Biggest gifts are under the brown stones

Early in my career during a conversation about seeking major gifts a veteran fundraiser once told me “picture a rocky riverbed filled with softball size river stones as far as you can see.” 

                                                        

“Each stone represents a gift prospect," he continued. "And all you have to do is go to a stone, pick it up and turn it over. If there is money under it great – if not, then put it down and pick up the next one.  You never know what you will find under a rock until you turn it over. Just keep turning over rocks. It really is pretty simple.”

That example has stuck with me over the years for several reasons. It serves as a reminder of two important and often overlooked facts;

• Successfully seeking big gifts is not rocket science
• Seeking big gifts, in its basic form, is a systematic process.

Surveying the many stones in the riverbed - they all look the same. So many stones. Where to begin. Which stones to turn over first. Do you work back and forth across the bed of rocks or up and down? The sheer number of stones that must be turned over can be overwhelming.

If through trial and error you discovered that the brown stones have more money under them than the red ones, the red ones more money than the tan ones and the grey ones have no money at all, then the task would be fairly straightforward. Turn over all the brown stones first!  Then the red ones and save the tan stones for last and don't waste time with the grey ones.  But, how do you discover the color code in the first place?

" I don't know who to ask" or "I don't know what to ask for" these and similar phrases are common in organizations that don't have major gift programs. Information that you need and don't have doesn't suddenly become known because we want or need it.

The process of sorting out "who" and "how much" is commonly known as "screening and rating" of donors. 

You need a conscious and thoughtful screening and rating plan to identify which "stones" are most likely to produce big gifts and the gift size.

Generally speaking there are three methods of screening and rating donors. Broadly speaking these methods are:

• Internal Screening & Rating
• Electronic Screens/Prospect Research
• Peer Screening & Rating

Screening & rating based on your internal information that normally includes;

• Giving History
• Call reports/Anecdotal information
• Personal Knowledge

Using this internal screening and rating information your organization can draw certain conclusions from the information that you have on hand. Most everyone in the community knows or thinks they know who are the more wealthy members of the community. However, the fact remains: " You don't know what you don't know."

To go beyond internal screening and rating based on information that you already have you may consider "electronic screening" or individual prospect research for addition information. It is absolutely amazing what these services can discover. 

Visit The Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement website here to learn about the wide variety of professional services offered from prospect researchers. Personally I have used the electronic screening company WealthEngine in the past and found them to be helpful.

If professional services are beyond your reach then consider Peer Screening and Rating.

Gather a small representative group of your constituents (6-8) for the systematic examining of each potential donor and the goal is to gain consensus on the estimated donor value to your organization. Each donor will be evaluated in 2 ways;

1. Likelihood to give to your organization
2. How much they are able to give

Key to the process is a clear understanding of and the difference between screening and rating:

• A prospect is screened according to their propensity (an innate inclination; a tendency) to give to your organization.
• A prospect is rated according to their capacity (the maximum or optimum amount that can be given) to give to your organization. 

Create a screening scale similar to the one pictured below.

                                             

Use a rating scale like the one below. Plug in appropriate dollar amounts for your organization.

                                   

Using these scales your representative constituent group process will yield screening and rating results that will look something like below for each donor prospect.

Screening	Rating
A	2	Definite gift/ $2500
B	4	Very likely gift/$500
B	2	Very likely gift/$2500
A	1	Definite gift/$10,000+
C	3	Likely gift/$1000
C	3	Likely gift/$1000
D	1	Not likely to give /$10,000+

With these screening and rating results your work can be ordered in such away to yield the greatest results first. For example you may choose to begin with the A-1&2"s first then the B-1&2's, then C-1&2's, then A-3&4's etc. Eventually working with all of your potential donors in an orderly way.

P.S.  When you create representative constituent groups you have also created cultivation points, face time, and donor involvement! So much in our business have overlapping benefits.