Major Gifts Fundraising: Pie in the Sky, Pie in your Face or Your Piece of Pie

Which major donor prospects are your best ‘piece of pie?’

Do you think Bill Gates, Warren Buffet or MacKenzie Scott are likely prospects for major giving to your nonprofit?

Sadly, all too often I hear board members suggesting names like these (perhaps it may simply be the richest known philanthropist in the community) – despite the fact that the prospect has (1) no known interest in the cause, and (2) nobody at the organization knows or has any link to this person.

Really, this practice must stop!

There’s a much better way.

You Don’t Want Pie in the Sky

You know, those ‘sexy’ prospects who no one really knows personally  — they’re who I term “pie in the sky.”

Your likelihood of getting a gift from these folks is remote.

Allow me to illustrate.

Were you to draw concentric circles of your prospects, with folks close to your board, staff and current major donors being in the center, lapsed donors and people known to your volunteers being next, folks who interacted with you as clients or customers, friends and colleagues of these folks, and so forth… all the way out to people who are known to care about your cause (even though they’ve no connection to you at this point), these “pie in the sky” folks would be way, way out there – not even in your universe.  They’d be in outer space!

You Don’t Want Pie in Your Face

The reason savvy major gift fundraisers screen, rate and tier their donor portfolio is precisely because not all donors have the same economic value.

People who don’t have capacity to make major gifts simply won’t.

It’s a bit like trying to squeeze juice out of an unripe fruit — frustrating and fruitless.

I know “rating” may sound cold. But it’s just practical.

Would you spend $10,000 to make $1,000?

No.

For the same reason, you don’t want to waste your organization’s limited resources on low-yield prospects.

You Do Want Your Piece of Pie

These are the folks likely to yield the greatest return on your investment.

It’s a pretty small slice — but rich, like a thin slice of flourless fudge pie.

If you have a portfolio of 150 major gift prospects — the accepted maximum per individual major gift officer who has no other tasks on their plate- – only 10 to 20% (15 to 30 prospects) should make it into this thin slice.

When you tier your prospects, beginning with highest major gift likelihood, this will be your Tier A (I generally recommend three tiers – A, B and C).

That top tier is where half of your time should be spent.

I’m not kidding. It just makes good economic sense to put your resources where the greatest promise lies.

Get Your Best Slice with Prospect Identification

The identification, screening and rating process involves asking folks who are close to you (1) who they know, (2) what they know, and (3) who else may know something about these prospects.[Begin by using the concentric circles model above.]

If you get into the habit of asking those closest to you to identify folks who may have an interest in your cause, you’ll have a never-ending supply of new prospects.

“Who else do you know who might be interested in becoming more engaged with our organization?”

BOARD and STAFF

Everyone in an organization plays a role at some level, because everyone interacts with different groups of your constituents. Some may work with:

• Clients
• Vendors
• Direct service volunteers
• Committee members
• Donors.
• Teachers, doctors, social workers, government workers, and others

Program staff record contact and participation information for those who avail themselves of your programs. Your receptionist answers questions and may be aware of folks with specialized areas of interest.  Your board meet constituents and prospective donors and serve a special role as ambassadors. And so forth.

Folks who work for your organization have tons of information about people who come into contact with and are touched by your organization on a regular basis.

CURRENT DONORS

Your loyal donors are out and about as your ambassadors on a regular basis.  They’re rubbing shoulders with folks who could become your supporters.

They may talk about your organization at a party, musical performance, church gathering, book club, service club or parent association. They take note when someone they know indicates an interest in your organization or an affinity with your cause. They need to have a way to communicate this information back to you on a regular basis; otherwise, it gets lost and wasted.

You need to have a practice of asking these folks for names of their contacts.

Don’t just ask for more money; ask for referrals.

LAPSED DONORS, VOLUNTEERS, CLIENTS and THEIR FRIENDS and FAMILY

Look at your recently lapsed donors (12 – 24 months). Then your volunteers. Then maybe your clients. Then maybe friends and associates of all these folks.

Consider all the people have close human connections to your organization through folks connected to you — that’s a lot of people!

And, more often than not, they’ve heard at least a little bit about your organization’s work from these connections. So they’re at least aware of what you do and they have a “linkage.”

It’s a good idea to sit down with these folks and ask them for referrals.

FOLKS WITH DEMONSTRATED PHILANTHROPIC INTEREST

Look for people who’ve indicated an interest in causes like yours.

Their names may be listed in programs or donor honor rolls or class rosters.

Or you may have found them through stories in the media.

If they’ve contributed to something with a related focus, and you have a similar component in your programs, they might be a good fit for you too.

ACTIVE ADVOCATES and INFLUENCERS.

Don’t forget to look for these folks online.

You may find them within your social media communities. Or you might run into them if you search social threads of groups whose interests intersect with your mission (e.g., Mommy Bloggers; Food Bloggers; Environmental Bloggers; Health Bloggers, etc.).

People who are active in your mission area are already engaged with your cause.

5 Practical Prospect Identification Tips

Direct referrals from insiders are probably the single most important way to find new donor prospects outside of your existing database. Here are five ways to extract relevant research information:

1. Provide regular opportunities at board, committee and staff meetings

Ask those present to submit names of individuals they’ve met since the previous meeting who may be interested in what you do. Ideally, give them a form and five minutes to complete it at the end of the meeting so you can collect them on the spot.

2. Send a form to your insiders and ask them to return it to you

Ask for names and contact information for folks they know who may have an interest in what you do.  Also provide a space for them to comment as to why they think this person may be a good prospect. While you’re at it, provide check-off boxes for them to indicate ways they’d be willing to help you in the cultivation (e.g., invite to an event, tour, house party, meeting; write a personal note on an appeal, or make a solicitation when the time is right).

3. Set up phone appointments with each of your board members

It’s sometimes more fruitful to talk with folks directly to“pick their brains” about prospective supporters. This is also an opportunity to thank these folks for all they do for your organization, and to begin to build stronger relationships with them as well. You can also do this, as appropriate, with targeted staff, volunteers, donors and clients.

4. Make it regular practice for staff to send you a spreadsheet with information about folks they’ve entered into their separate databases.

You can also hold regular debriefing meetings with them to ask them about anyone they may have encountered in the past month who may be a good major donor prospect. If you’re really lucky, you can embark on a program to purchase one organization-wide, integrated database that enables different departments to speak to one another. What you dream about, of course, is one point of entry for everyone who comes into contact with your organization.  In other words, if someone buys an hour of counseling, comes to a fundraising event, volunteers with your literacy program and makes an annual gift it would be lovely to have all this information in a single database, rather than four separate ones. You want the most multi-dimensional view of your prospect as possible. So, as you advocate for this type of system, don’t worry about being considered intrusive. You’re all on the same boat! If you secure a donation, this will help fund their program. You’re not raising money for yourself!

5. Ask any of your insiders to deliver donor listings

This is “old school,” but collecting such listings can provide helpful intel. Think: copies of symphony, opera, ballet and theater programs; class and church rosters; local university and hospital donor listings, and annual reports of charities they support. Don’t just put these in a drawer! You can hire folks very inexpensively using Fancy Hands or Fiverr to research these names and get you addresses and phone numbers. You can also do your own quick internet research to see if any of these folks may qualify as major donor prospects for your organization based on Linkage, Interest, and Ability, and other established criteria (this is discussed more, below).

IMPORTANT NOTE: Whenever you ask your insiders to provide prospect leads and information, make sure to remind them this information will remain CONFIDENTIAL.  This reassures folks and encourages them to help you.  Plus, it’s just plain good fundraising practice.

Follow with Prospect Screening and Rating

A peer screening is used to make a long list of prospects shorter.

This can be done silently or at a screening meeting comprised of peers of your prospects. Have a select group of volunteers and staff review names to make comments regarding: linkage (connection); ability (capacity), and interest (concern). Peer review – asking a select group of volunteers to review and rate prospects – can help you uncover personal information about prospects that formal research does not find. You’ll potentially obtain great insights into a prospect’s personality, information about other family members, schools they’ve attended, philanthropic interests, etc.  Plus you’ll find out who knows who. Just like online and purchased research, however, things are not always as they seem.  Joe may tell you George is super wealthy, but Joe may not know that George carries a lot of debt.  So don’t necessarily assume everything you hear is completely true.

Make sure to verify.

One of the first rules of research is to scrutinize the source of information. Some sources are more reliable than others. Whether you obtain information from a peer screening session, use data you’ve obtained from an online search or purchase research, it’s important to verify the intelligence to the extent humanly possible.

Example: A peer review or internet search on your prospect’s name might reveal a bio saying she serves on a local nonprofit board, but does she? Take the next step of checking the nonprofit’s website and/or IRS tax form 990. Or you could just ask her!

Example: Forbes’ Rich Lists provide estimates of net worth, but the truth is that Forbes cannot know the exact amount of anyone’s assets minus liabilities unless that individually publicly discloses that information. There’s more than a grain of truth there, of course.  Just not all of it.

You want to get your list down to a manageable level, and make sure you’re working with prospects that are truly viable and not unattainable.

Create Your Initial Prospect List and Qualify

Take the names that have been identified, and organize them into Tiers.

Create categories A, B, and C, in descending order of priority. Then, attack based on your available staff and volunteer resources. You need boots on the ground to be successful. You can’t build relationships without people; no automated emails or generic letters will get this done!

Once you’ve built your preliminary list, begin to qualify.

Which prospects will stay on that list and merit your full court cultivation press? The goal here is to ascertain which prospects will be responsive to your efforts.  In other words, do they want to build a deeper relationship with you?  If they don’t, you’re just spinning your wheels.  And no one has wheel spinning time! [To learn more about how to do this, check out my Get Your Nonprofit Ready for Major Gifts Workbook.]

Here’s the deal: Only about 30% of the caseload you begin with will want you to build a deeper relationship with them.  This is why it’s critical you take the time to learn as much as you can about these folks — and then put them in the right place on your list, or take them off your list.  It’s worth every bit of up-front time you put into it!

Hone Your List

Once you’ve honed down your list to the “qualified” folks, then it’s time to do your final tiering.

If you have a list of 150 prospects (if your list is smaller, just use division to find the right numbers for your tiers):

1. A – 10 – 25 prospects – spend 50% of your time with these folks
2. B – 50 prospects – spend 30% of your time here
3. C – 75 prospects – spend 20% of your time here

You also need a process for moving folks on and off your list to keep it at your manageable level. Part of this process will be paying attention to what happens as you begin to “MOVE” folks through a series of emotionally moving cultivation tactics (what I cover in 50 Ways to Move Your Donors and Get to 100 — A Relationship-Building Solution Kit). If they resist after several attempts, remove them! Not everyone will respond to your attention.

Summary: Major Gift Prospecting That Works

Resist the temptation to succumb to the myth that “If Mark Zuckerberg only knew about us, I’m sure he’d be dying to give to us!”

Remember the pie framework discussed above.

There’s nothing more enervating than wasting precious time chasing after the wrong “pieces of pie” — folks who will never respond. 

On top of that, you always feel like a failure because you don’t have time to do justice to all the folks on your list.  You know, the huge list of people you really should have honed down to a manageable “qualified,” much smaller list.

Begin with those who are already close to you.

And people close to them.

No need to go out into space!

Photo by Claire Axelrad as part of a series: The Art of Philanthropy – ‘Love of Humankind’ – as Seen Through the Prism of the World’s Art Museums