Finding Buried Treasure in Your Own Backyard

Could you find new "treasure" among your Board members or your donors? At a recent Board Retreat, my mission was to motivate Board members into revealing prospects for a new campaign and to train them to contact these prospects for the organization.

I asked the Executive Director to choose 5 people who were very important to the organization - the Board did not know any of them. The staff then chose one large donor and I gave them an exercise in which they were asked questions about the donor's personal and business life. The more questions they could answer the higher the score. Like many of my clients, they rated below 50%. My rule is: You need to score at least 76% before you can make an ask for anything.

During this same program, one of the most prominent businessmen in the city told the group one reason that he donated was because his mother loved the organization. "However, no one at the organization has visited me. And, I know and see often at least seven Board members here, and not one of you has asked me to participate." He was definitely buried gold!

However, as part of my Board program, the organization uncovered 159 new names and each one is connected to someone involved with the organization. In addition, they received training to know what to say and how to partner with the staff to approach these prospects!

The moral of this story: You don't always need to go outside your organization to get the new prospects you need to raise more money!

Happy prospecting!