Turning cold portfolios into top producers

Is it possible?

Growth. It’s what’s on every fundraising leader’s mind. We’re already skilled at securing the gifts we already have asked for, but how do we fill major gift pipelines with proposals?

Filling a portfolio with proposals can take two or more years of relationship building, especially if the gift officer inherits a cold portfolio. And, if a new fundraiser is joining the team, it could be years before the organization sees a return from that portfolio.

Prospect portfolio growth at Arkansas State University

Taylor Buxbaum, Director of Development at Arkansas State University, found himself in this exact situation—90 prospects with a giving history and relatively well connected with the organization. However, no one had contacted many of these prospects in a long time and their giving history was no longer relevant.

Because he was new to the role, he had no relationship with anyone in the portfolio—even the donors that still engaged in giving. Despite having fundraising experience, this was his first time actively raising major gifts. Therefore, he needed to learn on the fly how to approach those donors to have meaningful conversations and create those relationships.

After six months of working off a spreadsheet, Taylor furiously produced 100 high-value actions, like a phone call or a meeting. But after those six months, Taylor was introduced to Raise from Gravyty‘s fundraiser enablement tools, powered by AI. The following six months saw a massive uptick in fundraiser activity: Taylor more than tripled his activity to over 300 high-value actions with his portfolio. 

Leverage AI to raise more money

Learn how Taylor used personal donor engagement to turn a cold prospect portfolio into a high-producing portfolio while completing discovery work on 800+ more donors by learning new tools that increased his capacity as a giving officer in this case study.