The Three Stages of Solicitation

1. Identification of capable prospects is among the most important responsibilities of prospect research. At the identification stage, you only need to have clear evidence of major-gift capacity — expensive property or significant stock holdings, for instance. It is not necessary to know all of a prospect’s connections in the community, children’s names and meal preferences to know the person is a major-gift prospect, so don’t ask for full profiles at this stage. You’ll find out many of these details through the cultivation process.