Armando Zumaya - Training and Consulting
Email Me at aez2@hotmail.com
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    • Published Articles >
      • "You Don't Belong Here"
      • Adelante! A Message for Latinx Focused Nonprofits
      • Separate Worlds: Let's Unify the Worlds of Prospect Research and Development
      • Whole Community Fundraising
      • All Together Now: Discovering Your Nonprofit’s True Potential
      • The Unread Article
      • Missed Opportunity: Why Don’t Foundations Give More Support to Development Teams?
      • Finding the Right Mix: Unraveling the Mystery of Powerful Major Gifts Management
      • Seeing the Elephant in the Room: Low Board Diversity and How to Change It
      • Silent Service: Breaking the Bubble of Silence in Nonprofit Fundraising
      • Latino's Stand Ready to GIve, Why are they being overlooked?
      • Three Simple Things You Can Do To Boost Your Board’s Fundraising Knowledge
      • Philanthropy’s Sleeping Giant: Why Can’t We Engage Latino’s More Successfully?
      • "Power to the Researchers"
      • What’s a “Vampire Fundraising Event” and Is It Time To Kill It?
      • How To Evaluate Your Development Officer
      • The Crisis of Development Officer Short Tenures
      • From Chicken Soup to Gumbo
      • Disconnect: Why Most Institutions Don’t Use Prospect Researchers Effectively.
      • The Fundraising Boogie Man
      • The $5 Million Dollar Chocolate Bar
      • Jumping Off the Merry Go Round !
      • "Fundraising is Beautiful"
      • Chronicle of Philanthropy OpEd March 2014: "Give Fundraising Researchers More Influence and More Credit"
      • The Prospect Profile: The Killer of Great Prospecting
      • Secret Weapon: The Freelance Prospect Researcher
      • Under Investing in Fundraising: The Myth of the One Person Development Shop
      • " I am a Fundraiser"
      • The Non Profit Achievement Gap: Seven Ways Small and Medium Nonprofits Stunt Their Own Fundraising
      • Let's Go Beyond Prospect Research and Talk about Fundraising
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Power to the Researchers !


"
Across the US and globally in Development there is a chronic disconnect between how Prospect Research and Management staff work with Development Officers​"

Power to the Researchers! 
 
Sounds like I need some militant t shirt and cool hair when I say that right? Sadly I have neither! 
I want to talk about a subtle aspect of working with Prospect Research and Management staff that makes a huge difference in your work. From my experience it’s the subtle change in how you can work with them that has helped me raise tens of millions of dollars. It’s all about respect.  
​

Across the US and globally in Development there is a chronic disconnect between how Prospect Research and Management staff work with Development Officers. Many institutions don’t even have Prospect Research of any sort. They are at a tremendous disadvantage in fundraising and always will be until they figure this out. 

I have been consulting now for years. I am a Prospecting Consultant. I help institutions of all sizes get their prospecting act together.  Prospecting in my lexicon is the acquisition of new major individual donors. There is a lot more to it, but that’s the basic focus. I focus on teaching, consulting and coaching teams to create systematic prospecting. Most organizations prospect by accident or piece meal. There is no more powerful move in fundraising one can make than a dynamic, thriving major gifts prospecting system. It will change not just fundraising but your institution fundamentally. Yet, it’s commonly not effectively done even with institutions with full time Prospect Research and Management Staff. 
 
 
No really.   

I should say though that it’s gotten better over the last 20 years I have been observing this institutional culture.
 
 
Prospect Researchers can have powerful relationships where they are treated, paid and listened to with respect as fellow fundraisers. Or they can be marginalized and treated like glorified administrative help. Simply put most Development Officers are paid more and treated with more respect and deference than a Prospect Researcher.  As organizations we know our own org charts, we know our hierarchy and commonly PR&M staff are low down those charts and hierarchy. 

Yet well trained and well used your PR&M staff should be part of your management team.  Shouldn’t they? They can tell you about upcoming opportunities, give you a helicopter view of your fundraisers work, they can analyze your campaigns, they can give you guidance on prospect approaches and strategies. They are like a navigators on a ship. Most development leadership don’t have their navigators in the bridge but down below 5 decks and consequently roam all over the ocean.   

As I mentioned earlier the subtle difference here is respect and empowerment. I commonly do trainings where I go live on site and do full day trainings for sets of development officers and prospect research/management teams. All together in a room. I train the DO’s to cold call, to qualify donors and sometimes I train on small events.   
From that experience you can tell the group culture around Prospect Research and Prospecting. I have seen a direct correlation in raising new money between teams where the Prospect Researcher has strong, equal and respectful relationships with Development Officers, where they are treated like a fundraiser, valued colleague and a leader.  Even more so where a VP or CDO use the PR&M staff as trusted advisers and analysts that answer to their office.  Then there are those where the Development Officers have little to do with their Prospect Researcher and don’t understand or respect their work.  

As a Chief Development Officer or a VP of Development I have my PR&M folks report directly to my office. When I can I have them physically close to my office. Both send subtle messages to DO’s that I respect and rely on that team, that they are important.  I also have very direct relationships free of hierarchy with them. They are my advisors and guides sometimes we disagree, debate. They will use data and research to question what I am doing on a campaign, prospect, portfolio etc. Listening to a contrary perspective is super healthy. Yes, its irritating when it turns out they were right and you were wrong. It’s worse when they remind you later and rub it in! Ouch. But you get the picture.  
So Development Officers, VP’s, CDO’s how do you work with your Prospect Research and Management teams? Here is my list of tips: 
  1. Make sure they know it’s safe to disagree with you. You want a solid advisor not a “Yes” man or woman. I listened to one of my Prospect Researchers once even though I wasn’t sure she was right and it eventually led to a $35 million gift.  
  1. Do your best to get them at the same salary range as a Development Officer. The pay difference sends a strong message. And we all know people find out somehow.  
  1. Include them in key meetings. Remember properly supported and trained they should be able to help you measure staff performance, measure Campaigns, plan for campaigns, build Major Gifts pipelines, analyze general fundraising performance and much more. I have taken my PR&M team to meet Dean’s, VP’s of Programs and Board Chairs.  
  1. Have them answer to your VP’s, CDO’s office. Get them out of the “Org Chart” Siberia that is Development Services etc. Demand they have strong reports and metrics that help you succeed.  

The underlying factor in all of this is to develop a relationship with Prospect Research and Management that is based on empowerment. An overused term these days. But when you empower the use of data your accuracy will almost always improve. Better accuracy in fundraising means more money in the door.  

I talked with a VP of Development this week about a training I did for his team late last year. He told me about the staff that had taken it to heart and those that needed more help. We talked about how it’s changed how he works with his Prospect Research and Management team. He said we went from where they worked in Development to now they “own” Development’s success. Couldn’t have said it better myself. ​


"But when you empower the use of data your accuracy will almost always improve. Better accuracy in fundraising means more money in the door.  ​"

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