Long ago, when I first started fundraising, I learned where new Catholic apostolates should look to find donors.

It was a eureka moment for me because it ‘opened the flood gates’ of donors for the Catholic apostolate that I was fundraising for at the time.

I thought about this ‘revelation’ recently when a reader, who is launching a new apostolate and looking for donors, asked where he should start looking for donors.

Reflecting on my past experience, I came up with three steps that a new Catholic apostolate should take when starting to fundraise. Check it out:

The fundraising pyramid is one of the most important visual aids at your disposal to help you understand how to find donors and major donors.

As a fundraiser, you have to manage three critical tasks: finding prospects, asking for donations, and increasing the number of your donors and major donors.

When I began to fundraise, I found juggling each of these tasks quite difficult. I’d focus on one and leave the other two to fall. For example, when I  was running around to find new donors, I would forget to keep the donors that I had. So for every donor I found, I would lose one.

Another mistake was focusing my attention on building relationships with my current donors but forgetting to ask them for another, if not larger, donation.  So I kept the donors I had but never got major donors.

When fundraising, you will likely have two key questions you’ll want to ask a Catholic donations expert (like me): The first is, “Who can donate to me?” The second is, “How do I ask them?”

These are the two most frequently asked questions I receive each week. At the time that I’m writing this article, nearly 3,000 people visit CatholicFundraiser.net. So you can imagine how many times these two questions are raised.

Today, I’m going to answer the first question: Who can donate to you?

After reading this article, you and the other 3,000 people contacting me will be all set because you will all know who can (and will) donate.