When you’re in the business of soliciting donations, it’s important to know how to qualify your donors. After all, not every donor is going to be a good fit for your organization.
What exactly does it mean to 'qualify' a donor?
Qualifying donors means assessing their ability, willingness, and readiness to donate. This involves assessing wealth and affinity markers like their donation history, what they’re interested in donating to, and how much money they’re able to give. It’s also important to consider the donor’s personality and history with your organization, and how well they might fit with your organization.
There are a number of factors you can use to qualify your donors. Read below to see the the top four.
1. Donor Wealth Capacity
One of the first things you should look at when qualifying a donor is their wealth capacity. In other words, what is their financial capacity to make a gift? You find find wealth indicators for individuals by looking up their property values, career history, political giving history, and philanthropic activity.
There are a number of tools you can use to help you assess a donor's wealth. One of the most popular tools used by fundraisers are wealth screening tools. These tools enable organizations to assess the wealth of potential donors quickly and accurately, allowing them to identify those likely to be able to make larger gifts or those who represent an opportunity for larger donations over time. The information that is gathered from these screenings can be used in a variety of ways, including helping target solicitations that are most likely to produce a good return on investment as well as increasing efficiency in identifying appropriate prospects.
2. Donor Affinity
Another important factor to consider when qualifying your donors is their affinity to your organization and mission. In other words, how likely is the donor to actually give to your organization? There are a few different ways to measure donor affinity. One common way is to look at their donation history- both to your organization, and others. This involves looking at how much money they’ve donated in the past, as well as what other organizations they’ve donated to. Another way to measure affinity is by understanding what kind of causes a donor is interested in supporting.
3. Mission Fit
It is critically important to make sure that there is a good mission fit between the donor and your organization. After all, if the donor doesn’t believe in your mission, they’re not likely to give to you. You can determine mission fit by looking at things like the donor’s interests, values, and so on.
Assessing mission fit between a potential donors and your organization is a crucial part of the fundraising process. It involves carefully evaluating the goals, values, and philosophies of both parties to determine if they align in a meaningful way. A good match can lead to long-term relationships that bring in much-needed support for an organization.
To properly assess mission fit, you should start by taking a closer look at your own values and goals:
What does your organization stand for?
What is your mission?
Who are your benefactors?
What are your short-term and long-term objectives?
Once these have been identified, turn your focus to prospective donors. Examine their public statements about philanthropy, past giving histories, and organizational affiliations. These actions can provide clues as to whether or not there is alignment between them and your mission.
4. Understanding Interests and Motivations
You cannot rely merely rely on quantitative data when qualifying donors. It is critical to also consider qualitative factors; there is absolutely no substitute for getting to know your donors personally. This activity of getting to know your donors helps foster trust and loyalty between your organization and your donors. Understanding the interests and motivations behind why someone would donate can provide invaluable insight into what type of person you're talking to and help tailor an appropriate approach that is more likely to generate successful donations in the future.
This next part is important: you absolutely cannot qualify donors without spending time with them and getting to know them personally! There are useful tools out there that can help us in our investigative work, but there is no substitute for human interaction.
There is a true art and science to fundraising. Qualifying your donors is an important part of successful fundraising. By taking the time to consider factors such as wealth capacity, affinity, mission fit, and individual interests and motivations, you can distinguish between prospects and suspects. By taking these factors into account, you will be able to identify which donors are most likely to give to your organization, but more importantly, how you can build meaningful relationships with your donors.
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