Want More Big Gifts? Don’t Skip the Foundation

Okay, this is a long one.

Over time, I’ve developed two main analogies for fundraising that seem to click with those outside this sphere. This is one of them. It’s about houses. And it’s about why so many organizations want to skip straight to the rooftop—the major gifts, the planned gifts, the big stuff—without building the rest of the structure first.

So here goes—I hope it resonates with you.

Fundraising is a lot like building a house. 🏠

The foundation is your infrastructure and systems. It’s how you track gifts, how quickly you process them, your CRM, your receipting process, your internal workflows, and whether you’ve got enough staff to actually do the work. It’s the part nobody sees when they drive by—but without it, nothing else works.

Then come the walls: your basic fundraising campaigns and stewardship practices. This is where you ask, thank, and engage. 💌 Your year-end appeal, monthly giving, donor thank-yous, events, and all the moments in between that tell your supporters, “You matter, and you’re part of this.”

And finally, the roof: major gifts, planned gifts, capital campaigns. That high-level, high-investment stuff. 💸 The kind of giving every nonprofit dreams about.

Now, some organizations do start with the roof. One big gift. A windfall. A surprise six-figure check. Yes, even a MacKenzie Scott-sized gift.

But here’s the thing—without a solid foundation and sturdy walls, that gift won’t hold up the house for long. You’ll be patching leaks instead of building momentum.

But here’s the catch—you can’t build the roof first.

If you don’t have functioning walls, the roof has nothing to sit on. If your foundation’s a mess, everything above it will crack.

A donor isn’t going to leave you in their will if they’ve never gotten a thank-you.

You won’t get a six-figure gift if your acknowledgment letters still take six weeks to send.

And you can’t launch a capital campaign when your database is chaos and your staff is drowning.

So if your board or leadership is saying, “We need more major gifts!”—great. Let’s work toward that.

But start by asking: is the rest of the house ready? 🧱

If not, that’s not failure. That’s a starting point.

Because building a solid fundraising house doesn’t have to be fancy. But it does have to be sound.

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I'm Liz. I help nonprofits raise more money with less stress—so you can stay focused on the work that matters. You don’t have to figure out fundraising alone. Let’s talk.