Engagement
Fundraising

Glossary

A working vocabulary for 21st-century, donor-centered fundraising.

Engagement Fundraising

A donor-centric strategy that makes people feel good through valuable, permission-based content and a two-way conversation — so they move themselves to give, often without ever being 'asked.'

Considered gift

A large gift (major or legacy) that results from a deliberate decision-making process — unlike an impulse gift such as change in a bucket.

Legacy gift

A gift realized after the donor's lifetime, typically through a will or estate plan. It can come from anyone and may even be a donor's first gift to the charity.

Vanity metric

A number that feels good to report but doesn't measure effectiveness — e.g. email open rates that don't indicate whether a donor engaged or felt good.

Valuable content / offer

Content that engages, entertains, informs, or stirs emotion; nonthreatening, permission-oriented, considerate, and fair. It's the currency of engagement.

Feedback loop

A two-way channel that lets a supporter respond, share, or raise their hand — turning a broadcast into a conversation the fundraiser can learn from.

Reciprocity

When a supporter accepts valuable content, they tend to give back — information, money, or introductions. Engagement Fundraising engineers this exchange.

Donor pyramid

The traditional model that acquires low-dollar donors and 'moves them up' toward legacy gifts. Critiqued here as org-centric and unsupported by retention data.

Consideration funnel

Awareness → Interest → Desire → Action → Reconsider. The donor's own journey; align offers to each stage instead of pushing a one-size-fits-all ask.

Reconsider

The final funnel stage: donors change their minds — especially late in life. Ongoing engagement protects pledged legacy gifts from being removed or redirected.

Spray and pray

Blasting one-way messages (mail or email) at people who could not care less, hoping a few respond. The opposite of permission-based engagement.

Starvation cycle

Bridgespan's depiction of how overhead 'phobia' and unrealistic funder expectations pressure nonprofits to underinvest in growth — suppressing results.