Campaign Components

Building Relationships

Do you ever feel you are spending more time conducting donor evaluation and not enough time on building relationships with your constituency?

We can get into this rut by spending too much time focusing on potential and not enough time focusing on building relationships.

Consider this exercise to help you become more focused on making connections with your prospective donors. Create a roster of your biggest potential givers. Review the list on a name-by-name basis and rank them on a scale of 1-3. Those who received a "1" will get immediate attention and be asked to make a gift within the next one or two months. Those ranked a "2" will not be immediately assigned a request amount. Instead, invite them to a function and have your leadership team make a few contacts to increase their interest in your organization. Based on their interest, make an appeal for support over the next six months. Those with a "3" ranking are long-term prospects, who need numerous touches and visits and will get approached for a gift in six months or later down the road.

This strategy will give you the roadmap to secure immediate gifts from your closest benefactors, while also positioning your organization to develop relationships with more of its constituency. Building these relationships will turn them from a suspect to a prospect.

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