We’ve heard it many times before; fundraising is all about relationships. But it’s not just about the relationships between an… Read More »In Translation: 4 Common Misunderstandings Between Major Gift Officers and Prospect Researchers
When I first heard of a family office, I thought it was a fancy way of saying a family business. Boy, was I wrong! Family offices are a way for families to manage their wealth – as if that wealth was a business. This can include managing family investments and companies, estate planning, education planning, vacations, and philanthropy.
When meeting a new prospect, it’s quite exhilarating to find out that they are philanthropic and have given generously to other organizations. But occasionally, fundraising professionals may find a gap between what the prospect says and what is publicly available. Why? This article addresses that question!
Corporate sponsorships – they are everywhere you look! The concept seems simple: in exchange for advertising and branded materials at the event/location, the company financially sponsors the occasion. It has been the bread and butter of the corporate world for decades. But if that is all you are asking for, you are only touching one piece of the big puzzle of corporate philanthropy. There is so much more to corporate fundraising than just sponsorships.
By Elisa Shoenberger
In the past few weeks, two big reports on donor advised funds (DAF) in the US were released. The findings are pretty fascinating and can help reorient your thinking of how to approach DAF advisors for your organization.
The 2024 National Study on Donor Advised Funds (NSDAF) undertook the largest study of DAFs in the US so far by working with 111 DAFs to parse their data from 2014-2022. One of the most interesting findings is that 81% of DAFs in the study were opened after 2010 with 25% or more opened after 2020. That is astonishing! That means that most DAF advisors are relatively new to having a DAF.
Read More »Review of 2024 Reports on Donor Advised Funds
We know that the best way to raise money for our organizations is through face-to-face relationships with our prospects. Like any relationship, we must put in time and effort. But sometimes, you need more than a company biography or what is in your organization’s database to establish that connection and maintain it. Knowing how to find the right information can be a struggle.
That is where prospect research comes in. Using public information and internal information from your organization (if available), prospect research can help figure out how to better cultivate the person. Research will help you learn more about the prospect and give you the confidence to deepen that relationship.
Read More »How Prospect Research Brings Confidence to Your Prospect Meetings
Finding new prospects is often compared to fishing. You throw out a proverbial net and hopefully get an incredible number of fish in return. Some are going to be bigger than others; hopefully, you’ll throw the smaller fish back into the water to grow and thrive.
Read More »Fishing for Prospects: The Promise of ValidationsBy Elisa Shoenberger
Asking for a major or transformative gift is a little bit like asking someone to marry you. You’ve (likely) been dating one another for a while and know quite a bit about your respective interests. Maybe you’ve discussed marriage; perhaps you haven’t. Ideally, you have an idea that the other person will actually say “yes.”
But timing is everything. You probably don’t want to ask your beloved to marry you when they are dealing with their dying father or in front of a crowd of people if they’ve told you that public proposals are not their thing. Maybe you want to ask their father and/or mother for their hand in marriage. The way you approach the proposal may say a lot about the response.
Read More »Strategic Research for Transformative GiftsBy Elisa Shoenberger
Most of us have eaten cheese in our lives. Some of us may have grown up with American cheese, string cheese, and cheddar cheese. Maybe you’ve tried mozzarella, spreadable goat cheese, and a bleu cheese. While all of those cheeses are delicious, it can be a little intimidating to walk into the cheese aisle or a cheese shop. Suddenly there are tens, even hundreds of cheeses in all different colors and shapes. So how do you figure out what goes best on a salad or on a steak?
That’s what it might feel like when you’ve met with prospects in your portfolio. You know something about them; maybe you even requested an Aspire Snap Bio on them before meeting them. But what do you do next? How do you cultivate them towards a major gift in the next few years or so? How do you fit the cheese to the cracker or side?
Read More »Finding the Right Cheese for the Cracker: Using Research to Create Strategies and Tactics for Cultivating Prospects
Remember the first time you got behind the wheel of a car? Maybe you had taken your learner’s permit test or not; maybe you had watched your parents closely as they drove. But when facing the wheel, pedals, and all those buttons for the first time, it might have been really daunting. I was frustrated the first time I got behind the wheel; no matter what I did, I could not get the car to go. I soon realized that no one had told me to push the brake while starting the car!
Naturally, if someone is getting a donor profile for the first time, it can be a bit daunting. There are lots of sections; some filled with charts and graphs while others have lots of information. And what’s with the “likely” and “possibly” speculation?
Read More »Learning to Drive: Using Prospect Research for Early Cultivation Meetings