Stop Putting Donors in Lanes: The Case for a Holistic Approach
Late one night, Evelyn* sat on her couch watching the news. Another disaster. Another community upended. Another list of names whose lives had changed in an instant.
She felt that familiar pull in her chest — the one that makes many of us reach for our phones before we reach for sleep.
So she donated $25 to her favorite relief organization.
It wasn’t the first time. Evelyn gives this way often. Small, quick gifts in moments of crisis. Not because she’s impulsive, but because she feels things deeply. Emergencies move her. People in harm’s way move her. The chance to do something moves her.
If you looked only at her transaction history, you’d see a handful of modest digital gifts tied to breaking news. But if you looked closer, you’d see something else: a pattern of loyalty, emotion, and instinctive generosity.
You’d see someone who gives not because it’s an obligation, but because it’s a reflex. And that difference is everything.
The Story That Usually Happens
In many organizations, donors like Evelyn don’t get seen for who they are.
She might have been labeled generically as a “low-dollar digital emergency responder only.” Or flagged as a wealth-screening anomaly — someone who “belongs” in a major gift portfolio but never actually hears from anyone.
More likely, she would have slipped into a lane where she stayed until she lapsed, unnoticed. A donor who cared deeply … but didn’t fit the predefined boxes.
We like to pretend these situations are rare. They aren’t.
The Story That Did Happen
Evelyn’s organization chose a different path.
They paused long enough to see the full pattern of her giving and noticed the emotion behind the gifts, the consistency, the timing, and the worldview it revealed. They reached out. Not with a pitch. With a conversation.
They learned that Evelyn wasn’t interested in galas or cultivation dinners. But she was interested in making sure the work continued long after she was gone.
That conversation became a legacy gift. A gift that would have been missed entirely if she’d stayed in a lane that didn’t reflect who she was.
The lesson is simple: we have created arbitrary fundraising lanes that don’t work.
Why Lanes Fail Donors (and Organizations)
Most nonprofits structure their work around internal categories:
annual giving, mid-level, major gifts, digital, planned giving, each with separate strategies and KPIs.
But donors don’t behave in departmental slices. They don’t care which team owns their message or whether a CRM categorizes them as “low-dollar” or “MG prospect.” They care about impact. They care about people. They care about feeling seen.
And when they aren’t seen, they drift.
Holistic Engagement Is Not Optional Anymore
A holistic approach isn’t simply “being nicer” to donors.
It’s organizational discipline that connects behavior, timing, patterns, and motivation.
It’s understanding:
What triggers someone to give
How often they respond
What kind of messages move them
Where they naturally gravitate in moments of urgency
And how all of that overlays with capacity, not replaces it
It’s rejecting the idea that a $25 donor can’t be a future legacy donor … or that a wealthy donor will only respond to high touch, personalized treatment even if their behavior tells you otherwise.
It’s designing experiences that follow the donor’s reality, not your org chart.
Breaking Down Silos Isn’t a Trend — It’s a Necessity
When data sits in separate systems …
When teams optimize for their own KPIs instead of shared outcomes …
When stewardship is defined by internal ownership rather than donor behavior …
… Evelyns everywhere fall through the cracks.
This is why holistic donor engagement isn’t a “nice to have.” It’s a stability strategy. A growth strategy. And, frankly, a respect strategy.
The Fuse Point of View
At Fuse, we help teams stop treating donors like departmental assignments and start seeing them as full, evolving humans.
That means:
Connecting data across programs
Aligning messaging across channels
Understanding giving patterns across contexts
Creating donor experiences that feel coherent, seamless, and human
It also means acknowledging reality: change is hard.
Silos don’t disappear because we want them to. But they can be redesigned when an organization commits to shared information, shared goals, and shared accountability.
We’ve seen what happens when organizations make that shift:
More clarity.
More alignment.
More generosity activated.
A Simple Call to Action
If you take nothing else from Evelyn’s story, take this:
Stop putting donors in lanes they didn’t choose.
Invite them into the full story of your mission. Let their behavior — not their label — guide the relationship. Treat them like partners, not passengers.
Because when donors feel seen, they don’t just give. They give with heart, with intention, and often with far more capacity than the data alone could have predicted.
And that’s when everyone wins.
*Evelyn is a based on a profile of donors we have seen fall through the cracks time and again and does not represent the story of one specific individual.