TARGET LOYAL DONORS WITH CAPACITY TO MAKE YOUR NUMBERS.

‘Tis the season..for the mad scramble to make your fundraising goals by the end of the fiscal year.  Many nonprofits don’t make their numbers because they don’t make strong connections with the right donors in the time they have.

Who do you think you should put at the top of your list for engagement? 

The most obvious prospects to prioritize are those who have the greatest capacity–and who are already your friends. Because, at the end of the day, an unresponsive seven-figure prospect may be worth pursuing in the long-term, but a consistent five-figure donor who hasn’t reached their maximum capacity is a good bet for RIGHT NOW. 

How do you identify these friends who have the money and want to give NOW? 

FINDING FRIENDS: Look at RFM & Engagement data in your donor base.

WHAT IS RFM?

RFM stands for Recency, Frequency, and Money.  They are the three basic aspects of every donor’s giving.  These values can lead you to your most loyal donors–your friends.  Here’s what they mean:

• Recency:  How recently did the donor give? (i.e., when was their last gift?)
• Frequency: How often do they give? (i.e., how many times did they give over a set timeframe, like 10-15 years)
• Money: How much was their biggest gift?

RFM ANALYSIS

When you do an RFM Analysis of your current donor base, you’re scoring each name to rank their loyalty to your cause. An RFM score can not only show you loyalty, but it will point you in the direction of your top lifetime givers.

How to Calculate RFM Using Excel

WHAT IS ENGAGEMENT?

Engagement is the “connection” between you and your donors.  It’s how they interact with you.  When you measure donor engagement, you’re looking at their “connection points”.  Examples of “connection points” are event attendance, volunteer service, giving. And, depending on what your nonprofit does, you can have even more points.  For instance, if you’re a healthcare organization, you could include visits/admissions and treatments.  If you’re a University, you could include other experiences like fraternity/sorority and athletics.

ENGAGEMENT ANALYSIS

When you do an Engagement Analysis, you’re scoring the connection point data and ranking their closeness to your mission. 

FINDING CAPACITY: Do a Giving Capacity analysis by screening your donor base.

WHAT IS GIVING CAPACITY?

Giving Capacity is an estimate of how much a donor can give based on their visible wealth and/or net worth. 

CAPACITY ANALYSIS

When you do a basic capacity analysis of your donor base, you’re gathering wealth data for each donor, and rating their gift potential.  The most efficient way to do this is to have a vendor screen the names in your file.  The average screening vendor will deliver:

• Asset information
• Political giving data
• Major gift capacity ratings 

But, in order to quickly find your donors with the highest gift capacity, you need more to go by.

But, in order to quickly find your donors with the highest gift capacity, you need more to go by.

• Net worth rating
• Business Revenues
• Corporate Officer titles
• Household income

FINDING FRIENDS WITH MONEY

Examine the intersection of your RFM, Engagement, and Capacity analysis results. It’s the simplest way to start narrowing your prospect pool to focus on those who are both closest to you and have capacity.

With your refined list, you can plan the actions that will bring in the most major gifts in a shorter period of time.  And meet your fundraising goals for the year!

DID YOU KNOW:

DonorSearch Ai analytics and DonorSearch Screening give you the affinity and capacity insights you need to focus on your most loyal donors with the highest capacity.  Want to see who will make the biggest gifts sooner?  Click GET A DEMO below.

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