Have you ever had someone in your life, perhaps a teenager, that asked “So what?” with annoying frequency? Grab your imaginary eraser and erase that memory. I have a new and valuable association you can make with “So what?”
Crafting fundraising insights or strategies from the information we spend hour after hour compiling could be what makes or breaks your prospect research career.
If you know me even a little, you know that I love taking a complex concept and breaking it down into steps, especially if I can give it a graphic illustration. But I have struggled with an effective way to share and teach prospect research professionals how to create fundraising strategies, especially from data and information not directly related to philanthropy.
Thankfully, a fellow practitioner has stepped into the void and unleashed a simple, effective way to craft strategies from practically any piece of information. And you don’t have to be an annoying teenager to do it!
Anne Hofmann wrote an article for the Apra Connections magazine, Connecting the Dots: From Researcher to Strategist. In the article she shares a brilliantly simple method used at her organization to create strategy from all that “boring” data.
Without stealing too much of its thunder, she recommends you take the following three steps:
- What? | What is the piece of information?
- So What? | How is this information relevant?
- Therefore | That relevancy means we should do what?
Strategy doesn’t have to be complicated. It has to be good. This article walks you through exactly how to do fundraising strategy well – step by step.
Connecting the Dots: From Researcher to Strategist
Strategy is something that the machines don’t do well. It’s an opportunity for prospect research professionals to continue propel their organizations to fundraising success.
Anne Hofmann’s article may well be the most important article you read all year. Go read it now!