Nonprofit Prospect Research 101: 4 Success Strategies

As you create your nonprofit’s fundraising plan for the year, you’re bound to set goals for major giving. Whether these goals involve identifying new major gift prospects or upgrading current donors, prospect research—researching individuals’ capacity, affinity, and propensity to give a major gift—will help you reach them.

The insights you glean from prospect research will guide your relationship-building efforts and eventual solicitation. But if you’re new to prospect research, the process can feel overwhelming. That’s why we’ve compiled four basic strategies to help you and your team get started.

According to Donorly’s prospect research guide, there are two main approaches your nonprofit can take: either do-it-yourself (DIY) or consultant-led research. Each method comes with its own pros and cons, so it’s up to your team to decide on the best approach for your organization.

To determine the best avenue for prospect research, consider your:

• Team members’ research experience. If your team has been through the prospect research process before, they may feel comfortable taking the DIY approach. On the other hand, teams that are unfamiliar with prospect research will greatly benefit from having a consultant to guide them.

• Budget for prospect research tools. While there are plenty of free tools you can (and should!) use to research prospects, you’ll get more accurate information faster with professional tools. Determine if it’s in your organization’s budget to purchase subscriptions to professional databases and software solutions.
• Major gift officer or development team’s availability. How much time does your team have to devote to prospect research? How does research fit into their other responsibilities, and what’s your organization’s timeline for major gift fundraising? DIY research is time-intensive, so you’ll need to dedicate full-time staff to it if you go that route.

If you don’t have the time, budget, or experience to feel confident researching donors independently, hiring an outside fundraising consultant is well worth the expense. These experts have access to best-in-class tools, and they know exactly how to find the donor information you need.

No matter your chosen approach, you’ll be leaning heavily on your constituent relationship management system (CRM). Clean up your database to ensure your donor data is as organized and accurate as possible before beginning prospect research. The better shape your data is in, the more you’ll speed up the research process.

Some view wealth screenings as separate from or inferior to prospect research, but they’re typically just one step in the full prospect research process. DonorSearch explains that wealth screenings “take multiple philanthropic, capacity, and affinity indicators into account to zero in on the most promising prospects for your nonprofit.” 

Whether your team uses an automated wealth screening tool or hires a consultant to lead the charge, a thorough wealth screening will provide you with raw data points relating to prospects’:

• Wealth/financial capacity. This might include an individual’s income, property values, stock holdings, etc.

• Affinity for your cause. A history with your nonprofit, involvement with similar causes, and relevant political donations can all point to a personal alignment with your cause.
• Propensity for giving/philanthropic habits. Data like past charitable donations and board service for other nonprofits demonstrate a reliable habit of philanthropic activity.

By conducting a wealth screening on your existing donors and prospects, you can identify those with greater giving potential than you realized. You might also make other helpful discoveries, such as learning that a mid-level donor frequently contributes to nonprofits or political groups through non-traditional donation methods like stock or cryptocurrency giving.

Keep in mind that this step only provides you with raw data about prospects—it’s up to you to analyze, interpret, and build on that data in the next step.

Once you have enough data, your team or consultant should perform manual research to verify this information and qualify major giving prospects. Use multiple sources beyond your wealth screening tools to confirm and supplement the data. Ensure that each prospect on your list truly has the wealth (capacity), warmth (affinity), and habits (propensity) that indicate they’ll give a major gift.

Your sources might include:

• Relationship and engagement notes in your donor database.
• Social media sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram.
• Google and Wikipedia.
• Matching gift and other workplace giving databases.
• FEC political contribution data.
• Public investment records from the SEC.
• Zillow and other real estate sites to confirm home values.
• Other nonprofits’ annual reports and public donor lists.

As you conduct more in-depth research, analyze the full picture of your relationship with each prospect. Take detailed notes about each prospect and identify any opportunities or challenges they might present. For instance, one prospect may be a long-time donor, while another prospect’s only connection to your organization may be through a board member’s professional network.

Finally, use all of the information you’ve gathered throughout the process to prioritize prospects based on who is most likely to give at the highest level. Use capacity data to estimate potential ask amounts (such as a target gift amount, like $10,000, and a stretch goal, like $15,000) for each person. 

Your current relationship with each prospect and your organization’s major gift fundraising goals and timeline should also factor into your decision-making. For example, if you know you need 10 major donors to commit $10,000 by the end of the year for your capital campaign, you should cultivate 20 prospects with strong relationships with your organization and sufficient giving capacity.

Then, create personalized donor cultivation plans that include:

• • Several face-to-face conversations to get to know the donor and their philanthropic interests.
  • Sharing more information about your nonprofit’s work and upcoming projects that may interest the prospect.

• Invitations to relevant engagement opportunities like dinners with a board member, donor appreciation events, or behind-the-scenes tours.
• Frequent check-ins to gauge their willingness to give and receptiveness to an ask throughout the cultivation process.

Refer back to your prospect research data as you create and customize these plans for each individual. The more personalized and relevant your outreach, the better your chances of developing strong, lasting relationships.

These prospect research strategies don’t just help you identify major donor prospects—they also provide useful information to segment, cultivate, and retain major donors down the line. Take your time with the process to ensure your research is as accurate as possible, and don’t be afraid to reach out to a consultant for support.