101: How to build a fundraiser’s portfolio
Dear Diary,
Following the previous post on the Top 4 strategies for portfolio analysis, today, prospect development professional and Managing Director of Staupell Analytics, Marianne Pelletier, is holding an insightful conversation on how to build a fundraiser’s portfolio – the thought process, the needs, and the basics. This is all you need to begin your journey.
Q: Thought process: Where should someone begin when first thinking of building a fundraiser’s portfolio?
Marianne: There’s a dual need when building a fundraiser’s portfolio:
1. What does the organization need for funding?
2. What does the constituency like to support?
Both of these need to be considered, but at the start, the most important thing is to find easy wins so the gift officers are comfortable with their new pools of prospects and perhaps new responsibilities.
There’s tension between the traditional fundraising effort for specific projects, where the organization looks for prospects who want to give to them, and the donor-centric position of asking donors what they want to support. Working both lines at once, so to speak, is the most balanced path.
Q: When you say “asking donors what they want to support,” is that the same as learning their interests or are we diving into framing/building a project based on the prospect?
Marianne: Yes. Learning what donors are interested in allows an organization to make an ask that is close to the donors’ hearts. We can identify donor interests through sentiment analysis, assessing what funds and campaigns that they give to, and detailed contact reports.
Q: For you the Prospect Development professional, how hard is it to balance creating a portfolio that meets the wants and needs of both fundraiser and prospect?
Marianne: The balancing act is a lot of work! The fundraising shop is pressured to raise funds for specific needs, and the gift officers and other solicitation staff are pressured to get the gift, which means hearing and honoring donor wishes. This particular rock and hard place situation is why we are debating community fundraising over donor-centric fundraising – if we give together to support the organization as a community, we do not lord it over the organization, dictating how our support can be spent.
It’s going to be really interesting watching how fundraising itself will be transformed as society continues to break down class and privilege barriers. Imagine a world where a group of people get together online –regardless of their wealth – and hear a needs statement by an organization, and then choose whether to crowd fund it.
Q: Now, what are the first actionable steps needed for a portfolio?
Marianne: The first action step is to asses both the capacity and inclination of the entire prospect pool so that cherry picking prospects doesn’t happen, which would leave a lot of money on the table.
1. Assess the pool capacity. Once you have that, you can figure out how many gift officers are needed.
2. Find the clusters of giving interests. For instance, if there is a large contingent of prospects who like to give to programming, then assign them to one gift officer.
Q: Would you agree with a scenario in which a gift officer is given a large number of prospects who are interested in only one program? What about those who are unsure of their philanthropic interests and want to give unrestricted, what would be your advice?
Marianne: Yes, I would agree with soliciting for one program or area of focus by one gift officer. Think of it as vertical integration – the gift officer gets very familiar with that particular program and its donors. It becomes the gift officer’s subject of expertise. The catch is when donors wan to fund one program while other programs are left in need. Traditionally, we have shifted cash when we can but still there is often a step child who gets left out.
Any donor who wants to make an unrestricted gift should be celebrated. That way, the organization can pay the salaries of the fundraisers and staff.
3. Understand the geography of the pool now that the gift officers can travel again.
4. Assign by gift officer experience level, this could mean the trickiest prospects to the fundraisers with many years of experience.
5. Set up dashboards to give management a bird’s eye view of progress
Q: Why dashboards? Is it because the data from the dashboards can reinforce activity, inform reports, and aid in setting goals?
Marianne: Yes: Dashboards not only inform management (who have to inform the board), but also help set expectations and give feedback. Catching a problem early on is the best way to start solving it.
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Marianne, thank you for being gracious, knowledgeable, and an expert willing to share with us.
Until next time, August 15th!
