Searching for New Donors
by Pamela Poland
With the economy on the decline in recent years and the increasing competition for philanthropic dollars, every development office is working twice as hard to meet its goals. While pushing to maintain and increase giving from those already identified, it has become critical to find new and upgradeable donors. Developing a plan for prospecting can help us achieve that goal.
There are numerous types and methods of prospect identification, ranging from low-cost to expensive, simple to complex. Whether your organization has employees assigned solely to prospect research or you are a one-person development shop with numerous responsibilities, there are one or more prospecting methods that can be incorporated into your daily or weekly work routines to help you effectively unearth new potential. Here are just a few.
What are we looking for?—individuals, corporations and foundations with established or potential relationships with our organization, the financial resources to be able to give, and the interest in the work of our organization and the inclination to give.
A simple but effective prospecting method is cross-referencing “top lists” with your constituents to look for matches that are potential prospects. Several periodicals publish lists with valuable information, such as highest paid executives, net worth, company revenue and assets, and philanthropic contributions. American Lawyer publishes annually the “Am Law 100”, a list of America’s 100 top grossing law firms, with the median profits per partner. The Wall Street Journal regularly publishes executive compensation figures. Forbes is well known for its “rich lists” including the “400 Richest Americans”, the “World’s Richest People” and “100 Top Celebrities” among others. Crain’s New York Business publishes several useful lists including the largest privately-held companies in the New York metropolitan area. The company owners are the top beneficiaries of the companies’ profits and highly worth cross-referencing. In every issue of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a list of gifts of $1 million or more made by individuals is disclosed.
Collecting donor and board lists from other organizations is an easy low-cost way to access giving and relationship information of other non-profits. Mail your board and donor information to contacts at organizations with lists that you want with a request that they send their lists to you. This will enable you to develop a donor and board list collection that will become a great reference tool for your organization. Cross-referencing the lists of a select few organizations allows you to see the other interests areas and other contribution dollars of your donors.
Push technology is described as “Internet technology that allows information to be delivered or ‘pushed’ directly to a user who subscribes to it, rather than the user having to go look for the information on an Internet site,” according to the ComputerUser.com High-Tech Dictionary. This technology allows us to set up Internet alerts to track our organization, our donors and prospects, and to have the matching information sent directly to our email accounts. There are a number of fee-based as well as no-cost sites that provide this type of service. Some of the no-cost options include: American Business Journals (www.bizjournals.com), CBS MarketWatch (cbs.marketwatch.com) and Forbes People Tracker (www.forbes.com). Services with fees include Lexis-Nexis (www.nexis.com), Hoover’s Online (www.hoovers.com), and Ten-K Wizard (www.10Kwizard.com). Shelby Radcliffe McClintock of Bucknell University and David Shanton of Marts & Lundy put together a website called, The Push Page (randyndavid.home.mindspring.com/pushpage.htm), that provides detailed reviews of the different push technology sites available.
Electronic database screenings and overlays can be a highly effective way of prospecting. They allow us to match large segments of our database against external data in an effort to look for the hidden prospects in our systems. It is done all at once, within a relatively short amount of time. Depending on the screening service you need, you can match your records with wealth indicators (such as stock and real estate information) or with demographic and psycho-graphic information. Database screenings are not inexpensive. In addition to the cost, they require internal technical support as well as effective planning before you send out your data and after the screening results are returned. A few of the companies that provide these services include: Blackbaud Analytics (www.blackbaud.com); Marts & Lundy (www.martsandlundy.com); Prospect Information Network (P!N) (www.prospectinfo.com); and Wealth ID (www.wealthid.com).
If you are searching for new donors, take some time to investigate the different types of prospecting options that are available. Choose one of more methods that can best complement and best support your fundraising efforts. Create a prospecting plan and establish time on a daily or weekly basis to implement your plan. Effective prospecting can be a rewarding and fun process.
Pamela Poland is the Director of Research at The Metropolitan Opera. She has served as a board member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) since 2001, and is currently APRA’s Vice President for Education and Professional Development and President-Elect.
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