Jumping Off the Merry Go Round !
Prospecting: How do you know if you do it well? Most
organizations prospect by chance and think…think they are prospecting. A Board
Member, Donor or volunteer identify a new prospect and they are successfully
approached. Some organizations prospect so poorly that a donor literally has to
self-identify with a large gift before they can get the attention of Major
Gifts or a Development Director.
I heard a Major Gifts Director once loudly say that their Major Gifts portfolios were so static that it was like a Merry Go Round they couldn’t get off, we just keep seeing the same people over and over!
I have had the benefit in my consulting past to see the whole spectrum of nonprofit fundraising teams, big and small prospect …or not. What I preach about is systematic prospecting. The syncing up of Prospect Research, Prospect Management and your Development Staff going out the door and picking up the phone.
A while ago I was in Louisiana training a decent sized development team at a university. About 25 people. They had a good veteran Prospect Researcher who also did some Prospect Management work. Problem is…nobody listened to her. Development Officers asked her for profiles once in a while and ignored her prospecting lists she produced. Her boss was the Director of Development Services, who reported to the VP. The VP had been there for 16 years and was quite sure he knew every alumnus and really didn’t need “research” as he snidely referred to it. Once in a while a clear new prospect would arise and they would assign it to a Major Gifts officer but overwhelmingly their portfolio’s remained fairly static, for years.
So here I am sitting down with these nice folks, here I am jet lagged huddling over a remarkable Café Au Lait and beignets. God bless Louisiana! So I ask them about how many times they had seen alumni make major gifts elsewhere to other institutions, including other universities? Alumni who they didn’t have in their MG portfolios. And like popcorn name after name came up! Over the past two years about 15 major gifts had been made by alumni to OTHER places! One for $7.5 million!? Several seven figure gifts. What’s amazing is nobody said “Oh my that’s awful!?!” The Prospect Researcher had a bitter and hard look on her face. Her mouth was clearly being clamped shut.
So I said it out loud. “Why aren’t those donors in your Major Gifts portfolio’s??!” and “Have they been identified and approached by your people”? I wasn’t trying to be rude but the light bulbs went off over people’s heads. The VP to his credit did took responsibility right up front. Then it happened. The Prospect Researcher produced a dated…prospecting list from 5 years ago that showed most of the folks on this list we had produced verbally and from memory. She had done her part 5 years ago and told everyone in the room about these people!! Ouch. !! She didn’t say a word, she didn’t need to.
I worked with these nice folks to identify the broken links. The self-admitted arrogance and ignorance of their VP about Prospect Research, the inability of the Development Officers to cold call and pick up a phone, the lack of respect in which they held the Prospect Researcher. All of these are subtle things. Hard to spot. Hard to look in the mirror and admit ones faults. But nevertheless fixable and addressable. Sure it helps to have an outside consultant say it.
Years later that team mostly is still there, the Prospect Researcher talks a lot more now and calls me to thank me every year! What happened was they addressed the broken parts of their prospecting. The VP leads them now in prospecting, put it in their job descriptions, and makes sure they get trained to cold call. Bottom line is instead of static fundraising they consistently increase their MG giving every year by 6-10%. Consistently, they can bank on it. Sure Development Officers see new prospects that go nowhere, sure gifts come in that are smaller than they expected, but year in and year out their portfolios have improved. New big gifts come in regularly. Their institution is much safer, their students get more financial aid, their professors are paid better, the capital maintenance needs are handled. Had they remained static could they have handled all those new demands for money? Not sure.
It’s a simple story. I have seen it again and again yet I will submit that most development offices, many development leaders never learn it. Prospecting is essential to powerful, successful long term fundraising.
One needs to seriously invest in it. It’s often not a popular investment, because it often doesn’t contribute to this year’s totals. It takes courage as a VP of CDO to demand money for prospecting to your Board or boss. How many times have you been to a AFP or other fundraising conference where they talk about Prospecting? Working with your Prospect Researchers. Go ahead look you will be hard pressed to find what little there is. Even our professional organizations put little emphasis on it. Why?
Here is my step by step.
Here is how you do it:
Prospecting is also an agent of diversity. I am pretty sick of tokens on Boards. As a latino it’s always irritating to see token latino/a’s on Boards of Directors of nonprofits. If they had done their prospecting I bet they could have found a powerful and influential latino/a in their alumni or community that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the other Board Members.
Finally prospecting is essential because it’s all of our futures. In 5-10 years who will be making the game changing gifts to our institutions? We have whole demographics who need to learn philanthropy these days. The idea that people will continue to give as they have in the past is a fantasy. We need to adjust our fundraising to changing populations. So stop and ask yourself two simple questions. Does my institution systematically prospect and how do I know?
Write me if you have a question. Good luck, good hunting!
I heard a Major Gifts Director once loudly say that their Major Gifts portfolios were so static that it was like a Merry Go Round they couldn’t get off, we just keep seeing the same people over and over!
I have had the benefit in my consulting past to see the whole spectrum of nonprofit fundraising teams, big and small prospect …or not. What I preach about is systematic prospecting. The syncing up of Prospect Research, Prospect Management and your Development Staff going out the door and picking up the phone.
A while ago I was in Louisiana training a decent sized development team at a university. About 25 people. They had a good veteran Prospect Researcher who also did some Prospect Management work. Problem is…nobody listened to her. Development Officers asked her for profiles once in a while and ignored her prospecting lists she produced. Her boss was the Director of Development Services, who reported to the VP. The VP had been there for 16 years and was quite sure he knew every alumnus and really didn’t need “research” as he snidely referred to it. Once in a while a clear new prospect would arise and they would assign it to a Major Gifts officer but overwhelmingly their portfolio’s remained fairly static, for years.
So here I am sitting down with these nice folks, here I am jet lagged huddling over a remarkable Café Au Lait and beignets. God bless Louisiana! So I ask them about how many times they had seen alumni make major gifts elsewhere to other institutions, including other universities? Alumni who they didn’t have in their MG portfolios. And like popcorn name after name came up! Over the past two years about 15 major gifts had been made by alumni to OTHER places! One for $7.5 million!? Several seven figure gifts. What’s amazing is nobody said “Oh my that’s awful!?!” The Prospect Researcher had a bitter and hard look on her face. Her mouth was clearly being clamped shut.
So I said it out loud. “Why aren’t those donors in your Major Gifts portfolio’s??!” and “Have they been identified and approached by your people”? I wasn’t trying to be rude but the light bulbs went off over people’s heads. The VP to his credit did took responsibility right up front. Then it happened. The Prospect Researcher produced a dated…prospecting list from 5 years ago that showed most of the folks on this list we had produced verbally and from memory. She had done her part 5 years ago and told everyone in the room about these people!! Ouch. !! She didn’t say a word, she didn’t need to.
I worked with these nice folks to identify the broken links. The self-admitted arrogance and ignorance of their VP about Prospect Research, the inability of the Development Officers to cold call and pick up a phone, the lack of respect in which they held the Prospect Researcher. All of these are subtle things. Hard to spot. Hard to look in the mirror and admit ones faults. But nevertheless fixable and addressable. Sure it helps to have an outside consultant say it.
Years later that team mostly is still there, the Prospect Researcher talks a lot more now and calls me to thank me every year! What happened was they addressed the broken parts of their prospecting. The VP leads them now in prospecting, put it in their job descriptions, and makes sure they get trained to cold call. Bottom line is instead of static fundraising they consistently increase their MG giving every year by 6-10%. Consistently, they can bank on it. Sure Development Officers see new prospects that go nowhere, sure gifts come in that are smaller than they expected, but year in and year out their portfolios have improved. New big gifts come in regularly. Their institution is much safer, their students get more financial aid, their professors are paid better, the capital maintenance needs are handled. Had they remained static could they have handled all those new demands for money? Not sure.
It’s a simple story. I have seen it again and again yet I will submit that most development offices, many development leaders never learn it. Prospecting is essential to powerful, successful long term fundraising.
One needs to seriously invest in it. It’s often not a popular investment, because it often doesn’t contribute to this year’s totals. It takes courage as a VP of CDO to demand money for prospecting to your Board or boss. How many times have you been to a AFP or other fundraising conference where they talk about Prospecting? Working with your Prospect Researchers. Go ahead look you will be hard pressed to find what little there is. Even our professional organizations put little emphasis on it. Why?
Here is my step by step.
Here is how you do it:
- Hire or retain great and dynamic Prospect
Researchers and pay them well. Pay them like a good Major Gifts Officer because
that’s what they are. Retain them and you will have experts in where the money
is in your donor base, where to find cold new donors. Pair them with brave
Development Officers who can pick up the phone, get on a plane and you will make
money.
- Staff Prospect Management. If you have more than
a few Development Officers this role is essential. Too often it’s give to a
Prospect Researcher to do or just forgotten. I would say if you have more than
4 Development Officers you need Prospect Management. It will make your pipeline
flow new prospects, identify bottlenecks and issues and give you superior
forecasting and dashboard support for your reports and budgeting. Your Prospect
Researcher is your scout…unleash them to be proactive. Prospect Management is a whole other job.
- Empower these two roles: I have to reemphasize the
subtle dynamic that often prevents great prospecting. The “lower rung” person
trying to influence the Development Officer who is paid more. We development officers
and I am one, come with big egos! How can you insure your PR&M folks have a
powerful and respectful dynamic? That they can both worth together. Trust each
other?
- Lead them out the door. As a Development VP I
know there is nothing like seeing the boss do it. If you want your staff to
prospect, cold call, work well with the Prospect Researcher then model it
yourself. If you can’t do that then find a new job or get trained.
- Train and support your Development Officers to
prospect: This comes in a range of ways. Having your development officers admit
their own fears and shortcomings is pretty hard to pull off. Private
conversations about their approaches are good. Listen to their calls and talk
with them. Even better is creating an internal, private professional learning
community. Where colleagues can share best and successful practices. Talk about
challenges etc. Yes and there is one of my webinars on cold calling? (Sorry
about the plug)
- Put it in job descriptions: Prospecting should
be in their job descriptions. In especially challenging institutions where
resistance is deep seated to change you need to quantify prospecting in their
job descriptions. “You will identify 12 new MG prospects this year”; “You will
conduct 10 Prospect Review meetings with Prospect Research and Management”. “You will have 10 new prospect meetings every
month”. Etc. Etc.
Prospecting is also an agent of diversity. I am pretty sick of tokens on Boards. As a latino it’s always irritating to see token latino/a’s on Boards of Directors of nonprofits. If they had done their prospecting I bet they could have found a powerful and influential latino/a in their alumni or community that can stand shoulder to shoulder with the other Board Members.
Finally prospecting is essential because it’s all of our futures. In 5-10 years who will be making the game changing gifts to our institutions? We have whole demographics who need to learn philanthropy these days. The idea that people will continue to give as they have in the past is a fantasy. We need to adjust our fundraising to changing populations. So stop and ask yourself two simple questions. Does my institution systematically prospect and how do I know?
Write me if you have a question. Good luck, good hunting!
