By: Jessica Woodbridge, Senior Consultant

As a prospect development professional, I feel so lucky to do what I love every day for work. There are so many reasons why I love what I do, from finding little gems of information that will be extra helpful for gift officers as they build relationships with prospective donors, to experiencing professional development on a daily basis as I research people from many different backgrounds (i.e. stock broker, CEO of a pet food company, 3^rd generation executive of a family-owned commercial construction business). More than 15 years of working in this field and I’m still learning so much! One of the things I’m actively working on this year is how to better manage my workload in order to provide an excellent product while also being time efficient. Here are a few thoughts that have helped me (and may also help you) in the process.

Something that I’ve been told throughout the years is that I am very detail oriented. In our line of work, this can be a great thing! However, there is also an opportunity to learn how to balance excellent detailed work while also getting a profile completed in a timely matter. My curiosity tends to make me want to keep digging when creating a prospect profile. Many times, this has proven helpful to the gift officers receiving that information. Unfortunately, it also means that I can sometimes get too into the weeds and find it difficult to know when a profile is ready to be delivered. There is a fine line between going that extra mile and feeling confident that if the gift officer needs more information, they need only ask.

Along the same lines, U.S. comprehensive data privacy laws have rapidly come into effect over the past few years. One theme that many of these laws share is requiring the practice of data minimization. Many U.S. privacy laws require data processors to limit the collection of personal data to what is “adequate, relevant, and reasonably necessary”. This is especially important in our field because information collecting is what we do.

In prospect development, one of our products is the creation of profiles that contain information such as a person’s stock holdings, philanthropy, foundation information, real estate holdings, spousal information, compensation estimates, board affiliations, and business ownership. There is so much information that can be uncovered in order to build a picture of who the prospective donor is and how they may connect with your organization. We should consider that we can provide different levels of information, from shorter bios to more comprehensive profiles, based on where a prospect is at in the gift giving cycle.  Sometimes, a gift officer requests a full profile before a meeting has even been set. The key is to give them enough information so that they feel confident while also letting them know that they can always request more information as the relationship progresses. It can sometimes be difficult to “push back” on a gift officer who requests a full profile when you know this is a first meeting they will have with a prospective donor. The more you ask questions and keep an open dialogue, the easier this relationship will feel.

A few questions/thoughts that may come up for you during your work:

• “Does my product fulfill the request?”
• “Have I answered the question(s) asked?”
• “Is this information necessary and/or helpful?”
• “This prospect has made thousands of gifts. Is there a way for me to summarize their work while also highlighting their largest gifts and/or giving that is similar to what my organization does?”

I also always add, “Please let me know if you need anything else for this” as a way to keep the dialogue open between the gift officer and research, signifying this isn’t necessarily the end of the research on this particular prospect or the project. If they need more information or if the research helps them come back with specific questions, then we can tackle that then. Know that your work is valued and your version of “good enough” is probably exceptional! Also, if you can see yourself going down a rabbit hole, you can stop yourself by letting the gift officer know that more information is available should they be interested in learning more.

Another thing you might consider is if you find yourself learning something new during your research such as how private equity professionals make their money, you may want to bookmark articles, white papers, and other sources you find during your research for review later on when you have some time. This will help you in your professional development while also getting the product finished in a timely manner.

In my career, I have seen phrases used in prospect development job descriptions such as “High level of intellectual curiosity and persistence”, “Innate curiosity to surface information and connections that advance fundraising goals”, and “A strategic thinker with a natural curiosity to continually improve results and experiment with new methods and ideas”. What I am learning is that we can be both very curious in our work while also providing an exceptional product for what is needed at that moment in a prospective donor’s lifecycle of your organization.