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You all know who your three best prospects are. If you don’t, think about it for 5 minutes, and you will. If you set up a visit with just those three people, your entire organization will change.

It can really be that simple.

Before I (Nick) go on a visit, I always remind myself that my prospect and I are on the same team. We are working together on this. Then I don’t get so defensive about questions they may ask. It allows you to work with them, as opposed to being in opposition.

There will always be three questions that a prospect wants to know (whether they ask them out loud, or just in their mind).

Running Time 1:26 | Listen To The Audio

Nick shares a story of a visit he went on with someone that turned out not to be a good fit. It serves as a good example of what a un-qualified prospect’ might look like.

What would you do for your last investor?
A great example of what one person did to meet with their very last last investor.
He believed in his organization, and believed that the prospect, if they heard the story, would be really interested and would want to help.

Monks aren’t very good fundraisers. They don’t get out much. They don’t have very many prospects. How Nick uses the Ideal Profile to generate new prospects for a monastary in northern California.

Standing up in front of your board and saying “We need names. Give me some names.” doesn’t work. They’re minds go blank, they will divulge maybe one… if you’re lucky.

Instead try this approach: develop an ideal profile of what an ideal prospect would look like.

Don’t base a prospect’s capacity level on their gift history. All it shows is participation. It shows how much they gave in response to ’special events’ or direct mailers.’ It is the ‘1′ in “1x 5x and 50x” illustration.

During a recent Bootcamp, Nick and an attendee build an ideal profile for their prospects. She can then take this profile to her board, and it will generate good names that they can build a solid strategy around.

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Case Study: March Of Dimes
Create an ideal profile of what your ideal qualified prospect would look like.
Nick works through this process with March Of Dimes organization.
See the March of Dimes Role Play
View the sister video: a href=”http://www.forimpact.org/platform/16apr08-5c1/”>Definition of a Qualified Prospect.

Bootcamp Attendee’s Question: We still want to involve the community in our fundraising efforts, even if they may not have the capacity to give a lot. Nick answers with a ‘parable’: Lions, Mice and Antelope.

This exercise is done at training camp, showing the difference the opening makes, as shown by their body language.

Tom applies the last investor strategy to Notre Dame’s top 10 prospects.

What ‘Ideal Profile’ is, how to build it, and what to do with it once you have it.

Following a discussion around chasing mice and antelope, an attendee asks the question, “The small things, like direct mail, add up, don’t they?” Nick makes a good point around opportunity cost as an added incentive to act now with your top prospects.

Return On Energy, Top-Down Approach, real examples of Mice and Antelope

During a recent training camp, Nick explains the Qualified Prospect Index, and how to apply it to your Master Prospect List.

Strategize: The Last Investor Strategy

In this video, Tom goes into the first 5 of the 6 sources for identifying qualified prospects.

In this video, Tom finishes identifying prospects with the sixth source for qualified prospects: Women.

In this video, Tom shows you how to rate and rank your qualified prospects.

In this video, Tom discusses what a qualified prospect is and answers the question, “Where do I find new/best prospects?”

Master Prospect List Excel File

A natural partner or champion has given you a list of names. He or she then seems to do anything but help you make a contact. Either the champion avoids you, suggests alternate ideas, wants to discuss strategy (for the 10th time) or magically decides (after months) timing is not perfect then it’s probably a case of cold fee. How to deal with a situation like this…

Download a complete guide to help you identify, prioritize and strategize prospects.

Running time: 11:00. Training camp discussion led by Nick Fellers. How to increase current commitments and determine capacity. Also includes definition of a prospect.