10 Reasons Why Most Major-Gift Programs Suck — Nos. 6 & 7

1. Read everything you can about your donors. Google and other search engines are so good you will FIND them. I want you to know what boards they are on, what businesses they are in, awards they have received, what their kids do, their spouses, etc.
2. Use a wealth indicator service such as WealthEngine or Blackbaud. It will give you good information about donors' net worth, businesses and giving histories. (Although this is helpful, not all information from these services is 100 percent accurate.) So, only use this as ONE way to know your donors.
3. Use Google Alerts and TweetBeep to get real-time information on your donors.
4. Drive around in their neighborhoods. Now, I’m not talking about stalking, but you need to understand where your donors live, shop, do their business. One way to understand your donors is to put on their shoes.
5. Do a complete review of each donor’s giving history. NOT just amount, but to what programs, projects and services you provide. All of these are obvious clues.
6. Ask them. That’s right. Set up a breakfast or lunch meeting with the sole purpose of finding out what they are most passionate about. Personally, these meetings are some of the best I’ve ever had with donors and allowed me to understand and get to know them in a very personal way. (Make sure when lunch is over you record everything in your donor database.)
7. Survey your caseload. I like to put together a survey that goes out to all caseload donors asking them what they like most about XX nonprofit, what types of nonprofits they support, etc. This is just another opportunity to get good feedback from your donors and will continue to give you good information for future funding opportunities.

What are some other ideas you have?