This win was submitted by Irini Greyerbiehl, Director of Prospect Management at the University of Washington.
"At UW, Prospect Development has typically held “Portfolio Review” meetings (nicknamed Quarterlies) with major gift fundraisers four times per year. A portfolio review is usually attended by the fundraiser, Prospect Management Strategist, and Prospect Research Strategist. Sometimes managers attend or we have the meeting with an entire fundraising team.
After a decade of portfolio reviews, we wanted to reevaluate the meetings to ensure they are still addressing the needs of our fundraisers and helping them work strategically. Prospect Development convened fundraiser focus groups in October to seek feedback on the value and format of the meetings to date and to solicit ideas for change. We prepared a list of questions, including ones related to timing, frequency, purpose, and content to ask each focus group. With input from 26 fundraisers, we learned a good deal about what the fundraisers value. We also received input that helped us determine changes to our future portfolio review structure.
Included below is some of the helpful feedback we received from fundraisers.
- Most fundraisers look forward to their portfolio review!
- They rely on the portfolio review to keep them focused on their goals and on the bigger picture.
- They also count on their portfolio reviews to catch them up on items such as advancement news, or policy changes they might have missed.
- Fundraisers see their Prospect Development colleagues as trusted partners. They also specifically want to see “their people” at each meeting – we asked if this was important to them.
Prospect Development has now made the following improvements to portfolio meetings to ensure they meet everyone's needs.
- We’re changing the name to “Portfolio Consultations” to more accurately reflect the intended strategic focus and purpose of our meetings.
- We’re adjusting the frequency to three times per year.
- We’re separating the meeting from our end-of-quarter reporting process to encourage fundraisers to keep their data up to date on an ongoing basis.
The Prospect Management team has started sending fundraisers invitations for the next meeting cycle (December-January). Our email included information about the proposed changes. We informed fundraisers that we’re planning to use half of the upcoming meeting to discuss the changes and answer questions. Feedback so far has been positive. Some fundraisers have indicated their general enthusiasm, while others have specifically said what changes they like. I’m proud to say that underlying it all is a sense of trust in our Prospect Development team."
Thanks for sharing your success with us, Irini! If you have a win/accomplishment/success you would like to share on the blog and/or in our Apra-NW newsletter, please submit your story here.
