Create Institutional Memory

I hope this is a blog post you really don‘t need.

Log your interactions with your donors—individual, foundation, government and corporate. The foundation, government and corporate donors are relatively easy. You know from the start that you seek a long-term mutually profitable partnership with them. Individual donors are more challenging. When does someone become a donor of interest? Develop your own trigger point, perhaps when someone gives more than $100 three time three years in a row. The most important thing: log information about important donors.

What should you log?
At a minimum: their name, the date of the interaction and the content of your conversations, i.e., what they said especially in terms of their giving interests and any possible links with your mission, and anything you promised. Quick notes work as shown below:

6/10. Sally G. prefers direct service to children. Board is more family orientated and meets quarterly. Sally brings top 5 recommendations; Board usually selects those, but also reviews other requests and occasionally selects one. Promised to submit for 7/15 cycle.

7/13. Submitted request for $10,500 for family program, if funded will serve 100 new families in 18 months. Filed draft of grant, electronic and hard copy. Follow up date: 8/15.

Store your log records in a locked file. Share with other staff members and volunteers that they should not destroyed but built upon over the years. I hope you already do this. If not, begin today. Successful organizations go to bat over and hit home runs over and over again by creating institutional memory based on logging interactions and using these to shape their future.