How Relationship Mapping Works: Face to Face Fundraising

by Zach

Nothing can replace the power of face-to-face contact in the business of fundraising. As a fundraiser, as a salesperson, as a gift officer, there is no other powerful form of interaction. Which is why, in preparation for such an interaction, you need to be ready. The Internet offers us a wide array of access points, data, and biographical information on an individual. But does it specifically provide us with relationships?

Knowledge of one’s relationships is a key part of face-to-face interaction as a fundraiser. It is important to understand whom this person knows, how they know each other, and how well. Thus, understanding one’s relationships offers you a higher chance at success.

Take the Church World Service for example. When I spoke with them it was apparent to me that most of their fundraising is done face to face as it is for many other organizations and universities. They spoke of going to a certain region to approach current donors. They wanted to better understand their current donor’s relationships, both known and unknown to them. They wanted to approach them with a list prospects in hand to which they could possibly offer an introduction.

So if Church World Service had Relationship Mapping with Prospect Visual, what could we do for them? In short, we could help generate more donations. To be more specific, we can do research on the people Church World Service is interested in engaging face to face in that region. We can show Church World Service, visually, whom that person knows and how they are connected to them in that region. We can give them the ability to give their current donors a list of prospects he/she might know which could lead to numerous introductions to other prospects.

Once an introduction is made by a peer, that individual is 200 times more likely to donate. Relationship Mapping is what makes that statistic possible. In preparing for a face-to-face encounter with a current donor, we give you the ability to uncover that person’s relationships, which quite simply leads to more donations.