Relationships and Assignments: Matchmaking for Your Fundraising Efforts

Fundraising is about more than just the ask. To effectively fundraise, your organization develops meaningful relationships with constituents and researches prospective donors to determine how best their interest can impact your mission. To help cultivate those relationships, your organization can assign fundraisers — also called solicitors — to interact with constituents to nurture their interest in your mission and help develop a stong, mutually-beneficial bond. In Raiser's Edge NXT, these fundraisers or solicitors can easily manage their portfolio of assigned relationships and related activity from Work Center. But first, your organization — or its resident fundraising manager — needs to play matchmaker to pair constituents with their ideal fundraisers to help ensure a strong and engaging relationship.

 

As you play matchmaker, take a moment to consider various items that can help drive informed decisions about who should manage a constituent relationship.



Recency of giving or interactions. A constituent who gave once is likely to give again, but one who hasn't given in some time may take some extra coaxing. Similarly, a constituent your organization hasn't interacted with in a while may require some special individualized attemtion. When you identify lapsed or lapsing donors, look at their giving histories to determine which are worthwhile and likely to respond — such as those who gave multiple gifts of at least over $10 over consecutive years, within the past five years — and assign them to a fundraiser for a personalized, quarterly recapture appeal. To analyze a constituent's giving history, click Work with gifts under Giving on their record. For details, check out the Constituent Giving Help.



Wealth ratings. A constituent's wealth ratings can help indicate how to best cultivate their relationship. For example, we recommend you assign your wealthier constituents to an attentive fundraiser for the white-glove treatment, with more care and interaction than other donors. You can quickly view a constituent's wealth ratings from Work Center or under Ratings on their record. For details, see the Ratings Help.



(Of course, wealth doesn't necessarily indicate philanthropy. With Prospect Research Management, you can track details such as giving preferences and contributions to other organizations to help determine a constituent's likelihood to give. For more information, see the Prospect Research Help.)



Location and shared experience. If a relationship requires personalized attention, consider the value of face-to-face interactions. To help foster individualized and in-person conversation, try to pair a constituent and fundraiser who live or work near one another, who can conveniently meet at familiar locations such as that great local restaurant or charming coffee shop. Other commonalities — such as shared relationships or education history — can also help strengthen a bond between a constituent and their assigned fundraiser. You can find and compare all these details from the constituent records of both the donor and fundraiser. For information about all these details available at your fingertips, see the Constituent Records Help.



What are some criteria you use to match fundraisers to constituents for strong, successful relationships? Share your experiences in the Comments below!