Supporters can be valued by their social capital and passion

For the past few weeks, we’ve been putting together a study of the habits of successful personal fundraisers from within our online fundraising platform. The interesting thing, aside from those habits, is that there are two characteristics that come up again and again with successful personal fundraisers. I hypothesize that the two characteristics are social capital and passion.

Social capital is the person’s personal network. It’s both the depth and breadth of their relationships. In practical terms, the deeper the relationship, then more they are able to convert those people to donors. In addition, the more people that they know, the farther their message is spread. Typically, social capital is built through time, but it can also come from media and publicity.

Passion is what drives action from a person. It’s emotion. Tangibly, it’s the commitment that they show and the perseverance that appears. Successful fundraisers have a deep passion for their cause. This passion comes out through their story as well as their commitment to making their fundraising goals.

It’d be interesting to see how this hypothesis stands. Any thoughts on how this plays from your experience?