Chapter 3Building Your SMART Way Prospect Scorecard

A carefully analyzed funder-selection strategy provides many benefits, starting with a clear description of the exchange of value you seek from all your funders. It spells out the way your nonprofit intersects with and satisfies their charitable philosophies and motivations, regardless of their capacity to give. Thanks to the work you've done to define your funder-selection strategy, your marketing, messaging, and outreach become more targeted and effective, helping you attract funders of all categories.

What the funder selection strategy does not do, however, is tell you which funding prospects justify the investment of your scarce and precious development time, which, you'll remember, carries an opportunity risk factor of anywhere from $1,000 to $18,000 per hour. The SMART Way™ Prospect Scorecard is the first bulwark against wasting your time and energy and your nonprofit's money.

The SMART Way Prospect Scorecard is a prospecting tool used to evaluate prospects of all categories—donors, grantors, corporate contributors—and prioritize them based ...

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