Your Donors Shouldn’t Be Floating Around

Three reasons good donors get stuck and how to build a system that keeps them moving

Too often, when Kara and I analyze an organization’s data, we find donors who appear to be unattended. They are donors who have given meaningful gifts and are sitting unassigned. Maybe they received an organizational acknowledgment. They may have even gotten a personal thank you. And then… nothing. They are just floating, untethered and unattended.

There are a few reasons this happens. The most common is simple. There is no clear system for how new donors are reviewed and assigned. That is part of why we care so much about building processes that move donors into the right place in the pipeline, at the right time, with the right level of attention.

We often describe this as a closed system. Closed systems are everywhere. Our bodies are a closed system. Blood circulates where it should. Food follows a defined path. Electricity works the same way, flowing through a system that keeps it moving safely and intentionally. When those systems break down, things go sideways quickly.

Donors are no different. They shouldn’t be floating around the organization without a clear place to belong.

There’s another reason we see this, and this is where a little organizational stubbornness can creep in. Rigid rules about caseload size and value can create more problems than they solve. If a gift officer is told they must have exactly 150 donors, they will manage to exactly 150 donors. Not 151. Not 149. Exactly 150. Which sounds tidy, but it quietly discourages them from paying attention to new donors who might actually belong on their caseload.

We have seen this play out in real ways. In one organization, there was a surprising number of unassigned donors giving $10,000 or more. Why? This was a system issue. The midlevel team was not allowed to manage donors above that threshold, MGO caseloads were full, and there was no plan to add staff. So those donors sat – generous, interested, and largely ignored – because there was no pathway for them to move.

In another organization, a system decision created a personnel issue. Success was measured by whether MGOs had exactly 150 donors. No more and no less. You can probably guess what happened next. New donors came in, and no one felt responsible for them. After all, everyone was already “full.” There was no incentive to be curious, no flexibility to make room, and no ownership of what came next. Again, the donors just atrophied.

In a third organization, the gap was policy. There was no clear direction for what should happen with unassigned or unqualified donors. So a donor gives $25,000, and no one picks up the phone to thank them. No follow-up. No impact. No next step. They were left in the abyss. Imagine how that feels as a $25,000 donor. You are forgotten simply because no one owned the process.

This is why we focus on building two core tools with our clients. The first is a Playbook. This is the guide that creates clarity and consistency, outlining where donors belong and how they move into caseloads. The second is a clear Thank You policy.

When a new gift comes in from an unassigned donor, someone owns that next step. Who makes the call? And yes, we do mean a call. And how do we begin to assess where that donor belongs?

Here is a simple example. If a midlevel program includes donors who give $1,000 cumulatively in a year, we often ask midlevel officers to personally thank unassigned donors who give $750 or more. There are two reasons for that. First, those early personal touches often lead to additional giving, which can move a donor into that $1,000 range – they're creating their own pipeline! Second, that conversation gives the fundraiser real insight. Do they hear passion? Curiosity? A deeper connection? If so, that donor may belong on a caseload, even if it means making room.

And if the connection isn’t there yet, that’s still useful. The donor can be flagged and revisited during the next caseload refresh, instead of getting lost altogether.

This is a simplified example, but the principle holds. We work with each of our clients to ensure we’re building the guidelines for a closed system. When systems are clear and consistently followed, donors move. They don’t stall out. They don’t sit unseen.

If you’re not sure whether your system is working, here is a simple place to start. Pull a list of donors who have given the minimum cumulative revenue for midlevel in the last 18 months – for example, $1K or more. See how many names are unassigned – and at which giving level. Ask a straightforward question: where do those donors belong?

If the answer is unclear, that’s your opportunity. Build the system. Ensure those donors are in the right place. Your donors should not have to work this hard to be known.