman,may be the most important predictor of all.“Research tells us that the most likely mid-

level donor is someone who is significantlyengaged in the organization and its mis-sion, which can be evidenced most strong-ly by how much and how often they inter-act with you outside of their giving.” Shegoes on to say that when we talk aboutbehaviour, we’re looking at the donor’sinteractions with the organization bothonline and offline. Online behaviour couldinclude opening email and signing up fornewsletters, while offline behaviour caninclude things like event attendance andticket or membership purchases.

Linda Netherton, Director of Personal Giftsat Heart & Stroke Foundation/BC & Yukonconfirms that in their experience, using amixture of criteria really is the best way toidentify mid-level gift potential. “When wefirst started identifying prospects for ourCaring Hearts Circle Program, we lookedonly at their past giving history,” saysNetherton.“We quickly came to realize that

while giving history was important, it was-n’t the sole, or necessarily the best, predic-tor of potential. As a result, we now use amodel that considers giving history andbehaviour with our organization combinedwith some external data like gifts thedonors have made elsewhere.” Nethertongoes on to say that they undertake theiranalytics activities regularly, looking formid-level gift potential on at least an annu-al basis from the new donors that theyacquire through a variety of channels.

And it is important to consider all fundrais-ing channels or “donor entry points” whensourcing for new mid-level donors. RosalieMcGovern of Sick Kids Foundation believessourcing of mid-level donors should not bejust from the annual fund, recognizing thatthere may be opportunities from all kindsof places, including donors who supportthe organization indirectly through vehi-cles like third party events.

SUMMER 20126

Of final note regarding good qualifiers ofmid-level gift potential, research shows thatother triggers to watch out for when identi-fying bridge donor prospects are an agerange of 40 to 55, donors for whom youhave lots of contact information on fileand those that are employed at a match-ing gift company.

Cultivating mid-level gifts

If interest in the mission is a predictor ofpotential, key to cultivating a mid-level giftis finding ways to further connect thesedonors to the mission. And so, one of theobjectives of a mid-level gifts program is todevelop strategies that will bring this groupof donors closer to the organization, mak-ing them feel like “insiders” with access topeople and information not available to all.The two main components in this strategyrelate to content and delivery – contentbeing what you say and delivery being howyou say it.

Donors in these programs should notice adifference in the way they are treated by

your organization when compared to theirrelationship with other charities. Theyshould receive personalized attention, haveaccess to a staff person who they know byname and the material you send to themshould stand out. Sometimes it’s a matterof taking some of the high touch cultivationtechniques from major gifts and findingways to automate them. "Automated culti-vation" looks to a donor like a personaltouch from an individual staff person or volunteer, but are things that can be pro-duced on a larger scale. Common tech-niques include handwritten letters andenvelopes, using a better stock of paper orusing first class live postage.

One of the most important differences thatthey should notice is that they receive per-sonalized attention and have access to astaff person who they know, and whoknows them, by name. Take the example ofCatholic Relief Services (CRS), an interna-tional development and relief organizationheadquartered in Baltimore, Maryland. Theorganization initiated a mid-level givingprogram in 2003 as a means to cultivatecloser relationships with higher end annualgiving donors. As the program has maturedover the years and the strategy associatedwith it has evolved, one thing has stayedthe same. “One of the keys to what hasmade this program work is the team ofDevelopment Associates who are assignedto work with these donors,” notes DonnaAdair, Senior Development Officer responsi-ble for the program. “In our program, theDevelopment Associates generally don’tmeet with the donors face-to-face, but theydo make personal connections throughphone and email in order to build a closerrelationship. We find that just with this typeof connection, donors begin to feel closerand more engaged with us, like they are amember of our CRS family.” And with this asone of the foundations of their strategy, themid-level donor program has grown fromrepresenting 8.1% of the total annual givingprogram revenue to 11.2% of that revenue.

Providing “inside information” and havingaccess to leadership of the organization isalso important for this group of donors.Invitations to special “behind the scenes”events, conference calls with the CEO and/orkey institutional staff (academic, research,curatorial) should be built into cultivationand stewardship strategies. Some organiza-tions create a landing page on their websites with the recording of the conferencecall so that donors who could not partici-pate in the call can listen at a later date. Thisactivity can be very effective and, dependingon how many mid-level donors you have,the cost per contact doesn't have to be high.

A major gifts approach that assigns a port-folio of prospects to a development staffmember is another common strategy. A key

““Donors in a bridge donorprogram should notice a difference in the way theyare treated by your organi-zation when compared totheir relationship with other charities.

SUMMER 2012 7

The 5 and 6-figure mid donor program

For organizations that regularly attractseven and eight-figure gifts, most notablyvery large academic institutions, mid-level giving is really their major gifts pro-grams. The pipelines for these organiza-tions are so expansive, ranging fromannual level gifts all the way to multi-million dollar prospects. As a result,gifts between $10,000 and upwards of$250,000, which would be the upper echelon of the giving pyramid in mostcharities, is basically how mid-level giv-ing is defined in these institutions. Andwhile there are similarities to traditionalmid-level gift programs, there are someunique elements as well.

One of the similarities is the need to iden-tify mid-level prospects through miningthe database. “At McGill, we have beengiving more attention to the develop-ment of our pipeline and have begunexamining it on a regular basis, lookingfor new prospective major gift donorswith whom we can start to build relation-ships,” says Marc Weinstein,Vice Principal,Development and Alumni Relations atMcGill University. “We are firm believersin the benefits of this work, as we havecountless examples of where our largestbenefactors began their giving relation-ship with McGill through small and medi-um sized gifts.”

In fact, analytics tools like data mining anddonor screening lend themselves to theidentification of mid-level gift prospects.“It’s actually quite rare that we find newmillion dollar gifts for this type of organi-zation,” notes Celeste Bannon Waterman,KCI’s Senior Consultant Research andAnalytics. “The vast majority of the time,these organizations already know whotheir transformational level prospects are,or have other ways of identifying them.So, what we’ve come to discover is thatidentifying mid-level gift potential iswhere analytics can have a real impact forthese types of organizations.”

A challenge for organizations of this mag-nitude is finding ways for donors at thislevel to have a meaningful experiencewith the institution. “The reality is that formany donors, a gift of this size is an incred-ibly significant and generous donation,andmay, in fact, be the largest gift they evermake to us or any charity”, notes GillianMorrison, Assistant Vice President, Divis-ional Relations and Campaigns at the Uni-versity of Toronto. “As a result,we work veryhard to find ways to honour the magnitudeof their gift by matching it with giving op-portunities that both resonate with themand have an impact on the institution.”

One of the ways U of T has done that is byexamining its case, looking for mid-tiergiving opportunities that make the insti-tution’s vision accessible to mid-leveldonors. While named spaces in new capitalprojects continue to be good opportuni-ties, they have discovered that the “U of Tstudent” provides some of the most pow-erful and impactful case offerings.“Not onlycan we create meaningful opportunitiesrelated to our students at gift levels acces-sible to donors at this gift level, we findthat these types of opportunities tend tobe of interest to these donors.” Examplesinclude providing students with interna-tional experiences and scholarships.

And while scholarships are a standardphilanthropic opportunity at almostevery post-secondary institution, U of Thas taken its thinking one-step further bycreating a scholarship program that tiesdirectly into its $2 billion campaign andthe institutional vision it will support.Building on Boundless, the campaigntagline, U of T has created the BoundlessPromise Program. “We have pledged thatno qualified undergraduate will have todecline admission or leave their studies atU of T because of financial constraints,”saysMorrison. “And in order to keep that com-mitment, we need help from our donors.”This program is one of the ways that U of T

has created urgent, meaningful ways formid-level donors to not only engage inthe Boundless Campaign, but also in theachievement of U of T’s vision to be aninstitution of excellence bar none.

The mid-level or major gift program atthese types of organizations can also be agreat spot for volunteer involvement. Forgifts of this level, volunteers can not onlyplay an important role in opening doors,they can also be comfortable cultivatingand soliciting donations. But in order fortheir involvement to be effective, MarcWeinstein believes that it is critical forinstitutions like universities to adequatelytrain staff who manage and work withvolunteers, something that historicallyhas not been seen as a priority. FromDevelopment Officers to the President,he believes that understanding how towork with volunteers is critical to beingable to maximize their involvement.

Of final note, many organizations havefound that providing matching fundscontinues to be an important incentive tomid-level donors. Some institutions arechoosing to allocate internal funds tomatch gifts outright or to match theincome on endowed gifts, thereby effec-tively doubling the capacity and impactof the gift.

Marnie A. SpearsPresident and CEO

Nicole NakoneshnyVice President and Editor,Philanthropic Trends Quarterly

Philanthropic Trends Quarterly© is published by KCI.Unauthorized reproduction or distribution without attributionis prohibited. Philanthropic Trends Quarterly© is intended toprovide an anecdotal ‘snapshot’ of philanthropy in Canada.We hope it will serve as a useful overview for observers of thecharitable and nonprofit scene.

Aussi disponible en français. Illustrations by Mark Airs.

214 KING STREET WEST, SUITE 508, TORONTO, ON M5H 3S6 t: 416.340.9710 f: 416.340.9755 e: toronto@kciphilanthropy.com www.forwardthinkingKCI.comT O R O N T O O T T A W A M O N T R E A L C A L G A R Y V A N C O U V E R H A L I F A X E D M O N T O N

difference is the size of portfolio, which in aBridge DonorTM Program can be upwards of400 to 500 prospects. The management ofthe portfolio and the activities associatedwith it are similar to major gift methodolo-gy, however with much shorter cultivationperiods. For those organizations taking aface-to-face approach, asks should be madeon the first or second visit with the pros-pect. And this type of position really doeslend itself to the “road warrior” type of dev-elopment professional, as getting out andmeeting with donors is critical to success.

In order to properly execute a bridge donorprogram, further segmentation of your poolof mid-level gift prospects may be neces-sary if the pool of prospects is too big.Some organizations apply a “tiering” systemand develop specific strategies for the vari-ous levels. For the “bottom half” of a portfo-lio, the approach may use more automatedcultivation techniques, while the “top half”may make use of more high-touch strategies.

Investing in your mid donors

A focused mid donor approach is notsomething that happens on the side ofsomeone’s desk, and in order to see resultsfrom a bridge donor program, organiza-tions must be prepared to invest. Strategiesneed to be well thought out and resourced,and often require at least one staff personto get the program off the ground withmore added as the program matures anddevelops. In addition to the staff personleading the program, organizations need tobe prepared to augment communications,stewardship and other donor service activi-ties to adequately support this group ofdonors. So, investment will be required.And when there’s investment, there is oftenthe need for board approval.

The business case to request approvaldoesn’t have to be complicated and oftenthe most compelling rationale is found rightwithin your database. Dig into your data-base and analyse your revenues for the pasttwo or three years. We expect that you willfind plenty of opportunity in the givingspace between your annual fund and majorgift programs.

Consider the example of the followingactual client data. In this case, major gifts(defined as gifts of $10,000 and up) camefrom 675 donors, totalled $23 million andaccounted for 64% of revenue. The annualfund (gifts under $2,000) had thousands ofdonors and generated $9.7 million, or 27%of total revenue. And gifts between $2,000and $9,999.

843 gifts, totalling $3.2 million, which wasjust 9% of revenue.

This example demonstrates the potentialthat exists in the mid-level gift range in twoways. First is the small number of donorsgiving at this level. And second is that theaverage gift of the mid-level donor is$3,800. This is still a significant gift and rep-resents an enormous financial opportunityif even a small subset of donors from theannual fund move up to the level. If theorganization were able to double its num-ber of mid-level donors, it could generatean additional $3.2 million a year.

And so the other component of the busi-ness case should be a high level strategyand pro forma that illustrates not only howyou propose to tap into this market, but thepotential financial impact if you do. Whendoing this pro forma, it is important to pullout of the annual fund the value of thedonors that you promote to the mid-levelgift program. While still the right strategy in the long term, it will have an impact onannual fund revenue and this fact shouldbe highlighted for the board.

As with any program, particularly thoserequiring new investment, regular meas-urement is key. So think about the metricsand milestones that will assess perform-ance of your bridge donor program in boththe short and long terms. Some of the met-rics that should be considered are total dollars raised, number of donors whoupgrade to mid-level giving and return oninvestment. As the program matures, otherimportant measures include how manyviable prospects are bumped up to themajor and planned giving program as wellas the aggregate increase in giving by thisgroup of donors over time. And be awarethat this program should be more expen-sive per effort than major gifts, so don’tapologize for that.

Bridge donor programs have a multitude ofbenefits. Increasing donor loyalty, maximiz-ing the giving potential of each donor andcreating a stepping stone to major andplanned gifts to name but a few. Anotherconsequence is uncovering new volunteersand board members. Finally, and perhapsmost importantly of all, a Bridge DonorTM

Program enables us to get to know ourdonors better, find ways to make them feelinvested in our missions and deepen ourrelationships with them.