In our work with thousands of ‘nonprofit’ organizations, staff and volunteers, as well as sales teams in the business world, this is the most FREQUENTLY ASKED (BIG, BIG, BIG) QUESTION:
“WHERE DO WE FIND NEW PROSPECTS?”
It’s almost always followed by this comment:
“OUR OLD PROSPECTS ARE TIRED OF GIVING. (Or tired of buying.)”
THE BIG ANSWER:
“IT’S THE WRONG QUESTION!!!”
It’s not about ‘NEW’ PROSPECTS…
It’s about the ‘BEST’ PROSPECTS!!! And, it’s about MAXIMIZING RELATIONSHIPS… with these BEST and most QUALIFIED PROSPECTS!!!
The reason many of you are looking for ‘NEW’ prospects is because you believe:
“We have gone to the well too many times.”
“We can’t go back to our best prospects for more money.”
“We are taking advantage of our current relationship with our top prospects.”
To this, I would add 3 other thoughts coming from your current top givers that I also believe are very fair:
“I want you to get other people involved besides me.”
“I want you to broaden the base of support.”
“I don’t want to be the only one funding this organization or this project.”
While ‘expanding your base’ and ‘bringing in new relationships’ is important to your organization, it’s not the ‘ANSWER’ to your funding challenges!!!
I’d like to challenge your thinking with this idea:
LOOK IN YOUR OWN BACKYARD! Stop ‘searching the world’ for new prospects/ fresh money. Before you figure out how to get to Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or the Walton’s…look to your own CHAMPIONS who have the strongest interest in your Cause and your Case.
Here are 3 stories to re-inforce this idea of ‘YOUR OWN BACKYARD’.
Russell H. Conwell wrote one of the most powerful and motivational classics of all times… “ACRES OF DIAMONDS.” (First Published in 1921) Conwell actually gave his speech entitled “ACRES OF DIAMONDS” more than 5,000 times… and earned enough in this effort to help found Temple University!
Here are summarized versions of 3 STORIES in the book that I hope will have a huge IMPACT on your thinking about ‘NEW PROSPECTS’.
GOLD. In 1847, a man who owned a ranch in Northern California heard that gold had been discovered somewhere in Southern California. He sold his ranch to a Colonel Sutter, and then went south to search for gold and riches, never to return.
Colonel Sutter put a mill on that stream. One day, he discovered flakes of gold in the spill off. Sutter’s discovery, in 1849, started the CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH!
DIAMONDS. An old Persian farmer was desperate for riches. He sold his farm, collected his money, left his family and went off in into the garden to drink. As the camel put his nose in the shallow water of the garden brook, the new owner saw a flash of brilliance and reached in and pulled out a diamond (in the rough). This discovery became the famous diamond mine of GOLCONDA!
OIL. In Pennsylvania, another farmer sold his farm to take a job with his cousin, who was looking for coal oil in Canada. He, too, was searching for wealth… in other places.
According to the county records, the farmer sold his farm for $833.
The new owner found oil… on that same farm. That oil was eventually
worth hundreds of millions of dollars, and this discovery became the
PENNSYLVANIA OIL FIELDS!
*I hope the moral in all of these stories is clear and evident.
‘FUNDING YOUR VISION’ is usually about your TOP 33 INVESTORS… and perhaps your BEST 300 QUALIFIED PROSPECTS. Many of these top prospects are most likely sitting right in front of you… right now! (Not literally, but pretty darn close.)
