Note: Our free guide titled, eTapestry UDFs: Start Tracking Prospects, Moves, and Major Gifts is now a part of our free download, The Essential Kit to eTapestry Best Practices.

With a set of relatively straightforward major gift fundraising techniques and a major gift data management system in your Blackbaud® eTapestry® database, you can create an effective major gift fundraising program that drives performance toward your fundraising goals.

Our guide titled, eTapestry UDFs: Start Tracking Prospects, Moves, and Major Gifts can help you get started!

This guide will show you how to:

• Use your own fundraising data to prove the value of major gift fundraising.
• Outline an eTapestry moves management system to track, monitor, and manage your major gift fundraising program.

Get started with major gift fundraising in eTapestry

Without giving too much away or spoiling the important concepts (because you should download the guide here), here are quick summaries of the two major sections in the guide.

Why major gift fundraising?

Is major gift fundraising an effective fundraising strategy?  Is it worth investing in?

Anecdotally, most organizations find the majority of their revenue comes from a small number of transactions that are classified as major gifts, so it makes sense to invest in these high-value opportunities.  However, never assume that your organization is normal, standard, or follows convention.

Use your existing eTapestry data to prove that major gift fundraising is a valuable use of your organization’s time, money, and energy.  This guide offers instructions for two analytics projects that can make the case for an investment in a major gift fundraising program.

How to tracking major gifts in eTapestry

You need a system to manage the everyday tasks of a major gift program.  A system should keep your major gift program on track so your fundraising efforts can gain momentum.  A system should also streamline operational processes, save you time, and improve the effectiveness of your major gift fundraising program.

Luckily, you already have the beginnings of a system in place.  Your eTapestry database is the place where you keep your transaction and account data, and it can also be used to collect and manage data related to your major gift fundraising efforts.  This guide will show you what data you need to track in eTapestry for moves management and major gift fundraising.

Strategy and system working together 

Major gift fundraising requires strategic action and a management system to be effective.  As a result, it should be entered into with a high level of intentionality, discipline, and thought.  The purpose of this guide is to help you get started and develop a functional strategy that leverages eTapestry’s toolset.  Click here to download the guide for free!