Young Nonprofit Professionals
Network Learning Circle
The Essentials of Fundraising &
Donor Development
Week 3 - Prospect Research
(Identification & Qualification)
Jessica Haynie
October 11, 2011
Today’s Agenda
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Exercise - elevator pitch
Review data evaluation
Presentation
Review homework
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Steps in Donor Development
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Identification
Qualification (major donors)
Cultivation
Solicitation
Stewardship
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5 Step Strategy
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Step 1
• Set your criteria
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Who are you looking for?
• A few prospects or a few hundred?
• New donors or upgrading current
donors?
• What giving level are you looking for?
• What do you want donors to give to?
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Step 2
• Start gathering names and develop a
list of prospects
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Develop a list of prospects
• The best prospects include:
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Current and former Board Members
Key volunteers
Staff
Current donors
Lapsed donors
Vendors
Those generous to similar organizations
Affluent individuals with whom someone in the organization
has a relationship with
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Lisa Dietlin: Individuals are the key!
• Develop strategies for identifying:
– Entrepreneurs
– Women
– Gay and Lesbian Individuals
– Minority Communities
– Baby Boomers
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Develop a list of prospects
• Start from within first
– Do you have a pile of names, articles, notes, etc?
– Has anyone been flagged in your database?
– Who in your database has given $100 or more for
a number of consecutive years?
– Talk to staff and board for recommendations
– Past major donors
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Develop list of prospects
• Then work your way to external sources
– Look at the annual reports of similar organizations
– Review top lists (i.e. Santa Fe’s most wealthiest
list, national philanthropic reports on top givers)
– Talk to other development directors/share names
– Keep up on the New Mexico Business Weekly,
your local newspaper and magazines
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Step 3
• Qualification - do brief research to
identify:
– Capacity
– Interest
– Connection
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Step 4
• Rate your prospects (1-3)
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Step 5
• Do in depth research on your 3’s and
create research profiles
• Set the 1’s and 2’s aside, as they are
suspects and you can research them
later
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What do we need to know
about prospects?
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Background/Bio
Hobbies/Interests
Connections
Capacity
Inclination to give/charitable contributions
Interest in your organization/cause
Contact information
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Background/Bio
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Family
Family History
Education
Employment
Career
Achievements
• Google search (name,
name + biography,
name + Santa Fe/New
Mexico)
• Company website
• www.fec.gov for
employer
• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Wikipedia
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Hobbies/Interests
• What is time spent
on beyond family
and career
responsibilities?
• What is the prospect
passionate about?
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Google search
Biographies
Company bio
LinkedIn
Facebook
Wikipedia
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Connections
• Who is in the
prospect’s circle of
colleagues or
friends?
• Who is in your
organization’s circle
who can influence
the prospect?
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Advisory boards
Board of directors
Trustee
Volunteer
Member
Company website
LinkedIn
Facebook
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Capacity
• Company
ownership, salary &
compensation
• Family wealth
• Real estate
• Family foundation
• Google
• Company annual
reports
• Zillow
• Foundation website
• Guidestar-search 990s
• Foundation Directory
• Company site
• www.hoovers.com
• www.zoominfo.com
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Inclination to give/
charitable contributions
• What other causes
does the prospect
support?
• What amounts?
• How often?
• Annual reports (paper
and online)
• Google search (name +
donor)
• For political
contributions: FEC and
NM Secretary of State
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Interest in your organization/cause
• Are they already
involved in your
organization/cause?
• Volunteer or giving
history?
• Have they shown
interest, but are not
engaged yet?
• Talk to board, staff
and volunteers
• Look at
organization’s
database, files
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Contact information
• Home address/
phone/email
• Vacation home?
• Work address/
phone/email
• Assistant’s name
and contact info
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411.com
Phone book
Company website
Call general
company number
and ask for
assistant’s contact
• www.mapquest.com
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Putting it all together –
creating a profile
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Review of Strategy
• Set your criteria
• Start gathering names and develop a
list of prospects
• Do brief research to identify: capacity,
interest and connection
• Rate your prospects (1-3)
• Do in depth research on your 3’s and
create research profiles
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Myths in Donor Research
• With all of the electronic databases these
days, finding information is easy and fast
• Development officers need a full research
profile before contacting a prospect
• Researchers are back-room information
gatherers
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Myths in Donor Research
• The research function should be kept low-key
and secret if possible, donors would be upset
if they were aware of it
• Researchers should only concentrate on
finding wealth information: it is the most
important thing
• If we hire a researcher, we will immediately
come up on an enormous gift
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Ethics & Confidentiality
• When faced with what you feel might be
an ethical dilemma, consider how any
action or use of information would
impact your organization’s relationship
with the prospect or donor.
• In our line of work, it is “all about the
relationship.”
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What makes your information
confidential?
Research is gathered from publicly
available resources but…
When all the information is put together
into a profile format the information is
highly confidential!
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Ethics & Confidentiality
• Everyone that handles confidential
information should sign a confidentiality
statement
• Include APRA Statement of Ethics & Donor
Bill of Rights with statement
– http://www.aprahome.org/Portals/0/APRAStateme
ntofEthics.pdf
– http://www.afpnet.org/files/ContentDocuments/Do
nor_Bill_of_Rights.pdf
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How to maintain ethics in research
Honesty
Transparency
Respect
Privacy
Relevance
Responsibility
It is “all about the relationship!”
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Homework
• Identify your top 20 existing major donors
– Base on total lifetime giving or highest gift
• Identify your top 20 non-major donors who have
been giving $100 or more for at least 3 consecutive
years
• Using the techniques and resources discussed
today, identify 20 suspects to research further and
qualify
• For each, identify which stage they are currently in
(qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship)
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Any questions?
Three Stones Consulting, LLC
Santa Fe, NM
Jessica@threestonesconsulting.com
www.threestonesconsulting.com
315-729-3994
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