June 9th, 2011
With a large number of annual giving campaigns concluding at the end of this month, many gift officers at universities and non-profits are scrambling to secure large last minute donations. Timing can be everything, so identifying prospects that have recently come across large amounts of cash can be critical to gift officers' targeting efforts.

Donor Watch's recently compiled list of top donor prospects has been a boon to many development teams that are making their final push to achieve their annual goals. The list includes more than 600 individuals who have sold nearly $4 billion in stock over the past three months. All individuals on the list have an undergraduate degree and have personally sold at least $4 million in stock over the course of March, April and May of this year.

Topping the list of undergraduate institutions were the University of Michigan, the University of Maryland, Harvard University, University of California-Santa Barbara, and Indiana University. Some of the smaller schools that pushed their way toward the top of list include Bucknell University, St. Lawrence University, Radford University, Tufts University and Tulane University.

In addition to college degrees, the prospect list's members also hold 175 MBA degrees, 72 Law degrees and nearly 100 other graduate level degrees. Notably, the top law schools on the list were the University of Virginia School of Law, Harvard Law School and New York University's School of Law.

The top of the donor prospect list is dominated by executives from the technology sector. Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are at the top of the list with total stock sales of $230 million and $170 million, respectively. Number 4 on the list is Manuel Medina with $73.8 million in stock sales. Mr. Medina was previously the CEO of Miami-based Terremark Worldwide, which was acquired by Verizon Communications in April for $1.4 billion. He is a graduate of Florida Atlantic University.

Another tech sector executive who made the top ten is Jeffery Boyd, the CEO of Priceline.com. He sold more than $71 million in stock. Notably, Mr. Boyd is on the board of trustees at the Brunswick School and St. Lawrence University.

Donor Watch's research product is utilized by the development offices and prospect research teams at many leading colleges, universities and non-profits. To view detailed profiles of individuals on the list that are alumni of your university, please sign-up for a free trial of Donor Watch.