It’s A Key Component To The Success Of Your Prospect Identification Efforts
By Preeti Gill, Manager, Research, Vancouver Foundation
Do you want to identify new, better prospects that your fundraiser cannot ignore and feels compelled to pursue? Me too. Figuring this out was a time-intensive meandering journey when I was part of the University of British Columbia’s comprehensive campaign to raise $1.5 billion+. I can’t say I figured it out completely, but a few telling experiences - some that I relay here for your inspiration - helped guide me.
Major, MAJOR, giving potential
I remember this staff meeting in 2008 vividly. It was Monday morning and a campaign update was on the agenda. During the Q&A session, someone stressed that we need many, many more major gift prospects. (About 7,500 more for the duration of the campaign – according to Blackbaud’s handy gift-range calculator). What we discovered in that early discussion was that our new VP of Development considered the threshold for a major gift to be $100,000, not $25,000, the level we had been accustomed to working toward.
I can still hear the collective hush and subsequent “oh” that swept over the room in a domino-like fashion.
For me, this was a telling moment. I understood that my role in that campaign - and the role of most prospect researchers in a campaign – is to identify new and viable prospects. These prospects now had to have higher capacity than I originally thought. Much higher.
For the better part of that campaign, I was tasked with identifying new prospects in emerging, external geographic markets using a deliberate and strategic approach. Learning more about my fundraiser colleagues became increasingly apparent in so doing.
This is also an appropriate time to respond to an unanswered tweet from a recent APRA Canada Twitter talk:
Question: How do you find new prospects?
Me: Probing questions of fundraisers: ideal prospect profile
Twitter: Better to determine ideal prospect based on DO criteria or on currents donors in database?
Reading APRA Canada’s transcript later revealed that this question wasn’t answered. (It’s good to have more than 140 characters to respond.)
Prospects en route: VIPs only, preferably UHNWI, please
In order to answer this question, I’d like to share another story. Like many other higher education institutions, one of UBC’s long-range goals is to engage its global alumni. A multi-country trip to Asia, led by UBC’s President, was in the works. I was asked to drum up some names of alumni, friends, volunteers and/or donors currently based there. From the database, I queried a handful of records with a current address in that region. One fellow had made a series of annual gifts in the 1990s. I couldn’t determine who he was using a vast cadre of resources available to search, but I thought it was worth sending over a brief profile about his giving history to my fundraiser anyway.
She politely scoffed.
Now, if this annual fund donor was also the CFO at a multinational corporation, her reaction may have been different and this wouldn’t be a telling moment.
In a chapter about segmentation strategies in The Supporter Journey, Lawrence Henze dispels the claim “the number of gifts a donor makes annually signifies greater future giving potential.” My fundraiser would agree that this is a myth.
The prospect/fundraiser relationship
Consider this prospect. She was an “A” (as in awesome) prospect: an alumna and executive working and living in Toronto, a key external market. A senior partner at one of the city’s most prestigious law firms, she represented the ideal demographic for major giving, mid-fifties. And she had an impressive history of community involvement, having given her time and funds to a number of local charities. Definitely a door-opener and a major gift prospect for our organization, I thought. While putting together a brief document outlining her winning ways, I imagined how an initial meeting in her downtown office may play out with my fundraiser, an ambitious bright dynamo just a handful of years removed from his undergraduate days.
Can you picture them on this initial call together? What would they talk about? What do they have in common? Will this prospect and your fundraiser click?
When you’re identifying a new prospect, consider who inside your organization is best placed to interact with him/her initially. Perhaps a senior fundraiser or one of your board members also practiced law? That individual may be better placed to meet your established, well-connected legal veteran rather than the young dynamo. Solicit input about the prospect’s feasibility while compiling your prospect brief.
Contact-ability
Also, (maybe this goes without saying) provide current contact information including a business address, phone number, e-mail as well as a LinkedIn profile URL and/or a Twitter handle. Fiddling for these basic, yet crucial details is your responsibility, not that of your fundraiser. Maximize the chance of your fundraiser contacting prospects you identify by making it easier to initially connect.
The fundraiser’s L-I-A
Much has been written about the researcher/fundraiser relationship in our prospect research community. How can we enhance it to make them see the value in our research? How can we tailor our services to their needs with the end goal of increasing our organization’s profile and raising more funds for important causes? Put those expert search skills to good use, profile your fundraiser. Learn about his/her work experience and history, as well as education background. Determine your fundraiser’s demographic profile: age range, cultural background, family history and roots. Where does he/she volunteer outside of work? What makes your fundraiser tick? Is your prospect going to jive with your fundraiser? In order to understand, appreciate and identify tomorrow’s donors, get to know the fundraiser who is tasked with contacting, connecting and engaging with them.
A quick and easy way to find out more about your fundraiser is to connect with him/her on social media sites, especially LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional online network.
No LinkedIn profile? …Not on Twitter? Oh. (Building relationships online is a whole other article topic!)
Researchers spend a lot of time and energy finding new prospects, both in and outside of campaigns, for our organizations. We analyze, segment and follow trends in our database. We scour and track external sources, paid subscriptions and news reports. We find great prospects (on paper), but at times wonder why our fundraisers don’t agree and won’t head out the door to pursue our fantastic leads. There are numerous reasons - we may think they’re excuses - for refusing initial contact. Try to anticipate those reasons while you’re unearthing your next great leads by making a concerted effort to get to know your fundraisers more.
What constitutes a good prospect? Ask your fundraiser that question and often. This input is a key component in identifying new, viable prospects for an upcoming or ongoing campaign.
So, to answer the Twitter question: better to determine the ideal prospect profile based on DO criteria. #apractalk
After spending more than eight years with UBC’s Development and Alumni Engagement, Preeti Gill is now Manager, Research at Canada’s largest community foundation, the Vancouver Foundation. A proud APRA Canada member since 2005, Preeti is looking forward to re-energizing the Vancouver Foundation’s research and pipeline management program in her first solo research role. Oh, and getting to know her new fundraiser colleagues better! Feel free to connect with Preeti on a variety of social media platforms and check out her new blog where she plans to post on an irregular basis: preetigillyvr.blogspot.ca.
E: preeti.gill@vancouverfoundation.ca
L: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/preetigill
T: @Preeti_Things