Tag Archives: major gift

Relationship Mapping for New Prospects

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I just can’t stop thinking about relationship mapping! Probably because I am deep within a project to use relationship mapping to generate new prospects and illuminate the path to identified prospects within a campaign. A soft touch for new software, I really, really want the product I’m using, Prospect Visual, to deliver the goods. But will it?

The Many Shades of Relationship Mapping

Relationship mapping is not new, but some of the tools used to find relationships are new. Essentially, you create a visual (think family tree style) or data map (like in Excel or a database) or both of someone’s relationships. Many organizations collect this information in the donor database as an afterthought or “extra”. Relationships might be mapped to family members, boards served, club memberships, religious involvement and others. Why, you could even map all of the interrelated relationships of the Mad Men television show characters…

Mad Men Relationships

In higher education there may be a wealth of information from the school that connects individuals to one another, such as club membership, degree majors, and sports participation among many others. In 2012, Queens University presented at a CASE conference on their use of TouchGraph to map relationships within their own database.

What some new products, such as Prospect Visual and Relationship Science, are attempting to do is allow you to take the relationships you have collected on one individual and find paths to reach other individuals “out in the wild”.

LinkedIn does a reasonable job of this for prospecting within business networks. I have used LinkedIn, in combination with verbally asking people in my network, to identify paths to prospects I would like to cultivate for business. A personal introduction by someone with a strong relationship is much preferable to a cold call!

A nonprofit organization can use a trustee or engaged volunteer to introduce it to new prospects who are likely to have an affinity for the organization. Nothing new about that!

The Missing Piece: Spheres of Influence

What is new is identifying, perhaps by visualizing, someone’s sphere of influence. Some people are connected to more people and some people have many people in their network that are strong or deep connections. Strong connections suggest that the person can influence the other person. In the triad of Linkage-Ability-Inclination, relationship mapping provides the piece research has not always been so good at delivering in the past: Linkage.

In our book, Prospect Research for Fundraisers, Helen Brown and I discuss relationship mapping in the last chapter. Helen provides a great example of an organization that used its alumni group on LinkedIn to identify individuals who were highly connected and then qualified them for affinity. This process uncovered some great new prospects.

Jen Filla’s Facebook Spheres

I attended a course at the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay led by social media expert Bryn Warner, and I created a visual representation of my relationships from my personal Facebook page, which I have included here. Just look at all the connections around my husband and my favorite live-music venue, Mahuffer’s! Clearly this represents a sphere of influence. And it’s a messy, tangled ball of yarn, yes? I did not take the time to manipulate the graph results to make it pleasing to the eye or to make the names all readable. Make no mistake, these tools may be powerful, but they are time-hungry beasts!

Analyzing and Verifying

My experience so far using Prospect Visual is two-fold: (1) Visualizing spheres of influence is effective in identifying promising paths to new prospects; and (2) Just as in a wealth screening, this big relationship database is great at prioritizing, but I still have to analyze and verify the information.

What I have been doing so far in Prospect Visual is identifying clusters of relationships – spheres of influence – inside and outside the defined group of individual, foundation and corporation prospects in our project space. While one trustee may have strong relationships to identified prospects, another trustee may have a deep and wide network with organizations and people that my client has not considered before.

Once we see a sphere of influence, the next step is to confirm it truly exists and then discover whether there is any ability or inclination. Because there are errors in the underlying database of relationships – such as duplicate records and connections that are just plain wrong – the connections must be verified. And once the connections are verified, further research is needed to discover those shiny glimmers of affinity.

Getting Results

As with wealth screenings, moving the process from mass prioritization all the way through cultivation and solicitation takes time. It will likely be at least a year before any results, let alone gifts, are realized from the effort. And this project is not exactly number one on everyone’s to-do list. Prospects and donors in active cultivation and solicitation create the crisis of time that vacillate the prospect identification project between hot and cold attention.

Who is at the Watering Hole?

Are you actively using relationship mapping techniques and tools? Do you plan to? Do you wish you could be a fly on the wall hearing about it? Join the conversation! In a geographically dispersed environment where many of us perform prospect research solo, sharing our work successes and challenges builds our profession and ourselves.

Relationship Mapping Work Group

Aspire Research Group has created a free-to-participate work group that meets online. You can join the conversation – or lurk about listening – by signing-up for the email list. I’m looking forward to sharing with you!

When Should You Look for Cold Prospects?

Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , , , , , , ,
It's COLD out there!

It’s easy to tell fundraisers to look at their donors first, but are there times when it makes sense to look outside the donor pool? If so, when and how should you do it?

This may sound obvious, but usually the best time to go after cold prospects is after you have looked in your donor pool and need more. Apart from general donor acquisition, this might happen for a few reasons including:

(1) You need more major gifts than your current donor pool can support

(2) You need qualified prospects to fill board member positions

(3) You are strategically reaching out to a new constituency

Branching Out

When you are looking for more major gifts or new board members, a great technique is Branching. This technique is described in Prospect Research for Fundraisers: The Essential Handbook (p.26) and you might also hear it described as Relationship Mapping (p.175). The idea is that you take your high-powered, well-connected donors and trustees and put them at the center, branching their connections outward.

A simple, but great example, of this technique is demonstrated by Dan Blakemore in his blog post, “How One Web Search Led to a $20,000 Gift”. When the board chairman passed away and he needed to find donors for a named fund in his memory, Dan branched out from the board chairman’s connections to identify a donor who made a first gift of $20,000. Dan started with his existing donors, but he took an extra step outward and was successful. You don’t have to start with a huge project to get results.

Strategic New Direction

Branching exercises sometimes result in more of the same prospects because you are working within a network of connections. There are organizations that do not want more of the same. They make a deliberate decision to reach out to new and different constituencies. This might take the form of populating the board of directors with people who are more similar to the people they serve. It might also be a concerted effort to engage an entirely new group with the organization in a meaningful way.

In the book, Prospect Research for Fundraisers, we tell the story of Jeff Lee at Wycliffe Bible Translators (p.164). He was hired to build stronger fundraising efforts in Asian countries where Wycliffe operates, but also to build engagement with the U.S. Asian-American community, hopefully at some point in the future linking that engagement back to the home countries. Some institutes of higher education and other organizations are strategically building engagement with countries where new wealth is emerging, such as China and India. When you are starting out new there are usually few existing donors and relationships, so how do you go about it?

Building Up and In

In the U.S. there are many sources of information specific to industries, ethnic communities and more. For example, local Business Journals usually publish a “Book of Lists” each year. You can build a list of the top philanthropists in your community, the top business leaders and more. You can ask a researcher to build you a specific list, or as a frontline fundraiser you might start by, for example, joining a local association of Chinese business owners and using a researcher to help you get more information after you have identified specific individuals.

First you build up your list of cold prospects (some people call them targets, but that often sounds harsh to a fundraiser’s friendly ears) and then you make the inside, face to face connections, getting prospect profiles on individuals once you have made a connection.

Cold Prospecting Takes Effort

No matter how you go about it, cold prospecting consumes a lot of time and resources. Make sure you set yourself up for success. Following are some tips:

Plan & Track:
Make sure you have a plan in place. You wouldn’t just show up on a plot of land and build a house willy-nilly. Draw up a plan and track your progress periodically.

Polish Skills:
You may find it takes a different set of skills to engage a new group of people. Be sure to get any training you need. Network with colleagues who have done similar work successfully.

Educate Yourself:
You may need to broaden your knowledge of the culture and history, inside or outside of the U.S. Researchers can help you gather this information as well.

There are good reasons to do cold prospecting, but it needs to be treated with careful respect because of its expense. Just as you nurture donors acquired through direct mail to ensure you raise much more money in the long-term than the initial cost of acquisition, likewise you need to plan your major gift prospecting projects to ensure that they lead to large gifts and deep relationships.

About the Author

Jen Filla is president of Aspire Research Group LLC where she works with organizations worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, or frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals. She is also co-author of Prospect Research for Fundraisers: The Essential Handbook.

Warning! Did You Recognize Your Million-Dollar Donor?

4Fundraisers, Major Gift Teams, , , , , , , , ,

You are launching a campaign or pushing forward with a major gift initiative and finally have the budget to order some profiles. Yay! You pick the first name – a prospect you’ve met who comes across as wealthy – only to discover the capacity of the prospect falls under $100,000. So disappointing. What went wrong?

Even when an organization has performed a wealth screening, sometimes gift officers still gravitate toward lower-capacity prospects. Many times this is because they are not aware of the lifestyle and asset differences between affluent and high net worth. High Net Worth Individuals (HNWI) do not look like the typical fundraiser – you or me. They are different. And sometimes that can make us feel uncomfortable.

HNWI According to Knight Frank

The recently released Knight Frank annual Wealth Report helps to illuminate some of those differences. Many groups define a HNWI as someone with $1 million in net assets, but Knight Frank cranks it up to an individual with $30 million or more in net assets. Let’s give those numbers some context. Suppose your prospect is passionate about your mission and wants to donate 5% of her net assets.

  • At $30 million, she gives you $1.5 million.
  • At $1 million, she gives you $50,000.

Among these elite, Knight Frank finds the following:

  • London and New York are the top destinations in the world.
  • HNWI’s in North America own an average of 3.6 homes.
  • The top 3 most popular investments of passion in North America: Fine art, wine and classic cars

Affluent vs. HNW – Some Examples

One prospect I researched was so interested in wine that he founded a vineyard and winery – as a hobby! His capacity was very different from his partner’s, who also invested in the winery and ran the operations. The partner invested his savings and was earning his living. The prospect was a HNWI and his partner was affluent.

Another finding by Knight Frank was that 25% of HNWI’s net worth is accounted for by their main residence and second homes that are not owned purely as an investment. I researched a prospect who owned four condos on the beach in Florida. One of them was his home and the others, some in the same building, he held as investments and rented them to vacationers.

That is a very different picture from a prospect who owns a few condos on the beach, all but one purchased during an economic downturn, as well as home and a New York City condo. The prospect living in the beach condo appeared to manage his properties personally and likely earned income of around $100,000 – that’s affluent. The prospect with the New York City condo is a top executive who saw an opportunity to own valuable beach-front real estate near his favorite vacation spot and used cash to purchase when the prices were low – that’s a HNWI.

In Your Own Backyard

You don’t have to be an expert on how wealth and assets are accumulated and managed, but you do need to be a student of wealth to begin recognizing the difference between a prospect capable of a $1 million gift and a prospect capable of a $50,000 gift. If you are in a mid-west rural community your HNWI is going to look different from someone in New York. It’s up to you to know your community – although a skilled prospect researcher can always help you out.

As a frontline fundraiser, recognizing and embracing HNWIs is a valuable skill that could make a tremendous difference for the cause you serve. You might be out of your comfort zone at first, but you can get through that with education, practice and a little help from your peers.

Other Wealth Reports You Might Like

2012 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy

2011 Capgemini-Merrill Lynch World Wealth Report

About the Author

Jen Filla is president of Aspire Research Group LLC where she works with organizations worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, or frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals.

Got retention? You'll need it for major gifts!

Focused Fundraising, , , , ,

When the conversation turns to identifying major gift prospects out of a base of donors, we usually hear how a wealth screening will highlight those annual fund donors who have capacity. Presto! Like magic. And there is quite a bit of truth in that wealth screening picture. But what if your organization is small, your development staff number fewer than five, your ability to cultivate major gift prospects is limited by staff availability and you know most of your best donors? Paying for a wealth screening may or may not be a good investment right now.

And let’s be honest. Is your major gift program actually based on annual cumulative giving at your highest giving level? Is mastery of your database still in on the to-do list? If this is your world, then a focus on annual fund donor retention could go a long way toward improving your higher-end giving and prepare you for a future campaign or multiple-year, major gifts.

What you Want to Know

Most organizations have a system in place to provide extra attention to donors who give at or above a certain dollar amount. And most of us have heard about reporting on the following:

  • Lybunts – last year but unfortunately not this year
  • Sybunts – some year but unfortunately not this year

These are donors you will want to pick up the phone and call – most especially if your numbers are small, such as under 100. Make sure your calls are at least loosely scripted and sincere.

You might also want to consider keeping track of the following:

  • New Donors – What about knowing who all of your brand new donors were last year and what they are doing this year? New donors are expensive and we need to spend extra care to make them feel welcomed to the family. Don’t be afraid of calling on the phone.
  • Upgraded and Downgraded – What about knowing who gave a higher or lower gift? Either action begs for a response.

How this Helps you Raise More Money

Really good stewardship, the kind that is timely and genuine, depends upon an efficient use of your time. You need to know which people on the list should get additional attention. If you can learn how to use your database to track information like this about your appeals, then the following are likely to happen:

  • Your donors will tell you what they want to know and how they want to hear it.
  • You will find out why people drop out and why some become even more excited about your organization.
  • You will get much better at using and maintaining your database.
  • You will learn about common wealth indicators (luxury vacations, multiple homes, etc.) from actually talking with your donors.
  • You will have conversations that deepen donors’ engagement with your organization and open up opportunities to discuss planned and major gifts.

When these things happen on a regular basis, you will be able to respond to your organization’s donor trends, which may not be the same as other organizations, and you will raise more money. Practice this kind of donor tracking and touching and your donors will be ready to support you when the next big fundraising adventure – like a capital campaign – comes knocking on your door.

Originally Posted on the Blog of the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay

Jen Filla was guest blogger for the Nonprofit Leadership Center in support of her upcoming workshop: Using Prospect Research to Boost Giving. Join Jen for this interactive program as she demystifies prospect research and teaches you to use prospect research tools and resources efficiently and effectively to boost giving. Click here to register for this program on 2/20/2013 from 9am-noon.

Jen is is president of Aspire Research Group LLC where she works with organizations worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, or frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals.

Looking for Annual Appeal Examples?

  • ClickLinks posted a contest for the best annual appeal. View their results by clicking here.
  • SOFII.org is an all-around useful resource for everything annual appeal.

So really…When do you use a prospect profile?

4Fundraisers, Major Gift Teams, , , ,

Many of my clients have never used prospect research before. Many of them have used it. All of them have questions about what they need in a profile and how they can use it. If they have these questions, I figure lots of fundraisers out there might be wondering the same thing.

We know we use prospect profiles to inform cultivation and solicitation – to help us ask for the largest appropriate gift. In addition to sometimes finding surprising and new information about a prospect, profiles often confirm and validate the fundraiser’s assessment of the prospect, providing even more confidence in preparing for the ask.

Using Profile Levels

I like to leave it up to the fundraiser to decide just how much information she needs. You know yourself and your prospect the best. But I do like to give different levels of profiles to choose from:

Identification Profile – A brief profile to confirm the ability to give and look at giving history and community involvement. A major gift capacity rating is provided. This is for when you don’t know anything about the prospect or need to confirm wealth and inclination before spending your time.

Solicitation Profile – A long profile that searches for everything relevant to making an ask for a major gift. In addition to capacity ratings, this profile includes an executive summary to help you with strategy. As the name implies, this profile helps you prepare for a major gift solicitation.

The Customized Approach

These are the two most popular profiles among Aspire Research Group clients, but they are used in many ways and sometimes customized:

  • One client in a campaign preferred Solicitation profiles first on her prospects, with an update as she neared the actual ask. She knew her campaign volunteers had great connections and wanted a head start on her strategy. It worked.
  • Another client had budget restraints, but really needed more than the Identification profile. We came up with a custom profile that addressed her specific need-to-know items, but remained within her budget.
  • A consultant client needed a profile more basic than Identification, as a way of prioritizing donors for small organizations. We did it.

The Pitfalls to Avoid

It all sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Warning! There are some common mistakes that fundraisers make when requesting profiles:

  • Asking for profiles as a way of showing activity, when really you are just too afraid to call on the prospects
  • Asking for a profile when you have no way of connecting with the person and no idea if the person has any interest in your organization (e.g., the local version of pursuing Oprah Winfrey)
  • Requesting a standard profile when what you really need are specific questions answered

An Unbeatable Team!

The most experienced and successful fundraisers do something differently when it comes to prospect profiles. They communicate regularly with the prospect researcher!

  • When you talk to the researcher about your donor prospect and what information you need to move forward, she can give you a much better profile.
  • When you review the profile with the researcher to help you match your personal knowledge with the “paper” knowledge, you gain a much deeper and more colorful picture of your prospect.
  • And when you share the results of your visits with the researcher you create an unbeatable team!

Do you have an unbeatable team?

If you are considering using prospect profiles as part of your major gifts strategy, call Aspire Research Group to learn more about how we can help you reach your fundraising goals with research: 727 202 3405 or visit www.AspireResearchGroup.com

Other Articles You Might Like

Dating Donors, Data Mining & Donor Profiles -oh my!
Score a touchdown with prospect profiles
Is Prospect Research Too Expensive?

Prospect Profile Samples

Identification Profile (PDF download)
Solicitation Profile (PDF download)

Mastering Moves Management: 3 Key Pieces

4Fundraisers, Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , , , , ,

Moves management is the process of moving a donor prospect from identification to major gift. Also known as prospect management, when you throw those terms into a search engine most of the results are for software companies, especially donor database companies. But I argue that moves management is not primarily a software solution but sincerely a *people* solution!

A database is a tool. Its importance increases as the number of an organization’s donors and friends increases. We need our donor database to keep track of gifts and all of the other information and tasks surrounding our donors and friends.

The more gift officers and the more major gift prospects you have, the more important it is to use your database in your moves management system. But beware! Anytime you spend more time typing into your database than you do talking with your prospects, you will struggle to raise enough money.

Moving a prospect usually requires a pretty intense relationship over a year or two. You need to discover her interests and motivations for giving and connect her in a very personal way to your organization. What if you have 100 prospects being moved? How about 300? And what if you have 3 gift officers moving prospects? Or 5, or 10, or more?

Now you seriously need a system!

Pretend you are an astronaut looking down on earth. Now pretend you are consultant looking at an organization from a distance. This organization has a moves management system humming along. You notice there are three gears in motion producing consistent relationships with prospects capable of making a major gift. These gears are:

Ratings – Each prospect is rated so you can stay focused on those who can help you reach your dollar goal.

Moves – Actions with prospects are deliberate and planned (and tracked in the database).

Reports – Regular printed reports are reviewed and regular meetings are held to build internal skills and keep all the moving parts in balance

Can you do moves management without a database? Of course you can! You could keep track of your gifts in Excel too, but it is rarely the best solution.

Mastering moves management requires learning the balance for your organization between the three moving gears:

  • How many ratings do you need to stay on path with the most capable prospects?
  • How will you plan for moves, make your moves, and record your moves?
  • What measurements should you report on to keep you accountable?
  • How often should you meet and who should meet to keep your major gifts program growing?

Everything in our world is in constant flux. Moves management requires re-balancing as your major gifts program grows and changes. If you keep the emphasis on the moves – on the in-person interactions with your donor prospects – everything else will find its place.

Have you mastered your moves?

3 Actions That Demonstrate Your High Prospect Research IQ

Focused Fundraising, , , , , ,

As a fundraiser, you may not need to know how every tool works, but you need to know enough to choose the tool with the right fit. How high is your prospect research IQ? Do you demonstrate the following three actions?

1) Knowing that an electronic wealth screening is not the same thing as having a prospect researcher profile your donor prospect.

When discussing best practices around prospect screenings and wealth screenings, the conversation always seems to start with “it depends”, and rightly so. But I state with conviction that an electronic screening is not and should never be confused with the work of a live, well-trained human being.

I don’t care how awesome their match method is or how many sources and formulas are used, an electronic screening is meant to prioritize a large group of records. A human being, a prospect researcher, is meant to qualify individual names and add a dose of reality to the data. A prospect researcher knows that Bugs Bunny, a seasoned executive with grown children, is not the same Bugs Bunny who graduated from Stanford in 2009.

Are you prioritizing a large list? Electronic screening. Are you working on a solicitation strategy? Donor prospect profile.

2) Recognizing that an investment in prospect research is well worth it – when you act upon the information.

I don’t want to tell you how many times I have provided profiles, rated a database, or otherwise identified and researched donor prospects only to learn that the information then sat dormant for months, even years. Why does this happen? I work mostly with small and medium organizations. Among them, the two most common reasons are (1) no performance goal tied to implementing the results, and (2) development staff underestimated the time they would need to spend acting – actually cultivating and soliciting donors.

We are as human as our donors.

If our donors give best under a sense of urgency, we also do our best cultivating and soliciting under a sense of urgency. Whether it is a campaign goal deadline or a target ask date, creating some kind of urgency will help you achieve more. Major gifts can provide a high rate of return on the prospect research investment, but it requires a serious dedication of time and resources.

Urgency will cause stress without success if there are not enough hours in the day to complete your tasks. If you are a busy fundraising professional already working a full day, you may need to consider either eliminating or deferring some of your current tasks, assigning them to another staff member, or hiring additional staff. Be practical about planning the time in your day before spending money on prospect research.

3) Raising major gifts by following through on prospect/moves management.

A prospect management system is like an exercise plan. If you keep neglecting your workouts, every time you exercise it will be difficult and you will feel tired. But if you follow the program, you will feel good and have more energy.

If you prioritize your prospects, take the actions necessary to deeply engage your prospect, and track and report your progress, you will be working the plan and will raise more and higher gifts. The level of excitement and interest you can generate in your donors (and yourself) through a disciplined prospect management system is amazing!

Other Blog Posts that Might Interest You

3 Steps to Major Gift Mojo!

5 Ways You Know You Need A Research Consultant

The Dangers of (Not) Managing Prospect Research

Defining an Action in Moves Management

Identification to Discovery Visit: 5 Fun Questions to Ask

Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , , , , ,

Once you have identified your donor prospect, the next step is usually to make a discovery visit. Sometimes this happens over the telephone, but ideally it will be a visit at the person’s choice of location. The goal is to meet her where she feels most comfortable and qualify her as a major gift prospect.

Most often we aim to determine or confirm the following:

*Affinity, or how close she feels to our organization
*Inclination, or how philanthropic she is to us and others
*Capacity, or whether she has the ability to make a major gift

Confirming Affinity and Inclination

No matter how much or how little time you have in your first visit, do NOT walk away without finding out about the individual’s giving, passion, and movement to the next step:

1. Why does the prospect give to our organization?

You can begin your conversation with a “thank you” for past giving and a natural curiosity for how the prospect first discovered and began giving to your organization. If there is no giving to your organization, or even if there is, consider asking if she is involved with any other organizations.

2. How does the prospect feel about the relationship?

Next, you can guide the conversation naturally to ensuring that the prospect likes the mailings and other information received or if you need to make adjustments. Maybe you need to add or change the type of mailing to cater to the prospect’s specific interest.

3. Would the prospect like a tour, visit a program, etc.?

Now that you are talking about what the prospect likes about your organization, you can make an appropriate suggestion about a tour, talking with a program director, or some other activity that would interest her.

Confirming Capacity

To confirm or verify a prospect’s capacity to make a gift, guide conversation toward the primary source of wealth:

4. What a wonderful award this is! It looks like your business has been doing well…

You do not have to have constant eye contact with your prospect. Take a look around you and ask normal, curious and fun questions about what you see on the walls or on the shelves.

5. I’d love to learn a little more about your business. How many employees do you have here?

Don’t be afraid to change the conversation. Keep track of time and be sure to bring the conversation around to answer your questions before the visit is over!

Discovery visits take practice.

If you find yourself back in the office wondering how you spent an hour talking and still don’t know anything new about your prospect, forgive yourself and replay the visit in your head or talk it over with a colleague until you recognize where you could have done things differently. Then schedule another visit.

Once you become adept at your discovery visits, you will find that you are able to shorten the time between identification and actually asking for the gift. Discovering a prospect’s true interest in your organization prepares you to deepen that interest into passion. And once you have passion, in-depth research on your prospect prepares you to ask for the right amount.

Best wishes to you on your next discovery visit!

Click here to register for the 6/14/2012 webinar: Savvy Conversational Research Techniques for Fundraisers

Other blog posts that might interest you:

3 Steps to Major Gift Mojo!

Will Your Donors Talk to You?

How to get from $250k to $40m

How safe are you at your donor prospect meetings?

Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , ,

Everyone loves online research, right? You can find out so much about a person online! But is all that information helping you in your donor prospect meetings?

Whether you are a frontline fundraiser prepping for your next meeting or a prospect researcher preparing a donor prospect profile, you need a plan *before* you start looking for information.

Ask yourself these questions:

*  Where is this prospect in the gift cycle? How close is she to making a gift?
*  Do I know what her passions are?
*  What is my best guess on likely capacity given what I know right now?
*  Do I know how she is connected to our organization?

Once you have answered these questions you are ready to do some research! Or are you? At this point you should know what you want to accomplish during your next contact with the donor prospect. Do you? I encourage you to be very specific about it. Here are some examples of specific goals:

At the next visit I want to…

  • Discover whether the prospect has an interest in our organization and is otherwise a good major gift candidate.
  • Confirm the information we know and solidify the next step.
  • Deepen the prospect’s engagement with a special invitation that matches her interest.
  • Ask her for a transformational gift!

If you are a prospect researcher you will want to have a conversation with the frontline fundraiser that exposes the motive for the visit and the research request. You can try to get the person to be specific by repeating what she says to you. For example, you might say things like:

  • Oh, so you are trying to find out what the prospect is passionate about so you can figure out which program to talk about?
  • Aha, her secretary is blocking your calls and you need to find another way to connect with the prospect. I can help with that.

Now you really are ready to do some research! But you are still in danger of being ill-prepared for your donor prospect meeting. How is that? Because online research is like visiting the witch’s house that Hansel and Gretel happened upon in the woods. Everything is so yummy you might crawl right into the oven without even thinking about it. You might follow so many different trails of fascinating information that you sit down with your donor prospect and lack the vital information you need. Yikes!

Maybe you have been diligent and answered the questions mentioned above. You also know specifically what you are trying to accomplish at the next visit. Here are three research pitfalls to avoid as you embark on your online research journey:

(1)  Not documenting the information you collect. If you don’t have a template or a spot in the database for the things you learn, you assume the risk of selective memory. As humans we remember what we hoped to learn instead of what we really found out. And worse, we completely forget everything the next time round.

(2)  Spending too much time on the wrong things. Let’s face it. Our prospects are fascinating people. But we need to find specific answers and then move on. Once again, templates help to keep us focused. Your job is either to get away from your desk and raise money or help your frontline fundraiser get away from her desk and raise money. Period.

(3)  Not answering important questions thoroughly. Once you have collected your information and feel you are finished and ready for the visit, take a few minutes to imagine yourself at the visit. This goes for prospect researchers too. Pretend you will be on that visit. Now look at the information you collected again. What is missing? Are you wondering if she still sits on that board? Go back and answer the (now) obvious questions.

Online research is a powerful tool. As we apply our research prowess to fundraising we need to keep a razor-sharp focus on our donor prospects. We are not playing Jeopardy, we are playing Family Feud and it is up to your development shop to work as a team to effectively and efficiently answer the fundraising questions that will lead to more and larger gifts.

Other blog posts that may interest you:

The Shocking Truth About Prospect Research Consultants!

4Fundraisers, Discussion, , , , , , ,

Go ahead and shock me!

Did you know that a prospect research consultant isn’t successful unless you, the front-line fundraisers, are successful? Shocking, but true! If I provide you with irrelevant data, or too much data, then you are less prepared and less strategic in your fundraising. You won’t raise as much money for your mission. I won’t get re-hired. And you won’t tell your friends good things about me.

I was reading an article in an excellent research magazine, Connections, published by the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement. The provocative suggestion was that prospect researchers must move from “pushers to partners”. I never felt like I was an information pusher. But I have had front-line fundraisers tell me about their disappointing experiences with “pushers”.

When I founded Aspire Research Group, my goal was to bring professional prospect research to all sizes of organizations. We have been reaching that goal! And whenever I work with a client there is always some level of back and forth communication going on.

Whether it’s donor profiles, data mining, or prospect tracking, I need to understand who you are and what you want to achieve before I can provide you with information solutions that get you to your destination.

When you work with a prospect research consultant, be sure to make time for questions on both sides and for feedback after the work is delivered. If you do this, your consultant will be able to provide continually better services to you.

Consider the donor prospect profile as an example. You need more than house values and occupational titles. You need to understand what makes your prospect tick, why she has made gifts, and how her assets translate into wealth and possible gift opportunities. You need more than data – you need the information that will inform your fundraising.

Want to hear some shocking success stories? Want to find out how to improve your fundraising strategy with prospect research? Call Jen Filla at 727 231 0516 or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com.