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Can you spot the donor? Unlike Waldo, potential donors can't easily be identified by their striped shirts, hats and leggings. And before you begin to cultivate prospective donors, you need to know where to find them.
What often happens with initial donor prospecting meetings is some well-meaning person will say, "We should approach So-and-so (insert well-known wealthy individual's name here) - they have lots of money". And it's true. Mr. & Mrs. So-and-so are loaded. But wealth alone does not a prospective donor make.
Let's pretend, for a moment, that this Waldo picture is a representation of your organization's community. All clients, volunteers, staff and Board members wear blue. Neighbours, suppliers and "friends of blue-wearers" dress in yellow. Everyone else (including Mr. & Mrs. So-and-so) wears red. So now you can begin to build your prospect list and cultivation strategy, with the blue-shirts on your A list, the yellows on your B list, and the reds on your C list.
Even though we all know the very basic and fundamental "inside out" rule, we often overlook the blues and the yellows while trying to figuere out how to get to the reds.
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