The Donor Pyramid: How to Use this Flexible Fundraising Tool

A man drops a coin into a donation jar, representing the donor pyramid that this article discusses.

The donor pyramid is a classic tool used to streamline the planning process for a variety of nonprofit campaigns—from fundraising to donor stewardship.

If your organization is struggling with donor stewardship, you’re not alone. Even the most well-organized nonprofits have fought to effectively steward their donors to higher levels of giving over time. Luckily, there are a few classic fundraising tools that can help. 

In particular, a well-designed donor pyramid can streamline the planning and execution of your stewardship strategies, helping you retain and upgrade the donors your nonprofit needs to thrive. In this guide, we’ll take a deeper look at this fundamental stewardship model and how to use it wisely. We’ll cover:

With the help of data-informed fundraising tools like a donor pyramid, you can leverage your stewardship plans for maximum fundraising and engagement success.

What is the Fundraising Pyramid?

The donor pyramid, also called the fundraising or giving pyramid, is a visual model that helps nonprofits arrange their donors in clear segments to create more effective fundraising and marketing strategies.

By visualizing your donor base with a giving pyramid, you can see how important each type of donor is to accomplishing your organization’s goals. Ultimately, the donor pyramid helps you:

  • Focus your campaign efforts by offering a clearer picture of your donor base.

  • Move donors up the pyramid into greater levels of support over time.

This tool is often used for concentrated fundraising pushes like capital campaigns, but you can also create more general donor pyramids that prioritize donors to target and engage in the long run to facilitate organizational growth.

Donor Pyramid Template: The Classic Model

In a classic donor pyramid model, donors are ranked by their giving and engagement levels. Prospective and new donors are at the bottom, with planned, lead, and major donors at the top. If the classic model aligns with your goals, use the donor pyramid template below to guide the creation of your own giving pyramid:

While it serves as a good starting point, this model may not work for every nonprofit or fundraising campaign, since how you organize your donor base depends on your organization’s unique priorities and goals. We’ll discuss the merits of the classic donor pyramid vs. a few alternatives later on.

Is the Donor Pyramid a Useful Fundraising Tool?

The short answer is yes—the donor pyramid can be a highly impactful tool for fundraising and stewardship. However, its usefulness largely depends on how you create your donor pyramid and the distinctions you make between groups of donors.

For instance, many nonprofits make the mistake of sticking to vague groups of major donors, mid-level donors, and lower-level givers. This mindset is particularly detrimental for mid-level donors, leaving them lumped together as a miscellaneous mass when, in reality, this group includes very different supporters who require different engagement strategies.

Combat this mindset by using your donor pyramid to create distinctions between donors beyond just giving level. The levels of your giving pyramid might also account for:

  • Giving frequency

  • Engagement levels

  • Affinity, capacity, and potential to give

  • Donor acquisition date

  • Members vs nonmembers

With these distinctions, the donor pyramid helps you better understand your donors and what each group needs from your organization.

For example, let’s look at mid-level donors. First, the donor pyramid will ask you to consider what a “mid-level donor” actually means to your organization. What gift size is considered mid-level: $500, $1,000, or $5,000? Then, divide this group into donors who give on a steady, recurring basis versus first-time or sporadic donors. Lastly, take a look at cumulative giving. Sometimes a recurring donor’s annual contributions may actually add up to the major gift level.

The giving pyramid brings attention to all of these factors and more, helping you consider which donors bring the most value to your organization and how you should cater to them to nudge them further up the pyramid.

How to Create a Donor Pyramid for Your Nonprofit

One of the things that makes the giving pyramid an effective tool is that it can be adapted to each organization’s unique needs. While the end result of your donor pyramid will vary, these basic steps will help you create a useful donor pyramid:

1. Gather data with predictive modeling or prospect screening.

Your first step is to gather the necessary donor data. Analyze the information in your CRM or donor database to better understand your donors’ typical giving and engagement levels.

For the best results, use predictive modeling or prospect screening to gather even more important data on your donors’ affinity, capacity, and potential to give. This will help you group donors not only by their historical giving levels but also their potential to upgrade. We recommend investing in insightful predictive modeling tools that can more accurately and proactively report on your donors’ giving potential.

For instance, Meyer Partners offers a comprehensive predictive modeling toolkit to make your donor segmentation process as seamless as possible, provide actionable insights on each donor’s lifetime value, and identify which donors are the most likely to give and at what times.

2. Segment your donors.

After you’ve gathered information on your donors’ giving histories, engagement histories, and potential for expanded giving, the next step is to segment your donors.

As mentioned above, you’ll get more out of your donor pyramid if you distinguish your donors beyond basic groups like major, minor, and mid-level donors. Make a distinction between recurring donors and one-time donors at each giving level, and note donors who are involved in opportunities beyond giving, like volunteering or advocacy. 

For example, instead of a generic “mid-level donors” segment, you might create the following groups to build out the middle of your pyramid:

  • Annual, engaged mid-level donors: Donors who give between $1,000 and $5,000 annually and attend at least three events or volunteering days a year.

  • Annual, disengaged mid-level donors: Donors who give between $1,000 and $5,000 annually but do not engage with your organization beyond monetary donations.

  • Recurring mid-level donors: Donors who give at least twice a year and whose total annual contributions add up to between $1,000 and $5,000.

  • Mid-level donors with potential: Mid-level donors from any of the above groups whose capacity and affinity markers indicate they could easily give at higher levels.

  • New mid-level donors: First-time donors who gave between $1,000 and $5,000 or existing donors who gave a mid-level gift for the first time.

While the giving pyramid is meant to be a simple, conceptual tool to get your various campaigns off the ground, we encourage you to err on the side of specificity when segmenting your donors to maximize your stewardship potential.

3. Identify and organize your target donors.

Finally, organize your donor segments into tiers on the pyramid. For the most part, this should be a simple process—the more that a donor gives and engages, the higher they are on the pyramid. Factors such as giving frequency and potential will help break down tiers even further, with the most engaged and dependable givers ranking higher. 

After you’ve followed these steps and visualized your donor pyramid, it’s just a matter of launching your fundraising and stewardship efforts to create upward movement through the model.

Using a Giving Pyramid for Stewardship

Once you’ve created your donor pyramid, what do you do with it? We recommend using it to identify donors with potential and create strategic, tailored stewardship plans for certain donor segments.

To do this effectively, use your donor pyramid to build a second fundraising tool that will guide your outreach efforts: the stewardship matrix. A stewardship matrix is a simple chart that records when and how your organization will reach out to different donor segments. A typical stewardship plan will note the following key information:

  • The purpose of the outreach, such as donor recognition or data collection.

  • The outreach method, such as an email, a survey, or a phone call.

  • The kind of donor, based on your donor pyramid tiers.

  • The timeline to launch this outreach strategy, such as 24 hours after a donation.

  • The key staff member who will be responsible for completing each touchpoint.

In the end, your matrix might look something like this:

After creating a stewardship matrix, use these defined outreach activities to retain donors and encourage them to deepen their support and move higher up the donor pyramid. 

For example, say that you have a recurring minor donor named Joey who you think has the potential to move up to the first-time or recurring mid-level donor tier. Using the activities outlined in your matrix, you might highlight him in your monthly newsletter, mail him an anniversary card, and invite him to an in-person donor appreciation event. 

After spending some time stewarding your relationship, you finally send Joey a personalized fundraising appeal that asks him to increase the size of his donation to the mid-level. Using impact stories and details about Joey’s relationship with your organization, you make a compelling case for support and move him up to a higher level on your donor pyramid!

Donor Pyramid Alternatives

As you explore your options for fundraising tools, you may have seen conflicting opinions about whether the donor pyramid works or has become obsolete in today’s fundraising landscape. It’s clear that the classic donor pyramid model has merit, but for some organizations, another shape might better illustrate their fundraising goals or process. 

If the classic model doesn’t align with your nonprofit’s goals, you might choose one of these donor pyramid alternatives instead: 

  • Flat-top pyramid: This alternative is very similar to the classic donor pyramid model except that the top of the pyramid is flat, representing a larger number of lead donors. This model encourages you to focus on a small group of lead donors for your campaign, rather than just one or two who give the largest gifts.

  • Hourglass: If you flip the donor pyramid and stack a second pyramid below it, you end up with more of an hourglass shape. In this model, your mid-level donors represent a smaller, less prioritized group, encouraging you to focus on small donors and major donors instead.

  • Obelisk: Some organizations may find that they don’t have a large base of grassroots, low-level donors to provide the foundation of their fundraising strategy. If this is the case, your pyramid may be more uniform, representing relatively similar numbers of each type of donor.

  • Donor lifecycle map: The donor lifecycle map focuses on individual donors’ lifelong journeys with your nonprofit rather than your entire donor base. This visual shows you where a donor is in their personal journey, dedicating a large amount of their time in the “multi-year active” stage before they move to major giving.

We recommend starting with the classic donor pyramid model, then adjusting your approach or trying out alternatives if you find that it doesn’t meet your needs effectively. No matter which model you end up choosing, keep the focus on your relationships with donors to successfully retain and upgrade their support over time.

Additional Resources

Whether you’re hoping to guide donors up the fundraising pyramid or battling to retain their hard-won support, we hope these insights have brought you one step closer to your fundraising and engagement goals.

For more resources on donor stewardship, fundraising, and consultant services that can optimize your stewardship plans, check out these helpful resources:

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