Match Makers Season 2: The Prospect Development Edition

The working relationship between prospect management professionals, data analytics, researchers and gift offers can make or break a shop's morale, efficiency, and ability to reach its goals! In an ode to all the popular reality match making shows, we present to you the second season of Apra-IL's series - Match Makers Season 2: The Prospect Development Edition. Strengths and working style capabilities will be tested through random assignments, so have some fun with us as we imagine a world where we could match our perfect prospect development team whit a gift officer. 

Host: Welcome back everyone to Match Makers Season 2: The Prospect Development Edition. We are so happy to be back with our competitors at Ordinary University! During this Season, we will watch as two teams of prospect researchers, prospect management professionals, and data analytics face off and harness their skills to win different challenges in order to become one development officer’s perfect team match. Let’s reintroduce our teams- Team one is called The Builders, let’s welcome Melissa who is our Season One winner and prospect researcher, Michelle from prospect management, and Juanita from analytics. 

Team two is called, The Cultivators, let’s welcome Charles from prospect research, Shayla from prospect management, and Lauren from analytics.

And our development officer (DO) Anthony who will also be our challenge judge.

Audience, our first challenge is called To Inherit or To Not Inherit?

The objective is to see how each team successfully transfers a previous colleague’s donors and prospects into Anthony’s portfolio. These donors and prospects consist of principal gifts, major gifts, and rated and unrated prospects/donors. It is up to the teams to determine who Anthony should inherit, and create a list.

Once the lists are in, we will hear from the teams on how they made their decision and Anthony will determine the winner of this challenge.

Teams, you have until the end week. Good luck!

*End of the week*

Host: Welcome back everyone. It is time to review the lists that both teams have created on who Anthony should inherit from a previous colleague. Remember, Anthony will decide the winner based on how the teams worked together, and choose the list of people he will inherit from the previous portfolio.

The Builders, please choose your spokesperson that will speak for you during this deliberation, and tell us how you built your list.

Michelle, prospect management: Hello, my name is Michelle and I will be speaking for The Builders. To build this list our researcher looked at all the interactions and ratings on each donor and prospect; I looked at how many had closed plans, were qualified, and how long they had been engaged by the previous DO; And Analytics mapped out the people who were in Anthony’s travel region. This was our process during the challenge, and it really worked out for us because out of 50 people we were able to create a list of 20 that were the best fit for Anthony. As a team, we also considered how many people Anthony currently had in his portfolio, and those who were being actively engaged. We did not give Anthony any principal gift prospects after speaking with the principal gifts program.

Host: Thank you Team! Great work! The Cultivators, please choose your spokesperson that will speak for you during this deliberation, and tell us how you built your list.

Shayla, prospect management: Hi, I’m Shayla and I will be speaking for The Cultivators during this challenge. We decided to focus on who the prospects and donors were, meaning their capacity ratings. We also took into consideration the current people in Anthony’s portfolio - Anthony has a lot of donors that need to be rated so we did not think he needed more. We also did not think it wise to give him any principal gift prospects based on the years of engagement by the previous DO, apprehension on having them meet someone new, and lastly Anthony’s years of experience in Development. No offense Anthony. We also decided to include some major gift donors because Anthony has brought in some major gifts all year. So, this was our process – out of the 50 people, Anthony inherited 30.

Host: Alright team! I see there was a lot of discussions on what Anthony could and could not handle. Shayla, did you all utilize Lauren from analytics in this challenge?

Shayla: No, we did not. We did not think it would be necessary.

Host: Alright! Thanks Shayla, great work. Anthony, what do you think of how both teams worked together, and built their lists?

Anthony: I thought they did a great job. I liked how The Builder utilized everyone in the team to truly build the list. They thought of ratings and interactions to mapping out locations, and strategically worked together to build a robust list of people that I could inherit.

The Cultivators did a great job as well. However, I wish they had utilized analytics because the point of the challenge was to collaborate as a team. I’m sure Lauren could have helped. Regardless, I liked the fact that they took a more micro approach into the content of my portfolio. They really analyzed the type of people who were currently in my portfolio, and who they could not add and why.

Host: Who is our winner Anthony?

Anthony: The Builders win this one. I liked the way everyone played a part in building the list. Both teams brought interesting strategies to creating the list, but The Builders really made sure that each person played a role and I believe they had a slightly stronger process in how they produced the list.

Host: The Builders! Great job on wining the first challenge!

Host: Well folks I think we have all learned a great lesson here: this is about building a team! And how you work together as a team is being analyzed.

So now that we have completed our first challenge, The Builders are leading and have set the bar high. I want our competitors to know that these challenges are only going to get harder. Remember to push yourselves, and think outside the box as you work together. Depend on one another’s skills! Thank you everyone!

Join us next time on Match Makers Season 2: The Prospect Development Edition. At the end there will only be one match.