Small Gifts, Big Impact: The Value of Engaging Mid-Level & Small Donors

We’ve all heard the adage about not putting all of your eggs in one basket. In the case of nonprofit organizations, that can mean relying too heavily on major donors.

In the Fundraising Effectiveness Project’s (FEP) Q4 2025 Report, their data revealed two key findings:

• The total dollars raised by nonprofits in 2025 increased 5% from 2024
• The total number of donors decreased 3.6%

On the surface, it can seem encouraging to hear that nonprofits are raising more money from fewer donors. But when taken by itself, this makes it easy to overlook a key challenge nonprofits are facing:

• The only donor tiers that grew in 2025 were major and supersize donors
• These donors represent just 3.4% of all donors

This puts nonprofits in a position where they can risk becoming overly reliant on big gifts from a small number of donors. But even the biggest donors aren’t immune from economic uncertainties, and they often scale back their giving in difficult times. This makes it critically important for organizations to focus on strengthening their base by building stronger relationships with small and mid-level donors.

Engagement gaps nonprofits can’t afford to ignore

According to the FEP Q4 2025 report, micro donors ($1-$100) and small donors ($101-$500) respectively accounted for 49.3% and 30.8% of all donors, but they’re also groups most likely to disengage and lapse. This comes down to several different reasons, including:

• Low connection to an organization
• Financial limitations
• Lack of awareness about their donation’s impact
• Poor communication (lack of acknowledgment, over-solicitation, delayed messaging, unclear steps for further engagement)
• Friction during the donation process

In many cases, these are issues that effective stewardship can help address by building trust and connection early on so that donors feel more comfortable continuing their support.

With mid-level donors, The Association of Fundraising Professionals highlights them as being an often overlooked opportunity for boosting donor engagement. Not only do mid-level donors make larger gifts than small and micro donors, they:

• Tend to have a higher retention rate than smaller donors
• Are more likely to become major donors

However, nonprofits often under-leverage mid-level donors by grouping them together with engagement efforts intended for other donor groups rather than creating strategies specifically focused on their needs.

Unlocking donor potential with data-driven insights

The challenge of building meaningful relationships with small and mid-level donors is ultimately an information problem. Without clear insights into what donors want and need, organizations can easily miss the mark with their stewardship.

GivingSignals™ from Wiland combines verified donation transaction data with demographic and lifestyle signals to deliver predictive insights that help nonprofits strengthen their donor bases. Instead of relying on generic lookalike audiences or behavioral assumptions, GivingSignals provides predictive intelligence that helps organizations:

• Identify which donors are most likely to respond
• Gain visibility into communication preferences
• Improve message timing
• Re-engage lapsed supporters
• Identify future sustainers and major givers

Different strategies for different donor needs

While small and mid-level donors are often grouped together as the “non-major” segment of a nonprofit’s donor files, the reality is that these groups have significantly different motivations and needs. Taking a one-size-fits-all approach risks misaligning efforts with both groups.

Small donors are often first-time donors who need:

• Prompt gift acknowledgements
• A clear picture of their gift’s impact
• A low-friction path to giving again, timed to prevent donor fatigue

Mid-level donors, on the other hand, are more likely to already have a stronger connection to an organization’s mission and need an approach that’s more personal and oriented toward deepening the relationship.

Executing multiple engagement strategies simultaneously is where many organizations hit a wall. The data needed to segment effectively and time communications correctly has historically been expensive and siloed across disconnected systems. GivingSignals addresses this directly by giving organizations the insights to support multiple strategies without needing a large analytics team to make sense of the data.

Transform Your Donor Engagement Strategy

GivingSignals gives nonprofits the donor intelligence needed to effectively engage donors at all levels, helping organizations build a broad, loyal base that supports sustainable, long-term growth. If your organization is ready to strengthen donor relationships and build a more resilient fundraising strategy, contact Wiland today to learn how GivingSignals can help your organization.