A pack of crayons can be so exciting to a child, as the plethora of colors opens up a world of possibilities. Likewise, your nonprofit’s donor constituency consists of a variety of different individuals who each have a different background and relationship with your organization.
Nonprofits should try to focus their fundraising efforts on those donors who have the capacity to make generous donations. It can be challenging to know where to get started, which is why many nonprofits invest in a fundraising technique called prospect research.
#1: WHAT IS PROSPECT RESEARCH?
Prospect research is the process of researching existing or potential donors who have the capacity to give to your organization. Fundraisers, development teams, and nonprofits all use prospect research to stay abreast of who to focus their efforts on.
Prospect research can unearth of variety of information including:
- Personal backgrounds
- Basic contact information
- Philanthropic motivations
- Wealth markers
- Past giving histories
Your CRM can track this information, so you can access more information in one place to make more individualized fundraising appeals to donors who have a higher affinity for your organization or capacity to give.
#2: HOW TO CONDUCT PROSPECT RESEARCH
There are several ways to conduct prospect research, and your preferred method should depend on both the number of prospects you wish to research as well as your budget:
- Prospect Research Company – These companies can take your list of donors, screen them against a variety of public and proprietary databases, and provide you with detailed philanthropic and wealth information. Screen prospects daily, weekly, or monthly, according to your schedule. It’s all the prospect information you need to discover major gift prospects in less time, so you can allocate more of your resources to other fundraising efforts.
- Prospect Research Consultant – Consultants can do extensive research on individual major gift prospects and can help your organization develop solicitation strategies. You need to find the consultant who fits with your organization, which can take time.
- Do-It-Yourself – This approach will save you the most money, but it’s best to conduct prospect research yourself when you have a prospect researcher on your staff. This person, or team of researchers, will know how to efficiently gather and organize information from a plethora of databases. If your nonprofit can’t afford a prospect researcher then there’s always a more makeshift approach to prospect research that a current staff member or team of staff could learn to conduct.
#3: WHY YOUR ORGANIZATION SHOULD INVEST IN PROSPECT RESEARCH
IDENTIFY MAJOR GIFT PROSPECTS
You choose the company you keep, and, as a nonprofit in need of funds, you want that company to include as many major gift prospects as possible. Major gift prospects have the capacities to give transformational gifts that allow you to surpass fundraising goals and better fulfill your mission.
Indicators of high quality major gift prospects include:
- Past charitable giving to your organization
- Past charitable giving to other nonprofits
- Nonprofit involvement as a foundation trustee or director
- Political giving
- Real estate ownership
Prospect research will uncover this data, so you can find new major gift prospects fast. When you store the information in your CRM, you have a wealth of prospect data from which to craft individualized ask strategies to the prospects who are most worth your time.
Moreover, new major gift prospects don’t always come from new donors. In fact, most major gift donors begin as annual donors, which is why it is important to screen your loyal, even if minimal, financial supporters.
LEARN MORE ABOUT YOUR VOLUNTEERS
Volunteers are the people who give their time and energy to bring your mission to the masses. Without them, your nonprofit would struggle to find the manpower to make an impactful difference.
A benefit of volunteers is that many of them are eligible to apply for volunteer grants. Prospect research reveals employer information, which you can use to discover which of your volunteers work for companies that offer these types of grants. Of course, store this information in your CRM in order to capitalize on this form of corporate giving each time that an eligible constituent volunteers.
MAKE THE MOST OUT OF YOUR ORGANIZATION’S EVENTS
Party planners hate when they don’t know how many people are coming. How much pizza should they order? Is a larger room necessary? Does the clown have enough balloons?
Take your events seriously and plan ahead. You want to know who is coming to your events so that prospect research can swoop in for the big assist. Prospect research allows you to screen your attendees, so you know who to provide special perks to and direct your major gift officers to converse with, at an event. Without prospect research, your staff could spend the night talking to all the wrong people, when plenty of major gift donors are standing out in the open.
With prospect research, you can improve the capabilities of your CRM and lead better directed and more individualized fundraising campaigns.