For most nonprofit organizations, the selection process for determining the best individual prospects for capital campaigns or annual fund drives are ad hoc and intuitive. Our research provides two statistical models developed from the alumni database at Northwestern University for both major gifts and annual fund prospects. One model predicts which individuals will give $100,000 or more over three years, the other, $1,000 or more. Our work provides a means of more efficiently selecting fundraising prospects. In our analysis, we combine geo‐demographic data with the internal data typically found in alumni databases. A metric is presented to test the viability of the models when compared to single‐criterion models. We show that past giving is the strongest single factor in predicting future giving. However, full models provide superior overall results.
Securing major gifts for nonprofit organizations can involve considerable cost. This study examines the relationship developed between 233 major gift donors and the development office at Northwestern University over a five‐year period. The results show that the cultivation and solicitation process is usually long, measured in years rather than months, and the extent of the effort varies by type of donor and category of gift. Vignettes describing one of the relationships from each of the five most important categories are presented.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.