Key takeaways:
- The global ultra high net worth (UHNW) population grew to 510,810 individuals in 2025, holding nearly $60 trillion in wealth.
- North America remains the largest wealth hub, accounting for 41% of all UHNW individuals, while Asia is seeing the fastest expansion.
- Education remains the top philanthropic priority for the ultra wealthy across all generations.
- A massive wealth transfer to Gen X and Next Gen donors is underway; by 2040 they will comprise 80% of UHNW individuals.
- UHNW individuals give substantially: $207 billion in personal donations in 2023, more than a third of all individual giving globally.
- Relationship networks matter because each UHNW individual is directly connected to at least 70 peers, amplifying referral pathways.
- Overall, multiple data points underscore the scale of opportunity in major donor fundraising, driven by key info and solid relationships.
A changing landscape for major donor fundraising
Nonprofit fundraising has always followed wealth. Wealth is shifting more rapidly than ever. The World Ultra Wealth Report 2025 shows continued growth in the global UHNW population as well as significant changes in where wealth is concentrated, who holds it, and how it’s deployed philanthropically.
For Major Gifts Officers in nonprofits, education, and healthcare, this evolution means that strategies relying on yesterday’s donor base won’t be enough. The next generation of major donors brings new expectations, new industries of wealth creation, and new approaches to giving.
Further details about statistics throughout this article are available in our latest World Ultra Wealth Report.
Real challenges facing major donor fundraisers
Before we talk about opportunities, let’s take a look at the current fundraising landscape. Major Gifts Officers and development professionals often operate under high expectations, tight resources, and shifting donor dynamics.
Here are some of the most persistent pain points:
| Challenge | Why it matters | How it shows up in daily work |
| Finding qualified prospects | The “needle in a haystack” problem — major donors are rare and hidden. | Teams cycle through generic wealth lists, make broad cold outreach, or over-rely on existing donors. |
| Donor demand for transparency and impact | Today’s donors expect more rigorous measurement and accountability. | There’s pressure to deliver dashboards, report outcomes in real time, and tie gifts to quantifiable metrics. |
| Data quality and donor insight gaps | Decisions based on incomplete or stale data can mislead strategy. | Missed updates on wealth shifts, wrong contact information, or weak relationship maps lead to wasted time. |
| Lack of warm connections | Major donors rarely respond to cold outreach. | Without a board or staff network tied into high-net-worth circles, securing meaningful introductions is difficult. |
| Siloed systems and workflow friction | Intelligence, CRM, and team workflows often don’t align. | Fundraisers juggle multiple platforms, duplicate data entry, and struggle to integrate insight into the ask cycle. |
| Pressure to do more with less | Nonprofits often have lean staff and limited budgets. | Research, cultivation, stewardship, and reporting compete fiercely for time and attention. |
| External uncertainty | Economic volatility and competing causes shift donor behavior. | Even with strong planning, external conditions can quickly disrupt gift pipelines. |
As wealth becomes more globally distributed and generational shifts accelerate, major donor fundraising is entering a more competitive phase. Major donor fundraising requires persistence supported by data, relationships, and strategy. Without systems, insights, and focused priorities, you may risk leaving major gifts on the table.
The rise of ultra wealth and what it means for fundraising
The global ultra wealthy population — those with $30 million or more in net worth — has grown 5.4% in just the first half of 2025, following a record 12% surge in 2024. Their combined net worth now exceeds $59.8 trillion, equivalent to twice the GDP of the United States.
For nonprofits, this means that the pool of potential major donors continues to expand, particularly in the United States, Asia, and emerging global cities such as Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Hong Kong. Development professionals must align prospecting efforts with these centers of growth.
The impact of generational shifts on major donor fundraising
The most significant long-term trend is the generational transformation of wealth.
By 2040:
- Gen X will represent nearly 45% of UHNW individuals (up from 25% today)
- Millennials and Gen Z, known as “Next Gens”, will comprise 35% (up from only 8% today)
- Baby Boomers’ share will decline from 45% to 17%
This has profound implications for major donor fundraising. Next Gen donors tend to build wealth in technology, entertainment, and digital platforms as they prioritize philanthropy, sustainability, and social justice.
Nonprofits that engage with them early through personalized outreach, digital engagement, and transparency around impact will be best positioned to get ahead. For development officers, adapting major fundraising ideas to resonate with Gen X and Next Gen donors will make a huge difference. Think digital transparency and measurable impact as motivators for these audiences.
The rise of strategic philanthropy
Major donor fundraising in 2025 is shaped not only by where wealth resides, but also by how donors give. The most affluent households are moving beyond traditional one-time gifts to adopt a more structured, impact-driven approach.
- Philanthropic vehicles such as donor-advised funds, family foundations, and charitable trusts are becoming standard tools. Nearly one in four affluent households already has a giving vehicle, with even higher adoption rates among those with $5–20 million in wealth.
- Impact measurement is emerging as a clear differentiator. Donors who view themselves as “philanthropic experts” are significantly more likely to track the effectiveness of their giving. This helps them feel confident that their contributions are achieving results.
- Values-driven giving remains at the heart of philanthropic decision-making. More than two-thirds of affluent donors cite personal beliefs as their primary motivator, reinforcing the need for organizations to build authentic connections between mission and donor values.
For fundraising professionals, the lesson is clear: today’s major donors expect both sophistication and substance. They want vehicles that maximize efficiency, proof that their dollars are creating change, and partnerships that align with their values.
What to look for in tools for major donor fundraising
In today’s complex fundraising environment, development teams need more than instinct and spreadsheets. The right intelligence tools can dramatically increase efficiency, accuracy, and fundraising outcomes.
When evaluating solutions to support your major gifts strategy, look for capabilities like these:
Verified donor profiles
- Reliable, detailed insights into HNW and UHNW individuals, including wealth, giving history, affiliations, and interests. Having this level of visibility allows fundraisers to craft more personalized cultivation strategies and approach each donor with a clear understanding of their philanthropic potential.
Board and executive mapping
- Uncovering warm paths through board affiliations and professional networks. These connections can transform cold outreach into meaningful conversations, helping fundraisers secure trusted introductions and build rapport faster with high-value prospects.
Human-verified accuracy
- Continuously updated data ensures fundraisers pursue the right donors with confidence. When development teams know they can trust the quality of their intelligence, they reduce wasted effort and avoid missteps that could damage donor relationships.
Seamless CRM integration
- Embedding intelligence into daily workflows keeps teams efficient and focused. Instead of juggling multiple systems, fundraisers can act on insights directly within the platforms they already use, ensuring that no opportunity falls through the cracks.
Global reach
- With wealth expanding across North America, Asia, and beyond, international coverage is essential. Many nonprofits have donor communities that span borders, and the ability to track wealth and relationships globally supports both local and international fundraising strategies.
The best tools don’t just provide more data. They provide smarter data to help fundraising professionals focus on the right people, at the right time, with the right message. For fundraising teams, selecting tools with these capabilities changes the game from guesswork into a scalable, repeatable process.
Use cases in action
Together, the use cases below illustrate how nonprofits can turn broad wealth data into actionable major fundraising ideas that deliver results.
Major gift identification
- Quickly pinpoint top prospects with both wealth capacity and philanthropic alignment. By pairing wealth indicators with giving history and interest areas, fundraisers can prioritize outreach that is more likely to lead to transformational gifts.
Capital campaigns
- Build targeted prospect lists and map warm connections to secure early anchor donors. Early buy-in from influential supporters can set the tone for an entire campaign, creating momentum that inspires broader participation.
Board-led fundraising
- Leverage board members’ networks to reach new prospects with trusted introductions. This approach helps organizations tap into hidden donor circles, strengthening credibility and accelerating the path to a major gift ask.
Stewardship and donor retention
- Track career changes, affiliations, and giving activity to maintain strong donor relationships over time. Timely updates make it possible to celebrate milestones, anticipate shifts in donor priorities, and ensure sustained engagement.
International giving
- Expand outreach beyond domestic markets by identifying global alumni and cross-border prospects. With wealth creation accelerating in Asia, India, and Europe, international intelligence ensures organizations don’t overlook emerging pockets of donor potential.
Real-world success: from potential to transformational gifts
Even the most generous donors sometimes begin as modest supporters. Yet without insights surfaced to fundraising teams, their full potential stays invisible. Below are two real examples where nonprofits uncovered major gift capacity and transformed their approach.
Mercy Ships UK: revealing hidden prospect capacity
| Identified nearly 300 hidden UHNW/VHNW donors | Uncovered a £5/month donor with £85M net worth | Reorganized pipeline to prioritize high-capacity cultivation |
Mercy Ships UK had a large donor pool built over the years but lacked the bandwidth and tools to dig deeper. Many donors in their database gave small, recurring amounts—gifts that masked untapped capacity. Using intelligence-driven screening, the team uncovered nearly 300 UHNW and VHNW individuals previously hidden in their existing donor base.
Among them was a long-time donor giving £5/month, whose true net worth was revealed as £85 million. This drastically shifted how Mercy Ships UK engaged with them. The team reorganized and prioritized their pipeline, cut down on unfocused research, and elevated previously low-level donors into strategic cultivation streams.
Read the case study about Mercy Ships UK.
Scouting America: from hunches to data-led asks
| Improved efficiency and conversion in major gifts | Shifted from instinct to data-led asks | Matched proposals to true donor capacity and interests |
At Scouting America, the development team aimed to make principal gift outreach more precise and aligned to individual donor capacity and interest. Rather than relying on instinct, they adopted data-driven prospect intelligence to tailor proposals.
Their approach combined wealth indicators with philanthropic profiling and relational data to size asks thoughtfully. This led to a goldmine of hidden potential by transforming modest supporters into major donors. With clearer insight, the team avoided low-return cold outreach and focused on fewer, higher-potential conversations. This resulted in increased efficiency and conversion in their major gifts pipeline.
Watch the video for Scouting America’s full story.
Future opportunities in wealth transformation
The 2025 wealth landscape presents nonprofits with challenges and opportunities. While wealth is concentrating, it is also diversifying. Changes are happening geographically, generationally, and in areas of interest. Organizations that can adapt their major donor fundraising strategies to these global wealth trends will be positioned to secure lasting philanthropic partnerships.
Major donor fundraising in this era requires more than just identifying wealth; it requires understanding donor motivations, leveraging networks, and adapting to generational change. Nonprofits that embrace data-driven fundraising and invest in relationship intelligence will be best positioned to secure transformational gifts in the decade ahead.
Our wealth intelligence and fundraising experts are here to help. Connect with the team whenever it’s convenient for you.