Principal gifts are very large donations that take years to cultivate and potentially can have a major impact on an institution. Venerable private research universities have sought principal gifts for decades with well-staffed, systematic cultivation and stewardship programs. Until recently, however, principal gifts were not necessarily considered attainable for institutions with smaller advancement staffs. That is changing. Great principal gift programs don't operate in isolation--they require strong research and stewardship partners to support them throughout the development cycle. Colleges with established principal gift programs frequently have a research person assigned to identify new prospects, feed timely information to principal gift officers, and prepare briefings for calls and visits. A number of colleges and universities are instituting stewardship societies to recognize lifetime giving and ensure that generous donors are not forgotten over time. In this article, the author describes how small and medium-sized colleges and universities are reaching for the very top of their giving pyramids. Small institutions can learn from larger ones, scaling down and customizing approaches to proactively pursue principal gifts in ways that fit the history, culture, and maturity of the institutions and their development programs.