Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2021
Category: Apra News
On Monday, March 8, 2021, Apra members joined Charles Johnson (Columbia University), Sharise Harrison (Santa Clara University), and Lori Hood Lawson (UC Innovation) to talk about the art of Relationship Mapping. Monday’s #ApraChat created 2,300 impressions over 80 tweets. Highlights include:
How organizations approach Relationship Mapping:
- Implemented as part of every screening for alumni in a major gift officers’ portfolio
- Case-by-case and used when no prospects appear to exist for special initiatives
- Hard-coded into an organization’s CRM coupled with reports that searches a data warehouse for connections
- Incorporated into the standard research process
How COVID-19 has affected Relationship Mapping:
- Highlighted the importance of corporate and foundation connections
- Made relationship identification more nuanced
- Coming up with engagement opportunities that could be done remotely and utilizing virtual events
- Developing and strengthening relationships with faculty
- Has highlighted how critical relationship mapping is in times like these
Relationship Mapping Software and databases – workarounds, additions and losses:
- Using Excel in lieu of databases or software
- Kept the software the organization had, but used other platforms like Power BI as a workaround for relationship mapping
- Gaining subscriptions to software – and getting on a payment plan
How COVID-19 spurred new ways to approach Relationship Mapping:
- Virtual meetings
- Identifying relationships during virtual events – and encouraging prospects to attend them
- Utilizing social media engagement for relationship mapping
- Maintaining pre-COVID-19 relationships and making intentional, meaningful outreach for new prospects