How do you find prospects who have a genuine affinity with your cause?

The answer to that, of course, depends upon whether you are considering an individual prospect, a trust or a company, and upon your organisation and the sort of services that it provides. Is it a university or a charity? Does it have a national or local focus? Is it large or small? Does it involve helping people or helping animals, preserving buildings, safeguarding objects, etc.?

All of these factors will determine the type of person, trust or company that has a genuine affinity with your cause and where/how you can find them. But it can still be helpful to draw up a generalised, or idealised, research plan, and then tweak it as necessary to fit your own personal requirements.

Imagine an idealised affinity diagram of individual prospects in the form of a Venn diagram. Well, you don't need to imagine it, as I've drawn one below. The box represents not just individual prospects, but also trustees of grant giving bodies and directors or other senior personnel of companies. In other words, all those who may be able to give you a donation or to influence those who are able to give you a donation. The three circles represent those who should have (to a greater or lesser degree) a genuine affinity with your organisation.

Circle A represents those people who have benefited or may benefit from the services provided by your organisation. Circle B represents those who support your cause (which includes both your organisation's database of supporters and those who give to other organisations with a similar cause). Circle C represents those people who are friends, acquaitances or work colleagues of your trustees, staff or volunteers.

The diagram above is of course an idealised one. Your own organisation's affinity diagram may be very different. If you have a small number of beneficiaries, because of the specialised nature of your work, say, or few beneficiaries and a very small database, often the case for new organisations or those new to fundraising, your affinity diagram will more closely resemble the diagrams below.

Now, I used the phrase "to a greater of lesser degree" earlier because someone in A (e.g. a cancer survivor, if you are a cancer charity), will most probably have a greater affinity with your cause that someone in B (e.g. a friend/relative of a cancer survivor who supports you financially), and they in turn will have a greater affinity with your cause that someone in C (e.g. a very good friend of the Chairman of trustees who has no experience of cancer). Indeed, it is arguable whether this last person can even be said to have an affinity with your organisation, rather than just an interest, but an interest can become an affinity and even an interest in your organisation can give you an advantage over your competitors.

In a similar vein, there will no doubt be people on your database who do not have a genuine affinity with your organisation, but until one discovers otherwise, one may as well assume that they do. At least you can be sure that they do not hate you. Well, probably not. At least, not when they made the donation. 

It should be clear from the diagram that your primary aim is to find people who belong to one or more of A, B or C. These individuals will have the greatest affinity with your organisation and so will have the greatest propensity to support your organisation. And the greater their propensity to support your organisation, the easier it will be for your major donor fundraiser to cultivate them in his/her efforts to solicit a donation.

Talk of cultivating and soliciting a donation takes us neatly into the next section: The Cultivation Cycle