Identifying Your Best Prospective Donors
I talk often about how to secure a meeting and the importance of waking up to think about “who” instead of “what.” Important to that process is establishing a prospect portfolio. Having a clean, well-considered list in the right order ensures that you can start at the top each day and know your time is being spent the most efficiently.
Consider: giving history, financial capacity for future giving, and affinity. The best prospects have a blend of solid affinity for your organization (or a similar mission), and capacity to give. For some organizations, or for some roles in development, identifying those who can give at the $1,000 per year level or greater is an excellent start. For others, especially those who are established in the major & principal gift space, the list may be shorter but includes only individuals who can consider 5-year commitments that can total $50,000 or greater as a minimum threshold, for example. What do we do with "connectors" who may not have potential to give personally? We list them in a column next to our donor & prospects' names, maybe under a "volunteer" title, so that we know they don't count as meeting for future asks, but for helping to connect us to other prospects.
Organize: in descending order of greatest giving potential. This way, you always start at the top of the list and don't feel like you've wasted a half-hour staring at your computer screen to search for the "best" potential future donors. How do you know the answer to this? By assessing specific historical giving markers and wealth rating (or assumed capacity, if you don't have that). For example: I'm more apt to call someone for a meeting first who gave me $7,000 one time, 2 years ago, than someone who has given me $1,000 every year for six years. Why? Because the one-time gift indicated capacity that the other donor may not have (I won't know until I go to that meeting, too, but I'll just assume based on the numbers I have). While there are points to be given for consistency, we also know that may be indicative of a person's "best gift" -- or a symptom of just not being asked for more, yet, but hey that's what we're working on, right!?
Add: you might feel like you'll plow through your list of current donors somewhat quickly, so I recommend keeping a list of people somewhere in your email drafts or on a shared company drive of not-yet-donors who you'd really love to meet with. When you're having a slow, uneventful week, you can pull that list out and ask your closest volunteers, board members, or donors if they know any of them and can help to make an introduction for you. Once a year, it's great to do a sweep of your list and remove those who were absolutely not responsive or said no to an ask (or to a meeting) -- and pull a fresh list of those who may have given this year and aren't yet being managed by someone.
Make it easy: by going on meetings as you can get them, and staying in the habit of scheduling them. You may have a donor near the bottom of your list who is friends with a board member; if they're willing to make an introduction for you and you can have coffee with that prospect next week, take the meeting! Even though you'll always be aware (and remind yourself!) of your greatest prospects from a potential solicitation standpoint, every time you have a meeting you get great practice, feel energized by the connectivity, and get more meetings. They either know someone else you want to meet with, or offer a new name, or you've acquired a new communication skill in securing meetings differently or easier.
