The care that we take with major and transformational gifts is both a science and an art – precise and personal. However, these significant contributions have traditionally faced a common obstacle: time. Many times the gift documentation process causes delays, layers of approvals, and bureaucracy to ensure that all i's are dotted, t's are crossed, and every legal requirement is satisfied. At Givzey, we've seen organizations use Smart Gift Agreements, our digital gift agreement solution, to finally overcome this time challenge.
On a regular basis, we see fundraisers secure and book principle gifts of $1M and more using Smart Gift Agreements. In fact, a significant percentage of gifts under management on the Givzey platform qualify as major gifts, demonstrating that digital solutions are increasingly trusted for even the most substantial philanthropic contributions.
In this article, we explore the specific reasons why nonprofit organizations and their leadership teams are embracing digital gift agreements for their most valuable contributions. We'll reveal how this technology is streamlining processes, reducing administrative burdens, and ultimately helping development teams secure more major gifts; all while maintaining the high-touch, personalized approach that these significant donors deserve.
Why More Million Dollar Gifts Are Being Booked with Digital Gift Agreements
Speed and Convenience
Turning a verbal donor commitment into a booked gift in just a few clicks makes a night-and-day difference for organizations. While the gift process is well thought out at most organizations, gift officers, advancement services professionals, and leadership all see the slowdown that begins when it comes to filling out forms, opening a long back-and-forth dialog and round of reviews to get everything right. Givzey’s Smart Gift Agreements not only make this process easy, but they actually accelerate the time it takes to close a gift significantly, while elevating the donor experience.
Fundraising Efficiencies
Aside from speed and convenience as mentioned above, consistency has been a huge asset that digital gift agreements have helped bring to the table. Every organization is different and some have a more streamlined process than others but having a set, easy procedure for handling pledges takes a lot of guesswork out of their day-to-day and allows for a lot more scalability.
Donor Experience
Givzey often refers to the period between a donor's verbal commitment and the finalization of their gift as "the messy middle." This is usually a drawn out process that can often dampen the donor’s enthusiasm and cloud the line of communication between them and the institution, which impacts not just the gift at hand but any potential future giving as well. Digitizing the agreement makes it clear and simple to all parties involved what needs to be done, and it simplifies future giving as well for multiyear pledges. Digital gift agreements come with pledge payment reminders so that’s another headache handled for all parties.
Compliance
A common issue with the traditional gift agreements is a gift officer using an outdated form or forgetting a step in the process, requiring them to go back to the donor to make sure the right forms are signed with all the i’s dotted and all the t’s crossed. Digital agreements update in real-time and allow for any changes or updates to be rolled out automatically, taking the guesswork out of the process so that everyone is on the same page.
While your current gift agreement process may feel like a necessary evil rather than a challenge to overcome, ultimately fundraising leaders who don’t address gift documentation management end up leaving money on the table. Being able to close gifts of all sizes quicker and book donors in multi-year pledges with automatic reminders is going to bring up your retention and fulfillment rate in a way that your manual process, however fine it may be working now, simply can’t.
The Importance of Properly Documenting Million Dollar Gifts
Advancement professionals must ensure all gift documentation adheres to institutional gift acceptance policies, providing a clear path from initial commitment to final close. Proper documentation helps maintain donor trust while enabling gift officers to focus on relationship-building rather than administrative processes.
How Givzey Ensures Proper Gift Documentation
Givzey's approach goes beyond simply digitizing paperwork. Their Gift Agreement Management solutions provide dual benefits: streamlining the documentation process while simultaneously establishing critical guardrails for compliance.
The smart gift agreement system guides advancement professionals through each required element of proper gift documentation, reducing the risk of missing crucial details or compliance requirements. By embedding institutional policies directly into the workflow, Givzey helps ensure that all gift agreements meet both organizational standards and legal requirements.
This structured approach protects both donors and institutions by creating consistent, compliant documentation for every major gift. For advancement teams, this means reduced administrative burden, minimized compliance risks, and a more efficient path from gift commitment to successful close—allowing development officers to focus on what they do best: building meaningful donor relationships that lead to transformational giving.
As institutions continue to pursue transformational gifts, adopting streamlined, compliant documentation processes will remain critical to fundraising success and donor satisfaction.