It’s time for joined-up-thinking in the UK’s charity sector, time for fundraisers to stop building information silos. Enough! No longer should we tolerate trusts fundraisers working in isolation and the major gifts team not knowing what the corporate fundraisers are up to.

We should perhaps look to our prospect researchers to lead the way. They are in an unique position to point out that trustees of grant-making trusts are also board members of plcs and these same individuals are often strongly motivated to make grand philanthropic gestures of their very own as major donors.

In an ideal world every charity would be equipped with a full-time prospect researcher, no, on second thoughts a team of prospect researchers, who are charged with the task of researching trusts, companies and their respective trustees and directors; then making strategic recommendations about how best to cultivate them.

But we don’t have a researcher I hear you cry. Okay, then let’s take John Wain, major gifts officer at FSA (Football Supporters Anonymous) who is about to write to the Chief Executive of Jumpers for Goalposts plc to try to arrange a one-to-one meeting to ask for a £50k donation towards the appeal for disillusioned World Cup 2006 supporters. A distant bell rings of a memory from the last team meeting when the corporate sponsorship manager mentioned something about them needing to urgently find a company who could provide £150k sponsorship for the Post-World Cup Support Helpline. Will John forge on with his meeting and try to secure a cheque for his appeal, or does he alert his colleague in the corporate team to his imminent meeting with the CEO of Jumpers for Goalposts? The answer will depend on what kind of organisation FSA is. Communication and generosity are the keywords here. It is important when researching potential funders to be mindful of the big picture, rather than the scary, personal fundraising target you have to meet by the end of the next month.

Let’s now turn to applying these ideas in a very practical way. The first place to implement this cohesive approach should be your database. It has to be relational, but more importantly it has to be maintained and updated properly. Departmental buy-in to data inputting is critical for any successful fundraising function. Here’s how it works – Jane Bloggs, Corporate Fundraiser at FSA adds Golden Boot plc to the database because she’s just heard about the imminent launch of their £10 million foundation. Typically, a hurried record is created with the name of the person in the PR office added as the main point of contact. If Jane were to invest just five minutes more and add the executive and non-executive directors to the company record, an exciting network starts to emerge. George Fornby, Chairman of Golden Boot plc is the next door neighbour of Arthur Marthur, the recently-appointed Chairman of Trustees at FSA. It is well-documented that George and Arthur are good friends and share a passion for football. More excitingly still, a closer look at Mr Fornby’s record shows that he made a personal gift of £10k to Football Supporters Anonymous in 2002 and has attended several donor cultivation events in the last four years.

At this point, Jane Bloggs has several options – to share the information with her colleagues in the major gifts team and the trusts team, or to plough a solitary furrow and continue to liaise with her PR contact at Golden Boot plc. Let’s hope that Jane chooses the first option where a careful discussion with her colleagues might result in continuing to cultivate George Fornby as a major donor prospect who actually has the potential to make a gift of £100k. After several months of hard work, a wonderful scene is being acted out: during the cultivation process, George Fornby has facilitated a meeting between the new Director of the Golden Boot Charitable Foundation and the Head of Trusts at FSA and a grant of £40k is awarded. Such a large amount of warmth and goodwill has been generated during Mr Fornby’s cultivation period, that he regards it as a great honour for Golden Boot to become FSA’s inaugural corporate partner at £20k per annum. Good old Jane Bloggs for capitalising fully on the potential of just one record within FSA’s database.

Used in the way described above, databases alone are powerful research tools – connections and networks lie at the heart of first-class fundraising. However, I would like to finish by recommending some resources beyond the database which enable prospect researchers and fundraisers to take a holistic approach to their potential funders:

  • The Corporate Register is an excellent source for collecting information on quoted companies and their directors. Within one volume, which is updated quarterly, there is useful information on approximately 2,000 companies including full contact information, business activity and key financial data. All executive and non-executive directors are listed with shareholding and salary information which is a valuable tool for wealth assessment. There are short biographical entries for each director and here you can discover philanthropic involvement in the form of trusteeships and interests.
  • People of Today or Who’s Who almost need no introduction, but are essential research tools for providing a holistic profile on all listed individuals. Within each entry you will find career information past and current and philanthropic information past and current; this, coupled with home address information makes it a must-have research tool in either hard copy or online format. The online versions allow very useful searches on keywords and John Wain would find that by typing ‘football’ or ‘soccer’ into the recreations field he would have a ready-made prospect list of more than 730 individuals for his appeal.
  • City of London Directory & Livery Companies Guide (City Press, Tel: 01206 545121) is an indispensable guide, providing name and home address information for the members of each the 107 City Livery Companies. This resource shines the light on those individuals who are engaged with both City life and philanthropic activity.
  • Who’s Who in Charities is an excellent resource giving full biographical information on key stakeholders within UK charities. Who’s Who in Charities allows the fundraiser access to those individuals who are successful business figures and trustees of charities.