From the course: Nonprofit Fundraising: Using Relationships to Drive Growth

Finding qualified donors

From the course: Nonprofit Fundraising: Using Relationships to Drive Growth

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Finding qualified donors

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- So you finally landed your dream job as a fundraiser at one of your favorite nonprofits. Congratulations. Now it's time to get to work and bring in the donations. To do this, you'll need to prospect new donors. Prospecting is a continuous process that every fundraiser uses to increase the donor pipeline and is an essential skill in successful fundraising. In fact, the best fundraisers are constantly prospecting. There are two main ways to start finding new prospective donors. In this video, I will teach you how to find these potential donors using traditional methods and emerging trends. Some of the tried and tested ways for acquiring new prospects are asking for referrals through events and networking, direct response marketing and by warm calling. Asking for referrals is one of the most powerful prospecting techniques in fundraising. People who share your board members, staff, volunteers and major donors' passion for your mission is a great place to start. Those individuals might even agree to introduce you to their circle of influence. If that's the case, make sure to follow up with every lead they provide, report your results to them and thank them for the referral. When hosting events capture information about all of your attendees and institute a plan to engage with these prospects after the event. Typically in the form of direct mail, direct response marketing can be a great introduction to your prospect. The goal of these mailers is to encourage these prospects to take an immediate action. Successful direct mail fundraising programs depend on the quality of the content and the names on your list. Include an ask amount and explain why you were asking for the gift. These should be directed to people who are similar to current donors or they already have a connection to the organization. Also don't underestimate the power of picking up the phone. Fundraisers who are not afraid to prospect on the phone are finding success with warm calling. This informal technique is used with prospects who are already familiar with your work and with whom you want to set up a more formal meeting. Practice this technique with your volunteers to get more comfortable with the concept. Another way to find prospects is through old fashioned networking. Join civic clubs like rotary or the chamber of commerce to not only find donors, but volunteers, board members and other partners for your organization as well. Technology is helping fundraisers of all types through social media, internal databases, company websites and crowdfunding. First tools like Facebook and Twitter have become places to find prospective donors. This option allows you to reach thousands of people who may be interested in your cause with a few clicks. Experiment with different types of social media platforms and post to increase donations to see what method works best for your prospects. Next, you can also run queries in your database to find individuals who are like the donors you already have or perform organization initiated prospecting. Ask what resources are available within your organization to find these prospects. Your website is another tool for collecting visitor information and is a great way to ask visitors to sign up for your newsletter so they can learn more about your organization's mission. Websites are also an entry point for prospective donors to learn more about your work and connect with your cause. Every organization needs a well designed website that is user friendly and that reflects the organization's values, mission and vision. And lastly, crowdfunding is a great way to gain new prospects and cultivate small donors into major gift donors. Crowdfunding sites enable your nonprofit to set up an online fundraising campaign based around a fundraising program and can easily accept donations directly from the page you create. You can use crowd funding to cultivate small donors into major gift donors. Keep in mind depending on the crowdfunding platform you use, you may have to give a percentage of the funds to the website. Prospecting is a key part of your fundraising activities. Using a mix of the techniques I've outlined for you, I'm confident that you can compile a list of promising prospective donors for your organization in no time. Challenge yourself to try one of these techniques every week.

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