Case Study: The Home for Little Wanderers

The Home’s total annual operating budget is around $41 million; of that, only $4 million comes from its fundraising program and, of that, about $1.2 million is from direct mail.

Case in point
The Home relies heavily on major-donor support and was looking for ways to effectively cultivate these donors. Its development team had multiple sources for acquiring major donors and potential donors, including fundraising galas, an annual golf tournament, cultivation events and through its board of directors. Many of these supporters previously had given just one major gift of $1,000 or more, but most were not direct-mail donors. The organization also developed a list of prospects that had been identified as having the capacity and propensity to make gifts of $1,000 or more.