October 2, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
Prospect Research: a Primer for Growing Nonprofits
by Cecilia Hogan
This book discusses how nonprofit organizations can identify and gather information about people who might make large donations.
Cecilia Hogan, development researcher at the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Wash., describes both the role researchers play in an organization’s fund-raising efforts and the specific approaches they use to help charities win contributions.
Before proceeding with research on donors, Ms. Hogan warns, nonprofit organizations must put in place and enforce policies to protect the privacy of the people they are investigating. She lists criteria for distinguishing fund-raising information that is publicly available, accurate, and relevant from information that is too invasive. And she advises charities to consider carefully who in their organizations should have access to what information and how donor files should be stored or, when no longer needed, destroyed.
The book describes how to compile a large list of potential donors and determine how much each might contribute; it also advises researchers on presenting fund raisers with background information about prospective donors that might be helpful during solicitations. The book includes sample documents to keep track of donor information and a list of Web pages and contact information for organizations that might help fund-raising researchers.
Publisher: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, 40 Tall Pine Drive, Sudbury, Mass. 01776; (978) 443-5000; info@jbpub.com; http://www.jbpub.com; 390 pages; $37.95; I.S.B.N. 0-7637-2580-3.
