created by Heather Yandow at Third Space Studio, thirdspacestudio.com.

1. Finding Major Donor Prospects
If you have trouble connecting,
please contact Heather at
919.451.1329.

2. Today’s Agenda
A Model Prospecting Program
• Creating your draft prospect list
• Refining your list
• Researching your prospects
• Organizing your prospects
• Making it happen!

3. “You already know all the people
you need to know to raise all the
money you want to raise”
-Kim Klein

4. Finding Major Donor Prospects
Finding prospects has a lot to do with volume,
data, and research
AND
A successful major donor program is created by
building strong relationships

5. Major Donors
What makes your donors MAJOR?

6. Major Donors
• What makes your donors MAJOR?
– Treat them differently from other donors
– Different for every group
– Most groups have a dollar limit: $100 and above,
$5,000 and above
– Mostly an internal definition
– Key ?: How many donors can you treat in this way?

7. Major Donors
Major donors need to have the three Cs: care,
connection, and capacity
care
capacity
connection

8. Creating Your List
Where do you find prospective donors?
Current donors
Staff and Board contacts
Sister organizations
Local foundations
Random people

9. Current Donors
• Best way to find new major
donors is by upgrading existing
donors
– All about building relationships
• Mine your giving data! Look
for people who:
– Have a history of consistent giving
– Have given big gifts in the past few years
– May be giving under their capacity
• Ask current donors for names and introductions
to other donors

10. Staff and Board
• Create a culture of
fundraising in your
organization
• Make sure staff are
comfortable talking about
the basics of your organization and funding
• Ask staff and Board to be on the lookout for
new people to bring into the organization
• Ask for names and contact information for
potential donors

11. Questions? Comments?

12. Sister Organizations
• What organizations in your area do similar or
compatible work? What are other
organizations that you, your staff, or your
Board give to?
• Look at their donor lists – website, newsletter,
annual report, donor wall!
• Know that these donors have capacity and
likely care – need connection

13. Local Foundations
• http://foundationcenter.org/findfunders/foun
dfinder/
• Search by city, state, or zip
• Examine 990’s, particularly:
– Page 6: list of officers and possibly their contact
info
– Page 10: if and how they accept proposals
– Page 11: list of grantees

14. Data Management
• Important to track data consistently
• Important to include:
– First and last name
– Spouse/partner
name
– City
– Source of name
– Links to relevant
website

15. Questions? Comments?

16. Focus

17. Focus
• You’ve mostly identified people with capacity
and/or care, but you need connection.
• Have Board and staff respond to your list.
– Do they know? Can they introduce?
– Give option for “call me later to discuss”
• Compare potential prospects to your email list
or donor list.

18. Research Top Prospects
• GOAL: if you have a connection (or potential),
find out enough information to make an ask
– Giving history
– Contact information
– Work or personal history
• Simple sources of info
– People who know them
– Google
– Tray.com
– White Pages

19. What other methods do you use
for research?

20. Questions? Comments?

21. Organize
Few large
donors
Less
intermediate
donors
Lots of small
donors
• Organize your prospects
according to your
pyramid
• Focus on the largest
donors first

22. A Sample Pyramid
Amount Number of Gifts Total Gifts
$25,000 1 $25,000
$10,000 1 $10,000
$5,000 3 $15,000
$2,500 6 $15,000
$1,000 12 $12,000
$500 16 $8,000
$250 24 $6,000
$100 40 $4,000
Average of $50 100 $5,000
203 $100,000

23. Create Your Own Pyramid
Amount # of
Gifts
Total
Gifts
$25,000 1 $25,000
$10,000 1 $10,000
$5,000 3 $15,000
$2,500 6 $15,000
$1,000 12 $12,000
$500 16 $8,000
$250 24 $6,000
$100 40 $4,000
Avg of $50 100 $5,000
203 $100,000

24. The Pyramid and Prospects
Amount # of
Gifts
Total Gifts Likely Previous
Donors
New Prospects
Needed
$25,000 1 $25,000 1 0
$10,000 1 $10,000 0 4
$5,000 3 $15,000 1 8
$2,500 6 $15,000 3 12
$1,000 12 $12,000 5 28
$500 16 $8,000 10 24
$250 24 $6,000 15 36
$100 40 $4,000
Avg of $50 100 $5,000
203 $100,000
Need 112 prospects!

25. The Pyramid and Prospects
Amount # of
Gift
s
Total
Gifts
Likely
Previous
Donors
New
Prospects
Needed
Donor
Names
Prospect
Names
$25,000 1 $25,000 1 0
$10,000 1 $10,000 0 4
$5,000 3 $15,000 1 8
$2,500 6 $15,000 3 12
$1,000 12 $12,000 5 28
$500 16 $8,000 10 24
$250 24 $6,000 15 36
$100 40 $4,000
Avg of
$50
100 $5,000

26. Questions? Comments?

27. Action!
• Prioritize and plan. Try focusing on a different
set of donors each quarter:
– Q1 - renew previous donors
– Q2 - reach out to new donors $5,000 and up
– Q3 – reach out to new donors below $5,000
– Q4 – clean-up
• Delegate – use the Coordinator/Director part
of your title!
• Follow up – give a timeline and check in

28. • A Model Prospecting Program
– Creating your “big list”
– Defining your prospects
– Researching your prospects
– Organizing
– Making it happen!

29. Thank you!
Heather Yandow
919.780.4117
heather@thirdspacestudio.com