All donors are special "customers" is one lesson to take away from the recent donation of $1 million to the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation by a woman who, although giving for some 27 years, never gave a gift of more than $5,000. The donor, upon her death gave the huge gift (huge for sure to the Diabetes Foundation). One lesson: the Foundation never alienated the donor and maybe even acknowledged each gift as special and important.

From the foundation there are lessons about this type of donor as well:
"......65 percent of U.S. households with less than $100,000 annual income gave to charity, too, the foundation says. The millionaire-next-door benefactor comes from those households.

"The ingredients are they are accumulators," Berkowitz said. "They have a passionate interest in the cause. They don't have a need to provide for big families. They're generally not big philanthropists."