Written by: Lisa Ukuku, The Citadel Foundation

Here at The Citadel Foundation (TCF), gift officers set travel to prospects or donors around one or two anchor visits usually from constituents in their portfolios. Once a gift officer (GO) has set up an appointment with his or her anchor, they send a request form to research and ask us to create a list of additional prospects within a 50 mile radius of the preferred address of the anchor visit(s). The process for developing the list has become automatic and we typically sort the prospect list in three ways:  largest total gifts, propensity score, and zip code.

This list is usually condensed, (unless the GO wants to see everyone) with only the top donors in the area where the GO is visiting. According to the travel location, the list may contain 30 names or it could contain up to 300 names. The affiliation of the prospect is indicated on the list, which could be an alum, an alum from The Citadel Graduate College (CGC) or a parent of a current cadet/student. We also show the last action or contact that anyone from TCF has had with the prospect so that the GO can see the last time the prospect was visited or if they were ever seen at all.

Research spends a lot of hours fine tuning the list to make sure we are forwarding the best of the best prospects in the area requested. It could take us up to three days to return the names to the GO’s. We also attach any miscellaneous notes to the email when we send the list to indicate any additional information we may learn about some of the prospects on the list. There are situations where the prospect may already be assigned to a GO but has not been seen in a while so we will suggest the traveling GO speak with the assigned GO to see if they could visit the prospect. As a side note, if the assigned GO has a strategy in place that we were not aware of (not noted in the database) we support his or her decision for another gift officer not to visit at that time. If a prospect is a current parent, we consult with the parent program GO who will confirm with the appropriate campus entity that the cadet is in good standing prior to the meeting.   

So this all brings me to the question in the title of this piece. Should there be a minimum number of visits to justify a GO’s travel? What would your reaction be, after spending three days developing a list of prospects, and finding out the GO scheduled three visits? As a researcher, you may feel a little let down when you learn this. We are wondering if any development shops have a policy that sets a minimum number of required visits for GO travel. If so, we would love to hear from you. We are interested in knowing how many visits should be set per day and the standard duration of travel. If two or more GO’s are traveling to the same area, should they both go on the same visit or each have their own separate visits scheduled?  How many visits should be set if the trip also includes an alumni event on one of the three days? 

We would love to hear your feedback! Please feel free to reply to us with your questions or comments.