campaign readiness and prospect research
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Campaign readiness and prospect research. Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds. Leeds University donor*. * image is for illustration purposes only. Campaign readiness and prospect research. Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds. The campaign stages in brief. 1. Pre-planning - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Campaign readiness and prospect research
Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds
Leeds University donor*
* image is for illustration purposes only
Campaign readiness and prospect research
Oliver Taylor, University of Leeds
The campaign stages in brief
1. Pre-planning2. Assessment/planning3. Private/quiet/silent4. Public5. Post-campaign evaluation
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre-plan
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
An ideal campaign timeline
Leeds’s past and projected campaign timeline as of Nov 2011
Leeds’s past and projected campaign timeline as of Nov 2011
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre-plan
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
NO ROLE
The role of the researcher in all thisTraditional pre-planning stage
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre-plan
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
The role of the researcher in all thisTraditional assessment/planning stage
Limited role
Find prospects
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre-plan
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
The role of the researcher in all thisTraditional private/quiet & public stages
FIND PROSPECTS!
FIND PROSPECTS!!!!!!!!!!!
FIND PROSPECTS
NOW !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Post
Public
Private/quiet
Assessment
Planning
Pre-plan
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
The role of the researcher in all thisTraditional pre-planning stage NO ROLE
The campaign stages in brief
1. Pre-planning2. Assessment/planning3. Private/quiet/silent4. Public5. Post-campaign evaluation
Prospect research should have a role in all of these stages …
… but all too often, the researcher might only play a part in nos 3 and 4!
Let me be the first to admit it
WE WERE NOT
READY
Slight misnomer: “Unready” in Ethelred’s name is actually a mistranslation – it actually means “badly-advised”!
Ethelred the Unready, c. 968 - 1016
Campaign unreadiness
Our consultants said:
“you will need 2312 prospects to make the campaign work”
• We currently have 1211 in the pool altogether
Campaign unreadiness
Our consultants said:
“you need 100% of all your prospects for the campaign identified by the end of the quiet phase”
• We currently have 1211 in the pool altogether
• At present the quiet phase is scheduled to end in July 2012
Campaign unreadinessOur consultants said:
“You need at least 44 prospects capable of giving a million pounds for this campaign to work”
• We currently have 1211 in the pool altogether
• At present the quiet phase is scheduled to end in July 2012
• We currently have that – but it’s the rest of them that pose problems of identification!
Campaign unreadiness
Campaign unreadinessGift level Number of
gifts required
Number of prospects
needed
Total £ sterling required
Cumulative total
Leadership gifts
£10,000,000 1 4 £10,000,000 £10,000,000
£5,000,000 1 4 £5,000,000 £15,000,000
£2,500,000 2 8 £5,000,000 £20,000,000
£1,000,000 7 28 £7,000,000 £27,000,000
Major gifts £500,000 12 48 £6,000,000 £33,000,000
£250,000 25 100 £6,250,000 £39,250,000
£100,000 50 200 £5,000,000 £44,250,000
Special gifts £50,000 120 480 £6,000,000 £50,250,000
£25,000 160 640 £4,000,000 £54,250,000
£10,000 200 800 £2,000,000 £56,250,000
General gifts
Up to £10,000
Many £3,750,000 £60,000,000
Campaign total
578 2312 £60,000,000 £60,000,000
Campaign unreadinessGift level Number of
gifts required
Number of prospects
needed
Total £ sterling required
Cumulative total
Leadership gifts
£10,000,000 1 4 £10,000,000 £10,000,000
£5,000,000 1 4 £5,000,000 £15,000,000
£2,500,000 2 8 £5,000,000 £20,000,000
£1,000,000 7 28 £7,000,000 £27,000,000
Major gifts £500,000 12 48 £6,000,000 £33,000,000
£250,000 25 100 £6,250,000 £39,250,000
£100,000 50 200 £5,000,000 £44,250,000
Special gifts £50,000 120 480 £6,000,000 £50,250,000
£25,000 160 640 £4,000,000 £54,250,000
£10,000 200 800 £2,000,000 £56,250,000
General gifts
Up to £10,000
Many £3,750,000 £60,000,000
Campaign total
578 2312 £60,000,000 £60,000,000
Campaign catch-up
• It’s almost inevitable that most institutions spend their first campaigns playing catch-up.
• No of prospects• No of gifts• No of fundraisers• Cause/appeal/projects slow to take shape
Campaign catch-up
• This is where the quiet phase of the campaign comes into its own.
• Security blanket which can be extended to suit …
• … as long as it’s not extended too far, or you might never end up going public!
Campaign catch-up
• First campaign (whether successful or not) ultimately a training and testing ground for figuring out what works
• So you can then do it better next time
The campaign stages in brief
• Pre-planning• Assessment/planning• Private/quiet/silent• Public• Post-campaign evaluation
Pre-planning stage
• Prospect researchers can shape the campaign
• Who else in your office or institution has the knowledge of your constituency base that you have?
• This fact can be overlooked by those higher up the pecking order
• Therefore, remember the above and have confidence in yourself
Pre-planning stage
• What’s the campaign for? How big should it be? What should its theme areas be? Are your existing prospects letting you know what interests them? Any trends?
• A few “tried and trusted” friends• Careful read-through of fundraiser meeting notes• Survey responses• National benchmarking across other campaigns• Somewhere to store all this!
Pre-planning stage
A quick word on benchmarking:
• for UK higher education institutions, refer to the Ross-CASE survey, whose 2010-11 report is due to be published in April 2012 – a survey of gift income and fundraising costs across the UK HE and FE sectorswww.rosscasesurvey.org.uk
• For an instructive comparison, look at the US equivalent, compiled by the Council for Aid to Education (CAE). Free registration, paid access to advanced featuresThis allows you access to a database where you can compare the progress of specific institutions against any number of variables – number of gifts of certain amounts, total amount given by corporates, as bequests, etc etc. www.cae.org
Arts & Culture
Climate ChangeHuman HealthGlobal
Society & Business
Students
Pre-planning stage• Is your institution going to use an external
consultancy for campaign counsel and advice?• If so, does the consultancy have a dedicated
research expert to whom you’ll have access?• If not, consider lobbying for separate research
counsel • At the very least, make sure you’re aware of
sources of potential help, not least the existence of external training providers and the prospect-research-uk listserv
Pre-planning stage
• Obviously easier if your institution has been through all this before!
• You can examine the trends of the last campaign, and use these to inform the next one
The campaign stages in brief
• Pre-planning• Assessment/planning• Private/quiet/silent• Public• Post-campaign evaluation
Assessment/planning stage
• Feasibility study• With good organisation, researchers have
a real chance to get involved here and drive the direction of the campaign
• Focuses the mind on who the best prospects really are• Chance to test out those gift assumptions• Identifying prospects to be interviewed• Providing data for the interviews• As good a chance as any to get profiles written on
prospects you hadn’t done them for yet
Assessment/planning stage
At this time, the researcher should also consider undertaking their own little study …
How ready are you for all this? Are research staffing needs being met?
Evaluate all relevant procedures you’ve already got in place, and try to predict what new ones you might need – what new measures and stats?
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Writing profiles Finding prospects
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday
Finding prospects Writing profiles
Assessment/planning stage
At this time, the researcher should also consider undertaking their own little study …
How ready are you for all this? Are research staffing needs being met?
Evaluate all relevant procedures you’ve already got in place, and try to predict what new ones you might need
Could you talk to someone at a similar or more advanced stage at another institution?
Assessment/planning stage
• Feasibility studies a necessary and important part of the campaign …
• and sometimes they take for granted that things are clear-cut
• but remember, its findings show what would happen if the campaign ran to an ideal plan and schedule
Control freakery
• Some things researchers have no control or, at best, limited control over
• Institutional readiness outside the fundraising office• Prospects not being interested or seemingly impossible to
contact• (if you’re new in post) – what’s gone before• Staff turnover• Writing potted biographies for use at events. This is your
job, however much you protest against it. Deal with it.
Control freakery
• But even with these, there are ways in which prospect research can help …
• Institutional readiness
• Do your academics / senior frontline workers even know what a prospect is?
• Often they do, without even realising it …
Control freakery
• But even with these, there are ways in which prospect research can help …
• Uninterested or hard to contact prospects
• Do the best you can for your fundraising colleagues – make sure you’ve examined all avenues of reaching them
• Above all, don’t take it personally – it’s not your fault they are uninterested or hard to get hold of
Control freakery
• But even with these, there are ways in which prospect research can help …
• What’s gone before
• Try to understand why things were done in a certain way: there must have been some reason for it!
• An enquiring mind and a database can lead to some interesting discoveries
Control freakery what’s gone before
• Even long-forgotten tables in your database can hold the key to prospect discovery
• Hey, someone once thought this stuff was worth adding• Ask, probe, experiment! What were they thinking?
- why was this guy thought important enough to be invited to that event way back in 2003? What clues are there?
- all these 54 records have the same “contact coding”, put on back in 2006, but why?
Control freakery
• But even with these, there are ways in which prospect research can help …
• Staff turnover• Make sure there’s a
clear plan in place for the prospects of any departing fundraiser
• Make sure the incoming person has a prospect pool ready as soon as possible after they arrive
The campaign stages in brief
• Pre-planning• Assessment/planning• Private/quiet/silent• Public• Post-campaign evaluation
Quiet stage• Fundraising
- continuous programme of prospect identification, qualification and assignment- research for leadership asks
• Campaign Goal Revision- reports on annual performance (by canvasser, by theme, by total amount raised) should help evaluate this- research should be involved in supporting or refuting the argument to increase or lower the campaign goal
Quiet stage- what to measure, and over what period?
FinancialMetric YTD 3YA Trend
Total campaign commitments £X £Y
Total fundraising commitments £X £Y
Number of gifts X Y
Average gift size £X £Y
Percentage of campaign goal met
X% Y%
ActivityMetric YTD 3YA Trend
Number of active proposals X Y
Number of active proposals for asks >£100,000
X Y
Number of visits X Y
Number of >£100,000 prospects visited
X Y
Annual FundMetric YTD 3YA Trend
Total Annual Fund cash received
£X £Y
Total Annual Fund unrestricted cash received
£X £Y
Alumni participation X% Y%
New donors X Y
Number of donors X Y
Research efficiencyMetric YTD 3YA Trend
Number of new prospects identified
X Y
Number of new >£100,000 prospects identified
X Y
Number of new prospects assigned to canvasser
X Y
Number of profiles written X Y
Is it that they’renot seeing
enough prospects?
Or is it becausethey need
some more?
Metric YTD 3YA Trend
Number of >£100,000 prospects visited
X Y
Harold ii, c. 1022 - 1066
Harold ii’s campaign timeline• 6th January 1066 – Harold crowned king of England
• Late January – hears of William of Normandy’s invasion plans• 8th September – Harold Hardrada of Norway invades England• 12th September – William’s invasion force sails for England;
turns back• 20th September – Harold of England’s forces in northern
England suffer heavy defeat. Harold heads north• 25th September – Harold defeats Norway at Battle of
Stamford Bridge• 27th September – William invades England; lands on south
coast. Harold heads south• 14th October – Battle of Hastings
Effective legacy prospect targeting in action
