1. Moving donors ‘up’ the
pyramid
Supporter Care & Stewardship Conference
21 September 2012
Alison Thompson
Head of High Value University Fundraising
Fundraising & Supporter Development, King’s College
London

2. Fundraising perfection

3. Your donor pyramid?
OR OR

4. What is the mid-level?

5. A numbers game
10% of your goal 1 donor!
40% of your goal 10 donors
40% of your goal 100 donors
10% of your goal All other donors

6. Why invest in the mid-level?
£1 million income:

7. King’s campaign
Total number of gifts Total number gifts received Total value of gifts received Total Gift Amount needed
Size of Gift Average Gift Size needed so far so far (£) (£)
£20M+ 20,000,000 1 1 20,000,000 20,000,000
£10M-£19.9M 15,000,000 1 0 0 0
£5M-£9.9M 7,500,000 6 3 17,000,000 45,000,000
£1.5M-£4.9M 3,250,000 16 18 48,705,754 52,000,000
£500k-£1.49M 1,000,000 45 34 25,544,903 45,000,000
£100k-£499.9k 300,000 174 158 28,183,671 52,200,000
£50k-£99.9 75,000 108 139 9,617,383 8,100,000
£10k-£49.9 30,000 237 299 6,809,426 7,110,000
£1k-£9.9k 5000 660 788 1,743,263 3,300,000

8. When to define a Identify
stewardship
strategy
Research
Steward Plan
Cultivate
Thanking
& Involve
Close Ask

9. And in a campaign?
• 2004:
Selecting – Campaign I closed with £44m raised
• 2005-7:
projects
– Feasibility study immediately commenced
– Evaluation of Campaign I and analysis of donors
– Planning for Campaign II and identification of priorities
Testing • 2008-2010:
projects – Development of Case for Support and Campaign Brand: World
questions|King’s answers
– Recruiting the Campaign Board, Campaign ‘quiet phase’
– Define & refine gift pyramid & stewardship matrix
Quiet
• November 2010:
phase
– World questions|King’s answers public launch with simultaneous
events in London, Hong Kong and New York
• 2012:
Public – Donor events capitalising on publicity around launch
Launch – £380m raised against goal of £500m

10. Recognising the mid-level
Tate patrons

11. Beware what you promise
$ millions

12. Alzheimer’s Association - USA

13. Building a community
The Alzheimer's Association Zenith Society represents the Association's leading
philanthropists…In FY11, the group grew to include 53 members and awarded four
research grants totalling $1.8 million. Since its inception, the Zenith Fellows program has
awarded over $27 million to more than 100 researchers worldwide.

14. National Trust – Benefactors (£1,000-
£4,999)

15. National Trust – Quercus
(+£5,000)

16. ‘A newsletter for Stanford’s most
generous donors’ director at Goldman Sachs, Rick Sapp,
“As a former managing
’78, is no stranger to high-risk ventures. So when he learned
about Bio-X, Stanford’s pioneering interdisciplinary program
that provides seed funding to high-risk science, he followed it
with keen interest. He can’t cure Parkinson’s or cerebral palsy,
but he hopes to provide financial resources to someone who
can.”

18. Getting the messaging right
Stewardship is not about the money, it’s about the work
that being carried out. If you start by talking about the
money you won’t get more and you won’t deserve
more.
Alison Thompson on Harold Sumption, 1916-1998
Council member at Oxfam 1950 until his death
Honorary Fellow, Institute of Fundraising

19. Donor Motivations
Emotional benefit
Social benefit
Financial benefit
Insurance
Altruism

20. Making stewardship stories a
SUCCESs
Simple
Unexpected
Concrete
Credible
Emotion
Stories Making it Stick
Chip & Dan Heath

21. Have you got who it
takes?

22. Gift Agreements

23. Naming policy

24. A final thought…