When it comes to rating and evaluating prospects, fund-raisers spend the lion’s share of their time on individual donors. After all, in nearly every campaign, they are the primary source of contributions. However, it behooves us to take a look at the process as it pertains to other giving sources. For our purposes, let’s assume that governmental funders can be handled like foundations and private and community foundations can be viewed as essentially the same.
For foundations, the best and most comprehensive source of information is The Foundation Center. It maintains reference libraries in New York City, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, Atlanta and Cleveland. The Center also publishes The Foundation Directory, a reference book listing each foundation in the United States and including:
- Its name, address, officers, and trustees
- Its purposes and year of incorporation
- Its total assets
- The number of grants it typically makes, total annual distributions, and the size of its largest and smallest grants in a given year
- What programs and activities it supports (i.e., endowment, capital projects, operating expenses, annual campaigns, new programs, personnel expense)
- Information which must accompany a grant application
- Specific projects, programs, and entities to which it will not make grants
- Proposal submission and review dates
My experience with The Foundation Center library and its staff in Cleveland has been nothing but positive and most beneficial. The library maintains a complete microfilm record of all IRS Form 990s. (This is the tax form that all private foundations must file, showing to whom each gave money in any given year.) I have frequently used the library’s 990 microfilm to search for donor prospects among private foundations.
The best sources of information about corporations are the local chambers of commerce. Several other more comprehensive directories exist that offer valuable information. Directories list which corporations gave what to whom in each state. Be mindful, however, that when it comes to gaining corporate support in your community, there is no substitute for the same kind of hands-on knowledge which you should be collecting about prospective individual donors. The best sources for this type of corporate information are remarkably similar to those you would seek out for data about individual donors. In addition, the chamber of commerce can provide a list of its members, usually the businesses of any size in a community. This and any other available list should be reviewed for the names of new potential donors by a committee which has an understanding of the local corporate community and its giving patterns. Once again, don’t overlook past experience and the experiences of similar organizations.
As part of the process of rating and evaluating prospective donors, you should take into consideration the causes they are known to support or avoid. Except in the case of individual donors, the record is pretty clear. Many foundations and corporations have published guidelines which indicate whether they will give to the following types of campaigns and requests:
- Annual
- Capital
- Challenge
- Endowment
- In-kind
- Multi-year grants
- Sponsorship and underwriting
These guidelines also spell out where grants are restricted as to location, type of organization, or content of program.
With individual donors, the lines are usually less clearly drawn. Even if an individual has refused to give to a category of request in the past, he or she still might be worth a try, particularly if the circumstances are unusual. People do change their minds. However, it is generally wise not to solicit individuals who have made it clear they will not give either to the type of campaign being conducted or its underlying purpose.
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