Flying Cowboys and Performing Hawkeyes: Discovering New Prospects Using an Interest-Based, Social Media-Driven Approach

How can research teams quickly build prospect lists for projects without large, built-in donor bases?
With a fleet of orange planes crisscrossing the sky, Oklahoma State University has one of the best Aviation and Space programs in the country. To keep the program flying high, OSU needs to build new hangars and facilities, and leadership tasked its foundation to develop a list of potential prospects.
While at the University of Iowa, its fundraising team faces the task of raising support for all black and gold teams — and not just the Hawkeye football and basketball squads who occupy most of the headlines — while also building pipeline for a new arts center that will set the stage for the next evolution of the performing arts in Iowa City.
With a small pool of existing donors to draw from for these priorities, these teams have turned to social media insights to broaden their search for prospects. They’re used Facebook to identify graduates who are raising their hands and showing they care about these programs and LinkedIn to help determine capacity.
This interest-driven approach reflects a donor-driven approach to fundraising. Alumni who interact with your organization online are 3.4 times more likely to be donors, they give at higher levels than average, yet they’re often unassigned. For more stats, watch: http://bit.ly/APRAroi
Hear why tapping into digital engagement makes sense and how your organization can begin taking an interest-driven approach to prospect discovery today.