Prospect Research 101: A Crash Course for Nonprofits

It’s critical for nonprofits to have healthy and effective fundraising strategies that empower them to not only maintain relationships with current donors but also build relationships with new donors who can help drive their missions forward. And one of the most effective ways to strengthen your fundraising efforts toward these ends is to conduct thorough prospect research.

But what is prospect research?

Prospect research, also called donor prospecting, screening, or donor research, is a technique used by nonprofit fundraisers, major gift officers, and development teams to identify high-impact donors within and beyond an organization’s current donor pool. Through this process, nonprofits gather an immense amount of data they can leverage—information about donors’ backgrounds, past giving histories, wealth indicators, philanthropic motivations, and more.

Whether your nonprofit is looking to strengthen its existing major giving program, solicit major gifts as part of a capital campaign, or even kickstart its very first development initiatives, prospect research will be integral.

However, you may be new to the process or need some refreshing. That’s where this crash course comes in. In it, we’ll walk you through a comprehensive overview of prospect research and the steps you need to take to get started.

Prospect research can be a daunting undertaking, especially for smaller or newer organizations. In this section, we’ll cover some of the frequently asked questions nonprofits often have when jumping into the world of prospecting.

How does prospect research differ from wealth screening?

When learning about prospect research, you may come across the term “wealth screening.”

Wealth screening focuses on analyzing donors’ and prospects’ wealth markers such as real estate ownership, business affiliations, and stock holdings. These help your organization determine a donor’s financial giving capacity.

Wealth screening is part of a comprehensive prospect research process, but it isn’t a replacement for it. While both prospect research and wealth screening provide valuable insights, the difference lies in the big picture. Just because a donor has the capacity or wealth to donate to your organization doesn’t necessarily mean they have the willingness or affinity to do so. Prospect research provides a fuller picture of potential donors than wealth screening alone.

What types of nonprofits use nonprofit research?

Prospect research is used by a wide variety of organizations to improve their fundraising efforts. Here are a few examples of organizations that conduct prospecting and how each utilizes the data they collect:

• K-12 Schools: Parents and guardians of younger students should be screened during the research process, especially at the beginning and end of the school year and around graduation.
• Colleges, Universities, and Sororities and Fraternities: Donor research provides a way to segment large pools of alumni into different potential giving groups, resulting in more targeted and successful solicitation efforts.
• Healthcare Organizations: Early and frequent research can help to grow grateful patient donor programs.
• Advocacy and Social Service Organizations: Large volunteer pools and event attendee lists mean there are always new prospects to screen and analyze for future giving potential.
• Arts and Culture Organizations: Screening single ticket purchasers, special event attendees, membership holders, and consistent donors can lead to more support.
• Environmental Groups: With a calendar full of events and volunteer activities, these organizations should be screening attendees for more targeted donor cultivation.
• Faith-Based Organizations: Churches, mosques, synagogues, and other places of worship can pinpoint parishioners or frequent service attendees who are likely to contribute major gifts.

What are the benefits of prospect research?

Prospect research can enrich your nonprofit’s operations in a myriad of ways. When you prospect, you will be able to:

• Screen current donors: A major donor may be hiding in your current pool of donors. Prospect screening can reveal who in your donor base has the capacity to make a major gift.
• Generate new prospects: Donor research allows you to expand your nonprofit’s reach and find new potential donors. You’ll grow your community and your revenue stream!
• Refine your major gift strategy: Whether you’re seeking major gifts for a capital campaign or looking to strengthen your planned giving program, prospecting saves you time and money by helping you focus your efforts on prospects who are likely to give.
• Optimize ongoing fundraising activities: With a wealth of data at your fingertips, your organization can see trends in its fundraising efforts and refine its goals and strategies for the future.
• Identify corporate giving opportunities: Find out if your donors are eligible for corporate giving programs like matching gifts or volunteer grants as you gather information about donors’ giving histories, employers, and more.
• Fill gaps in donor data: Donors may move, get married, or change their phone numbers. Prospect research can help you fill gaps in inaccurate or out-of-date information.

To successfully conduct prospect research for your nonprofit, you’ll need a solid understanding of its key elements—the tools you’ll be using and the indicators you’ll be looking for in the data you gather. Let’s explore both of these elements!

In addition to these tools, simple internet searches and deep dives into prospects’ social media profiles can provide additional insight into who your donors are and what they value.

Remember, in thorough prospect research, you can’t have one type of indicator without the other. Wealth indicators and philanthropic indicators are both crucial to finding the most viable prospects for your nonprofit.

You have a few different options when it comes to how you conduct prospect research. Let’s take a look at each approach and why an organization might choose it.

1. Conducting In-House Prospect Research

There are two ways to go about in-house prospect research.

The first is do-it-yourself (DIY) prospect research. This approach involves having an existing staff member take responsibility for prospecting. If your nonprofit is just starting out or if you have a tight budget, this may be a great initial option. Although it won’t be a sustainable long-term solution as your organization grows, it’s an accessible way to begin prospect research so you can kickstart that growth.

DIY prospect research usually involves a member of your development team sitting down with a list of your very top prospects and performing online research with platforms like LinkedIn. If you’re interested in more in-depth training, there are plenty of great resources from classes to webinars that are available through popular prospect research channels.

The other way to conduct prospecting in-house is to hand the job over to full-time research staff. Usually, organizations bring on research teams if they have a large prospect pool and need to free up other staff members’ time, so if you’re a mid- to large organization with the means to outsource this work, this may be a good choice.

Full-time research is a challenging job that requires a combination of both extensive fundraising experience and a naturally inquisitive and investigative nature. Researchers take masses of raw data and turn it into usable, digestible information. As such, look for candidates who have analytical minds, understand the minutiae of databases, and know how to synthesize data.

2. Working with a Prospect Research Consultant

Another option for conducting prospect research is to hire a prospect research consultant. Consultants are experts in prospecting. They know how to use prospect research tools and how to interpret the wealth and philanthropic indicators they’re seeing in the data. They can also help you put your data into action and begin cultivating relationships with prospects.

Here are a few questions to ask yourself if you’re interested in working with a prospect research consultant:

• What are you looking to gain? Determine what kind of research you need conducted—do you want to screen your current donors? Look for new prospects? Once you know what research you need done and how that will help your nonprofit accomplish its goals, you’ll be able to go into the consultant hiring process fully aware of your organization’s needs and ready to look for the right partner to fulfill those needs.
• What kind of access do you need to your consultant? Consider whether you need a consultant that will be available full-time or part-time. Also consider if you’re willing to work with a consultant remotely or if you’d like to work with someone in your local area.
• Do they have samples of their work? Review samples or case studies of the types of donor profiles your potential consultants can put together. Not only will this preview of their work give you a sense of the options you’ll have should you choose to work with that consultant, but it will also provide an example of the quality of their work. In addition, be sure to reach out to the consultants’ references.

3. Partnering With a Prospect Screening Company

A prospect screening company can be a valuable partner if you’re actively seeking out major gift donors from your current donor pool. These experts can help you know who among your donors would be an ideal major giving candidate and how much you can reasonably ask for when you solicit a donation.

If you have a large number of records in your donor database, then a bulk screening could potentially help you sort through the masses of information. Bulk screenings sift out only the most pertinent and useful donor data and serve it up in a nice, neat package that your organization can easily analyze.

A screening company can help your organization as it grows, too. If you’re bringing in a number of new members or donors on a regular basis, screening services can help you keep track of, sort, and assess all the new prospects in your donor pool.

Additionally, a good screening company will be able to seamlessly integrate their tools with your existing software and align with your normal workflow, meaning that your data will always be easy to get to when you need to access it. Many screening companies offer comprehensive integration support to make the transition of data as smooth as possible.

Now that you know the what, how, and who of prospect research, it’s time to dial into the specifics. Let’s jump into the seven-step process of donor research.

Prospect research helps you find the people who have the means and the passion necessary to contribute generously to your cause. And while the process may seem daunting and complex at first, as you leverage the right tools, know what to look for, and secure the right support for your team, you’ll be successful in finding more donors for your mission!

Did you love learning about prospect research? Then we recommend these other industry guides:

• Major Gifts Guide: The Ultimate Resource for Nonprofits. Looking to learn more about the nitty-gritty of major giving? This is the guide for you.
• Capital Campaigns: Understanding the Basics. Capital campaigns aren’t for the faint of heart—they’re massive undertakings! But they can greatly expand your organization’s capacity to fulfill its mission. Learn the basics here.
• Annual Fund Strategies. Your annual fund keeps your nonprofit’s doors open. Learn how to boost your annual funds by reading this guide.