Building Your Prospect List with a List Party

A list party is a great way to build a list of prospects (potential donors) and potential volunteers and chapter leaders. It’s easy and you can make it fun. Here’s how.

1. All Team Leaders bring their Homework Lists, a list of prospective donors, volunteers or leaders that the Team Leader knows, with phone numbers and suggested commitment (donation amount, leadership position, etc.).
2. You may also bring lists of your group or similar organizations.
3. Review each prospect. For each prospect, agree on a commitment and assign a Team Member to do the ask.
4. Recruit a Team Leader to make sure each ask is timely completed.

How can you make sure your list will be as large and diverse as possible? The first question is who to, should be on your list? Here are some ideas that have helped other organizer build their lists:

< b>FAMILY: Consider inviting your parents, kids, aunts, uncles and cousins.

FRIENDS: And don’t forget about your partner/spouse/lover/wife/partner/girlfriend/boyfriend

SOCIAL ACQUAINTANCES: Old friends you only see occasionally. Friends from college/school. Your old professors or teachers. Friends from your old job. Or from the group where you used to volunteer.

NEIGHBORS: Next door, upstairs, downstairs, down the hall. The whole building. People on the block who you always run into when you go jogging, or with whom you walk the dog ,or who you run in to at the grocery. Your coop board. Your tenants association. Your landlord. Your tenants, Your super. Your baby-sitter. Your child care collective. Your carpool. The parents of your children's friends.

FROM CHURCH, TEMPLE OR MOSQUE: Your clergy person minister, priest, rabbi, imam. Church activists. Regular attendees. Friends who may be not-so-regular attendees. The people you always share holidays with.

FROM YOUR LABOR UNION: union leaders. Activists. People who stand up to the boss. Your steward, Your business agent. Other union staff. Your co-workers. Back at your old job, people in that union. Co-workers there.

FROM WORK OR COMMUNITY WORK: People who do the same work you do. Other people in the office, Your partner. Your clients, your supervisor, Old partners, Old clients. your old supervisor, people who used to work In the office but recently left, colleagues from community work or from charity work.

MEMBERS OF: Your block association, your political club, your community group. Your food co-op. Your local peace or environmental group. The PTA. Your local school board. Your community board.

PEOPLE YOU'VE MET WHILE RECREATING: Members of your bowling league, volleyball team, cooking group, pick-up basketball folks. The bridge club. Your poker buddies. Night classes. Lamaze class. Aerobics class. At the gym. Your housemates from ski weekends. From beach trips, camping trips. From traveling together. People you sing with. Choir. Jamming. Go caroling with. People you shop with. Garden with, vacation with.

PROFESSIONALS YOU KNOW PERSONALLY: Your lawyer, dentist, doctor, pharmacist, broker, butcher, dry cleaner, baker.

PULL OUT LISTS YOU'VE MADE IN THE PAST: The invitation list to your last party. Your Christmas card list. The program from your last reunion. Your rolodex, at work and at home. Your personal phone book.

Finally, think about interesting people you've met, but may not know well, who are active in their communities-- WHO DO YOU KNOW: In the African-American communities. The different Latino/a communities. Caribbean. Dominican. South American and various immigrant communities. The women’s movement. The lesbian and gay community. Teachers. Seniors and retirees. College and high school students. The disabled community. Anyone who’s made the observation that schools should be better places for glbt kids. After all this, if you still don't have enough people to invite, what do you do? Ask a friend to co-host the party with you -- they invite half the people, you invite half the people, and together you'll have a good invitation list.