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Principal gifts aren’t random.

Best.

Relationship.

Wins.

Even the strongest institutions do not automatically have a principal gift engine.

They may have extraordinary donors, ambitious leaders, and notable gifts — but still lack the conditions that produce $5M–$100M gifts consistently.

Principal Gift Strategies LLC helps institutions build those conditions.

Schedule a strategy call Request the 26-University Principal Gifts Study

Principal gift fundraising is human-to-human trust. It is also a systems challenge.

Eight-figure fundraising requires two aligned pipelines:

A pipeline of donors.
A pipeline of ideas.
At the convergence Your strongest relationship builders.

Where 8-figure gifts are lost

  • Disregarding one half of the donor couple
  • Pitching instead of listening
  • Misunderstanding wealth creator psychology
  • Lack of knowledge of a donor's liquidity
  • Failure to earn and sustain donor attention
  • Selling vision without underlying strength
  • Lack of internal trust and alignment
  • Fear of cross-unit collaboration
  • Slow institutional decision-making
  • Treating donors as a means to an end rather than partners in a shared vision

The result is not always a failed ask. Sometimes it is a smaller, more constrained gift on a longer pledge — meaning you can't go back.

Powered by data. Grounded in practice.

26universities
252gifts of $5M+
89%involved a stand-alone gift officer relationship
90%tied to new wealth creation
23%had a critical outside gift influencer
74%involved 3+ dean or unit leader visits

Insights from the 2026 Principal Gifts Study.

How we help

Three focused ways to help advancement leaders sharpen strategy, align leadership, and pursue transformational gifts with greater discipline.

Train Your Best Relationship Builders

A working session for gift officers, deans, and university leaders focused on the relationships most likely to become principal gift opportunities. Includes training for gift officers, “Best Relationship Wins: How to Work with Your 3 Best Prospects This Year,” and training for research and prospect management, “The Fourth Third: The Missing Prospects in Your Campaign.”

Two Day Visit

Overhaul Your Principal Gift System

A focused diagnostic engagement to assess the systems, leadership deployment, and internal conditions behind your largest opportunities.

Three Week Engagement

Win the Gift in Front of You

Bespoke counsel for high-stakes eight- and nine-figure opportunities where timing, trust, leadership, and institutional readiness all matter.

De-risk your largest gift

Research-driven. Field-tested.

Ben Porter, Author of The Principal Gift Checklist

Published by CASE

Ben Porter is the founder of Principal Gift Strategies LLC. His advisory work is independent of CASE and draws on broader research, institutional experience, and direct work leading principal gift teams.

Over 23 years in higher education, he has held senior advancement roles at Northwestern University, Kellogg, and Dartmouth College, and got his start in advancement at the Harvard Kennedy School. He received his A.B. from Princeton University. He has worked directly on dozens of 7- and 8-figure asks, including two 9-figure asks.

“Ben Porter’s insights and teachings are foundational to our principal gifts work.”

— Amanda Peters Hopkins, University of Colorado Boulder

What advancement leaders say

"Ben is a nationally recognized thought leader in principal giving. His recent research study is essential reading for higher education fundraising professionals, and his recent visit with us at VCU is already beginning to influence and reshape our own approach."
— Magnus Johnsson, Virginia Commonwealth University
“Ben Porter is one of the most creative fundraisers in our field.”
— David Lively, Northwestern University
“Ben’s research presentation on transformational gifts gained wide traction across UNICEF’s global major gift officer network.”
— Ben Rymer, UNICEF

FIELD NOTES

The Best Gift I Ever Gave a Billionaire →

Build the principal gift system to power your next campaign.