The 3 Cs: How to Decide Which Major Donor Prospects to Approach First
Most charities I work with are not short of names. They have a spreadsheet with two hundred of them, or a database with eight thousand records and a note on a handful saying “potential major donor”.
What they are short of is an order.
So the week goes like this. You open the list on Monday with the best of intentions. You pick the name you recognise, probably the wealthiest, or the one a trustee mentioned. You spend a couple of hours researching them. You do not contact them, because you are not sure what you would say. You put that name down and repeat the same activity with the next, the next, the next… By Friday the list is the same length and nobody has moved forward but you have been really busy.
The answer is not more research. It is three questions, asked of every name, with a score you can defend.
Three questions, asked of every name
At Money Tree Fundraising we score every prospect on capacity, commitment and connection. Each gets a score from nought to three, so every name ends up with a number out of nine.
The three questions are independent of each other. Someone can be a three on capacity and a nought on connection, and however rich or famous they look, they are not your priority this month. The numbers are not the point. The point is that you can compare two names and explain why one comes first.
Capacity: can they give a major gift?
Capacity has two halves, and most people only think about the first. The first is signs of wealth. The second is evidence that they give some of it away.
Wealth with no sign of giving scores one. Giving below your major gift level scores two. Giving at your major gift level scores three. No sign of either is a nought.
That last scale depends on knowing what counts as a major gift for your charity, so write that number at the top of the sheet before you score anyone. You are scoring against yourself.
Most of the evidence is free. Companies House shows directorships. The Charity Commission register shows personal trusts and what they fund. Other charities publish donor lists in their annual reports and on their walls, and those lists tell you that someone gives and roughly at what level.
Commitment: do they care about your cause?
Not charity in general, and not necessarily your organisation, but the thing your organisation does.
This is the score people give most generously, because the evidence is often soft. So be strict. Already giving to you, or volunteering for you, scores three. A link to the cause plus a history of giving to similar causes scores two. A personal or geographical link on its own scores one.
The strongest sign is the one most often overlooked. Someone giving you ten pounds a month has already answered the commitment question. They chose you, and they have chosen you every month since without being asked.
The signs that feel like evidence but are not: they came to an event four years ago, they like your posts, or a trustee thinks they might be interested. Ask the trustee one follow-up question. What did they say, and when? If nobody can answer, you have a hunch, and a hunch scores nought. Only a real conversation tells you what they really care about.
Connection: how easily can you reach them?
This is the C that decides your next three months, and the one most frameworks leave out. A prospect with perfect capacity and real commitment who never replies is a long, slow project. Someone with half the capacity who answers the phone is a gift this year.
Connection is also the score that moves fastest. Capacity is fairly fixed and commitment shifts slowly, but connection can go from nought to three after one call to the right colleague.
Someone who has agreed to meet, or has been introduced, scores three. Someone who responds to you scores two. A credible route in that you have not yet tried scores one. No route, or no reply, scores nought.
Be strict about the difference between one and nought. “My chair knows them” only counts as one if your chair is willing to make the call.
Add them up
Zero to one: do not approach. Two to three: not a priority now. Four to six: engage and build the evidence. This is where most of your list will sit, and where the work is. Seven to nine: your priority prospects.
The bands are mine. Change them to suit your charity, and write down what you decided, so that in six months you can say why a name sits where it does.
Two rules keep the scores honest. Score the evidence, not the hope: if you cannot say out loud what the evidence is, the score is nought, and nought is a real answer. And rescore twice a year, and straight after any conversation.
The result that surprises people
Take two prospects. The first is a trustee of a family trust, featured in a news article about the condition your charity works on. Nobody has ever contacted them. Capacity two, commitment one, connection nought. Three out of nine.
The second gives you twenty five pounds a month. They have some signs of wealth but no giving elsewhere, they once came to an event, and they sometimes reply to your emails. Capacity one, commitment three, connection two. Six out of nine.
The less impressive name is the better prospect today, because they have already told you they care and they do sometimes answer. The next step is to ask them for twenty minutes to tell them what their support has paid for. Not a gift, and not yet a meeting about money.
A score tells you who to talk to. It is where the 7 steps of major donor fundraising begin, not where they end. The conversation then tells you whether your score was right.
Where to start this week
Write down what a major gift is for your charity. One number.
Check your privacy policy. Research on named individuals is data processing, so you need a documented legitimate interest assessment, and if there is a gap, closing it is your first job.
Score twenty names from your own database, starting with anyone who has given regularly for more than two years. Do the whole list in one sitting, because scores drift overnight.
Take the twenty names to your chief executive and trustees and ask who they recognise. A list produces answers. A blank sheet produces nothing.
Start with your highest overall scores. If two tie, pick the higher connection score, because you will have the conversation sooner.
Turn your database into a ranked prospect list
Build your Pipeline is a twelve-week programme. We review your donor data, score and rank your supporters, map your network and give you a written plan of who to approach first. A named consultant works with you throughout.