Free Tool
Donor loyalty and legacy report card
Sixteen questions, about three minutes. Grades for two tracks, legacy giving and mid-level engagement, a recommendation on which to start with, and three next steps. Estimates are welcome.
Free tool
Find the donors nobody is talking to
Sixteen questions, about three minutes. You get a grade on two tracks, legacy giving and mid-level engagement, a recommendation on which one to start with, and three next steps. Every number we ask for can be an estimate.
The two groups nobody is talking to
Almost every donor file has two overlooked groups. The first is the donor who has given $75 every year for fourteen years. She never appears in a major gift report, no one has ever visited her, and she is one of the strongest planned giving prospects in the organization, because loyalty predicts a gift in a will far better than wealth does.
The second is the donor giving $1,000 a year with no one assigned to him. He is too large for direct mail treatment and too small for the major gifts portfolio, so he gets a newsletter and an annual appeal, and he gives the same amount for six years until he stops. A mid-level program exists to put a person in front of that donor.
The two need different work, which is why this report card grades them separately. On the legacy side, we can show you what the pool is likely worth, because those outcomes are consistent enough to average. On the mid-level side, we deliberately do not put a dollar figure on a questionnaire answer. That number comes out of your actual file, and anyone who quotes it before seeing your data is guessing.
Either way, the work pays twice. Documenting a planned gift raises the donor's annual giving, and calling a mid-level donor to listen usually produces a larger gift in the same year. Read more about how a legacy program and donor engagement actually run.
Common questions
- How do I know whether we need a legacy program or a mid-level donor program?
- Look at two lists. First, the donors who have given for ten or more consecutive years, at any amount. Loyalty predicts a gift in a will far better than wealth does, and that list points to a legacy program. Second, the donors giving between $250 and $4,999 who are not assigned to anyone. That list points to a mid-level engagement program. Most organizations have both, and the larger and more neglected list is where to start.
- What can a legacy program realistically produce?
- On average, a legacy calling program yields about 30 documented commitments per 1,000 loyal prospects. Across Catapult programs, results have ranged from over $850,000 per 1,000 prospects to well over $12 million, so the average is a planning figure and not a promise. Much of that value is previously undisclosed: the donor had already decided, and nobody had ever asked.
- Why does this tool not project mid-level dollars?
- Because an honest mid-level projection depends on the file. Two organizations with the same donor count can be a factor of four apart depending on which giving band the donors sit in, how much of the list is lapsed, and how reachable those donors are by phone and email. We build mid-level projections off a client's actual data, not off a questionnaire, so this report card reports pool size and coverage gaps instead.
- What if we do not know our numbers?
- Estimate. Every count in this tool accepts a best guess, and nothing is graded down for not having run the report yet. Most organizations have never counted their consecutive-year donors, which is itself part of the finding. The goal is a useful conversation, not a test.
- Do these donors overlap with our major gift prospects?
- Usually not, and that is the point. These are donors nobody is calling, whose gift sizes have kept them out of every report leadership reviews. Bringing them into a real relationship also lifts annual giving, because donors who document a planned gift tend to give more each year and keep giving longer. The future gift is the second return, not the only one.
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