Over the weekend, a friend and fundraising consultant emailed me to ask: “Do you typically see prospects rated for a campaign at 5% of visible assets per year or 5% over 5 years?” I shot back, “Over 5.” He sent back a speedy “thanks!”
I had a quick image of him looking at the still snow-topped mountains over the screen of his laptop, working on a campaign plan for a client. I pulled on my oven mitts and eased a steaming pork pie out of the oven and started setting the table.
But as my family and I ate dinner, the question started to nag at me. “Five over five” is something that we in fundraising have taken for granted for the past 25+ years. But have any of us stopped to see if that number is really… real?
Are we lowballing? Accurate? Wildly off the mark?
How do we know?
Over the next few blog posts I’m going to look into that question – into the fundamentals of fundraising ratings – to explain what they’re based on and to see if they still work for us now – and if we need to make some changes for the future.
Contact me to talk about your ratings system and let’s crowd-source the conversation! I’d love to learn what you’re doing.
