Prospecting For The Endgame: Week 5
Published
Prospecting for the Endgame: Week 5
Previously in Prospecting for the Endgame, our prospects were filtered down, sized up, and paired with giving opportunities that fit their giving ability and engagement potential. Our prospects have different perspectives that impact their choices in investing in social good organizations.
As researchers, it’s our job to understand our donors’ backgrounds, so we can match them with the right fundraiser and design the right cultivation plans. Now that we have our major giving prospects separated from prospects for other revenue streams, it’s time to create donor profiles for our possible partners.
Okoye
Okoye is the leader of Wakanda’s military and intelligence operations. She has a loyalty to her country and friends and a strong sense of integrity, which would obviously impact her giving behavior. As researchers, we would want to have our plan informed by trends in her culture’s giving as well as giving from members of the military and veterans.
Understanding what motivates our donors and how those motivations overlap with our mission is what can turn a good cultivation strategy into a great one. Okoye’s personal mission is an obvious one: Wakanda. Any donation from her would be rooted in how our mission would benefit her cause so we need to highlight any link to her patriotism and desire to give back.
Pepper Potts
As CEO of Stark Industries and a leader of the Stark Relief Foundation, Pepper Potts has the obvious ability to give and has demonstrable philanthropic leanings. She’s incredibly connected to her network and very savvy professionally.
I’ve often been told to look for 3 A’s when considering prospect data:
Access – Will my team be able to get in touch with this prospect?
Affinity – Does the prospect have a connection to our organization’s vision?
Ability – Is there evidence of means to invest in the mission?
I’d also throw in a forth: Attached – How socially connected is the prospect?
Other than Access, Pepper checks off all the boxes. Pepper is likely swarmed with organizations looking for her involvement and support, so our cultivation strategy needs to be as savvy as Pepper herself. As an executive, we need to highlight the cost benefit of our programming and detail the outputs and outcomes of any investment.
Join us Again Next Week…
We’ll be digging into Thor and Thanos and exploring some interesting challenges in prospecting international donors and donors whose gifts present ethical issues for your organization.
We dig into all these topics and more in Blackbaud University’s OBP: Fundraising – Major Giving class. While you wait for our next episode, check it out!
If you Missed an Exciting Episode…
Here are the links to every edition of Prospecting for the Endgame!
Prospecting for the Endgame: Week 7
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5603
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 6
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5574
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 5
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5564
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 4
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5544
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 3
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5527
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 2
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5508
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 1
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5491
Previously in Prospecting for the Endgame, our prospects were filtered down, sized up, and paired with giving opportunities that fit their giving ability and engagement potential. Our prospects have different perspectives that impact their choices in investing in social good organizations.
As researchers, it’s our job to understand our donors’ backgrounds, so we can match them with the right fundraiser and design the right cultivation plans. Now that we have our major giving prospects separated from prospects for other revenue streams, it’s time to create donor profiles for our possible partners.
Okoye
Okoye is the leader of Wakanda’s military and intelligence operations. She has a loyalty to her country and friends and a strong sense of integrity, which would obviously impact her giving behavior. As researchers, we would want to have our plan informed by trends in her culture’s giving as well as giving from members of the military and veterans.
Understanding what motivates our donors and how those motivations overlap with our mission is what can turn a good cultivation strategy into a great one. Okoye’s personal mission is an obvious one: Wakanda. Any donation from her would be rooted in how our mission would benefit her cause so we need to highlight any link to her patriotism and desire to give back.
Pepper Potts
As CEO of Stark Industries and a leader of the Stark Relief Foundation, Pepper Potts has the obvious ability to give and has demonstrable philanthropic leanings. She’s incredibly connected to her network and very savvy professionally.
I’ve often been told to look for 3 A’s when considering prospect data:
Access – Will my team be able to get in touch with this prospect?
Affinity – Does the prospect have a connection to our organization’s vision?
Ability – Is there evidence of means to invest in the mission?
I’d also throw in a forth: Attached – How socially connected is the prospect?
Other than Access, Pepper checks off all the boxes. Pepper is likely swarmed with organizations looking for her involvement and support, so our cultivation strategy needs to be as savvy as Pepper herself. As an executive, we need to highlight the cost benefit of our programming and detail the outputs and outcomes of any investment.
Join us Again Next Week…
We’ll be digging into Thor and Thanos and exploring some interesting challenges in prospecting international donors and donors whose gifts present ethical issues for your organization.
We dig into all these topics and more in Blackbaud University’s OBP: Fundraising – Major Giving class. While you wait for our next episode, check it out!
If you Missed an Exciting Episode…
Here are the links to every edition of Prospecting for the Endgame!
Prospecting for the Endgame: Week 7
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5603
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 6
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5574
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 5
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5564
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 4
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5544
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 3
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5527
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 2
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5508
Prospecting for The Endgame: Week 1
https://community.blackbaud.com/blogs/76/5491
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Organizational Best Practices Blog
04/10/2019 11:00am EDT
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You can also find a link to last week's adventure at the beginning of this week's. Every week has a link to the week before.
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