You CAN Find Individual Donors!

For nonprofit organizations, increasing your individual donor base is critical to keeping your organization alive. Individual donors are important not only because of the money they give to your organization, but because they also become ambassadors of the organization, telling others about the great things that you do. These ambassadors leverage their own contributions by encouraging others to also become donors.

Finding individual donors can be simple if you keep this simple acronym in mind:

Connection
Ability
Need

Connection is the link the potential donor has to your organization. A good place to start identifying connections is through your Board, your employees, and your current and past client base. Clients who receive excellent services from a nonprofit organization often like to give back by making a donation.

Ability is your potential donor’s capacity to give. Donor walls at other organizations, your city’s business journal, and the Chronicle of Philanthropy are three ways to identify people who have the potential to make a gift to your organization.

Need is the potential donor’s desire to give. Many donors give to specific causes, such as nonprofits that work on behalf of children, women, or the environment. Know what causes your potential donor needs to support and make sure your organization is a good match. If your potential donor gives to a wider range of causes, be prepared to explain why your organization should receive a gift over other organizations.

Using the C.A.N. method, you will eliminate time spent on trying to develop relationships with donors that are unlikely to give to your organization and be able to focus on those that can give you support!