Identifying Mid-Level Prospects With ProspectPoint Models
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I decided to begin my blog series – for which I will be posting over the coming months – on utilizing ProspectPoint® models to help identify and rank your best prospects for mid-level giving opportunities. If you are new to ProspectPoint® models from Target Analytics, here is a link to more information at via our Blackbaud.com website. Our predictive models use past giving data along with other affiliation data tracked on your donors – enhance it with our demographic, financial and biographical analytics data – to help our clients identify specific prospect pools for future giving opportunities.
For example with our Major Giving Likelihood (MGL) model, we analyze the characteristics of your current major gift donors to rank and prioritize your entire donor base for their inclination to give a major gift and combine this with targeted ask amounts, or our Target Gift Range (TGR) model.
Some of our clients are seeking specific mid-level giving opportunities, so they ask us to build a Mid-level Giving Likelihood (MidGL) model. For those who do have MidGL scores, we suggest the best way to segment and utilize this score is to work in tandem with the specific Target Gift Ranges that correlate with the mid-level ranges used in created the MidGL model.
In lieu of having MidGL scores, many clients utilize their Major Gift Likelihood (MGL) scores with their mid-level Target Gift Ranges. This is another effective way to segment your most likely and capable prospects for these mid-level transitional gifts. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, many of your mid-level donors are emerging major gift donors and time spent cultivating them now in a more personalized manner could be the first step in moving the needle and growing the pipeline for future major gifts.
There are ways you can prioritize this ranked list, and I recommend reviewing your prospects by segmenting them in descending order by likelihood scores within each TGR score.
Here is an illustration of the chart above and let’s say, for example, you have three excellent and highly like mid-level prospects with TGR 7:
My next blog is going to focus on segmenting your WealthPoint® data within ResearchPoint™ for mid-level giving prospect groups as well as utilizing these data points to refine your modeling scores. The blog after this will focus on Affluence Insight™ results for mid-level giving. My final blog will discuss specific engagement strategies for your mid-level pool of prospects and donors, along with client example or two to help illustrate utilization of Target Analytics project data for mid-level giving programs.
For example with our Major Giving Likelihood (MGL) model, we analyze the characteristics of your current major gift donors to rank and prioritize your entire donor base for their inclination to give a major gift and combine this with targeted ask amounts, or our Target Gift Range (TGR) model.
Some of our clients are seeking specific mid-level giving opportunities, so they ask us to build a Mid-level Giving Likelihood (MidGL) model. For those who do have MidGL scores, we suggest the best way to segment and utilize this score is to work in tandem with the specific Target Gift Ranges that correlate with the mid-level ranges used in created the MidGL model.
- For example, let’s say your MidGL model was built on the data characteristics of those who gave your organization between $1,000 and $5,000 in the past year. I would then focus on those with MidGL 701-1000 (good or better likelihood to give your nonprofit a mid-level gift) with TGR scores 6 and 7 ($1,001-$5,000).
- You could also include some excellent MidGL 901-1000 prospects with TGR scores of 5 ($501-$1,000), since $1K is at the top of that range. Depending upon your results and numbers, if you find you wish to look at those with TGR 5 with very good or good MidGL (801-900 and 701-800 respectively) then you could include those prospects in your mid-level pool as well.
In lieu of having MidGL scores, many clients utilize their Major Gift Likelihood (MGL) scores with their mid-level Target Gift Ranges. This is another effective way to segment your most likely and capable prospects for these mid-level transitional gifts. As I mentioned in last week’s blog, many of your mid-level donors are emerging major gift donors and time spent cultivating them now in a more personalized manner could be the first step in moving the needle and growing the pipeline for future major gifts.
There are ways you can prioritize this ranked list, and I recommend reviewing your prospects by segmenting them in descending order by likelihood scores within each TGR score.
- For example, if you have a pool of top MidGL or MGL prospects with scores of 701-1000 and TGRs 5-7, I would target my first segment of mid-level prospects who have TGR 7 ($2,501-$5,000) and excellent MidGL or MGL scores 901-1000. Look at their past giving, in particular giving to your nonprofit in the past year or two, to decide if you think they are your best prospects to upgrade to the low or high end of the TGR identified, or if you will instead employ a more aggressive ask than in the past, but not quite to their TGR at this time, thus growing your gift ask towards their TGR over time. You might want to review their WealthPoint® public research findings and/or Affluence Insight™ to further refine and determine next steps. I will focus my next blog on ideas around utilizing WealthPoint® and Affluence Insight™ data results for both identifying mid-level prospects and refining top modeling mid-level gift prospects.
- Below is a sample upgrade strategy that you can think about when determining what the next gift ask should be for these mid-level prospects that utilizes their most recent year of giving in conjunction with their TGR to determine your ask strategy:
Here is an illustration of the chart above and let’s say, for example, you have three excellent and highly like mid-level prospects with TGR 7:
- Donor #1 is giving one level below their TGR 7, ask them to upgrade to the low end ($2,500)
- Donor #2 is giving within their TGR 7, ask them to upgrade to the high end ($5,000)
- Donor #3 is giving more than one level below their TGR score, maybe asking them to give at the TGR identified would be too aggressive and instead consider asking them to give 1 ½ times, 2 times or 2 ½ times their last gift amount, depending upon how far their last gift is from TGR 7
- Next review those with TGR 7 and very good MidGL or MGL scores of 801-900, and lastly those with MidGL or MGL scores of 701-800, looking at the data mentioned in the bullet above.
- Then move onto those with excellent likelihood scores 901-1000 with TGR 6 ($1,000-$2,500), etc.
- If you have Raiser’s Edge, I like creating queries of these top mid-level prospects and reviewing this query within the First/Greatest/Latest Gift Report to see the areas of greatest opportunity amongst this pool of prospects.
- I recommend that if you have gift officers who are assigned to these mid-level prospect pools, determine if they should remain in MGO portfolios or instead put into your mid-level engagement pool.
My next blog is going to focus on segmenting your WealthPoint® data within ResearchPoint™ for mid-level giving prospect groups as well as utilizing these data points to refine your modeling scores. The blog after this will focus on Affluence Insight™ results for mid-level giving. My final blog will discuss specific engagement strategies for your mid-level pool of prospects and donors, along with client example or two to help illustrate utilization of Target Analytics project data for mid-level giving programs.
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04/26/2018 6:58pm EDT
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