As we finish the calendar year in fundraising, you have the opportunity to do some fresh major donor prospecting.

I know, you’re exhausted right now, trying to make sure your year-end goal is met.

This project is for the third and fourth weeks of January, when the year-end administrative work is complete and your staff team, your board and your fund development committee have made thank you calls or sent notes to donors.

Late January is the perfect time to analyze where your new gifts came from last year, and where there were increases in current giving.

It’s entirely possible that you may have some major donor prospects hiding in your current donor lists.

What does Fundraising Wisdom (that’s what I call the cloud of experts in fundraising) say about what to look for?

There are two models for understanding what to look for that I’ve helped clients work with over the years. The first is C-B-A and it stands for Contact – Belief – Ability. I think this model was developed by super trainer Andy Robinson www.andyrobinsononline.com for all donor prospects, not just major donors. But I still find it helpful.

In this model, contact is the most important:

Does the donor have a relationship with any of your board members, staff, donors, key volunteers, or program participants? Or is the relationship with your whole organization - are they already contributing money, time, or both?

B stands for “belief” and it’s critical too:

Does the donor care about your issues, programs, your constituencies, etc.?

A is for “ability” and here’s the lens to apply:

Does the donor have extra money to give?

I like the C-B-A model, especially because it draws us into conversation with the donor. You can see that the donor has made a gift to your group (maybe a new gift or an increased gift over last year), but until you talk with them, you can’t really know the full answers to the questions above.

The C-A-R Model

Another model I like has the acronym C-A-R. (I’m not sure who came up with this one, but I think it’s in the context of a capital campaign.) It stands for Capacity – Affinity – Relationship.

C-A-R is similar to C-B-A, but in C-A-R, determining capacity is critical to identifying major donor prospects. And while conversation with the donor and others who know them can help you estimate their general capacity to give, you may want to also enlist the help of a wealth-screening service to give you more information.

Affinity is similar to “belief” above, but is more specific to the donor’s giving patterns overall. Have they donated to your group before, but also to other groups addressing the same general issue? Do they consider themselves in solidarity with your cause?

Relationship in this model seems to be quite similar to the C-B-A model – how connected is this donor to one or more people in and around your organization? Major donors often give more if they admire the leadership of a group, so relationships with your CEO and/or board members can be especially significant.

So how can we operationalize these models for finding major donor prospects?

First, you need a list of everyone who was a new donor last year, above a certain level. Don’t make that level too high – maybe $100 or more. (Many eventual major donors start out their giving with an exploratory $100 or $200 gift.) Then identify those who increased their total gifts from the year before. For major gifts prospecting, look for those who increased their gifts in the total annual giving range of $1000 or more.

Next, you can make a spreadsheet with the C-B-A or C-A-R elements across the top (choose the model you like best), and the names of your new/increased donors down the page. To express how strong each of the elements looks to be at first glance (without initial research), come up with a ranking or weighting system if you like. But be sure to refine and update this chart every time you get new information.

Next, ask one or more of your best-connected board members or development committee members to review the list with you for additional insights that can be reflected as comments in your donor database and on your spreadsheet.

Then, prioritize by using what you’ve learned and start reaching out to these folks. If they received a special thank you early in January from someone other than you, contact that someone on your team to see if they happened to talk with or get a response from the donor (most likely not, but worth asking).

When you meet with the donor(s) in person for coffee/tea, or over Zoom or even in a phone call, be sure to explore Affinity and Relationship in order to understand what aspects might need more attention over the next few weeks and months. And listen for Capacity or Ability to give, without asking outright.

Meeting with donors and listening to why they first gave or why they increased their gift is an important key to identifying new major donor prospects. While it’s true that not every donor on your January list will turn out to be a major donor prospect, these meetings will not be wasted. And don’t forget the option for becoming a major donor that is open to most of us at all wealth levels – giving through our wills or trusts.

You may have the seeds of some exciting future major gifts right there on last year’s donor list!