Twittertalk: Qualifying new prospects
APRA Canada’s Twittertalks are a unique way of connecting with peers across Canada and have even been attended by some of our colleagues in the United States.
On 16 Jan. 2013, a lively Twittertalk on qualifying new prospects was held, reaching 3,964 followers within 24 hours. The discussion generated 327 tweets (206 tweets, 68 re-tweets, 53 mentions) and 49,320 impressions.
Below is a summary of the questions asked and key ideas and responses tweeted.
How do you find new prospects?
- Wealth screening of database
- Volunteer consultation
- Local lists
- $1,000+ donors, large first-time gifts and other upgrade programs
- Probing questions of fundraisers: ideal prospect profile
- Unanswered question: better to determine ideal prospect based on DO criteria or on current donors in database?
- Award winners (local, provincial, national, global) that have affiliation with your institution
- Use of LinkedIn - has some excellent search criteria
- New donors who self-identify
- Leverage events to review attendees and sponsors
- Monitor appointment notices
- Google alerts on major donors and prospects to find their connections
- Alerts in iWave and Linkedin for your organization connection (e.g. University alma mater mention)
- Industry type tracking – monitor hot industries and run lists to review
- For universities, look at alumni first; at medical centres, identify grateful patients first
How do you make new prospects attractive to fundraisers without dedicated too much precious research time on the task?
- Describe a new prospect as being similar to a current donor (e.g. similar career path) to capture fundraiser interest
- Focus on past giving to make donors attractive – how does it connect to current program?
- Present contact info, attach your organization’s projects with the prospect’s giving interests
- Highlight connections between the new prospect and current people they know; or give ideas for introductory conversations
- Include gift capacity for every new prospect cleared
- Use marketing writing style to “sell” new prospects to fundraisers
How do people present the new prospects – through briefs or in person with the fundraiser?
- Staged research: quick capacity range first (enough to warrant phone call)
- Regionalized: use briefs but also GoToMeeting so it seems more face-to-face
- Weekly prospect strategy meetings where new names are brought forward
- Having done both briefs only and face-to-face recommendations, there is greater pick up of prospects with the latter
- Present new prospects in an email with brief bio, including past giving to your organization
- Depends on the number of prospects being presented, but briefs in one-on-one meetings get the best response
- Present new prospects in a one-pager, emphasizing the prospect’s success and links to your organization
- Track success of Prospect Research recommendations
- Follow-up chats are great – let’s *talk* more about prospect leads
- Have guest speakers highlight certain industries and trends – this gets fundraisers excited about prospects
- Having industry-geared strategy meetings focussed on areas where you have programming
Do you have any prospects you consider “too cold to worry about”?
- Code “too cold” prospects in database so they can stay in annual fund until ready
- Might just need the right volunteer for cold names
- Rare to take a prospect off the list – ususally because they were better for a previous campaign
- Are they too cold? Update the research – maybe for a different program than originally thought.
- Important to document why prospects were identified; and to document why they are “too cold” so you know what they might be more interested in
- Too cold for Fundraiser A might still look good to Fundraiser B – know who your great cold callers are
- Seems to be consensus on continuing to track cold prospects with notes on what might bring them back in the fold
- Suggest positive volunteer to get involved with those prospects who have been sitting
- So far, analytics have served us best in upgrading prospects or getting new major gifts to bubble up
- Can other branches of your organization try to engage cold prospects?
- For universities, alumni relations can be great for warming up cold prospects before assigning to a fundraiser
- Through special events (sponsorship) or a mid-level giving program
- Events are a great place to connect with your prospects and event attendance shows affinity for your institution
How do you get fundraisers to give up prospects they’ve let go cold?
- Only had issues with prying away prospects when there is a lot of potential but not enough fundraiser time to qualify
- Give them better ones to focus on
- Clearing clutter – you can bring a new prospect in, but you have to take one out
- Stage aging reports to identify cold prospects and get action
- Don’t send prospects to fundraisers who don’t want/need them – they will go nowhere even if they are a great fit
What kind of analytics do you use to determine who should/should not be in the prospect pool?
- For general prospects, look at predictive analytics – do they look like any of your donors?
- Predictive models for propensity
- RFM analysis
- Likelihood to make a gift model scores
- Number of times in leadership gift levels
- Number of events attended
- Number of gifts
- Number of relationships in database
- Are they actively engaged (seek you out) or passively engaged (respond to you)
How does your shop support its fundraisers in getting out the door? For example, briefs (long, short), cold calls by support staff.
- Prospect assignment leads to greater accountability ; often only if their managers are watching
- Fundraiser metrics based on face-to-face moves – it is all about them getting in front of the prospect
- Approach is customized to the fundraiser and their needs – if they are new to the profession, more research is required/provided
- Media monitoring on prospects, especially newer ones; using news items to both highlight prospects and encourage fundraisers to connect with them
- Prepare “pitch” booklets on organization projects for fundraisers to leave with prospects
Final thoughts:
- All are doing similar things (whew!), and there is no magic bullet
- Have a forum/approval process for prospect assignment
- Make it policy that fundraisers know they are part of the qualification process
Thank you to all the participants. If you are interested in particular ideas, this transcript of tweets was developed from my own Twitter feed and you can review it in detail to see all of the comments.
I happily accept suggestions for topics or questions to be answered through future twittertalks.
Shelly Steenhorst-Baker
APRA Canada Board – Professional Development Portfolio
Director of Development, Prospect Research and Pipeline – University of Calgary