What a good mid value fundraising programme looks like
Free guide
Most charities already have donors giving more than the average gift, and no programme built around them. This guide sets out what a mid value programme should contain, from the gift range you choose to the way you say thank you, with a checklist to work through.
Free to download. No email address, no form, no follow up emails.
What a mid value programme is for
A mid value fundraising programme should do five things.
Attract and develop relationships with donors.
Retain and grow fundraising income and the donor base.
Communicate the work of the charity clearly and succinctly, in a way that prompts a donation.
Focus on donors who give more than your charity's average sized donation.
Offer a route for potential major donors to move into a major donor programme.
Start by setting the gift range
Defining the gift range is the essential starting point. Most programmes treat a mid value donation as somewhere between £100 and £5,000, but the number that counts is your own.
Look at the donations you already receive and use the 80/20 model. Start the programme at the amount where 80% of your donations end, then focus on growing and keeping the 20% above that level.
A worked example
If 80% of donations to your charity are under £499, start the mid value programme at £500 and focus effort on £500 to £5,000, which is your major donor threshold.
Review the range annually. Don't be put off if you currently receive very few gifts in it. This is a donor base you are cultivating.
Part one covers the seven building blocks every programme needs. Part two walks through the programme cycle, which is the supporter journey your mid value donors travel.
What's inside the guide
Gift range and portfolio
The 80/20 method, the 18 month lookback that stops you missing donors, and the donor insight analysis that shapes your timing.
Personalisation
What you can personalise without creating work, including the twice yearly no-ask newsletter that repurposes content you already have.
Asking
Two ask moments a year, where to anchor them in your calendar, tiered amounts, and the 10 to 20% uplift rule on a donor's last gift.
KPIs
Financial, pipeline and efficiency measures, and why income alone is the wrong way to judge the programme.
Fundraising proposition
How to build an ask around core, unrestricted work without inventing a bespoke project that belongs to your major donor programme.
Automations
Thanking, cumulative giving, portfolio movement alerts and data quality alerts. Five to six rotating thank you templates so no donor gets the same letter twice.
The programme cycle
Six stages, reviewed quarterly. Part two of the guide takes each one in turn.
01
Segment
Separate mid value donors from the rest of the base, on giving and connection, not wealth ratings.
02
Engage
Regular planned communication with no ask attached, so the donor never hears less from you than before.
03
Ask
Two tailored asks a year, anchored to natural moments, never opportunistic.
04
Thank
Every gift acknowledged within 24 to 48 hours, then a second, more personal thank you.
05
Steward
One-to-one listening calls, automated milestones, and small group events rather than individual cultivation.
06
Review
Quarterly against KPIs, feeding forward into next cycle's segmentation and asks.
Three rules from the guide
Every section pairs a do with a don't. Here are three of them.
Segmenting your donors
DO
Agree and document the gift range with senior stakeholders, so wider fundraising changes have to take the mid value programme into account.
DON’T
Tell a donor they are part of a mid value programme. The relationship will sound and feel transactional. Segmentation is an internal perspective.
Making the ask
DO
Personalise ask amounts, refer to past donations, and take full advantage of mass marketing.
DON’T
Take a one-to-one approach to securing the gift. It isn't the best use of resources. Save one-to-one for stewardship and gathering donor insight.
Stewardship
DO
Repurpose existing events and donor milestones, adapting them for mid value donors and their interests.
DON’T
Offer the individual cultivation meetings major donors receive. Build a feeling of collective action through small group events, briefings and visits.
Who it’s for
Fundraisers, heads of fundraising and charity leaders who can see donors giving above the average gift and want a programme around them rather than an accident.
It suits charities starting from nothing as much as those tidying up something that already exists. The appendix is a checklist you can work through in order.
Thanking is where mid value donors most often notice whether they are being treated as "mass" or genuinely valued.
Silence reads as indifference. From the Thank section of the guide.
Download the guide
Both parts, plus the checklist. Free to read, keep, print and share with your team.
Free, with no sign-up and no email address required.
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