The Science of Fundraising: A Practitioner's Guide to Moves Management
Table of Contents
Introduction: The Discipline the Sector Most Underuses
The Origins: Cornell University and the Co-Creators
The Research Foundation: Why Relationships Drive Revenue
What Moves Management Is — and Is Not
What Constitutes a Move
The Four Stages of the Moves Management Cycle
Building the Infrastructure: Tracking and the Moves Manager
The Distinction That Distinguishes the Pros
Implementation: Getting Started
Five Action Steps to Take This Week
Conclusion: The Framework That Earns Its Keep
I. Introduction: The Discipline the Sector Most Underuses
The nonprofit sector is facing a structural problem. According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project's most recent quarterly report, the donor base has shrunk for five consecutive years — down an estimated 3.6% in 2025 alone. Overall giving grew 5.0% in 2025, the highest growth rate in five years, but that growth was driven almost entirely by major and supersize donors, whose count and dollars both grew while the broader donor base continued to contract. Major and supersize donors make up just 3% of total donors, yet account for nearly 78% of total dollars given.
The math is unambiguous. Major donors are carrying the sector. And major donors are not acquired through mass appeals or email blasts. They are cultivated — deliberately, patiently, over time — through a disciplined process of relationship-building that has a name: Moves Management.
Donors who gave consistently for five years contributed 1,519% more than one-time donors, and five-year repeat donors made up nearly half of total revenue, according to Neon One's 2025 Generosity Report. The data points in one direction. The organizations that survive and grow are the ones that invest in long-term donor relationships. Moves Management is how that investment is made.
This white paper covers the full framework — its origins, its core principles, its four-stage cycle, its infrastructure requirements, and the research that supports it — for practitioners who want to move beyond intuition and into discipline. By the end, you will have a clear picture of what the system is, why it works, and exactly how to begin.
II. The Origins: Cornell University and the Co-Creators
To understand Moves Management well, you have to understand where it came from — and what its creators actually intended.
Moves Management was developed in the 1980s by two senior development officers at Cornell University: David Dunlop and G.T. "Buck" Smith. After a 38-year career, Dunlop retired as Cornell's Senior Development Officer, remembered across the nonprofit sector for the role he played in creating what we now call Moves Management. Smith, his collaborator, contributed the foundational thinking on prospect strategy that Dunlop would systematize and name. Both men deserve the credit; only one tends to receive it.
Dunlop described the core idea as "changing people's attitudes so they want to give." The original formulation was about major gift fundraising at the university level, where the stakes are high, the timelines are long, and the relationships require sustained, intentional cultivation.
But Dunlop himself later expressed concern about how the concept had traveled. In a conversation with fundraising consultant Tom Ahern, he offered a clarification that has not received nearly the attention it deserves:
"People start 'making moves' and making a game of moves, rather than really recognizing the process that we're a part of is inspiring people to do the things that we believe they would want to do anyway. Really helping them accomplish what is consistent with their values and interests."
This distinction is not semantic. It is the difference between a transactional system and a relational one. Moves Management, done correctly, is not a tracking mechanism for contacts. It is a framework for genuine human relationship — structured enough to be accountable, flexible enough to be real. Everything that follows in this white paper rests on that distinction.
III. The Research Foundation: Why Relationships Drive Revenue
With the origins in view, the next question is: what does the evidence actually show? Three bodies of research ground the Moves Management framework, and together they make a case that is difficult to argue with.
Penelope Burk's Donor-Centered Fundraising research — drawn from surveys with more than 250,000 American donors over two decades — established that donors make their giving decisions based on three things: receiving a prompt and meaningful acknowledgment whenever they give; having their gift assigned to a specific program or project; and receiving a measurable report on what their last gift accomplished before being asked again. Burk found that 46% of donors leave organizations for reasons tied to a lack of meaningful information or a feeling that their giving is not appreciated. Every one of those departures is preventable through intentional cultivation — which is the core function of Moves Management.
Adrian Sargeant's donor attrition research documented that more than 50% of donor defection — excluding death and genuine financial hardship — is caused by poor communication from the nonprofit. The organization is responsible. Sargeant concluded: "If nonprofits are to succeed in retaining donors, it seems clear that they need to secure a higher proportion of an individual's giving, improve satisfaction with the quality of service provided, and deepen the bonds that exist between them and their supporters." Moves Management is the operational framework for doing exactly that.
The Fundraising Effectiveness Project's longitudinal data makes the stakes concrete. Only 23% of first-time donors make another gift. Only 31% of new donors go on to make a second gift — but 59% of those who do make a second donation continue giving beyond that point. The second gift is the inflection point. Getting a donor to that threshold requires cultivation — not another appeal, but relationship. Moves Management creates the structure for that cultivation to happen consistently, across a portfolio of prospects, without losing anyone to neglect or distraction.
Taken together, these three bodies of research tell the same story: donors stay, give more, and give longer when the organization treats them as relationships worth tending. Moves Management is the system that makes tending those relationships a professional discipline rather than a good intention.
IV. What Moves Management Is — and Is Not
Armed with the research, we can now define the system precisely — and just as importantly, name what it is not.
Moves Management is the process of planning, over the course of a year, the strategies you will employ to deepen a relationship with each major gift prospect, with the goal of advancing that relationship toward a transformational gift. The concept is built on a series of intentional actions — "moves" — each designed to deepen the relationship and bring the donor one step closer to making or increasing a gift.
A move is not a contact for its own sake. It carries two requirements: it must penetrate the prospect's consciousness — meaning it must be meaningful enough to register — and the fundraiser must learn something new about the prospect from the interaction. Cultivation that produces no new knowledge is not a move. It is maintenance. There is a place for maintenance in a donor relationship, but maintenance is not progress.
Cultivation must be mission-directed and according to a plan. Endless cultivation without a clear goal is one of the most common and costly failures in major gift fundraising. The Moves Management process makes cultivation focused and accountable.
What Moves Management is not:
It is not a CRM data entry exercise. Organizations that reduce Moves Management to logging contacts in a database have missed the point entirely. The system is relational, not clerical.
It is not a script. No two donor relationships follow the same arc. The framework provides structure, not a formula.
It is not fast. Major gift cultivation operates on the donor's timeline, not the organization's. Moves Management disciplines the fundraiser to respect that reality — and to stay patient while the relationship deepens at the pace it needs.
V. What Constitutes a Move
With the definition in place, the practical question follows: what does a move actually look like in practice?
Moves represent cultivation opportunities that are individualized, meaningful, and designed to advance the relationship. Examples include:
A behind-the-scenes tour of your facility or program site
An invitation to a special event with genuine access — not a table at a gala, but a real conversation with program staff
A quarterly "insider" newsletter delivered personally, not through mass mail
A lunch or dinner with the executive director and one or two program staff
An invitation to provide feedback on a strategic plan or case for support
A personal phone call or handwritten note tied to a specific moment in the donor's life
Asking for a percentage increase over a donor's last gift — from $50 to $75, for example — with a clear explanation of why the increase matters. This tactic integrates naturally into appeal letters at every giving level.
The defining characteristic of a move is that it is individualized. It reflects what the fundraiser knows about this particular donor — their interests, their giving history, their connection to the mission, their life circumstances. A move that could be sent to anyone has not been planned for anyone. Personalization is not a nice touch. It is the mechanism.
VI. The Four Stages of the Moves Management Cycle
Understanding what a move is, we can now follow the full arc of how moves accumulate into a cultivation strategy. Moves Management operates across four stages, each building on the last.
Stage One: Identification and Qualification
The process begins with prospect research. Select 10 to 25 prospects — a number small enough to manage with genuine attention. Gather research on each: their giving history, wealth indicators, professional affiliations, philanthropic interests, and connection to your mission.
Wealth capacity and donor affinity are both required. A prospect with financial capacity but no connection to your mission is a difficult cultivation. A prospect with deep affinity but limited capacity calls for a different tier. The overlap — capacity and affinity together — is where Moves Management concentrates its energy.
Identify the volunteer, board member, or staff person who will be responsible for cultivation and solicitation of each prospect. Accountability at the individual level is what separates Moves Management from a general development plan.
Stage Two: Cultivation
Cultivation is the bedrock of all major gift fundraising — and the stage most often done poorly. Fundraisers engage in endless cultivation with no clear goal, no progression, and no plan for the ask. Moves Management makes cultivation goal-oriented.
Before each cultivation visit or contact, prepare:
What is the best possible outcome of this interaction?
What is the minimum acceptable outcome?
What key points need to be covered?
What specific programs or impact areas will resonate most with this donor?
What will you ask the prospect to do, react to, or agree to?
What questions might arise, and what are your responses?
Plan 5 to 10 moves ahead for each prospect. Not every move will go according to plan — donors have their own lives and priorities — but a fundraiser who has planned 10 moves ahead is never at a loss for the next step.
Stage Three: Solicitation
The ask should never be a surprise. If cultivation has been done well, the donor understands your mission, has seen its impact, has been given opportunities to express their interests, and has been thanked meaningfully for past support. The solicitation is the natural next step in a relationship that has been building, not an interruption of one.
The ask should be specific: a defined amount, tied to a specific program or opportunity, with a clear explanation of impact. Donor-advised fund conversations, matching gift opportunities, and multi-year pledge structures all belong in this stage.
The average age at which major donors make their first large gift has risen from 55 to 66 years over the past two decades. Older donors respond to face-to-face communication and take time to research before committing. The solicitation conversation should honor that process rather than rush it.
Stage Four: Stewardship
Stewardship is not a thank-you letter. It is the continuation of the relationship after the gift — and the foundation of the next cultivation cycle.
Stewardship should include a prompt, specific, personal acknowledgment; a progress report on the program the gift supported, in measurable terms; continued cultivation touches that carry no ask; and recognition that reflects the donor's preferences, not the organization's convenience.
Burk's three essential requirements apply directly here: prompt and meaningful acknowledgment, gift assignment to a specific program, and a measurable impact report before the next ask. Stewardship that fulfills these three requirements converts a single major gift into a long-term giving relationship — which is the whole point of the system.
VII. Building the Infrastructure: Tracking and the Moves Manager
The four stages work only when they are supported by reliable infrastructure. That means two things: a tracking system and, as programs grow, a designated Moves Manager.
Tracking Systems
A Moves Management program without a tracking system is a plan without accountability. Every move planned, every contact made, every piece of information learned about a prospect should be documented in a system reviewed regularly.
Most modern donor management platforms — Bloomerang, Salesforce Nonprofit, Raiser's Edge, Virtuous, and others — have contact tracking and moves management reporting functions built in. If your platform has this functionality, use it. If not, a well-structured spreadsheet or calendar system serves the same purpose. The medium matters less than the discipline of recording.
Review each prospect's status quarterly. At year's end, evaluate the full portfolio: which prospects are ready to move forward, which need a different approach, which should be moved out of active cultivation and replaced with new prospects.
The Moves Manager Role
As a development program grows, designating one staff person as the Moves Management coordinator brings discipline and accountability to the system. This person does not replace the relationship between the gift officer and the donor — that relationship is irreplaceable — but they provide the operational infrastructure that keeps everything on track.
Sample responsibilities include:
Developing and maintaining strategy documents for each prospect
Tracking each prospect's relationship history with the organization
Planning and scheduling contacts and moves with gift officers
Coordinating and preparing board members and volunteers for their cultivation roles
Monitoring execution — ensuring planned moves are actually made
Reconfiguring strategy as circumstances evolve
Producing regular reports on portfolio status and KPIs
The Moves Manager is a function of the philanthropic operations layer — the infrastructure that ensures major gift activity is systematic rather than opportunistic. Without it, even the best-intentioned cultivation program drifts.
VIII. The Distinction That Distinguishes the Pros
Infrastructure supports the work. But infrastructure alone does not produce transformational gifts. What distinguishes the professionals who do this work at its highest level is something that cannot be scheduled or tracked: the quality of their attention.
The most common failure in Moves Management is treating it as a system for managing contacts rather than a framework for deepening relationships. Fundraisers who approach it transactionally — logging touches, checking boxes, tracking moves as metrics — produce the hollow version of the system that David Dunlop himself worried about.
The practitioners who produce transformational results understand something different. They understand that the move is in service of the relationship, not the other way around. They enter each cultivation interaction genuinely curious about the donor — about their interests, their life, their values, their philanthropic dreams. They listen more than they talk. They follow up on personal details. They remember what was said six months ago.
This is what Laurence Pagnoni means when he says Moves Management primarily raises the donor relationship. The revenue follows from the relationship. It does not precede it. And that sequence — relationship first, revenue second — is the discipline that distinguishes the pros from the practitioners who wonder why their cultivation is not converting.
IX. Implementation: Getting Started
Theory without a starting point is just reading. Here is how to put the system in motion.
Step one: Select your prospect pool. Start with 10 to 25 of your best current prospects — people who have demonstrated affinity for your mission and have the capacity to give at a major gift level for your organization.
Step two: Gather and document research on each prospect. Giving history, wealth indicators, professional background, philanthropic interests, personal connections to your mission.
Step three: Assign responsibility. Identify the staff person, board member, or volunteer who will carry the primary relationship with each prospect.
Step four: Set gift targets and timelines. For each prospect, establish a realistic gift range and a cultivation timeline. Major gift cultivation typically takes 18 to 36 months from first significant contact to solicitation.
Step five: Plan the next 5 to 10 moves for each prospect. Write them down. Schedule them. Build them into your calendar.
Step six: Implement and document. Make the moves. Record what happened and what you learned after each one.
Step seven: Review quarterly. Assess progress against plan. Adjust strategy. Move new prospects in when capacity allows; move prospects out when cultivation has run its course.
X. Five Action Steps to Take This Week
Reading a white paper is a move. Putting it down and changing nothing is not. Here are five concrete actions to take before the week is out.
1. Pull your top ten. Open your donor database and identify your ten highest-capacity, highest-affinity prospects who are not currently in an active, documented cultivation plan. Write their names down. That list is your starting point.
2. Schedule one conversation. Pick the prospect at the top of your list and schedule a cultivation contact — a phone call, a coffee, a personal note. Not an ask. A relationship touch. Put it on the calendar before you close this document.
3. Audit your last 90 days. Review the last three months of donor contacts across your major gift portfolio. For each one, ask: did this move penetrate the donor's consciousness? Did I learn something new? If the answer to either question is no, then that was maintenance, not a move. Knowing the difference is the beginning of doing it better.
4. Choose a tracking method. If you do not have a system for documenting moves, choose one today. Your CRM's contact log, a shared spreadsheet, or a calendar with structured notes — any of these will work. The system you use consistently is better than the system you use never.
5. Share this white paper with one colleague. Moves Management works at the organizational level, not just the individual one. A gift officer who understands the system, a board member who knows their role in cultivation, an executive director who supports the timeline — each of them makes the system stronger. Pass this along to one person who would benefit from it.
XI. Conclusion: The Framework That Earns Its Keep
This white paper has covered the origins of Moves Management, the research that supports it, a precise definition of what it is and is not, the four stages of the cycle, the infrastructure needed to sustain it, and the quality of attention that distinguishes the practitioners who do it well. The thread running through all of it is the same: relationship first, revenue second.
The sector's data confirms what the best fundraisers have always known. Major donors are sustaining nonprofit revenue while the broader donor base contracts. Major and supersize donors represent 3% of donors and 78% of dollars. The organizations that hold their ground — and grow — are the ones that cultivate those relationships with discipline and genuine care.
Moves Management is the framework that makes that cultivation systematic. It is not a technology solution or a reporting structure. It is a commitment to treating every major donor as a unique person whose relationship with your mission deserves intentional, sustained attention.
Done well, it is among the highest-return activities in a development program. Done poorly — reduced to a contact log or a game of moves — it becomes a distraction and a bureaucracy.
The difference lies in the practitioner's intent. Come to each move with genuine curiosity about the donor. Serve their philanthropic interests, not your organization's revenue targets alone. Help them accomplish what is consistent with their values. That is what David Dunlop and Buck Smith intended when they built the system at Cornell four decades ago. It is what the research consistently confirms. And it is what the professionals who do this work at its highest level understand — not as a technique, but as a philosophy.
A Note on Use
This white paper is offered freely for educational purposes. Please share it with colleagues and development staff who may find it useful — provided the author's byline remains intact: By Laurence A. Pagnoni, MPA. Reproduction in publications, training programs, or institutional materials requires attribution.
What has your experience been with Moves Management — what has worked, and what has not? Share your thoughts in the comments section of the website.
