Basic Ask (Free Version)

Prepare for Asks with Greater Readiness & Confidence

The Basic Ask plan is a no-cost basic-featured version of Major Donor Calculator for experienced and early career fundraisers who want to improve their Ask readiness and confidence. It provides an Ask Readiness Score and aspirational Pledge Ask Amount, as well as tips for asking and closing a pledge.

The Calculator helps fundraisers overcome the inherent individual and organizational bias we all have about money. It enables fundraisers to make sense of available research about donor wealth and giving capacity, along with guidance to best prepare for gift conversations. Pledge outcomes will improve while helping to refine fundraising professional’s Ask acumen and relationship-building skills.

Prepare up to 3 donor profiles per month as the need arises throughout the year
The Profile Library displays up to 72 most recently calculated Ask results
When more advanced pipeline planning tools are needed, users can easily change to one of the fee-based Pipeline Planner plans for unlimited functionality with access to all donor profiles and results data useful for planning.

Smart Wizard

Major Donor Calculator’s 9-step Smart Wizard prompts the user to input 21 fields about the donor in a simple and intuitive manner. The steps seek donor details, giving history to the organization, philanthropic capacity estimates from wealth estimator services, board involvement, engagement with the organization, and alignment of the donor’s interest and readiness to give. Additional fields are available to add reference notes to keep teams informed. The final step enables users to review and edit their inputs before executing the Ask calculation. Clear instructions, definitions, and guidance are provided throughout the Smart Wizard to ensure proper completion.

Note: Donor ID and Notes are NOT accessible after input in the Basic Ask plan. To access this data, change to one of the fee-based Pipeline Planner plans for unlimited functionality with access to all donor profiles and results data useful for planning.

Basic Ask Results

Readiness Score

The Readiness Score provides the percent completeness of a donor profile weighted by criteria importance. It includes guidance on whether or not the gift officer is adequately prepared for a gift conversation. The Readiness Score reflects how well the gift officer knows the donor and whether or not additional information is needed.

Ask Amount

The Pledge Ask provides a recommended 3-year pledge amount a gift officer should use in their initial gift conversation with the donor. It is calculated to be bold yet respectful to donors. In real-world outcomes, aspirational Pledge Asks were within 40% of Actual Pledges, as compared with traditional philanthropic capacity estimates that were 250% of Actual Pledges.

Note: Pledge Goal results — with real-world outcomes within 2% of actual pledges — are NOT accessible with the Basic Ask plan.

Ask & Close Tips

The Basic Ask plan provides more than just an Ask amount. The Tips section provides gift officers with specific, tried-and-true Ask language and closing strategies to overcome donor pledge hesitation by suggesting more manageable multi-year payments and potential tax deduction benefits. Depending on the life stage of the donor, a recommendation is made on whether to discuss an estate gift.

Donor Library

The limited-access Donor Profile Library contains the details of the 72 most recently created donor profiles, including the donor’s name, Readiness Score, calculated Pledge Ask amount, and the profile creator and date.