Find Your Next Funder: Use Prospect Research to Secure Major Donors

It’s every major gift officer’s nightmare scenario:You’re at a donor event, making small talk with an attendee you have never met before, and you’re struggling to come up with something to talk about. Uncomfortably, you glance at your watch, then look up to see a long-time major donor walking your way. You quickly jump into easy conversation with them, and you pat yourself on the back for cultivating and engaging with this important donor.

At some point, you realize the attendee with whom you were first speaking is no longer standing near you, and when you look around later, it appears they’ve left the event. You make a mental note to look them up later, but with all the chaos of getting the event closed out, you’ve forgotten their name.

Hunting for them in the database after the fact feels like looking for a needle in a haystack. This is no way to find your next funder.

Donor Information Can Make Prospect Research a Dream

Let’s re-envision that nightmare scenario as a dream come true: A few hours before an event, your donor relations team hands you an event briefing, with a bulleted list of attendees and a quick blurb on each of them. Suddenly, finding your next funder is no longer like searching for a needle in a haystack. It’s like a haystack full of needles!  

Glancing through the brief, you notice a name you don’t know well (the attendee from the previous scenario). In the brief, your staff has indicated that the attendee is a new constituent to the organization, just moved to town. And there’s more, conveniently summarized for you:

• The attendee had been a major donor to an arts organization in their previous hometown.
• The attendee is an alumnus of your alma mater.

When you wind up next to this individual at the event, you bring up your days at the old college town. The attendee immediately warms up to you, conversation starts flowing, and the topic turns to your institution. The attendee tells you about their passion for the arts, how involved they were in their previous city, and how they hope to be more involved in their new city as well. You make plans to get coffee the following week. And just like that, you’re on your way to securing a new major donor.

This scenario could happen again and again during the event if you have been armed with quality donor information.

3 Prospect Research Rules for Major Giving

There’s a fine line between frantic pre-event cramming of everything you need to know about major gift prospects and the perfect scenario of calm and thorough preparation you’ve just read. Somewhere in between the sweet dream and the nightmare is the experience donor information management can provide.

What is donor information management? In short, it’s the intentional collection of data that provides concrete information on major donors and donor-prospects that supplements known information on a sequential basis. It’s also the best way to enjoy a good night’s sleep before (and after) your next event. Here are some guiding rules for finding your next major gift funder with the help of prospect research.

Rule 1: Make It a Habit to Review Information About New Prospects

Every fundraising team should have a new constituent list or new donor list produced on a regular schedule for review by the relationship-building personnel in your office. This likely includes frontline fundraisers, prospect researchers/prospect management staff, and advancement leaders and managers. Be sure the output on that list contains capacity information from analytic ratings available in your database. This simple report can act as a lead generator for the major gift pipeline.

There are two ways to get into the habit of using prospect briefs.

1. Prospect briefs for meetings: Well in advance of a constituent meeting, ask prospect research to provide brief notes on attendees. Read those notes at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. This allows you to ask questions or get clarity on information that stands out.

Some institutions have designed a single-page brief on each attendee that the prospect management staff prepares for this purpose, with the following information often included:  

• Name
• Address
• Spouse
• Business information
• Past giving
• Gift designations
• Recent attendance at meetings/events
• Analytics inclination
• Capacity rating

If known, you can also include specific gifts to other organizations, as well as brief notes from prior conversations.

2. Prospect briefs for events: Many organizations prepare an event briefing, which is a list of attendees plus a quick, easy-to-digest short blurb on each person who will be there. Contemporary constituent relationship management (CRM) software may provide such lists and information on an app, accessible from a mobile device. Many CRM apps also allow you to add notes to a constituent record while you’re out of the office, when the details are fresh in your mind, instead of waiting until you get back to your desk.

See how Texas Southern University added 3,000 new prospects.

Rule 2: Building a Donor Relationship Relies on Copious Notes

Institutional knowledge gets lost not just when someone leaves an organization, but also when you don’t record it. Establish a routine for everyone concerned to enter meeting and conversation details into the fundraising CRM on a timely and consistent basis, so that the CRM becomes a part of your culture, allowing you and your colleagues access to CRM data whenever and wherever needed.

Here are some pro tips for managing your donor notes:

• Write notes in such a way that no donor would be offended or upset if they read them.
• Consider including notes on decisions to reject a solicitation so you can avoid that circumstance in the future and keep future solicitors informed.
• Do not include negative, salacious, or highly personal or confidential information in the record if its inclusion is less useful in relationship-building than enduring a slander lawsuit would be for you and the organization you represent.

Rule 3: Use Donor Data to Inform Your Solicitation

Successful fundraising is about relationship building, but it is also about data. Once you have cultivated a relationship, you need quality, current data to inform your solicitation efforts. Prospect research provides valuable information key to solicitation, including:

• Analytic assessments on inclination to make a gift and a suggested ask amount range
• Identifying the right funding opportunities for each constituent
• Using communication methods and language that resonate with individual donors  

When developing a strategy for major gift cultivation, take the time to do your prospect homework and take advantage of the resources that can turn your needle-in-a-haystack into a haystack full of needles, with your next funder right there, just waiting to be found.