A Critical Skill: Valuing Real Estate
By Melissa Bank Stepno, Senior Consultant, Target Analytics, a Division of Blackbaud, Inc.
When I started my career in fundraising, I was trained with a simple formula: a $1 million home equated to a major gift prospect rating. Even as a budding prospect researcher, this simple formula didn’t quite ‘sit right,’ but it took me a few years to pull all the pieces together.
Due to the real estate market’s explosion and later bubble burst, national economic conditions, changes in mortgage company policies, new government regulations, and other factors, what someone’s home is worth today may or may not help a fundraiser understand its relative ‘value’ to the owner. Simply stated: not every major gift prospect lives in a million dollar home and not every million dollar home is owned by a major gift prospect. Read more
Fundraising Compass 