Google the phrase ‘prospect clearance policy’ and you will find a multitude of stern policy documents, mostly from university advancement departments, decreeing how one can obtain permission to become a relationship manager for a prospect.

It’s all very hierarchical and bureaucratic. Don’t get me wrong – if there is the potential for a transformational gift or a significant bequest, some processes and chains of command are necessary to ensure that the right person is speaking to a donor. That’s the benefit of a well-defined prospect clearance process. It helps to identify that the right people are speaking to the right donor at the right time about the giving opportunity.

One of the challenges organizations have is that they try to fit prospects neatly into the donor pyramid. Prospects get assigned either to a major-gift officer, a planned-giving officer or an annual-fund officer.  When this happens, silos form and tensions rise. But, in many cases, donors aren’t simply planned-giving donors or major-giving donors or annual fund donors. They defy a category and are simply...donors. Their relationship is with the cause your organization represents and that relationship may include a planned gift, an annual contribution and a major gift.

A potential solution is to make a prospect everyone’s responsibility. But the thing I’ve found is that when everyone is responsible, no one takes ownership. A prospect clearance and assignment process will help to ensure that all the wonderful prospects in your prospect pool are taken care of— not too much, not too little, but just right.

What should a prospect clearance process include?

1. A collaborative approach to developing relationships with prospects. This will help to avoid conflict amongst staff and departments. I’m always surprised when a development officer becomes territorial over a prospect. I suspect it has a lot to do with activity targets. The reality is that one development officer may not be the single best person to build a relationship with a prospect. A prospect may be a great planned giving prospect and a wonderful annual fund donor. The prospect is equally important to both planned giving and the annual fund —one relationship manager isn’t going to meet all their needs.
2. Agreement from everyone on how prospect assignment will be communicated.Will there be a weekly face to face meeting where prospects are discussed, reviewed and assigned? Or, is it possible to complete the process via email communication?
3. A neutral gate keeper. This person doesn’t have a vested interest as to who gets assigned which prospect as they wouldn’t have their own prospect list. They would make recommendations on prospect assignment. Your prospect researcher is a good neutral gate keeper because, truly, all they want is to have the great prospects they identify moved into the pipeline for discovery and cultivation.
4. A hierarchy of relationship managers. In many cases, a prospect may only have one relationship manager, but there are times when two or more people have equally important reasons to be assigned to a prospect. A hierarchy of relationship managers doesn`t mean one development officer is more important than another. It means defining the different types of relationship managers and how you keep it consistent for ease of reporting.
5. A designated person who has the authority to change the prospect assignment coding in your database. Someone has to do it. You could empower your development officers to make the changes, or assign someone to take ownership of the coding for consistency.
6. A process for prospect reassignment when a staff member leaves.
7. A process for dropping a prospect. Sometimes it is no longer appropriate to have any relationship manager assigned to a prospect. And this is ok. Have a process in place so that prospects can be reviewed at a later date.

Prospect assignment and clearance is one aspect of an overall prospect management system. It is about matching the right relationship manager(s) with the right prospect. It is about ensuring a fair and collaborative process that is clearly communicated to everyone. Prospect clearance doesn’t have to be bureaucratic or complicated. But it ia a process which should be implemented so that a prospect can be cleared for cultivation in the most efficient manner that respects their donor journey with the organization.