success rate shows

In this case, less-likely prospects are those who have not donated in the past.

If you only ask the people who are likely to say yes, you may get a good rate of return from that group, but you are not reaching out to people who have not been reached before. They might say yes, and you will have more people to ask in the future.

Smithtown University's fund-raisers succeeded in getting donations from 80 percent of
the potential donors they contacted. This success rate, exceptionally high for university
fund-raisers, does not indicate that they were doing a good job. On the contrary, since
the people most likely to donate are those who have donated in the past, good fundraisers
constantly try less-likely prospects in an effort to expand the donor base. The high
success rate shows insufficient canvassing effort.

This group got donations from donors who already gave in the past. Since those people are most likely to give again, the fact that only 80% of them gave again is not a good sign.

"Less-likely" prospects are people who have never been asked or who have not given in the past.

This group received money ONLY from past donors, (and did not reach a 100% re-donor number) They receive NO money from brand new donors. That is why, even with the 80% rate, there was insufficient canvassing effort. The idea is to alway get new donors, since the old one will naturally fall away (attrition)

thanks for the nice explanation.

it helped a lot