Some organisations dream of receiving £50,000+ or even £10,000+ gifts from philanthropists and are unclear how to make this happen. This book compresses over 30 years of practice into 148 pages of easy to read essential principles. Its aim is to build your confidence as a major gift fundraiser to achieve significant gifts from individual donors for your non-profit organisation; whether large or small, whether an art gallery, university, charity, faith based work or hospice, the same principles apply. This book also contains helpful tips on how to carry out your programme lawfully. In the UK and EU this is governed by the General Data Protection Regulations (2018). Other countries will have similar regulations. If your non-profit's major donor fundraising programme is well developed but stagnating, perhaps you have neglected some of these principles. It could be you need to audit what you are doing as described in Principle 38. This book is part one of a two part series. Book One provides 39 essential principles for a healthy major donor fundraising programming that is growing income year on year. Book Two builds on these and contains a further 49 principles for the accomplished major donor fundraiser, available in 2018.