Small Improvements. Big Fundraising Results.

A year ago, a nonprofit leader hired me to help develop a strategic fundraising plan for her organization. She didn’t want theory or platitudes; she expected a concrete playbook. A lot of substance in a short window. “We need a fundraising plan to align with our new strategic direction,” she said, repeatedly.

I dove in. I studied the organization, its funders, its collateral looking for a bold approach that would send them into a new era.

My client had been leading the organization for more than a decade, very successfully. They had a compelling mission, a loyal board, and a dependable donor base. They even had reserves that could cover a full year of operations if things went sideways. She seemed to have pulled every “best practice” lever and done the smart, hard work.

I started testing out a few recommendations. But she countered each one with three examples of how she was already doing it.

I was scratching my head. I leveled with her:

What you’re doing seems to be working well. Why not keep doing it?

She considered the question, and finally answered: She felt stuck. Despite real success, she could feel that growth had stalled.

“You’re not looking for a fix,” I replied. “You’re looking for a lift.”

And that requires a different approach. At each stage of the donor journey, from identification to long-term stewardship, the organization was technically doing the right things. At the same time, there were still critical things that they could do better.

Instead of redesigning their strategy, we would refine it. With the right incremental improvements, we could release disproportionate impact.

We set to work. We found a dozen small practices across the donor cycle and enhanced them.

The additional time, money, or staffing was marginal, but the results were strong. A year later, donor retention has improved. Average gift size increased. And most telling of all, the stakeholder community, especially donors, began showing up differently: more curious and more invested. They said yes to see more of the programs in action, and began to draw others into the fold.

In fundraising, impact does not always come from dramatic change. Sometimes it comes from incremental discipline.

Below are twelve such practices, three at each stage of the donor cycle.

Identification & Qualification

Many organizations assume that Identification is a technical exercise: wealth screening, researching, and segmenting. In reality, it is interpretive work.

1. Look for capacity and alignment.

The most promising prospects are not always the wealthiest, but the most meaningfully connected to the mission, through personal experience or professional proximity. Their giving patterns matter, too.

2. Ask “Why might this person care?” before asking “How much can they give?”

This simple reframing prevents teams from building elaborate strategies around donors who have no genuine reason to engage.

3. Systematize informal intelligence.

What you learn from others who might know them, or unintentional experiences you may have had with them, are sometimes more predictive than any research profile. Capture that data.

Incremental shift, disproportionate effect: Making Identification less about names and numbers and more about insights and intuition helps you see potential donors more clearly, and earlier, than most organizations do.

Cultivation

Most organizations believe they are cultivating donors when they are actually just broadcasting to them. Cultivation is not volume; it is intentionality.

4. Invite donors into questions, not just updates.

An old development mantra is “Ask for strategy and get money; ask for money and get strategy.” Share dilemmas and strategic tensions, rather than only polished successes, to signal trust and invite genuine engagement.

5. Design one meaningful moment per year for priority donors.

A moment, not an event: a conversation, a site visit, a curated exchange of ideas. Intimacy consistently outperforms scale.

6. Personalize the narrative, not the materials.

Donors don’t need bespoke brochures; they need to hear why this work matters in a way that connects to their own story. Save the expense of customizing content and deploy your creativity in how you frame the conversation.

Incremental shift, disproportionate effect: Cultivation stops being measured in awareness building and starts being about building relationships.

Solicitation

Many organizations treat solicitation as a single moment: the meeting, the pitch, the proposal. But the most effective asks are rarely sudden.

7. Socialize the ask before you make it.

Fundraising isn’t a viral marriage proposal; the element of surprise is not a plus. Go ahead and give signals - “We may come to you about supporting X” - to create psychological readiness and reduce the shock of a formal request.

8. Anchor the ask in the donor’s own history.

Minimize the feeling that you are taking a big leap by referencing what a donor has already supported. Then your new ask feels like a natural next step: continuity, not escalation.

9. Frame the gift as belonging, not transaction.

Use language that emphasizes participation - “being part of” and “helping shape” - instead of focusing solely on dollars. This has been shown to be more effective.

Incremental shift, disproportionate effect: Solicitation feels like an inevitability, not an interruption.

Stewardship

Stewardship is often treated as a postscript: a thank-you letter, an annual report, an occasional invitation. In reality, it is where loyalty is built or lost.

10. Separate gratitude from compliance.

A human thank-you, delivered quickly and personally, should precede the formal acknowledgment.

11. Create a second touchpoint within sixty days.

Not another thank-you, but a story or invitation to show that the relationship did not end with the gift.

12. Close the loop explicitly.

Donors should see a clear line between their contribution and tangible change. Retention grows from meaning, not metrics.

Incremental shift, disproportionate effect: Stewardship that goes beyond the procedural into the narrative turns gifts into long-term commitment.

The Bess Practices Insight

None of these practices are revolutionary. Most require no new budget, no new staff, and no rebranding.

What they require is discipline.

Disproportionate impact, it turns out, is rarely the result of grand gestures. It is the cumulative effect of incremental practices, applied with intention.

But the organizations that grow sustainably tend to do something quieter and harder:

They honor the donor experience at each stage, in small ways, consistently.

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Not My First Rotary

Recently, in a work conversation, I said, “We’re focusing on marginal pains.”

Of course, I meant marginal gains.

But for nonprofits, especially resource-constrained ones, the slip felt revealing. Growth rarely comes without friction.

But sometimes the gains are much more than marginal.

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