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Donor acquisition continues challenging nonprofits, so a robust prospecting strategy — which helps you find likely prospects for your organization — is paramount to success. Prospect research uncovers current and prospective donor backgrounds, philanthropic histories, wealth markers, and charitable motivations. This method allows fundraisers, development teams, and nonprofits to evaluate a prospect’s capacity to give (how much money they have) and their affinity for an organization (desire to give to that specific cause).

Often, prospect research helps organizations discover major gift donors. For most fundraising campaigns, the majority of funds come from a small number of donors who give generously, so finding major gift donors is crucial to fundraising success for nonprofits of all sizes.

Applying Prospect Research

A fundraiser’s time is limited. With prospect research, nonprofits gain valuable insights for more accurately choosing which donors to direct their focus.

Prospect research allows you to:

Refine major gift outreach. Leveraging your nonprofit’s data reveals which annual donors have the capacity and potential affinity to make a major gift.
Identify planned or deferred gift prospects. Consistent annual donors are the most likely to give planned gifts in their wills. Use philanthropic and wealth markers to determine who these annual donors might be.
Generate new prospects. Gain access to the donation lists of similar organizations. Donation lists are effective for finding new prospects, as people who give to similar nonprofits may also be more likely to give to your organization.
Assess fundraising opportunities. View previous giving histories to see who prospects give to, how often, and how much money they donate. Your nonprofit can analyze donors immediately to formulate better fundraising strategies to land more major gifts.
Clean up your donor data. Receiving this donor information is an opportune time to clean up your old data. Update donor information, fill in missing fields, and organize your data to make navigating it easy for your fundraisers.

The specific benefits of prospect research vary according to nonprofit type. For instance, hospitals can use prospect screenings to find major gift donors and create a successful Grateful Patient program.

Prospecting Uncovers Valuable Data

Data resulting from prospect research allows fundraisers to make better decisions and includes the following:

Previous nonprofit donations. Your nonprofit’s past donors are the best predictors of future major gift prospects. Donations to similar nonprofits also indicate prospects who may be apt to give to you—perhaps in a big way.
Political gifts. Donations to political campaigns and causes demonstrate an affinity for prospects to give to the causes important to them.
Nonprofit service. Prospects serving on nonprofit boards and foundations generally have money, know nonprofits’ needs, and should be more inclined to give.
Real estate ownership. Real estate ownership is a wealth predictor, demonstrating a prospect’s capacity to give so you can formulate more accurate ask amounts.
Employer info. Many prospects work for employers offering matching gift programs. Focusing on matching gift-eligible employees can increase donations and boost your fundraising campaigns.
Stock transactions. A potential donor’s stock portfolio can also help you predict what prospects invest in and how much.
Personal information. Glean basic contact info, marital status, hobbies, and other personal data to make fundraising easier.

Prospect research puts the power of data into the hands of nonprofits. This data can directly aid fundraising and help other nonprofit efforts, such as strengthening donor relations. Whatever you use prospect research for, it is more data at your organization’s disposal, and knowledge is power when crafting personalized communications donors receive well.

Ways To conduct prospect research

Hire a Prospect Research Consultant

An effective prospect research consultant will leverage all available resources to gather your desired donor data. Consultants might also help train your staff to conduct prospect research, develop better prospect strategies, and support your prospect communications.

Let us help you. CCS has more than 75 years of experience helping nonprofits uncover new donors to significantly boost fundraising goals.

Use a Prospect Screening Company

Screening companies, sometimes called prospect research companies, will screen prospects for you, saving researchers time from sifting through databases and organizing the data. Screening companies provide the donor information you want in readily accessible and downloadable formats. This allows you to analyze many donors simultaneously, as screening results can be returned the next day or within the week, allowing your researchers and fundraisers to focus on other important tasks.

DIY Donor Research

You may also choose to conduct your prospect research independently when you have a staff researcher or team of researchers who can search databases, organize information, and make it accessible to your fundraising team. There are online databases and other information sources to sift through, so equip your researchers with the proper tools.

At CCS Fundraising, we have developed a 3-stage process to develop new prospects and expand your donor pipeline, called “Donor IQs” (Identification, Qualification, and Segmentation). Should your nonprofit choose to conduct donor research independently, we recommend the following steps:

1. Identifying Prospects

Prospects can be grouped into 3 buckets to prioritize to qualify and segment them appropriately.

Prospects	Suspects	Unknown Prospects
Existing and lapsed donors	Individuals with a connection to your organization who have not yet given	Individuals not yet affiliated with your organization

2. Qualifying Prospects (The 3 As)

Ask yourself the following questions when attempting to determine the quality of a potential prospect.

Does this individual have the ability to give?
Does this individual have an affinity for my organization?
Do I have access to this individual?

To answer these questions, think about the following in terms of your prospects.

Ability markers include an affluent address(es), a wealthy lifestyle, and corporate executive or business owner roles.
Affinity can be evaluated by giving history to your organization or one similar or has a direct connection to you as a patron, student, alum, patient, parishioner, etc.
Access connection to the prospect via professional networks, local communities, alum organizations, religious affiliations, philanthropic activities, interest groups, and family/friends.

Prospects with all 3 factors—ability, affinity, and access—are the most likely to make a gift to your organization at the leadership level.

Some people do not qualify as promising prospects at this point in their lives. For example, young or new CEOs are still early in their careers and probably cannot be major donors. Additionally, when people are philanthropically overcommitted, they may not prioritize your organization in their choices. Lastly, celebrities may seem like a good choice, but they are approached by various organizations and are often unlikely to choose yours.

3. Segmenting and Tracking Donors

Segmenting and tracking prospects are the foundation for managing the donor base. When done well, these processes drive positive results by refreshing the prospect pool, focusing efforts on the right prospects, controlling the process, and building excitement around the organization.

Building a Donor Pipeline

The first step in tracking prospects is building the donor pipeline. The pipeline will serve as your tool for generating the donor lists for cultivation. We recommend including the following data points in the pipeline:

Name
Solicitation status (Ask, Brief, Cultivate)
Target ask and project
Key relationships
Affiliations
Strategy
Next steps

Other information may be useful, such as residence and contact information, organizational giving history, pledge payment status, charitable affiliations, and other major gifts. Of course, the additional information should be tailored to your specific organization or sector.

The donors in the pipeline should be segmented into these main buckets:

High	Medium	Low
Top 25 list Leadership/strategic solicitations “Players on the field”	Next 50 list “Players on the bench”	Unlimited number Long-range list “The farm team”

Make Your Donor Pipeline Work for you

The pipeline is your best way to manage a large prospect pool. It is a fluid, ever-changing document that is constantly added to and updated. When used well, it can be a powerful tool for understanding your donors and helping staff engage them meaningfully.

Managing prospects can be exciting as you reconnect with lapsed donors, engage existing donors on a higher level, or find new donors with an affinity for your organization’s mission. Simply put, well-researched donors allow you to focus on likely donors rather than spending valuable time on those not ready to give.

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EXPLORE ALL INSIGHTS

In the high-pressure world of healthcare fundraising, attracting and retaining fundraising staff remains a perpetual challenge. In fact, 90% of fundraising professionals stated that unfilled fundraising positions significantly increased their workloads, and a similar percentage agreed that their organizations were underemployed to meet their potential for raised funds. While employee attraction is an important solution, employee retention can help you keep your excellent fundraising staff while avoiding the work and financial costs associated with hiring and recruiting new fundraising professionals.

Our ten tips for employee retention and innovative implementation ideas below will help you support a thriving team so that your healthcare organization continues to make a significant impact on the communities you serve.

1. Create Opportunities for Upward Mobility

Hospital fundraising professionals are often ambitious and driven individuals. Therefore, provide clear career advancement pathways to retain talented employees. Demonstrating opportunities for growth within your organization is key to retaining their loyalty. Develop a structured career progression plan that allows employees to set goals and work toward promotions.

Implementation Idea: Establish a cross-departmental task force where team members can rotate through different areas, gaining exposure to various roles and fostering professional growth.

2. Communicate Fundraising Priorities

Some fundraising professionals report experiencing ambiguity around which fundraising priorities to discuss with donors. When not properly communicated, this lack of direction can lead to burnout.

Leadership can proactively outline fundraising priorities by implementing a structured communication framework. This may involve regular, transparent dialogues between hospital administration and fundraising teams to articulate and update fundraising goals. Additionally, fostering collaboration between different departments can create a unified approach, ensuring that fundraising professionals have up-to-date information to engage with donors effectively.

3. Provide Professional Development

Invest in the professional development of your fundraising team. Hospital work can be complex and challenging, and it is crucial that your employees have access to the training and resources they need to excel in their roles. Encourage your fundraising staff to attend workshops and conferences and take online courses. Consider creating an in-house mentoring program where experienced staff can guide newcomers.

Implementation Idea: Launch a “Learning Days” initiative where employees can spend a set number of hours each month on self-directed learning to help them stay up-to-date with industry trends.

4. Generate and Reward Referrals

One of the most innovative approaches to employee retention is to engage your current team in recruiting top talent. Encourage your staff to refer potential candidates who align with the hospital’s mission, fundraising objectives, and team culture. Consider rewarding successful referrals with monetary incentives. This approach not only strengthens your team but also contributes to the organization’s growth.

Implementation Idea: Implement a referral competition with valuable prizes, such as additional time off or personalized professional development opportunities.

5. Promote Work-Life Balance and Wellbeing

Fundraising is hard work, and burnout is a common challenge. Hospital fundraisers frequently face intense demands, high expectations, and many responsibilities beyond fundraising. Your leadership is responsible for creating a work environment that prioritizes work-life balance and well-being. Encourage your team to take regular breaks and utilize time-off benefits. Offering flexible work schedules and remote work options can significantly reduce workplace burnout.

Implementation Idea: Create a virtual wellness portal that offers resources, meditation sessions, and stress management tools to support your team’s emotional and physical health.

6. Establish Flexible Workspaces

In today’s dynamic work landscape, the traditional office concept has evolved. Implementing flexible workspaces is an innovative approach that allows your employees to choose where they work most effectively. For instance, employees might have the flexibility to work from home, shared coworking spaces, or even unconventional locations like outdoor workspaces.

Implementation Idea: Set up a “Work-from-Anywhere Day” once a week, allowing your team to choose their preferred work environment. By enabling your team to select their workspace, you empower them to optimize their productivity and balance their professional and personal lives better. Flexible workspaces also reflect trust in your employees’ abilities to deliver results, promoting a sense of autonomy and responsibility within your team.

7. Kickstart Peer Recognition Programs

Implementing peer recognition programs can be a game-changer for your organization’s culture. Encouraging employees to acknowledge and celebrate their colleagues’ accomplishments can instill a sense of belonging and mutual support. For example, you might launch a “Peer Spotlight Program” where team members can nominate their peers for recognition each month.

Implementation Idea: Incentivize participation by holding recognition ceremonies or offering small prizes to those actively engaging in the program. By incorporating this innovative approach, you create a positive and affirming work atmosphere where employees feel valued not only by the leadership but also by peers, contributing to a sense of camaraderie and shared success.

8. Offer a Career Pathway Navigator

Navigating one’s career within an organization can sometimes feel like a labyrinth. An innovative approach to address this is to develop a digital tool or platform that maps potential career pathways within your organization. This Career Pathway Navigator can provide employees with a visual representation of roles they can aspire to and the skills and experiences required to reach those positions.

Implementation Idea: Create an interactive career mapping tool accessible through your organization’s intranet. By making this resource available, you empower your staff to take charge of their professional development and growth, aligning their aspirations with the organization’s needs.

9. Enlist Professional Coaches

Incorporating professional coaches into your employee development strategy is an investment that can significantly benefit both individuals and your organization as a whole. Coaches can guide staff in their personal and career development, helping them set and achieve meaningful goals. For instance, you could offer access to executive coaches who specialize in leadership development.

Implementation Idea: Whether it’s leadership coaching, career growth coaching, or personal development coaching, these professionals offer a tailored approach to address individual needs and aspirations. By providing access to coaches, you show your commitment to your employees’ growth and success, enhancing their skills, motivation, and overall job satisfaction. This innovative approach fosters professional development and helps create a workforce better equipped to handle the challenges of the healthcare fundraising landscape.

10. Express Appreciation

Regularly expressing appreciation to your fundraising team is a small gesture that can make a big difference in retaining staff. Recognition can be as simple as a thank-you note, a team celebration, or an “Employee of the Month” program. Employees who feel valued and appreciated are more likely to remain committed and engaged in their work.

Implementation Idea: Host quarterly recognition events with themed activities and small tokens of appreciation to maintain a culture of gratitude within the organization.

These Approaches Prevent your fundraising staff from burning out and Drive Success at your healthcare organization

In the challenging world of healthcare fundraising, retaining top talent is an ongoing battle. Fundraising executives who adopt innovative strategies to support, engage, and motivate their teams will reap the benefits of improved staff retention and heightened fundraising success. By generating and rewarding referrals, offering competitive compensation and benefits, promoting work-life balance and well-being, creating opportunities for upward mobility, providing professional development, expressing appreciation, and integrating innovative approaches, you can create a workplace that not only retains staff but also inspires them to achieve greatness in their roles. Doing so will overcome workplace burnout, foster a culture of growth, and ultimately drive success for your hospital’s fundraising efforts and the healthcare community it serves.

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SEE ALL IN: Health

Each year, on average, just over 10% of independent schools hire a new head of school, while the average tenure is less than six years. Bob Weston, Senior Vice President and Practice Lead of Independent Schools at CCS Fundraising, and Margot Mache, Vice President at CCS Fundraising, spoke with John Green, search consultant for RG175, about the implications of this trend on fundraising and the growing importance for heads to dedicate time to advancement. John’s 32 years of independent school leadership, including 12 years as a Head of School, informs his work as a search consultant.

Bob: John, thank you for joining us to have a conversation about your experience fundraising at independent schools. Many times, you have seen the life cycle of a head of school relative to advancement. Can you elaborate on the attitude many new heads of school have toward fundraising and their understanding of the necessary time commitment to do this important work?

John: In years past, most new heads of school had limited, if any, fundraising experience. Search committees didn’t identify candidates based on their fundraising skillset; schools often promoted new heads based on their success as administrators with an inward focus and their experience in various roles except for head of advancement. Initially, many new heads would view fundraising as a necessary evil—something they have to do but not necessarily want to do. This sentiment often changes when they can’t realize their vision or “make good” on their strategic plans without raising money. So, in the early years, you would find a new head to be somewhat indifferent or unenthusiastic about fundraising while they prioritized students, academic matters, and personnel issues. But this changed with time.

That’s interesting, John. Could you talk more about that shift in perspective towards fundraising and perhaps how new heads of school can prepare for it?

John: This shift typically happens when new heads start to recognize the limitations they face in achieving their aspirations for their students and school. As they walk through the campus, ideas and plans for improving the school flood their minds, but they soon understand they need resources to realize those dreams. Fundraising, as a function, transforms into something they want to embrace and understand better. This transition usually occurs within a headship’s first two to three years. Most new heads of school know that they will likely develop a strategic plan within their first three years, but they are not often as familiar with how the strategic plan will be realized. Typically, that means that a fundraising plan, and likely a campaign, will follow quickly if the initiatives within the strategic plan are to be accomplished.

Margot: I’m curious about the relationship dynamics you’ve observed between the advancement office and new heads of school. How does timing factor into these dynamics?

John: The impact of time is significant. Numbers and deadlines often hold Advancement offices accountable: annual fund goals, capital campaign targets, and other time-bound fundraising initiatives. At the same time, heads of school deal with a myriad of complex short and long-term challenges and decisions, many of which fall beyond fundraising. This can create tension; the advancement office needs to deliver on specific numerical goals, and heads of school are dealing with a broader array of issues. Understanding this dynamic and finding a balance is crucial for effective collaboration.

New heads can further aid collaboration by developing a “sifter,” or clear vision, to guide their decision-making. Heads make many daily decisions on behalf of the school and its people, often navigating conflicting viewpoints from different stakeholders. A clear leadership style further ensures that the consultant, advancement team, and other administrators can operate effectively on behalf of the head of school amongst competing priorities and during demanding periods that may occupy the school administration’s time and valuable attention.

Margot: Those are great insights – it makes sense that the two functions can fall out of step with each other without close communication and a shared vision. Bringing fundraising consultants into the dynamic, I’d love to hear your thoughts on an ideal partnership between the head of school and fundraising counsel.

John: An ideal partnership between heads of school and fundraising consultants is rooted in respect, deep understanding, candor, and forgiveness. Advisors can be sounding boards for heads of school and can provide support beyond exclusively fundraising matters. Consultants’ ability to listen, show empathy, and maintain objectivity is crucial. Advisors can become friends to the heads of school, offering a unique perspective and becoming an additional form of support.

Heads of school can greatly benefit from a coach or an advisor, someone who can listen empathically, challenge candidly, and support consistently. From tuition fluctuations to parent and student crises to leadership transitions, CCS has been grateful to stand by school leaders across the globe during times of challenge and celebration.

Bob: Yes, we have certainly seen a trend for heads to have that “trusted advisor.” It’s important to have someone who understands the internal dynamics but can also support and offer perspective on the essential external aspects of the job. Could you share more about the shift in importance of fundraising for the Head of School role and how it impacts recruitment?

John: The trend I’m observing is that head of school candidates strategically acquire fundraising experience to enhance their profiles and readiness for the position. This shift means that sitting heads of school with tangible advancement experience are often gaining more traction in the recruitment market. Rising stars, while capable of becoming great heads and even fundraisers, might find it more difficult to be appointed to the position without prior fundraising exposure. Boards and search committees now often assume that fundraising credentials are part of a headship candidate’s skill set.

Bob: John, your insights into the evolving mindset of heads of school and the shifting dynamics of their role are invaluable. Your points about their collaboration with advisors and the advancement office reinforce the need for them to seek fundraising training and professional development opportunities. This will help them become more knowledgeable, comfortable, and ultimately prepared to fulfill their school’s mission.

John: Thank you, Bob. It’s always a pleasure to share my experiences and hopefully provide some useful perspectives.

Margot: Thanks so much for joining us, John. We look forward to keeping the conversation going!

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SEE ALL IN: Primary and Secondary Education

Building donor acquisition strategies and techniques can be daunting for many higher education institutions. In fact, it is one of the top fundraising challenges experienced by nonprofits year over year. Despite this, organizations are not holding back; more than 60% of organizations shared that they saw an increase in the number of new donors over the previous year. While acquiring new (especially mid to major gift) donors can be time-intensive, donor acquisition is still critical. It provides an opportunity to engage prospective donors more deeply in your mission and establish long-lasting relationships.

As your school looks to grow your mid to major gift donor base, consider the following.

Steps to acquire Meaningful Donors

1. Assess and determine the quality of prospects already in your database.

Many organizations have a large amount of untapped prospect potential within their database. Start by pulling a list of prospects in your database who have not made a gift — prospects in the discovery stage of moves management. Take the time to understand a prospect’s capacity to give and their affinity to like-minded causes. Do your research; if you have wealth-screening tools and a prospect research team, tap into those resources. If your organization is lean, search for giving history shared in annual reports, press releases, etc. on the web.

When determining the quality of a prospect and if they’re worth your resources, ask yourself the following questions:

Is the individual able to make a gift? Consider whether the prospect has (an) affluent address(es), a wealthy lifestyle, is a corporate executive, or is a business owner.
Does this individual have an affinity toward my institution? Consider the prospect’s giving history to your school or a similar cause and/or if they are a member of your Board, an alum, a volunteer at your school, and/or retired staff/faculty member.
Do we have access to this individual? Consider any connection to the prospect via professional networks, local communities, alum organizations, philanthropic activities, interest groups, family, or friends.

Prospects with all three factors — ability, affinity, and access — are the most likely to make a gift to your organization at the leadership level.

2. Connect with those closest to your organization to identify additional donor prospects.

Lean on those closest to your organization to identify what potential prospects your organization should consider engaging. These could be:

Board members
Alum council members
Faculty/staff
and/or volunteers

Acquiring new donors is much easier if an access point exists to a potential conversation. Learn how to engage this potential new donor from those who hold the relationship.

3. Establish a segmented list of prospective new donors and assign it to gift officers.

Once a list has been compiled, consider segmenting the list by prospect capacity. Then, assign a targeted number of prospects to members of your major gift team and/or leadership annual fund team for customized outreach. You will only be able to acquire mid-to-major gift donors if you focus on establishing a personal connection between the prospective donor and your college/university.

4. Activate outreach for prospective new donors and qualify them within a targeted timeframe.

At CCS, we have had success accelerating donor acquisition through discovery outreach of prospects with at least ability and affinity. Gift officers qualify a targeted number of assigned prospects through at least four contact attempts over six weeks. Contact attempts are various customized emails and phone calls. The goal is to schedule an introductory meeting with the prospect to begin opening the door to a potential future gift.

Sample Contact Plan for Prospects

Outreach Attempt	Outreach Type
1	Personalized email outreach
2	Introductory phone call/voicemail
3	Follow up on the initial phone call (no voicemail) and write a personal follow-up email if you don’t connect
4	Final phone call (voicemail) and/or email

5. If the door is open, nurture the donor relationship.

Once contact has been made and the prospect is open to a conversation, remember to ground your discussion in the institution’s mission and their potential affinity or connection. This is just the beginning of many more touchpoints. Make sure to cultivate and steward each relationship.

Thoughtful Donor Acquisition Sets Your Organization Up for Success

Donor acquisition and donor retention go hand-in-hand. The time and energy that your college or university puts into securing a first gift must be followed by a thoughtful stewardship process focused on retaining donors year after year. Donor acquisition can feel like a long process, but it is important to foster the next generation of donors. Committing time and effort to thoughtfully acquire new donors enables your school to sustain itself and grow well into the future.

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Year-end giving presents organizations with a unique opportunity to hit fundraising goals in the last days of the year, as an estimated one-third of annual giving occurs in December, with 10% given over the last three days. People tend to be more generous around holiday times, and for Americans, this month is the last chance to make tax-deductible gifts for the fiscal year.

Does your nonprofit organization have a solid strategy to capitalize on these noteworthy trends?

Here are five steps to maximize the success of your year-end fundraising appeal.

1. Create an activity timeline and benchmarks.

A well-planned end-of-year timeline focuses on follow-up activities throughout December. As fundraisers, we thrive on goals—use this to your advantage and set metrics to follow. Start with your target in mind and work backward to determine what actions are required to get you there, including the number of face-to-face gift requests, touchpoints, and formal gift requests needed.

2. Develop a unique case for support.

Your case for support tells who you are as an organization, why you need support, and how that support will make an impact.

Your case statement should include the following information.

Past. Where have you been, and how has it shaped your organization?
Present. Where are you now? What is your mission? Show your impact through testimonials, statistics, and pictures.
Future. Where are you going? What is your vision? How can donors make that vision a reality? Focus on the return on their investment.

As you craft your case for support, be mindful that the end of the year is busy. Your case for support should be clear and make it easy for potential donors to quickly discover who you are, your mission, and your vision for what their contribution will accomplish.

3. Analyse and segment your donor base.

Segmenting and prioritizing your prospects through identification, research, and rating make it possible to customize your ask to the donor.

Identify major gift prospects that you can personally contact.
Then, identify donors from prior years who have not contributed during the current year.
Next, research the prospects you have identified to determine the right amount to request and how they like to give by looking at prior year response methods.
Finally, determine the best outreach strategy and prioritize your prospects. Decide who should get a personal phone call, a custom message, or a mass communication.

For the best prospect identification, utilize data analytics services to uncover donors with the most giving potential.

4. Know your engagement strategy.

Once you have segmented your donors as best you can, use a combination of different outreach methods and tailor your approach based on prospect priority. Regardless of your chosen delivery method, request a specific gift that aligns with your appeal goals.

5. Follow up!

The biggest mistake that organizations make is that they fail to follow up. Rather than sending your appeal materials and simply hoping for the best, use a multi-step, multi-channel approach to follow up and secure decisions.

Communication Is Key for a Successful Year-End Campaign

In the final week of the year, send multiple reminder emails, including one on 31 December. Communicate individually with your best prospects via phone calls, personal emails, social media messages, and text messages. Deadlines are a fundraiser’s best friend – use the year-end deadline to generate excitement, momentum, and results. Then communicate your success and start planning for next year!

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The fundamental pillars of all successful fundraising efforts include a compelling case, strong governance, a comprehensive plan, and a robust donor pipeline. But what happens when you have worked your way through your pipeline and still need new ways to uncover new donor prospects? The easiest connections to make are existing ones, and leveraging these relationships to reinvigorate your prospect pipeline can be a game changer.

Finding New Donors for Your Nonprofit

A prospect list review session, sometimes called relationship mapping, is common among nonprofits as an effective and efficient method of enhancing your pipeline. Pretend that each of your board members is one of many wheel spokes, branching out from the middle and serving as connectors between the center and the outer rim. Who are they connecting to the center of the wheel?

A graphic representing how to uncover new donor prospects through the connection between nonprofit professionals, their nonprofit board, and board members' networks.

With some strategic planning and forethought, you can leverage your board’s contacts and networks and develop paths to individuals who can make a difference for your organization.

how one nonprofit leveraged its board

A New York City performing arts organization struggled to uncover new donor prospects, and their prominent, well-connected board members constantly offered to introduce their networks. To capitalize on these introduction offers, CCS Fundraising assisted the organization in developing a strategic plan to engage individual board members, leverage their networks, and uncover new prospects, which included the following:

1. Peer Board Prospect Research

Six weeks before the next board meeting, the organization’s development team compiled a list of every peer nonprofit board where a member of their own board also held a seat. They compiled a streamlined list from this group of more than 30 organizations, noting the name and title of every other board member of the peer organizations. They identified more than 500 names, compiled the lists into booklets, and distributed them at the upcoming board meeting.

2. Prospect Name Review

Each board member received their booklet during the board meeting’s list review section. CCS and the Head of Development led the board through reviewing the names on each page. Board members indicated the people with whom they were willing to facilitate an introduction by checking a box next to each name. Development staff also attended to help capture information, ensuring the notation of all connections, with the booklets collected at the meeting’s end.

3. Developing Donor Relationship Strategies

Following the meeting, development staff collated the lists and created individual profiles for each identified connection, noting corporate information, philanthropic interests, and history. Staff scheduled one-on-one meetings with board members to develop strategies to engage and cultivate new prospects. For example, one board member noted their interest in connecting to eight new prospects. Staff developed cultivation plans for these eight prospects, which included an invitation to an upcoming musical performance and a private tour of the facilities where a meet-and-greet would occur backstage. For other prospects, cultivation plans included an introductory breakfast for the prospect to meet the senior leadership and opportunities to learn more about educational events at the organization.

Leveraging Your Board’s Network uncovers new donor prospects and Deepens Existing Relationships

Though this process required extensive time and effort from the development team and the board’s commitment and support, it resulted in more than 80 newly identified connections. Of these connections, staff invited more than half to a general cultivation event, and the remainder received tailored engagement plans. Board members felt they had provided an invaluable resource, which helped deepen the working relationship between the board and the development team.

YOUR BOARD CAN BE AN ONGOING PROSPECT RESOURCE

Your organization should build regular prospecting and list review sessions into its daily culture. Early and often, engage board members in deliberate conversations about potential prospects within their networks and circles. Ask your board to facilitate introductions, an effective way to mitigate potential hesitancy around not wanting to “ask friends for money.” Finally, create a regular calendar of list review sessions for each board meeting. Provide board members with relevant and targeted prospect lists that include peer nonprofit boards, for-profit and corporate boards, foundation boards, university alums, and aspirational donors.

Your board members are already passionate about your cause, and leveraging their personal networks to uncover new donor prospects will deepen their engagement—and further your mission in the process.

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Learn how to perform an RFM analysis, the simplest tool to start narrowing your prospect list to your most impactful donors. This article contains background information and a video to lead you step-by-step into meaningful engagement.

GivingTuesday allows nonprofits to unlock donations from the millions of individuals who participate in this global giving movement each year—but it also puts pressure on them to plan and run a successful campaign to reach their lofty fundraising goals.

Viewing Giving Tuesday not as a burden but as a donor engagement opportunity makes it easier to follow a strategic approach that alleviates some of the stress of planning a successful event for your nonprofit. Giving Tuesday can become a tool that helps you strengthen your culture of philanthropy, engage your board members, retain new donors, and further develop your online presence.

STEPS FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL Giving Tuesday campaign

Creating a successful Giving Tuesday campaign requires effective planning, extensive communication, and enhanced donor motivation strategies. The following steps ensure that you have a comprehensive approach to the day.

1. Look to the Giving Data

First, set specific, measurable, realistic goals for your Giving Tuesday campaign after examining your staff capacity and year-end fundraising needs; after setting the goal, look at the data to drive your plan. CCS’s 2023 Philanthropic Landscape revealed that:

Online giving remains the preferred method of giving.
Individuals continue to be the most significant philanthropy drivers.
Individuals remain the largest share of donors, representing 64% ($319.04 billion) of all US giving ($499.33 billion).

These statistics show how powerful Giving Tuesday can be, as it solicits donations from individuals through digital giving. In 2022, a record 35 million adults participated in Giving Tuesday in the US alone—roughly 13% of the country’s adult population.

2. Focus on the Donors

Giving Tuesday is an exciting opportunity to maximize your donor cultivation efforts considering donor retention is one of the top fundraising challenges for nonprofits. Your Giving Tuesday campaign should include all donor types through a broadly appealing theme and encourage unrestricted support of your organization.

When crafting your Giving Tuesday campaign, make sure to tailor cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship strategies by generation. For example, the 2023 Philanthropic Landscape highlights that younger generations are driven by being part of something bigger than themselves. Consider stewarding your board members to raise a pool of matching funds as a donor retention tool. It will empower your board and provide a compelling call to action for other donors to belong to a larger initiative.

3. Gain Campaign Advocates

Engage in frequent, transparent, and impact-driven multi-channel communication with younger constituents and leverage Generation Z and Millennials as strong advocates for your nonprofit’s mission and philanthropy efforts. As seen over the last two years, calls to action or disaster relief requests are more likely to motivate Generation Z and Millennials to donate compared to Generation X and Boomers. Generation Z and Millennials are also three times more likely to advocate for an organization than older generations.

Storytelling is a powerful anchor for campaign messaging. Sharing stories of impact increases relatability and encourages others to share their stories of impact or involvement. Gaining additional voices to amplify your mission is often an overlooked benefit of Giving Tuesday. Although raising funds is the main qualifier of a successful Giving Tuesday, the advocates you gain, donors you retain, and new audiences you are exposed to will have a much longer-lasting impact.

4. Leverage Multi-Channel Marketing in Your Giving Tuesday Campaign

Many nonprofits retain new donors through online programming or social media (53%) and targeted mailings/emails (79%), so disseminate your Giving Tuesday promotions through various communications channels, including email, social media, your website, and even printed marketing collateral to broaden your audience. Then, create a content calendar outlining when you plan to post on each platform to ensure you are providing holistic messaging and maximizing your audience engagement. Interact with your audience on each platform as much as possible.

Your communications should highlight the time-limited nature of Giving Tuesday by encouraging donors to act quickly through countdown clocks or limited-time offers such as gift-matching opportunities.

5. Simplify the Donation Process

Provide donors with the ability to quickly give in a straightforward and mobile-friendly way. Thank them for their support soon after they have made their gift, and share campaign updates to indicate the impact of their donation(s).

6. Plan, Plan, Plan

Planning well will help your Giving Tuesday succeed. Treat the day like an event by creating a run of show and scheduling outposts, emails, and individual outreach. You can also use the day as a network extending opportunity, giving your donors other ways to contribute, such as encouraging them to forward or re-post your messaging or asking them to introduce your organization to a new contact. Once Giving Tuesday is over, analyze the results to see what worked for your organization and what did not so you can improve future campaigns.

creating a successful Giving Tuesday campaign Can Be Easier Than You Think

Beyond simply raising funds, Giving Tuesday can be a simple cultivation tool for you to engage and steward donors. Focus on a big-picture goal, let the data drive your activity, and plan ahead, remembering that success can look different for everyone—dollars raised, number of shares, open rates, new donors retained, and increased gifts, for example.

With the proper planning and realistic goals, this Giving Tuesday (November 28, 2023) can be the best yet!

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In Revolutionizing Fundraising Part II: 5 Nonprofit Sector AI Application Examples, we shared some real-time insights into how nonprofits use AI to boost donor engagement and drive lasting impact. How do you then decide whether and how to use artificial intelligence at your nonprofit?

Access to groundbreaking AI services is likely to transform nonprofit efficacy in unimaginable ways. Although practitioners have used “traditional AI,” including machine learning and applied statistics, for decades, “modern AI” with Generative AI has brought AI into everyday conversations. Appropriate use of this exciting new technology has the potential to amplify workforces, eliminate time-consuming tasks, and refocus employee efforts toward mission-driven endeavors. As access to AI-driven software increases, these benefits will likely be available to nonprofits of all sizes.

While AI has enormous potential to help advance your organization’s mission, AI also means many things to different people. You may be wondering what the best way to use AI —particularly modern AI — at your nonprofit is. As you think about those use cases, whether public-facing endeavors or internal operations, ask yourself the following guiding questions.

How is your organization already using aI?

Programs such as Gmail, Salesforce, Canva, Grammarly, Photoshop, and Microsoft 365 all use AI to some degree, sometimes discreetly and sometimes as a customer-facing feature. Taking inventory of these programs may help your organization appreciate just how prolific and useful AI has become in the modern workplace. You may find it hard to learn about software that does not use AI to some capacity. The point of this exercise is not to dissuade your organization from using any specific software or tout AI’s superiority but rather to clarify the most methods of implementation. People often think of AI as a siloed program to engage with or not, but it is often a feature used to strengthen the systems we already use.

How Could implementing AI Affect Your Organization’s Workloads?

While AI tools can be a force multiplier and drastically increase worker output, they are not likely capable of replacing individual workers. Consider how you might address a reduced workload for certain workers.

Could you give employees with more time new responsibilities that advance your organization’s mission?
Will you need to change your organizational chart to accommodate shifting workloads and obligations?

If your organization is considering heavy use of AI to bolster its workforce, you should also consider more frequent means of reviewing employee output. Prioritize setting reasonable benchmarks and have recurring conversations with employees about realistic pivots in their workload toward mission-driven endeavors.

Would AI-Generated Materials Disappoint Your Donors?

Consider mass communications, such as event invitations, social media posts, and direct, personalized correspondence. Currently, there is no fool-proof way to tell if AI has generated written text, so properly proofread materials may go completely undetected by stakeholders and require less time from staff to create. However, AI can generate easily-overlooked inconsiderate or compromising content that would alienate your constituents.

Consider what content your organization is most confident about generating with AI support, and make sure your employees understand the rationale behind these decisions. Even if your organization implements text-generating AI to facilitate rapid, personalized electronic correspondence, thoughtful communication with potential donors is more challenging to replace. As text-generating AI becomes commonplace in the nonprofit workplace, personal connections among potential donors are becoming increasingly important. If AI has facilitated significantly reduced workloads, use this opportunity to foster deeper relationships with your prospective donors.

What Could AI Pricing and Legal Troubles Prompt?

Programs such as ChatGPT are free or inexpensive for now, but their price model may change. If your organization implements services like these, it will be worthwhile to avoid unfettered access.

How quickly could your organization adjust to changes in access to specific AI software?
What if lawmakers passed laws to limit or stop using the AI programs of your choice? How would you recuperate costs in building your custom application?
How would you meet the exact needs with a different solution?

Numerous pending lawsuits may set new standards for how AI and copyrighted materials interact. Currently, copyright law does not protect works created solely by AI, even if a human uses their own prompt to generate content, so think about this carefully when deciding what materials your organization will be starting with AI tools.

What Risks Come With Early Adoption of AI at your nonprofit?

Often, being the first mover in the marketplace places you at an advantage as it allows you to experiment and learn for a longer time than those who wait. But good opportunities are rarely without risk, which you must evaluate as you consider using the latest tools.

How do you estimate the value of being the first to adopt new tools? What if the shiny tools are only polished and not functional?
What if you build something, but the tech changes so fast that any custom development might be obsolete?
With Generative AI, there are other reputational risks, too: What if significant hidden costs exist related to issues important to your organization, such as environmental damage from data center cooling?

You must weigh the potential benefits against the potential costs and risks to determine if being an early adopter makes strategic sense for your organization. Consider running small-scale pilot projects to test the new tools before committing fully. We also recommend having an exit plan ready if the tools do not deliver on their promised capabilities or have unacceptable hidden costs.

Can Your Nonprofit Rely on AI-Generated Materials?

Generative Text AI often presents biases based on the data it has trained itself on, so you will likely need more than a cursory review of generated materials to catch problematic content. You might be able to review and edit one or two bodies of text, but when you create hundreds of variations, what if something slips through?

How might you respond if your organization made a biased or otherwise controversial statement generated by AI?

A better approach would be to consider AI-generated text as draft zero rather than the first draft. What about images? What if the pictures contain almost invisible patterns that some find offensive but fail to recognize? Although people can interpret the written word differently, viewers’ perception of images varies wildly. While using AI to create social media captions can save time and require little effort to proofread, longer-form materials have more opportunities for errors and likely require more time from more employees to screen correctly.

Nonprofit aI Implementation: unprecedented potential

We hope these thought exercises have proven helpful for you and your organization to decide if and how to implement this exciting new technology. It can feel daunting to embrace and implement disruptive new technologies when they emerge. However, with proper consideration and thoughtful implementation, AI has the potential to advance your nonprofit capacity in ways never imagined.

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Individual giving remains the top giving source for philanthropy in the US. However, obtaining and developing donors continues to challenge every sector, especially arts and culture. With shifts such as the Great Wealth Transfer and the younger donor generation’s differing priorities, learning how to energize and engage the next generation of museum supporters is vital to fundraising success.

Individual Giving Remains Strong

Individual giving provided 64% of the nearly $499.33 billion donated to nonprofit organizations in 2022, significantly above other sources (foundations at 21%, bequests at 9%, and corporations at 6%). Yet 60% of surveyed arts and culture institutions reported that donor acquisition was their top fundraising challenge, and 47% said similarly of donor retention/stewardship.

As individual giving remains the majority source of fundraising revenue, and with nonprofits beginning to assess the potential impact of Gen X, Millennials, and even Gen Z in the philanthropic space, how can museums ensure that they appropriately cultivate their future supporters?

Next Generation — or Rising Generation?

The ability to optimally engage with these potential future supporters requires an understanding of who these groups are, such as generational differences, behaviors, and interests. However, the concept of the next generation of philanthropists can encompass people from their 20s to their 50s. While the term "next gen" is an easy way to lump those potential donors together, is it the most accurate?

Author Jay Hughes, Jr. feels that the term next gen "suggests a kind of dynastic succession" and ignores each generation's differentiated priorities and concerns and the individuals within it. He utilizes the term "rising gens" instead, highlighting that we cannot expect each generation to follow in the path of the one that came before. Instead, we should be prepared for them to chart their own course.

The great wealth transfer

Regardless of how we refer to them, addressing these challenges of attracting and retaining the next donor generations becomes even more apparent when we consider the wealth transfer that has already begun shifting assets among age groups. By 2045, over $84 trillion is anticipated to change hands, with approximately $73 trillion expected to transfer directly to heirs and approximately $12 trillion to philanthropic causes.

Those currently holding wealth prioritize arts and culture in their giving; it ranks second in their top five:

Education
Arts & Culture
Healthcare & Medical Research
Social Services
Environment, Conservation, & Animals

However, we see that the rising generations—Gen X, millennials, and Gen Z—have different priorities:

9.3 million donors

Average yearly gift: $341

Give 3+ billion/year

Children | Animals | Health

34.1 million donors

Average yearly gift: $591

Give 20+ billion/year

Worship | Children | Social

35.6 million donors

Average yearly gift: $921

Give 32.9 billion/year

Health | Social Services | Animals

Noticeably, these generations deprioritize arts and culture when compared to those currently holding the largest wealth. This further validates the importance of creating an intentional set of generation-segmented engagement strategies.

The Next Donor Generation Is Generous

While the task facing museums would be easier if arts and culture were already among this group's top-valued causes, it is heartening to see the extent to which these generations have prioritized philanthropy. With a collective 79 million donors already giving over $56 billion a year, they are poised to continue growing the amount and the impact of their giving.

Rising gen donors agree—in a survey of high-net-worth individuals, 87% of respondents aged 21-42 (spanning Gen Z and Millennials) indicated they are prepared to support philanthropy. They went further, with 88% of Gen Z members and Millennials agreeing that "the next generation is strongly prepared to take on and support philanthropic causes" and 87% that "the next generation will be more effective in their philanthropic causes than older generations." This validates their commitment to giving, signaling a difference in how they will likely need to be engaged compared to older generations.

As organizations prioritize their fundraising strategies, they should explore generational trends around engagement. Various data points highlight nuances, such as the high value that Millennials place on experiences and how Gen Z prefers to give via social media. Further considerations include geographic and socio-political dynamics specific to each organization's location, culture, and mission.

Case Study for engaging the next generation of museum Donors

The Barnes Foundation

The Barnes Foundation is a fitting example of a nonprofit arts organization focusing on the most pertinent trends and challenges and creating a structure to address them.

Founded in 1922 by Dr. Albert C. Barnes with a mission to promote "the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture," the Barnes Foundation has welcomed an average annual visitorship of 220,000 since moving to its location on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia in 2012. Visitors come to view one of the world’s greatest collections of impressionist, post-impressionist, and early modern paintings, with especially deep holdings in Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso. The collection also includes important examples of African art, Native American pottery and jewelry, Pennsylvania German furniture, American avant-garde painting, and wrought-iron metalwork. It is displayed in “ensembles” meant to draw out visual similarities between objects not normally thought of together. Created as teaching tools, they were essential to the educational program Dr. Barnes developed in the 1920s.

A Personalized Approach to Engaging Rising Generation Members

The Barnes Foundation's current strategic plan includes goals around fostering a learning culture, challenging the perceived elitism associated with art institutions, and convening Philadelphia's cultural community. The institution sees the involvement of rising generations as essential to achieving those objectives. Accordingly, the Barnes has thoughtfully assessed what rising generation members look for and how its points of entry facilitate their participation.

In doing so, the Barnes sought to address the following questions:

Who are we trying to target?
What existing assets can we leverage?
Are we creating new programs or modifying existing ones?
Who are our potential colleagues for collaboration?
What resourcing is available to support these initiatives?

By intentionally and collaboratively seeking answers to these questions, the Barnes determined potential engagement platforms for rising generations across various interests.

INTEREST	POINTS OF ENTRY
Social Entertainment	→ Young Professionals Nights → First Fridays → Barnes Art Ball
Professional Advancement	→ Contemporaries Membership → Summer Soirée → Young Professional Leadership Board → Volunteer opportunities → Community partnerships
Personal Enrichment	→ Membership and guest passes → Adult education classes → On-site, online, and hybrid programs → Group tours → Exhibition programming

Common threads tie these opportunities for engagement together. These include relevance to the mission and the opportunity for attendees to share experiences with peers and feel part of a collective with shared interests.

Next Steps for Cultivating Rising Generations of Museum Supporters

As you similarly seek to build out engagement offerings for members of the rising generations, consider the relevance of the questions posed by the Barnes. What additional questions would help you to develop an intentional and generation-segmented engagement plan?

Consider cost, ticketing, whether an event is invitation-only or open to all, and other logistics that may impact interest and attendance for the audience you aim to reach. Finally, think about the tools for engagement at your disposal, especially those that allow members of rising generations to co-create experiences and provide feedback on the events and programs they attend.

Cultivation Today Is Fundraising Success Tomorrow

Building a foundation of engagement for rising generations as the great wealth transfer continues does need to be a thoughtful process, but it does not need to be a difficult one. The key is to start now, even if that means starting small, to build the foundation for sustainable fundraising operations and growth and energize young museum donors.

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In an increasingly competitive job market, nonprofits must recruit and retain the best talent. These are important considerations, especially around fundraising roles in organisations that rely heavily on philanthropic revenue. Insights from CCS’s extensive experience with major higher education institutions confirm the following:

Maximised talent leads to thriving development teams and greater fundraising results.

Misappropriation of time and resources impacts productivity, funds raised, and job satisfaction.

Staff turnover is costly.

How can you mitigate some of the risks leading to turnover in your development office? Create a positive, inspiring work environment by amplifying your team’s skills. Ensure that all staff can professionally thrive by optimising their work.

How are Your Frontline Fundraisers Spending Their Time?

Utilising data gathered from over 70 annual higher education partners, CCS has found a ratio of 1:3 – 1:5 frontline fundraisers to support staff is optimal. In this model, “support staff” includes far more than administrative team members. Consider any member of your team who provides resources for your frontline fundraisers part of this definition of “support staff.”

A ratio below 1:3 may indicate your fundraisers are not dedicating enough time to active donor engagement as they are forced to balance administrative tasks. This results in an under-optimised fundraising team, fewer funds raised, and increased burnout. Your fundraisers do not have the opportunity to do what they do best; deepen donor relationships and inspire new prospects. For experiences fundraisers this can be a frustrating position to be in and can lead to high staff turnover.

A ratio above 1:5 may indicate an environment where “back of house” team members dominate, creating a high volume of red tape and potentially inefficient systems and processes. This results in an under-optimised fundraising team that is unable to focus on relationship building through strategic cultivation and solicitation leading to transformational gifts.

If your frontline fundraisers conduct any of the following indirect fundraising tasks, read on!

Event planning and/or management
Proposal writing and gift agreement administration
Programme support
Prospect research

Administrative responsibilities (e.g., data entry)

the case for retention

Last year, CCS supported over 70 colleges and universities and worked with a total of 700 organisations located in over 350 cities across 18 countries. We frequently encounter frontline fundraisers with inordinate responsibilities that keep them from direct fundraising, which we define as cultivating, soliciting, and expertly stewarding prospective supporters and donors.

Though it might seem reasonable for fundraisers to wear multiple hats, this approach may cause frustration and increase turnover. Fundraisers need time to build relationships and time spent elsewhere can be costly especially when a majority of philanthropic giving is driven by individuals. Individual philanthropy thrives on personal connections to your organisation’s mission, and the time required to build those relationships is critical to fundraising success.

Retaining your fundraisers has a huge financial impact. It takes multiple years for a fundraising professional to meet their peak potential. In fact, the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that it took, on average, four years for major-gift fundraisers to “mature into their roles.” After four years, frontline fundraisers dramatically increased the average money they raised.

how to optimise Your Team

1. Evaluate and Redistribute Responsibilities

Begin by defining who you consider a frontline fundraiser and who you consider support, noting that support does not always equate to strictly administrative responsibilities. The simplest approach is to consider support staff as any role that does not hold direct fundraising responsibilities. Some roles may be split (e.g., roles that include managerial, administrative or other responsibilities), and for those roles you can divide their time across both categories (.25, .5, .75 etc.).

Here are some examples of how this might be approached:

Sample Role	Frontline	Support
Director of Development	.5	.5
Manager of Individual Giving	1
Major Gift Officer	1
Manager of Institutional Giving/Corporate Relations	1
Planned Giving Officer	1
Communications Coordinator		1
Research Analyst		1
Database Manager		1
Development Associate/Assistant		1
Special Events Manager		1
Alumni Relations Staff		1
Advancement Communications Staff		1

If the fundraising to support ratio falls short of our recommended 1:3 – 1:5 ratio, you should determine where you can delegate more of your fundraisers’ indirect work to support staff.

2. Consider Hiring Support Staff

Next time a vacancy opens up on your team, or you have an opportunity to add headcount, pause to reflect on this ratio and how your staff are currently spending their time. Consider asking your staff to spend two weeks tracking their time. This exercise will provide data for an informed assessment to support potential changes in the way you delegate and/or how you reallocate tasks.

To maximise your team’s efficiency with limited resources, CCS often encourages our clients to consider adding these support staff positions before adding costly frontline fundraisers:

Please note that one role may cover more than one of the responsibilities listed below.

Areas of Support	Impact
Proposal or Grant Writing	Frontline staff can advise on content but are not tasked with the considerable time necessary to produce stellar proposals.
Stewardship Report Writing	Frontline staff can focus on amplifying the stewardship process (e.g., arrange to hand-deliver a report) if not tasked with writing the content.
Event Coordination	Frontline staff can focus on inviting prospects and engaging attendees during and after the event, ensuring positive experiences, and deepening relationships.
Data Entry	This reduces desk time and ensures both efficacy and continuity of information included in the CRM.
Data Analysis	Harnessing your data to make informed decisions (e.g., portfolio analysis) can improve fundraising performance.
Prospect Research	Frontline staff can focus instead on research insights, connecting their donors to demonstrated areas of interest.
Board Management	Boards are frequently the biggest drivers of fundraising activity and expert management is key. Dedicated staff ensures that your Board is leveraged to their fullest extent and ensures a seamless donor experience.
Volunteer Management	Connecting donors to meaningful volunteer opportunities (such as Advisory Boards, Alumni Councils, Admissions, Career Development, etc.) frequently results in greater philanthropic investments. Frontline staff should connect the dots, while others should manage logistics such as volunteer assignments, training, and data collection.

Where your team spends its time is where your organisation spends its money. Investing in the right kind and amount of support for your frontline fundraisers will reduce turnover, increase funds raised, and can make all the difference.

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