Let's Go Beyond Prospect Research and Talk about Fundraising !
It’s not about great Prospect Research and Management; it’s about a whole team approach. It’s about having an entire culture of prospecting, where it’s expected, rewarded and supported. Where the person who finds the prospect is as valued and rewarded as much as the person who engages that prospect.
Sorry to tell all of you, you’re indeed fundraisers. How many giant gifts, the one’s that make the Chronicle of Philanthropy started out on a Prospect Researchers screen? You raise money. Only question is, do you want to raise a little or a lot?
I have spent countless years as an unofficial part of the Prospect Research community. I am not a researcher, but a field fundraiser. I have been a VP of Development and Chief Development Officer for years. So I have an insider/outsider perspective that I think is valuable.
I see conferences and classes where Prospect Research and Management teams help each other do their job better. It’s awesome the support they give each other, the professional development inside the PR&M community is superior and a model to others, including field fundraisers.
What I am selling is a new vision of the role of Prospect Research and Management One that’s broader and goes beyond prospect identification. One where Prospect Management has power and is a key management tool. Where PR&M can insure prospects are effectively acted upon and smartly engaged. And finally one where Prospect Research and Management are considered a set. You can’t have one without the other.
What this literally could mean to our institutions is new infusions of revenue, new game changing major gifts coming into our institutions! The kind of philanthropy that is the reason many of us do our jobs. We want to make a difference in the world. Let’s do it!
However, you can find the next Bill Gates in your donor base as a prospect hand it over to a Major Gifts Officer who will glance at it for 6 seconds and put it on a “To Do” pile that never gets done. This lack of understanding of Prospect Research, this dismissal happens commonly. And even if that Major Gifts Officer took the initiative and picked up the phone who is to say that person knows how to get that crucial appointment? Many don’t know how to make a cold call to a new prospect, many are scared stiff of making that type of call.
So I’d like to call on Prospect Research and Management staff to envision themselves as leaders, as change agents. I believe PR&M can be pivotal in helping the entire development shop run well. If a Major Gifts Officer understands where prospects come from, if she can cold call a prospect and if she knows who you are it makes a night and day difference in how your research is used. If your research is used well your probably going to be doing some good fundraising.
Now I know many of you are rolling your eyes because it sounds like I live in my own fundraising Disneyland. However, I know the power and hierarchy dynamics that inhabit development offices. Every office is different, some VP’s of Development would be open to a new way of working if there was a potential for new major revenue. Others stick to the hierarchy and wouldn’t even give a lowly Prospect Researcher the time of day. I know many org charts have Prospect Research and Management buried deep where they have little control over their prospects, let alone fundraising.
What’s also unique is bridging this divide between PR&M and DO’s in most instances can only come from PR&M staff. Why? Well simply because most development officers know little about your profession and abilities. But the reverse isn’t true. They simply don’t know the massive resource most of you are.
So how good is your organization at prospecting?
Let’s make an assessment of your institutions “Prospecting Health”, this is unscientific and just using some parameters I use when I study an organization. Get out a pencil (they still make those right?)
Do you meet regularly with the Development Officers/Major Gifts Officers you support? If so , Add 1 point
If you scored 13-15 then just ignore me, your fine, delete my article and get back to work you slacker!
If you’re in the 0-1 range, ouch!! Yes, a 14 score is pretty ideal..but let’s shoot high? 3 on up I feel like you have a chance to improve your lot.
What’s neat about my amateurish little metrics is that you can see how simple many of these changes are to the way one works. I am not asking PR&M staff to do something way out of their skill set or off course. Most of these are fairly achievable.
In conclusion, what I am asking for is an increased conversation about a new broader and more powerful vision for our fundraising. One where PR&M rises up to ask for more control, more credit with the promise of more fundraising. Let’s train our staffs to reach out to each other. Let’s talk more with AFP and co-present at each other’s conferences. Let’s showcase great examples of great whole team prospecting and the net effect in new dollars in the door.
Internally, only you know how to advance this cause inside your own shops. I have talked with many VP’s and CDO’s on behalf of their Prospect Researcher. Tried to explain the control and power a strong PR&M team gives a leader. I urge them to move PR&M to an executive function of their leadership and to compensate them for their strategic and tactical skills. The results I have seen are thrilling.
I call Prospect Research and Management a “cause”. Why? Good research I feel is the core of great fundraising. Too many organizations don’t do it well, and far too many small and medium nonprofits don’t even know what it is! Let’s all advance the cause of precision fundraising.
Many of you are better writers than this old Mexican, write for the AFP magazines, websites, blogs etc?! Are we attempting to include development officers in our local APRA meetings? Is it appropriate to make a track just for them or perhaps a separate brown bag session? Not trying to intrude on your chapter’s plans, but think about it. Let’s think of ourselves as one whole team. Perhaps we can sell them on this vision too?
Let’s redefine success as more than great prospect identification and management, let’s define success as raising money.
All Articles and Documents Can Only Be Reproduced With Written Permission of Armando Zumaya
Sorry to tell all of you, you’re indeed fundraisers. How many giant gifts, the one’s that make the Chronicle of Philanthropy started out on a Prospect Researchers screen? You raise money. Only question is, do you want to raise a little or a lot?
I have spent countless years as an unofficial part of the Prospect Research community. I am not a researcher, but a field fundraiser. I have been a VP of Development and Chief Development Officer for years. So I have an insider/outsider perspective that I think is valuable.
I see conferences and classes where Prospect Research and Management teams help each other do their job better. It’s awesome the support they give each other, the professional development inside the PR&M community is superior and a model to others, including field fundraisers.
What I am selling is a new vision of the role of Prospect Research and Management One that’s broader and goes beyond prospect identification. One where Prospect Management has power and is a key management tool. Where PR&M can insure prospects are effectively acted upon and smartly engaged. And finally one where Prospect Research and Management are considered a set. You can’t have one without the other.
What this literally could mean to our institutions is new infusions of revenue, new game changing major gifts coming into our institutions! The kind of philanthropy that is the reason many of us do our jobs. We want to make a difference in the world. Let’s do it!
However, you can find the next Bill Gates in your donor base as a prospect hand it over to a Major Gifts Officer who will glance at it for 6 seconds and put it on a “To Do” pile that never gets done. This lack of understanding of Prospect Research, this dismissal happens commonly. And even if that Major Gifts Officer took the initiative and picked up the phone who is to say that person knows how to get that crucial appointment? Many don’t know how to make a cold call to a new prospect, many are scared stiff of making that type of call.
So I’d like to call on Prospect Research and Management staff to envision themselves as leaders, as change agents. I believe PR&M can be pivotal in helping the entire development shop run well. If a Major Gifts Officer understands where prospects come from, if she can cold call a prospect and if she knows who you are it makes a night and day difference in how your research is used. If your research is used well your probably going to be doing some good fundraising.
Now I know many of you are rolling your eyes because it sounds like I live in my own fundraising Disneyland. However, I know the power and hierarchy dynamics that inhabit development offices. Every office is different, some VP’s of Development would be open to a new way of working if there was a potential for new major revenue. Others stick to the hierarchy and wouldn’t even give a lowly Prospect Researcher the time of day. I know many org charts have Prospect Research and Management buried deep where they have little control over their prospects, let alone fundraising.
What’s also unique is bridging this divide between PR&M and DO’s in most instances can only come from PR&M staff. Why? Well simply because most development officers know little about your profession and abilities. But the reverse isn’t true. They simply don’t know the massive resource most of you are.
So how good is your organization at prospecting?
Let’s make an assessment of your institutions “Prospecting Health”, this is unscientific and just using some parameters I use when I study an organization. Get out a pencil (they still make those right?)
Do you meet regularly with the Development Officers/Major Gifts Officers you support? If so , Add 1 point
- Are you confident that your development staff pick up the phone and act on your best leads? Add 1 point
- Do your development officers give you input on your work, positive and negative? Add 1 point
- Are they getting appointments with most of your prospects, even if they don’t have any introductions to them? Add 1 point
- Does your office answer to the top fundraising officer (VP, CDO)? Add 2 points
- Are you asked to plan for campaigns instead of consultant being hired? Add 2 points
- Are your offices in the same areas as development officers? Add 1 point
- Do you have regular Prospect Review Meetings? Add 2 points
- Does your Prospect Management staff have control over portfolios and is able to exercise that control? Add 2 points
- When a new major gift happens is both the development officer and prospect researcher’s role acknowledged when praise is given? Add 2
If you scored 13-15 then just ignore me, your fine, delete my article and get back to work you slacker!
If you’re in the 0-1 range, ouch!! Yes, a 14 score is pretty ideal..but let’s shoot high? 3 on up I feel like you have a chance to improve your lot.
What’s neat about my amateurish little metrics is that you can see how simple many of these changes are to the way one works. I am not asking PR&M staff to do something way out of their skill set or off course. Most of these are fairly achievable.
In conclusion, what I am asking for is an increased conversation about a new broader and more powerful vision for our fundraising. One where PR&M rises up to ask for more control, more credit with the promise of more fundraising. Let’s train our staffs to reach out to each other. Let’s talk more with AFP and co-present at each other’s conferences. Let’s showcase great examples of great whole team prospecting and the net effect in new dollars in the door.
Internally, only you know how to advance this cause inside your own shops. I have talked with many VP’s and CDO’s on behalf of their Prospect Researcher. Tried to explain the control and power a strong PR&M team gives a leader. I urge them to move PR&M to an executive function of their leadership and to compensate them for their strategic and tactical skills. The results I have seen are thrilling.
I call Prospect Research and Management a “cause”. Why? Good research I feel is the core of great fundraising. Too many organizations don’t do it well, and far too many small and medium nonprofits don’t even know what it is! Let’s all advance the cause of precision fundraising.
Many of you are better writers than this old Mexican, write for the AFP magazines, websites, blogs etc?! Are we attempting to include development officers in our local APRA meetings? Is it appropriate to make a track just for them or perhaps a separate brown bag session? Not trying to intrude on your chapter’s plans, but think about it. Let’s think of ourselves as one whole team. Perhaps we can sell them on this vision too?
Let’s redefine success as more than great prospect identification and management, let’s define success as raising money.
All Articles and Documents Can Only Be Reproduced With Written Permission of Armando Zumaya
