Successful Fundraising by Joan Flanagan Reprinted by permission of Contemporary Books. F irst of all, define what is, for your organization, a major donor. It does not matter what you choose, but your organization must be intentional about the size of gifts it wants to get. After you set the dollar size of a donor, then do the research to learn where you can find people who can pay that amount and more. Giant charities and universities employ several full-time professional researchers.
Smaller charities make donor research one of the jobs of the director of development.
Volunteer groups can make donor research a job for two people who are too shy to ask for money. Let s say your organization wants to get major gifts from fifty donors this year. Assuming one in five says yes, the researchers need to find 250 prospects, or about one every business day. Before you get started on prospect research, be sure to review the big picture, especially with your staff and leaders. Prospect research can seem like candy-land, with all these multimillionaires waiting in line to donate to your group.