Ideal Funders, LLC

Step 1: Identify and Build Your First List of Ideal Funders

Part One: Creating Detailed Profiles of Ideal Funders

Fundraising success starts with clarity. Before you send one email or make one call, you must know exactly who your ideal funders are and what motivates them. Without this, you risk wasting time chasing people or organizations who will never invest in your mission.

Think of this as building the DNA of your dream funder. Once you define them clearly, finding them becomes much easier.

An ideal funder has three traits:

  1. Affinity – they care about your cause.
  2. Propensity – they have a history of giving or a reason to give.
  3. Capacity – they have the resources to give at the level you need.

We’ll profile ideal funders across five funding types:

  1. Individuals (donors, philanthropists)
  2. Businesses (corporate sponsors, local companies)
  3. Foundations (family or private charitable funds)
  4. Grantors (formal grant-making entities)
  5. Government Agencies (program and funding bodies)

Within these types, you’ll use the 8 Categories of Ideal Funders to brainstorm.

The 8 Categories of Ideal Funders

  1. Personal Network – People who already know and trust you or your board.
  2. Benefit Funders – Individuals or organizations who gain directly or indirectly from your success.
  3. Triumph Over Need – People who overcame the same challenge your nonprofit addresses.
  4. Status & Recognition Seekers – Those who want visibility, prestige, or association with your cause.
  5. Solution Providers – Professionals or organizations interested in solving the issue you address.
  6. Mission Alignment – Funders whose mission or goals overlap with yours.
  7. Giving History – People or institutions already giving to causes like yours.
  8. Influence Multipliers – Connectors who may not give the most money, but open doors to bigger funders.
     

How to Create Detailed Profiles

For each category, walk through this process:

1. Describe Them

    • Who are they? (individual, business, foundation, etc.)
    • What are their key characteristics?

2. Motivation

    • Why would they support your mission?
    • What do they gain (tangible or intangible)?

3. Examples

    • Write down 2–3 sample personas to make it real.

AI Prompt(s) — use these to generate detailed profiles quickly

You don’t have to do this alone. I’ve created AI prompts to help you create your ideal funders profile and categorize them into the 8 groups above.

AI Prompt

Part Two: Building a Real and Verifiable List of Funders

Once you’ve defined your ideal profiles, the next step is turning them into a real, actionable list of names. This is where research and organization play a crucial role.

Your target for this first pass: 100 prospects. Later, you’ll expand into hundreds.

 
How to Build Your List

Start with Your Personal Network

  • Use the Relationship Mapping Form in your workbook.
  • Write down family, friends, colleagues, connections, alumni, past donors, and volunteers that match your ideal funders profile.
  • Capture their name, contact, and reason for potential interest.
  • Send the relationship mapping form to your board members using the email template provided and ask them to do the same.

Expand Using the Other 7 Categories

For each category, brainstorm local examples:

  1. Benefit Funders: Local businesses, healthcare providers, and schools.
  2. Triumph Over Need: Individuals who overcame the issue (alumni, community leaders).
  3. Status & Recognition: Local influencers, small business owners seeking visibility.
  4. Solution Providers: Professionals, agencies, or tech providers.
  5. Mission Alignment: Other nonprofits, advocacy groups, and aligned churches.
  6. Giving History: People or institutions who have already given to similar nonprofits.
  7. Influence Multipliers: Local media, community connectors, professional associations.

 

Phase 1: Build Your First 100 Using AI

Here’s how you get your base list of 100 names:

1. Use the AI prompts from Part One

  • Paste your mission, programs, location, and categories into the Batch Profile Generator prompt.
  • AI will produce 8–10 prospects per run (Individuals, Businesses, Foundations, Grantors, Government Agencies).
  • Run this 10–12 times with slightly different inputs (e.g., changing location, category, or focus).

2. Copy results into your spreadsheet/CRM

  • Each AI profile = 1 row.
  • Include: name, type, category, contact info, motivation, affinity/propensity/capacity, source links, and next action.

3. Verify top 20–30

  • Cross-check the AI’s suggestions with real websites, annual reports, or LinkedIn.
  • Keep only those who are real, reachable, and aligned.

By the end of this, you’ll have at least 100 prospects that fit your profiles.

 

Phase 2: Scale Into the Thousands (10 Steps)

Here’s the proven step-by-step framework. Each step can easily generate 50–200 new names. The goal is to find people, businesses, grantors, foundations, and government agencies that match the profiles of your ideal funders, as identified in step 1.

 
1. Organic Search
This involves scouting your local or online community for individuals and entities that match the ideal profiles outlined in Step 1.  Research your local community using Google, the Chamber of Commerce directories, grant directories, and social media feeds and groups.

  • Example search: “Real estate agents in [city]” or “Addiction recovery donors [state].”
    Goal: 20–30 per session.

2. Leverage Current Supporters & Donors To Get Referrals.
Reach out and ask them to recommend people who match your ideal funder profiles.

How to execute: Send a simple email or survey: "Based on our ideal funder profiles (attached), who do you know that might align? Follow up with a script: "Hi [Referral], [Supporter] recommended you because of your interest in [shared cause]."

3. Social Media Lead Ads
Run targeted ads on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, or Instagram to attract individuals who match your profile. Instead of asking for donations, use lead-generation ads to gather contact details through advice, surveys, or polls.

Budget: $50/week = 50–100 new leads.
 
4. Advanced Prospecting Platforms
Use iWave, DonorSearch, or Clay to pull thousands of prospects based on wealth, giving history, and affinity. You can also search prospects that match your ideal funders' profile.

Many libraries give free access to FDO (Foundation Directory Online).
Export lists and filter by your categories.
 
5. Look at Similar Nonprofits’ Donors
Pull IRS 990s (in the US) or annual reports to see who funds organizations like yours.

If they gave there, they’ll give to you.
Tools: GuideStar, ProPublica, Charity Commission (UK).
 
6. Networking & Partnerships
Attend chamber events, conferences, and webinars where your ideal funders are likely to be present. 

Use Eventbrite or Meetup.com to find events (e.g., "Nonprofit networking in [city]"). You can partner with organizers to access participant information.
 
7. LinkedIn Advanced Search
Leverage LinkedIn's free/paid search tools to find professionals, companies, and foundations matching your profiles. Use filters by title, industry, and location to identify individuals and companies.

8. Public Databases & News Alerts
Use Foundation Directory Online, GrantStation, or Grants.gov for institutional funders.
Set up Google Alerts for “grants to [cause] + [location]” to catch new announcements. FDO (library access often free) lets you filter by focus area and location
 
9. Content Marketing & Lead Magnets
Create a guide, webinar, or toolkit related to your cause that will interest your ideal funders.

Example: “5 Ways Businesses Can Boost Employee Retention by Supporting Addiction Recovery Programs.” Collect names/emails of every download or registrant.
 
10. Affinity & Alumni Groups
Rotary Clubs, alumni associations, professional guilds, or faith networks.

They have built-in loyalty and shared values. Many publish directories you can use as prospect lists.

 

Organize in a Spreadsheet or CRM

Create columns for:

  • Name
  • Type (Individual, Business, Foundation, etc.)
  • Category (from the 8 above)
  • Contact Info (email, phone, LinkedIn, website)
  • Connection (who referred them / how found)
  • Motivation (why they fit)
  • Capacity / Giving Range (if known)
    Status / Next Action (contacted? pending?)

 

Finding a Volunteer to Run a Detailed Search

Scaling requires time; you don’t have to do it alone. Here’s how to find and train a volunteer “prospect researcher”:

1. Where to recruit

  • Post on VolunteerMatch, Idealist, LinkedIn, or your own newsletter.
  • Ask for people with admin, research, or fundraising interest.

2. Give them a clear role

  • “Help us build our prospect database by running searches and filling a template.”
  • Time ask: 3–5 hours/week.

3. Train them with the AI prompt

  • Show them how to paste the Batch Profile Generator prompt into ChatGPT or Claude.
  • Have them copy the outputs into your spreadsheet/CRM.

4. Add a verification checklist

  • Train them to confirm name, website, and relevance (so your list stays high quality).

5. Track progress

  • Ask them to update the CRM weekly and flag top 10 new verified prospects.

Key Principle to Remember

Don’t just chase “thousands of names.”
Always filter with your 8 categories + 3 scores (affinity, propensity, capacity).
Aim to add 50–100 quality names per month until you reach a database of 1,000+.

AI PromptsRelationship Mapping Form & Email Template