Do you wish you raised more money from individuals? If so, what’s stopping you?
I often hear from my readers and clients that they don’t know where to start.
2 Simple Ways to Identify Potential Donors
There are a handful of simple ways to identify prospects for your organization.
1. Review Your Donor Data
The first step is to check your database for your current donors. Many organizations assume they don’t have any or many donors, but the first step is to understand who is already supporting you. In order to do this, you will want to run reports from your database and look for several things:
- Largest donors — Run reports to identify those who gave one time gifts over a certain amount ($500 or $1,000) last year and the year before as your largest givers.
- Loyal donors — Also run a list to identify donors at any level (even $10 per year) who have given for 5 or more years. These are your loyal donors.
These donors are going to be your best major gift and planned giving prospects because they already have an affinity for your organization and are showing it by donating money.
Make a list of your top 50 prospects from your database, comprised several donors from each of your largest and most loyal donor lists (i.e., a smart combination of longevity and gift amount).
2. Ask Your Board and Staff
Regardless of whether you have a long list from your database, you’ll also want to ask your board, staff members, and volunteers for those in their circles who might be interested in learning more about your organization.
It’s important to emphasize that you won’t be asking their friends for money — unless they express a genuine interest in your organization. Before even considering asking their contacts for money, help them gauge interest by bringing these people on tours, to events, volunteer opportunities, and so on.
Take an Inside-Out Approach Toward Potential Donors
Whenever looking for donors, take an “inside-out” approach. Start with those closest to your organization and work your way out. That means your best donors are going to be those who are already aware of, and support, your organization. You may be able to identify additional donors and volunteers from your community through outreach efforts on social media and community wide projects. However, donors are rarely “out there” as many early nonprofit leaders hope.
You can also look for new volunteers and donors through local organizations and outreach efforts, such as Rotary and other similar types of organizations.
Once you’ve identified prospects for your organization, you’re on your way to raising money from individuals for your cause and organization.
What’s the Next Step? Cultivation
The next step in the fundraising process involves cultivation. I’ve written extensively on that — check out these two posts for the basics:
- How to Cultivate Prospects and Build Lasting Relationships
- Raising Major Gifts Post-COVID: Cultivation
How do you identify prospects at your organization? And, if you’re not identifying potential donors, why not? Tell me about it in the comments.
Quick, helpful and powerful tips, Amy! Thanks.
Thanks for reminding everyone of those loyal donors, even if they are small givers. They may not make large gifts in their lifetime, but they are still worth your attention. They may be some of your best prospects for bequests.
Another easily overlooked source of prospective donors: your volunteers and your activist base.
Amy, create action items to get orgs moving.
To add to your list of where to look for prospects, I suggest those attending your special events. While they may or may not have given $, they have certainly shown an interest in your organization. The challenge is capturing names and contact info from guests at every event whether it is a charity auction, open house, memorial dinner, charity walk, etc.