Whether you have a team in your office doing research and prospect management, or if you are a small shop where you are the sole researcher - holding prospect strategy meetings is an essential part of the larger prospect management process. You can implement these meetings even if you do not have a formal prospect management "system" in place. However, having a formal system in place will make it easier to get buy-in from the top leadership in your office.
What is the purpose of a prospect strategy meeting?
To create strategies for how the gift officer will cultivate, solicit, or steward individual prospects in their portfolio.
Who should attend a prospect strategy meeting?
As many people as possible. In my meetings I invite Research, Principal Giving, Major/Leadership Giving Officer, Annual Giving, Planned Giving, Donor Engagement, and Corporate & Foundation Relations, as well as the Vice President of Advancement and the Director of Advancement. They may not all be able to make all of the meetings, but you want to be inclusive - because different segments of your team can offer a different approach to creating a strategy.
How do you create an agenda for a prospect strategy meeting?
Ask the gift officers to submit names of prospects in their portfolios of specific prospect that they feel "stuck" on. The idea is that the gift officer will submit names of prospects that they need help creating a strategy for. Depending on the length of your prospect strategy meeting and the number of gift officers, you will want to limit the number of submissions they are allows to give you for each meeting. Send the agenda out one week prior to the meeting to give the gift officers time to prepare for the meeting.
What are the common pitfalls of the prospect strategy meeting?
Hijacked Meetings: Above all else, you cannot let anyone hijack the meeting. If a colleague wants to add an agenda item that is not in keeping with the purpose of the meeting, then it is NOT an agenda item for a prospect strategy meeting and you should recommend that they move it to a meeting that is more appropriate for the item they want discussed, or that they call their own meeting.
Skipping Meetings: Never skip a prospect strategy meeting. If you put together a good agenda, anyone who regularly attends your meeting will be able to follow the agenda and run the meeting in your absence. Likewise, even if only a small handful of attendees can make the meeting, you will still hold the meeting. The idea is to brainstorm, so you need at least 2 people in the meeting, and ad long as you have that - you can meet.
Gift Officers Did Not Submit Names: If the agenda looks a bit light because gift officers did not submit enough names to fill the allotted time for the meeting, then go to research for names. Research, almost without fail, will be able to find you several names of prospects who could be discussed - and the Gift Officers will still need to be prepared to talk about names of their prospects that research has submitted.
What are the desired outcomes from a prospect strategy meeting?
To create strategies that will help a gift officer cultivate, solicit, or steward their prospect. Ultimately these strategies should help the gift officer to move the prospect along through the cultivation cycle, or determine that the person is not actually a prospect (in which case you release the prospect from the portfolio).
How do you know if these meetings are working?
Within each prospect strategy meeting, set some time for the gift officers to discuss how they have implemented strategies from prior meetings, and what the outcome of that was. It is helpful for the entire team to hear what has worked and what has not worked, and it also allows the opportunity for the team to offer additional suggestions.
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