Post on 03-May-2018
Fundraising Intelligence:Strategies for Building the
Prospect Pipeline
with Caroline Oblack and Tracey Martin
Facilitator: Caroline Oblack
• Director of Client Service,
WealthEngine
• Author of Report: 2010 Best
Practices for Prospect Research in
Healthcare Fundraising
• Former prospect researcher with
American Red Cross, National
Headquarters, Rady Children‟s
Hospital and independent consultant
Facilitator: Tracey Martin
• Prospect and Research
Coordinator, Duke University - The
Fuqua School of Business
• Co-President of the APRA-Carolinas
Chapter
• Eight year volunteer for the
American Red Cross in Henry
County, VA
Agenda
• Fundraising is a Group Effort
• Benefits of Prospect Research
• Leverage Your Resources
• Data Enhancement Strategies
• Building the Pipeline in Other Areas
• Measuring Success and Return on Investment
Fundraising is a Group Effort
• Prospect research is involved at every stages of the donor cycle
Identification
Qualification
CultivationSolicitation
Stewardship
Fundraising is a Group Effort
• Prospect research and major gifts is a partnership
– Understand communication style differences
– Elicit feedback on research information provided
– Tailor (when feasible) research to match needs
• Ensure you have a set schedule for prospect discussions
• Review organizational goals and priorities regularly
– Align research goals to match those of the organization
– Develop research projects to help meet identified needs
Best Practices
• Successful prospect research operations…
– Have a plan of action
– Align research goals with the
organization‟s strategic plan
– Balance proactive and reactive research
strategies
– Work closely with development team
– Maintain confidentiality with research
findings
Proactive vs. Reactive
• Definitions:
– Prospect research is the skilled process of collecting and
analyzing public information about individuals, corporations,
and foundations in order to raise money for your
organization.
•Proactive research can be described briefly as taking the
initiative to find new prospects.
•Reactive research can be described as responding to a
specific request to profile a specific individual, group of
individuals, a business, or a foundation.
Benefits of Proactive Research
New Prospects
Personal Challenge
Vary Daily Research
Become a Fundraiser
Refill Prospect
Pool
Diversify Prospect
Pool
Develop Relationships w/ other Dev.
Members
Update Donor/Client
database
Leverage Your Resources
• Donor management system
• Central files
• Development staff
• Other staff members of your organization
• Volunteers
• Events
• Current lead donors- who can they connect you to?
• Free and paid research tools
• Other data enhancements
Using Your Donor Management System
• Leverage the data you already have
– Before worrying about what you don‟t have in your database, determine what you do have and can work with initially:
•Contact information
•Business information
•Gift information
•Ages/Graduation Dates
•Relationships
•Research results/rating information
Sample Increased Giving Query
Prospect
Name
Current Gift
Amount
Current Gift
Date
Largest Gift
Amount
Largest Gift
Date
% Increase
Jill A. $1,000.00 11/15/10 $100.00 1/3/09 90%
John C. $500.00 11/2/10 $250.00 12/15/09 50%
Mary F. $5,000.00 11/14/10 $250.00 6/5/10 95%
Andrew O. $1,600.00 11/7/10 $500.00 7/3/08 69%
Ruth R. $10,975.00 11/25/10 $3000.00 3/1/09 72%
Data Enhancement Strategies
DataMining, Modeling, & Analytics
Sift through current database by:
Title (President, Founder, Owner)
Consistent donors
Sudden blips on giving history
Wealthy zip codes
Living and/or working outside U.S.
Using „Top‟ Lists to compare those in database
Leverage Lead Donors & Volunteers to:
Identify prospects in metro areas
Identify peers in other circles of their contacts such as business,
philanthropic interest or other boards
Through attendance at events- self identify by interest
Wealth Screening
Purchase of Vendor
Supplied Screening
Peer Screening
3 Prong Approach to Data Enhancement
Strategies
Case Study
2,647
1,441
1,182
937
Wealth Screening Results
from
The Fuqua School of Business
Submitted Returned Information- 54%
Never Rated Before- 82% of return $100K+ Rating- 65% of return
Predictive Modeling
Current Major
Donors
More likely to have
given higher first gift
More likely to have
attended event
More likely to live in
200** zip code
Fit Major Gift
Profile
Prospect
Universe
Not
Major
Donors
Strategies for Annual Giving
• Include a donor survey in direct mail
solicitations and use the information to
enhance research
• Query repeated givers at lower levels to
grow the annual giving donor base
• To establish an endowment annual giving
program, review donors at slightly higher
giving levels for multiple years
Strategies for Planned Giving
• Know your planned giving programs and
capabilities
• Group current donors by age
• Individuals are retiring earlier (50s rather than 60s)
• Identify planned giving individuals before they retire
• Do a query for your planned giving officer:
– Widows and widowers
– Those who hold their property in trust
– Older constituents
– Those who never had children and/or never
married
Strategies for Cause Marketing
• Request a copy of your organization‟s vendor list and review for
opportunities to partner
• Subscribe to your local business paper/journal
– Look for branding or partnership opportunities with local
businesses
• Use a resource such as ReferenceUSA (available through most
local libraries) to conduct complex searches for new partnering
opportunities
Strategies for Corporate &
Foundation Relations
• Subscribe to the local paper and read the
business and social sections
• Review your area‟s Book of Lists for new
corporate supporters.
• Subscribe to one of the foundation
databases.
• Grant and RFP alerts
• When looking at corporations and
foundations, remember to look at the
leaders/employees as well.
Using the Web and Other Sources
• If you are not already doing so, use push technology (email
alerts) to receive emails any time there is a mention of your
institution in the news. This will help you to find marriages,
promotions, obituaries, etc.
• Some possibilities are:
Personal News feature in Lexis/Nexis
Alerts using:
www.alerts.yahoo.com
www.google.com/alerts
What About Social Networking Sites?
• The latest means for individuals to connect to other individuals,
groups, companies, etc. via the web
• Never use a false identity to contact, or “friend” a donor or
prospect
• Be wary of taking any information from a social network site at
face value
• Do not include information gleaned from a social networking site
in official prospect/donor records for your institution without
independent verification
Information “Need to Know”
• Keep everything in-house
• Only development professionals
• Be careful of volunteer requests
• Develop organization policy to institutionalize information
protection
Putting your plan into action
• Find new prospects
• Keep track of how they were found
• Code them to your watch list in your database until they can be
thoroughly researched
• Research thoroughly
• Give names to MGOs (with a connection!)
• Get feedback (if you can!)
• Do an analysis of the most effective method of finding new
prospects
ROI Example –
New Prospect Identification
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr
Database
Relationship
Screening
Online Datasource
Unsolicited Gift
Staff Identification
Other Tracking Measures
• Did these result in additional gifts?
• Are they feeding the pipeline?
Assigned
Cultivated
Solicited
Total Prospects
Final Thoughts
“Do what you can, with what you have,
where you are.”
~Theodore Roosevelt
“There is always a better strategy than the one you have; you just
haven't thought of it yet.”
~Sir Brian Pitman, former CEO of Lloyds TSB
For More Information…
• WealthEngine‟s Best Practices Reportswww.wealthengine.com/knowledge-center/best-practices
• Measuring Fundraising Return on Investment and the Impact of Prospect Research Whitepaperwww.wealthengine.com/knowledge-center/whitepapers
Resources
• APRA International and its chapterswww.aprahome.org
• Association of Fundraising Professionalswww.afpnet.org
• Association for Healthcare Philanthropywww.ahp.org
• Chronicle of Philanthropywww.philanthropy.org
• Chronicle of Higher Educationwww.chronicle.org
Resources
• Forbes Most Expensive Zip Codes -http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/27/most-expensive-zip-codes-2010-lifestyle-real-estate-zip-codes-10-zips_land.html
• CNN/Money.com Million Dollar Zip Codes –www.money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/million_zips/index.html
• CNN/Money.com Six Figure Zip Codes –www.money.cnn.com/pf/features/lists/high_income_zips/
• Fortune 500 Company List 2010 –http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2010/full_list/
• Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Indexhttp://www.bls.gov/cpi/
• NNDB, Relationship Mappinghttp://nndb.com/
• Sperling‟s Best Places, Cost of Living Calculatorhttp://www.bestplaces.net/col/
Resources
• PRSPCT-L –
http://listserv.apra-prspct-l.org/wa.exe?A0=PRSPCT-L
• Alert services
– Google Alerts – http://www.google.com/alerts
– Yahoo! – http://alerts.yahoo.com
– Marketwatch – http://www.marketwatch.com/
– Forbes People Tracker –
http://www.forbes.com/cms/template/peopletracker/index.j
html
– Yahoo! Finance – http://finance.yahoo.com/