Campaign readiness and
prospect research
Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds
Leeds University
donor*
* image is for illustration purposes only
Campaign readiness and
prospect research
Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds
The campaign stages in brief
1. Pre-planning
2. Assessment/planning
3. Private/quiet/silent
4. Public
5. Post-campaign evaluation
An ideal campaign timeline
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Preplan
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Leeds’s past and projected campaign timeline as of Nov 2011
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
Leeds’s past and projected campaign timeline as of Nov 2011
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
The role of the researcher in all this
Traditional pre-planning stage
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Preplan
NO ROLE
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
The role of the researcher in all this
Traditional assessment/planning stage
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Limited role
Planning
Find prospects
2008
2010
Preplan
2007
2009
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
FIND
FIND
PROSPECTS
The role of the researcher in all this
Traditional private/quiet & public stages
Post
Public
PROSP
FIND PROSPECTS!
ECTS!!!!!
NOW
!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Preplan
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
The role of the researcher in all this
Traditional pre-planning stage
NO ROLE
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Preplan
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
The campaign stages in brief
Prospect research should have a
role in all of these stages …
1. Pre-planning
2. Assessment/planning
… but all too often, the
3. Private/quiet/silent
researcher might only play a
part in nos 3 and 4!
4. Public
5. Post-campaign evaluation
Let me be the first to admit it
WE WERE
NOT
READY
Slight misnomer:
“Unready” in Ethelred’s
name is actually a
mistranslation – it actually
means “badly-advised”!
Ethelred the Unready, c. 968 - 1016
Campaign unreadiness
Our consultants said:
“you will need 2312
prospects to make the
campaign work”
• We currently have 1211
in the pool altogether
Campaign unreadiness
Our consultants said:
“you need 100% of all
your prospects for the
campaign identified
by the end of the
quiet phase”
• We currently have 1211
in the pool altogether
• At present the quiet
phase is scheduled to
end in July 2012
Campaign unreadiness
Our consultants said:
“You need at least 44
prospects capable of
giving a million
pounds for this
campaign to work”
• We currently have 1211
in the pool altogether
• At present the quiet
phase is scheduled to
end in July 2012
• We currently have that –
but it’s the rest of them
that pose problems of
identification!
Campaign unreadiness
Campaign unreadiness
Leadership
gifts
Major gifts
Special gifts
General
gifts
Campaign
total
Gift level
Number of
gifts
required
Number of
prospects
needed
Total £ sterling
required
Cumulative total
£10,000,000
1
4
£10,000,000
£10,000,000
£5,000,000
1
4
£5,000,000
£15,000,000
£2,500,000
2
8
£5,000,000
£20,000,000
£1,000,000
7
28
£7,000,000
£27,000,000
£500,000
12
48
£6,000,000
£33,000,000
£250,000
25
100
£6,250,000
£39,250,000
£100,000
50
200
£5,000,000
£44,250,000
£50,000
120
480
£6,000,000
£50,250,000
£25,000
160
640
£4,000,000
£54,250,000
£10,000
200
800
£2,000,000
£56,250,000
Up to
£10,000
Many
£3,750,000
£60,000,000
£60,000,000
£60,000,000
578
2312
Campaign unreadiness
Leadership
gifts
Major gifts
Special gifts
General
gifts
Campaign
total
Gift level
Number of
gifts
required
Number of
prospects
needed
Total £ sterling
required
Cumulative total
£10,000,000
1
4
£10,000,000
£10,000,000
£5,000,000
1
4
£5,000,000
£15,000,000
£2,500,000
2
8
£5,000,000
£20,000,000
£1,000,000
7
28
£7,000,000
£27,000,000
£500,000
12
48
£6,000,000
£33,000,000
£250,000
25
100
£6,250,000
£39,250,000
£100,000
50
200
£5,000,000
£44,250,000
£50,000
120
480
£6,000,000
£50,250,000
£25,000
160
640
£4,000,000
£54,250,000
£10,000
200
800
£2,000,000
£56,250,000
Up to
£10,000
Many
£3,750,000
£60,000,000
£60,000,000
£60,000,000
578
2312
Campaign catch-up
• It’s almost inevitable that most institutions
spend their first campaigns playing catchup.
•
•
•
•
No of prospects
No of gifts
No of fundraisers
Cause/appeal/projects slow to take shape
Campaign catch-up
• This is where the quiet phase of the
campaign comes into its own.
• Security blanket which can be extended to
suit …
• … as long as it’s not extended too far, or
you might never end up going public!
Campaign catch-up
• First campaign (whether successful or not)
ultimately a training and testing ground for
figuring out what works
• So you can then do it better next time
The campaign stages in brief
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-planning
Assessment/planning
Private/quiet/silent
Public
Post-campaign evaluation
Pre-planning stage
• Prospect researchers can shape the
campaign
• Who else in your office or institution has
the knowledge of your constituency base
that you have?
• This fact can be overlooked by those
higher up the pecking order
• Therefore, remember the above and have
confidence in yourself
Pre-planning stage
• What’s the campaign for? How big should
it be? What should its theme areas be?
Are your existing prospects letting you
know what interests them? Any trends?
• A few “tried and trusted” friends
• Careful read-through of fundraiser meeting
notes
• Survey responses
• National benchmarking across other campaigns
• Somewhere to store all this!
Pre-planning stage
A quick word on benchmarking:
•
for UK higher education institutions, refer to the Ross-CASE survey, whose
2010-11 report is due to be published in April 2012 – a survey of gift income
and fundraising costs across the UK HE and FE sectors
www.rosscasesurvey.org.uk
•
For an instructive comparison, look at the US equivalent, compiled by the
Council for Aid to Education (CAE). Free registration, paid access to
advanced features
This allows you access to a database where you can compare the progress
of specific institutions against any number of variables – number of gifts of
certain amounts, total amount given by corporates, as bequests, etc etc.
www.cae.org
Human Health
Climate Change
Arts & Culture
Global
Society &
Business
Students
Pre-planning stage
• Is your institution going to use an external
consultancy for campaign counsel and advice?
• If so, does the consultancy have a dedicated
research expert to whom you’ll have access?
• If not, consider lobbying for separate research
counsel
• At the very least, make sure you’re aware of
sources of potential help, not least the existence
of external training providers and the prospectresearch-uk listserv
Pre-planning stage
• Obviously easier if your institution has
been through all this before!
• You can examine the trends of the last
campaign, and use these to inform the
next one
The campaign stages in brief
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-planning
Assessment/planning
Private/quiet/silent
Public
Post-campaign evaluation
Assessment/planning stage
• Feasibility study
• With good organisation, researchers have
a real chance to get involved here and
drive the direction of the campaign
•
•
•
•
•
Focuses the mind on who the best prospects really are
Chance to test out those gift assumptions
Identifying prospects to be interviewed
Providing data for the interviews
As good a chance as any to get profiles written on
prospects you hadn’t done them for yet
Assessment/planning stage
At this time, the researcher should also
consider undertaking their own little study
…
How ready are you for all this?
 Are research staffing needs being met?
 Evaluate all relevant procedures you’ve already got in place, and try to
predict what new ones you might need – what new measures and stats?
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Finding
prospects
Writing profiles
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Finding prospects
Friday
Thursday
Friday
Writing profiles
Assessment/planning stage
At this time, the researcher should also
consider undertaking their own little study
…
How ready are you for all this?
 Are research staffing needs being met?
 Evaluate all relevant procedures you’ve already got in place, and try to
predict what new ones you might need
 Could you talk to someone at a similar or more advanced stage at
another institution?
Assessment/planning stage
• Feasibility studies a
necessary and
important part of the
campaign …
• and sometimes they
take for granted that
things are clear-cut
• but remember, its
findings show what
would happen if the
campaign ran to an
ideal plan and
schedule
Control freakery
• Some things researchers have no control
or, at best, limited control over
• Institutional readiness outside the fundraising office
• Prospects not being interested or seemingly impossible
to contact
• (if you’re new in post) – what’s gone before
• Staff turnover
• Writing potted biographies for use at events. This is your
job, however much you protest against it. Deal with it.
Control freakery
• But even with these,
there are ways in
which prospect
research can help …
• Institutional
readiness
• Do your academics /
senior frontline
workers even know
what a prospect is?
• Often they do, without
even realising it …
Control freakery
• But even with these,
there are ways in
which prospect
research can help …
• Uninterested or
hard to contact
prospects
• Do the best you can for
your fundraising
colleagues – make sure
you’ve examined all
avenues of reaching them
• Above all, don’t take it
personally – it’s not your
fault they are uninterested
or hard to get hold of
Control freakery
• But even with these,
there are ways in
which prospect
research can help …
• What’s gone
before
• Try to understand why
things were done in a
certain way: there must
have been some reason
for it!
• An enquiring mind and a
database can lead to
some interesting
discoveries
Control freakery
what’s gone before
• Even long-forgotten tables in your database can hold the key to
prospect discovery
• Hey, someone once thought this stuff was worth adding
• Ask, probe, experiment! What were they thinking?
- why was this guy thought important enough to be invited to that event way back in
2003? What clues are there?
- all these 54 records have the same “contact coding”, put on back in 2006, but why?
Control freakery
• But even with these,
there are ways in
which prospect
research can help …
• Staff turnover
• Make sure there’s a
clear plan in place for
the prospects of any
departing fundraiser
• Make sure the
incoming person has
a prospect pool ready
as soon as possible
after they arrive
The campaign stages in brief
•
•
•
•
•
Pre-planning
Assessment/planning
Private/quiet/silent
Public
Post-campaign evaluation
Quiet stage
• Fundraising
- continuous programme
of prospect identification,
qualification and
assignment
- research for leadership
asks
• Campaign Goal Revision
- reports on annual
performance (by
canvasser, by theme, by
total amount raised)
should help evaluate this
- research should be
involved in supporting or
refuting the argument to
increase or lower the
campaign goal
Quiet stage
- what to measure, and over what period?
Financial
Activity
Metric
YTD
3YA
Total campaign commitments
£X
Total fundraising commitments
Metric
YTD
3YA
£Y
Number of active proposals
X
Y
£X
£Y
Number of active proposals for
asks >£100,000
X
Y
Number of gifts
X
Y
Number of visits
X
Y
Average gift size
£X
£Y
Number of >£100,000 prospects
visited
X
Y
Percentage of campaign goal
met
Annual X%
Fund
Trend
Y%
Metric
YTD
3YA
Total Annual Fund cash
received
£X
Total Annual Fund unrestricted
cash received
Trend
Research efficiency
Trend
Metric
YTD
3YA
£Y
Number of new prospects
identified
X
Y
£X
£Y
Number of new >£100,000
prospects identified
X
Y
Alumni participation
X%
Y%
X
Y
New donors
X
Y
Number of new prospects
assigned to canvasser
Number of profiles written
X
Y
Number of donors
X
Y
Trend
Metric YTD
Number
of
>£100,00
0
prospects
visited
Is it that they’re
not seeing
enough
prospects?
X
3YA
Trend
Y

Or is it because
they need
some more?
Harold ii, c. 1022 - 1066
Harold ii’s campaign timeline
• 6th January 1066 – Harold crowned king of England
• Late January – hears of William of Normandy’s invasion
plans
• 8th September – Harold Hardrada of Norway invades England
• 12th September – William’s invasion force sails for England;
turns back
• 20th September – Harold of England’s forces in northern
England suffer heavy defeat. Harold heads north
• 25th September – Harold defeats Norway at Battle of
Stamford Bridge
• 27th September – William invades England; lands on south
coast. Harold heads south
• 14th October – Battle of Hastings
Effective legacy prospect targeting in action
Thank you!
Oliver Taylor
o.taylor@adm.leeds.ac.uk
0113 343 6930