Doug Cogswell, Pursuant EVP and Advizor Founder answers this inviting question in a recent webinar. You can check out here at https://www.advizorsolutions.com/how-many-prospects-should-be-assigned-to-a-major-gift-officer/
In short, he shares the answer is, “First, virtually every prospect in a major giving portfolio will have made gifts recently. That’s one of the primary measures of attachment / engagement. And the goal is to assign the segment top prospects into MGO portfolios — those with high capacity and high attachment / engagement.
Second, out of a portfolio of say 100 prospects good yield is 8 to 10 per year make a major gift … typically $50k or up (sometimes $25k or up). So that would be 8-10% of the assigned prospects. The tutorial mentioned above goes through the makeup and pacing of a well-balanced portfolio … typically ~25 in qualification (6 months in or out), ~25 in early cultivation (6 months to a year), ~25 in mature cultivation (6 months to a year), ~25 in solicitation (with 8-10 closing in a 12 month period).”
If you need help either sizing the value of or balancing your major gift portfolios for maximum productivity, we’d love to help.