A Nonprofit’s Key to Higher Fundraising

In case your nonprofit is on the lookout for a approach to maximize its fundraising efforts, there’s one avenue you won’t be paying sufficient consideration to: prospect analysis.

No matter your group’s dimension, gathering the proper donor knowledge by way of prospect analysis can have a huge effect in your nonprofit’s income. These funds might help you serve your mission, fund necessary initiatives, and work towards your objectives.

On this information, we’ll define a number of necessary items of knowledge you’ll must efficiently leverage prospect analysis, together with:

From studying the fundamentals to soliciting your first prospects, an intensive understanding of prospect analysis generally is a game-changer in your group. Let’s get began!

The Fundamentals of Prospect Analysis

What Is Prospect Analysis?

Prospect analysis is a course of carried out by a nonprofit’s improvement workforce to collect knowledge about donors, volunteers, and different supporters. The method analyzes every particular person’s giving capability, motivations, and affinity for the trigger. It helps decide a person’s means and need to help that particular trigger, in addition to easy methods to enchantment to their pursuits.

Key components nonprofits search for throughout prospect analysis embody previous giving, wealth markers, enterprise affiliations, and philanthropic tendencies. Nonprofits may also use software program or flip to prospect analysis corporations to assemble this knowledge.

Wealth Screening vs. Prospect Analysis

You might have heard the time period wealth screening along side prospect analysis. Whereas the 2 phrases are sometimes used interchangeably, wealth screening is just one part of prospect analysis.

Wealth screening analyzes a donor’s monetary profile, together with actual property and inventory holdings, in addition to political giving. Whereas it’s an important a part of prospect analysis, this solely signifies a person’s means to offer.

Prospect analysis goes a step additional and makes use of each wealth and philanthropic indicators to find out a donor’s willingness and capability to offer. This gives nonprofits with a whole image of every donor and helps make extra knowledgeable solicitations. We’ll discover the whole vary of information you need to gather within the subsequent part.

Who Makes use of Prospect Analysis?

A wide range of organizations use prospect analysis to spice up income and drive extra significant relationships. These embody:

• Instructional establishments: Thorough analysis can pinpoint alumni and oldsters with a robust monetary capability and a historical past of philanthropy. Instructional establishments can then tailor fundraising appeals to advertise scholarships, services upgrades, and particular applications.
• Healthcare organizations: Prospect analysis helps establish donors with private connections to particular medical causes or who’ve beforehand donated to health-related initiatives. This permits these organizations to give attention to potential donors more likely to fund state-of-the-art gear or affected person care services.
• Arts and cultural organizations: Arts organizations can establish patrons with a eager curiosity within the arts and a historical past of supporting cultural initiatives. This data is essential for focusing on campaigns for exhibitions, performances, and academic workshops.
• Environmental teams: These organizations can establish donors who’re captivated with conservation, local weather change, or particular regional environmental points. Efficient prospect analysis can result in focused campaigns that resonate deeply with donors’ values, driving funding for essential initiatives and advocacy efforts.
• Religion-based organizations: Prospect analysis helps establish people who’ve proven generosity to spiritual or non secular causes, enabling faith-based organizations, akin to church buildings, to personalize solicitations for funding new services and mission work.
• Advocacy teams: Prospect analysis helps uncover supporters who’re financially succesful and deeply dedicated to particular causes like civil rights, training reform, or well being coverage. This perception helps mobilize sources for lobbying and public consciousness campaigns.
• Greek organizations: Fraternities and sororities can use prospect analysis to attach with alumni who’ve fond reminiscences of their membership and is perhaps desirous about funding scholarships and chapter home renovations.

Prospect analysis might help all of those organizations (plus others!) develop into extra centered of their outreach.

The Worth of Thorough Prospect Analysis

40% of B2B salespeople say prospecting is probably the most difficult a part of the gross sales course of. Relating to fundraising, nonprofits expertise that very same precise ache level. Prospect analysis may be extremely useful in sourcing and qualifying results in keep away from losing time pursuing people with out the affinity or capability to offer.

Past time financial savings, listed below are an important advantages of researching supporters:

• Improved Fundraising Effectivity: Prospect analysis helps nonprofits establish probably the most promising donors, focusing efforts on those that are probably to contribute.
• Tailor-made Appeals and Advertising and marketing: By understanding potential donors’ giving capability, nonprofits can tailor asks to totally different supporter segments based mostly on particular person wealth indicators and giving historical past.
• Higher Supporter Relationships: Complete prospect analysis allows nonprofits to know supporters’ pursuits and passions, enabling personalised communication that resonates with every particular person’s values and helps retain help.
• Strategic Planning: Insights into supporters’ capabilities and preferences assist nonprofits plan their initiatives extra successfully.
• Discovering Your Subsequent Problem Match Chief: Whereas many nonprofits view prospect analysis merely as a approach to fill a pipeline with particular person donors, probably the most strategic organizations use it to search out companions. The last word win is figuring out a high-capacity donor who’s prepared to leverage their present as a Problem Match to encourage different donors as nicely.
• Extra Dependable Knowledge: Prospect analysis helps nonprofits collect complete, correct knowledge on potential donors, together with telephone numbers, demographics, wealth indicators, and philanthropic pursuits. Dependable knowledge is essential for making knowledgeable choices and staying related with supporters.

Prospect analysis is crucial for nonprofits trying to optimize their fundraising initiatives and construct lasting relationships. Be sure you’re working with dependable instruments and firms to assemble supporter knowledge, and also you’ll set your workforce up for fulfillment.

Employment Knowledge: the Most Highly effective Piece of Fashionable Fundraising Intelligence

Whereas actual property and inventory holdings have historically been the “gold commonplace” of wealth screening, employment knowledge has emerged as the only most useful knowledge level in trendy fundraising.

Why? As a result of realizing the place a donor works gives a twin layer of economic intelligence that no different knowledge level can supply:

• It Reveals Rapid Capability: Job titles and employers are direct proxies for revenue and disposable property. A Director at a Fortune 500 firm or a Companion at a significant legislation agency indicators instant main present potential without having to dig by way of property tax information.
• It Unlocks Company Wallets: That is the hidden worth. Employment knowledge tells you precisely which donors are eligible for matching items, volunteer grants, and even sponsorship applications. If you establish a donor who works for a office giving firm, you’re successfully figuring out a donor whose present may be immediately doubled or tripled, with even higher partnership potential down the highway.

In in the present day’s panorama, employment knowledge is the bridge between particular person giving and company philanthropy. By prioritizing employment data in your prospect analysis, you aren’t simply assessing a donor’s private checkbook; you’re assessing their means to direct company funds to your mission.

Different Knowledge Factors To Collect Throughout Prospect Analysis

Since prospect analysis includes accumulating each wealth and philanthropic indicators, it’s necessary to know the widespread knowledge factors underneath every umbrella.

1) Philanthropic Indicators

Philanthropic indicators signify a person’s willingness to offer to your group. These embody:

Earlier Donations to Your Nonprofit

Previous giving is the most effective indicator of future giving as a result of it means the supporter is desirous about your trigger and has already contributed. Prospect analysis helps uncover prior donations so your group can attain out once more.

Donations to Different Organizations

In case your donors are philanthropically minded, they in all probability aren’t solely giving to your nonprofit. Let prospect analysis unveil previous giving to organizations with causes much like yours.

Nonprofit Involvement

Giving isn’t the one indicator of a person’s philanthropic mindset. With prospect analysis, you’ll be able to establish different types of nonprofit involvement, akin to advocacy, volunteerism, and board membership.

Private Data

Amassing private knowledge will provide you with a extra holistic understanding of every donor and easy methods to join with them on a deeper degree. Craft extra focused appeals and ship these appeals efficiently by gathering this donor knowledge:

• Full and most well-liked identify and title
• Gender
• Marital standing
• Contact data, like e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, and postal addresses
• Hobbies and pursuits
• Dates of beginning

A lot of this data may be collected on-line or by way of knowledge appending providers, serving to you establish splendid prospects.

2) Wealth Indicators

Wealth indicators signify a person’s means to offer to your group. These embody:

Actual Property Possession

The standard and amount of actual property somebody owns are wealth indicators your fundraising workforce ought to take note of. People with notable actual property have giant giving capacities that you could capitalize on in your nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives.

Enterprise Affiliations

Prospect analysis might help you detect present enterprise connections amongst your donors. This analysis consists of particulars a few donor’s profession, akin to wage estimates, which may point out wealth and skill to offer. You might also uncover details about a donor’s employer’s company giving program, which may present insights into potential matching present alternatives.

Inventory Possession/SEC Transactions

Realizing a few contributor’s inventory possession may give you much more perception into their wealth and capability to donate to your group.

Political Contributions

Likelihood is that a person who has made sizable donations to a political marketing campaign additionally has the giving capability to donate main items to your nonprofit. Through the use of prospect analysis to focus on this group, you’ll be able to give attention to profitable over prospects with the potential to make beneficiant contributions.

Prospect analysis is the proper software for figuring out main present prospects hidden in your present donor database. It will probably assist you uncover previous giving and involvement and observe giving patterns which will predict main giving.

For example, you may need a trustworthy donor whose contributions have steadily elevated over the previous 5 years. With prospect analysis, you’ll be able to look at that donor’s historical past and determine the most effective technique to ask for a significant donation.

Capital Campaigns

A capital marketing campaign is a long-term fundraising effort that’s normally tied to a big undertaking, akin to the development of a brand new constructing or the event of an endowment.

Capital campaigns sometimes depend on a set variety of main items throughout the “quiet part” earlier than fundraising is opened to everybody within the “public part.” Prospect analysis might help uncover splendid donors for each the quiet and public phases.

Problem Matches

A problem match (whereby a significant donor pledges a big sum contingent on the nonprofit elevating an equal quantity from different supporters) creates urgency and pleasure. Prospect analysis may be important for figuring out a lead donor for this technique by uncovering people who not solely have excessive monetary capability but additionally a management profile and deep affinity for the trigger.

Figuring out these “Problem Match Leaders” is a strong approach to flip a single main present right into a income multiplier in your total marketing campaign, far exceeding the worth of an ordinary one-time donation.

Annual Giving

Annual giving is what retains your group’s wheels turning. With out it, you wouldn’t be capable of full your day-to-day operations.

Whereas your group possible already asks all supporters to contribute to your annual fund, now you can seek for new annual donors by way of prospect analysis instruments. As well as, you’re extra more likely to uncover potential supporters by trying into somebody’s previous giving to organizations that align with your personal.

Company Giving Alternatives

Prospect analysis is instrumental in figuring out and understanding potential company companions whose philanthropic pursuits align along with your nonprofit’s mission. Amassing employer knowledge additionally helps pinpoint untapped alternatives. Examples embody:

• Matching items: Many corporations match their staff’ donations to eligible nonprofits. Realizing the place your supporters work might help you establish match-eligible donors, so you’ll be able to comply with up and double these people’ contributions.
• Volunteer grants: Companies additionally present volunteer grants to nonprofits the place their staff volunteer commonly. Prospect analysis might help pinpoint these alternatives.
• Volunteer Time Off: Tons of corporations supply their staff bonus PTO to take part in volunteer actions with organizations like ours. Use prospect analysis to establish volunteers (or prospects) who work for corporations with these applications.
• In-Type Donations: Corporations can present non-monetary help within the type of items or providers. Prospect analysis helps establish potential donors who can supply in-kind contributions related to your nonprofit’s wants, akin to expertise, workplace provides, or skilled providers.

When you establish these alternatives, your nonprofit can attain out to supporters who’re eligible to take part of their corporations’ company giving applications.

Deliberate Giving

Determine donors who’re ready to make important long-term commitments, akin to bequests, trusts, or annuities.

• An identical present search software might help you establish company and particular person prospects from a listing of people that have already made matching items to your nonprofit.
• Matching items can encourage prospects to offer extra to your group by inspiring them to double their influence. The truth is, one in three donors is extra more likely to donate if a match is obtainable.
• Prospect analysis and matching items can develop your company engagement efforts by pinpointing corporations with beneficiant applications.
• Specializing in people with matching present potential doubles the worth of that donor’s potential help.

To handle this technique successfully, think about using specialised instruments like  Double the Donation Matching. This software program simplifies monitoring and verifying matching present eligibility and submissions, guaranteeing you take advantage of each donation alternative.

Find out how to Analysis Donors and Different Constituents

When you’ve determined to carry out prospect analysis, you is perhaps questioning the place you need to begin. Listed here are the final steps you’ll be able to take to assemble supporter knowledge.

1) Select your prospect analysis technique.

Your first step is to plan the way you’ll strategy your analysis course of by asking your self about your fundraising objectives, present methods, and timeline. When you perceive what you want out of your analysis, select one in every of these strategies:

• Do It Your self: For smaller or newer nonprofits with tighter budgets, a do-it-yourself prospect screening strategy is an efficient choice. Use free or low-cost prospect analysis instruments to look at donors’ giving and philanthropic histories.
• Prospect Analysis Consultants: Prospect analysis consulting corporations are extraordinarily beneficial sources for nonprofits. They provide recommendation and complete screenings for nonprofits of all styles and sizes.
• Prospect Screening Corporations: Each prospect screening firm is totally different, however most evaluate your donors towards quite a lot of databases to create a complete profile for every supporter. This may assist your group observe, type, and consider all your supporters.

Be sure you know precisely which knowledge you should gather and the way rapidly you should gather it, so you’ll be able to decide the proper technique.

2) Type a prospect analysis workforce.

Should you’ll conduct prospect analysis in-house, you’ll must construct an efficient prospect analysis workforce of people with complementary expertise. The next roles are essential to your workforce’s success:

• Director: This particular person leads the workforce, units strategic objectives, and ensures alignment along with your nonprofit’s broader aims. They oversee your complete analysis course of and make sure the workforce has the mandatory instruments to conduct analysis.
• Prospect Researcher: This workforce member is answerable for gathering knowledge about potential and present supporters. They’re tasked with creating detailed profiles by digging into donor knowledge utilizing numerous sources, akin to databases, public information, and social media.
• Knowledge Analyst: A knowledge analyst focuses on deciphering knowledge and traits from donor databases and exterior sources. They assist the workforce perceive giving patterns and establish potential high-value donors.
• Growth Officer: This particular person makes use of insights from prospect analysis to domesticate and preserve donor relationships. They’re sometimes concerned in direct fundraising efforts and use data-driven methods to strategy potential donors, safe donations, and nurture ongoing donor relationships.
• Authorized/Compliance Officer: Given the delicate nature of dealing with private knowledge, having somebody educated about authorized and moral requirements is essential. This workforce member ensures that each one prospect analysis actions adjust to privateness legal guidelines and moral fundraising practices.

Every position focuses on a selected side of the prospect analysis course of, contributing to a complete strategy. Whereas the construction of your workforce might differ, this steered construction helps focused fundraising efforts and helps construct a strong basis for long-term supporter engagement.

3) Clear up your knowledge.

Earlier than conducting prospect analysis, clear up your knowledge to make sure the method runs easily and yields extra correct outcomes. A couple of methods to keep up correct knowledge hygiene embody:

• Figuring out and eradicating duplicate information inside your database
• Standardizing knowledge entries to keep up consistency throughout your database, akin to through the use of uniform codecs for dates, addresses, telephone numbers, and names
• Figuring out and eradicating outdated or irrelevant data that not serves your fundraising methods
• Eradicating lapsed donors out of your information
• Scanning your database for typos

Your knowledge doesn’t should be excellent, however cleansing it up as a lot as attainable will optimize your system for prospect analysis.

4) Examine for accuracy.

When you’ve truly carried out prospect analysis, confirm the accuracy of the information gathered. This step includes cross-referencing data from a number of sources to verify particulars akin to contact data, philanthropic historical past, and monetary capability. Some prospect analysis corporations can have an accuracy-check course of, akin to manually verifying appended emails and telephone numbers.

Guaranteeing knowledge accuracy helps forestall miscommunication and fosters belief by demonstrating diligence and respect for every prospect’s data. It additionally optimizes the effectivity of subsequent outreach efforts by lowering the time spent on addressing inaccurate or outdated data.

5) Analyze and make a plan for leveraging your new knowledge.

After integrating the brand new knowledge into your CRM, make sure to sift by way of the outcomes to establish probably the most promising prospects by analyzing components akin to giving capability, alignment along with your nonprofit’s mission, and chance of giving. Based mostly on this evaluation, create an in depth plan for easy methods to greatest use this knowledge for outreach.

This plan ought to define who to strategy, the most effective methods to succeed in out to them, and the proper time to take action. It includes deciding whether or not to satisfy somebody in individual, invite them to a particular occasion, ship them a personalised letter, or join by way of on-line platforms based mostly on their preferences and previous donations.

Throughout this stage, you’ll need to phase your supporters based mostly on shared traits.

These might embody:

• Donation Stage: Group donors based mostly on the quantity they contribute, akin to main, mid-level, and low-level donors. This permits for tailor-made communication methods that acknowledge the extent of help.
• Office Giving Eligibility: Concentrating on donors who qualify for matching items, volunteer applications, or payroll giving is a good way to take advantage of your supporters’ uncovered connections. Remember to use the data you’ve gathered (akin to employer identify and program pointers) to additional personalize your outreach.
• Donation Frequency: Determine who provides commonly versus those that donate sporadically. Common givers may be approached for recurring giving applications, whereas sporadic givers may be inspired to offer extra constantly.
• Geographic Location: Segmenting donors by location might help arrange native occasions, perceive regional pursuits, and tailor communications that resonate with local people values or wants.
• Pursuits: By understanding what particular initiatives or elements of the group’s work a donor helps, nonprofits can tailor outreach to replicate donors’ pursuits.
• Sort of Assist: Differentiate between sorts of supporters akin to volunteers, advocates, company sponsors, and particular person donors.
• Demographics: Segmenting based mostly on demographics helps select messages and outreach methods which might be extra more likely to resonate with totally different teams.
• Communication Preferences: Some supporters might favor digital communication, whereas others would possibly worth conventional mail or private calls. Segmenting by communication desire ensures supporters obtain data in the best way that’s most accessible and interesting to them.

• Matching present databases comprise data on corporations that provide matching present applications. They retailer necessities for worker eligibility, nonprofit eligibility, and donation quantities. Plus, they supply related submission data akin to out there varieties and deadlines.

• Volunteer grant databases present particulars on corporations that provide grants to nonprofits the place their staff volunteer. This prospect analysis software shops information of particular person corporations’ applications, together with volunteer hours, worker and nonprofit necessities, and directions, together with hyperlinks to software varieties and deadlines.

Moreover, company prospecting software program like Double the Donation leverages present donor knowledge to uncover hidden company potential. By importing your present donor record for a fast employer append screening, the platform immediately identifies which of your supporters are eligible for office giving alternatives that may considerably develop your group’s income. This transforms your commonplace donor record right into a high-value prospect record, permitting your workforce to prioritize outreach to donors whose contributions may be instantly doubled, maximizing each particular person donor worth and general fundraising effectivity earlier than a significant present ask is even made.

These prospect analysis instruments might help your nonprofit establish donors and volunteers eligible for his or her corporations’ philanthropic applications. Plus, they might help you establish corporations that provide beneficiant company giving initiatives, which may open the door to strategic partnerships.

Donor Information Alert Companies

Donor information alert providers are platforms that monitor and report information about potential donors. Your nonprofit can use a platform like this to remain knowledgeable about donor actions that sign a willingness or means to offer. Much more importantly, these insights assist nonprofits construct deep, significant relationships with their donors, which can yield important items sooner or later.

For instance, these platforms monitor obituary knowledge, that means they’ll notify your nonprofit when a prospect or donor’s beloved one passes away. Your fundraising workforce can then attain out with heartfelt condolences on behalf of your group. Prospects will possible admire this private outreach and a spotlight to element, and could also be extra prepared to help your group sooner or later.

Insightful Philanthropy is our beneficial donor information alert service for its intensive data sourcing and well timed notifications. This platform depends on 14,000 information and data sources from greater than 200+ nations, and even faucets into historic donor knowledge from as much as 40 years in the past to offer nonprofits a whole image of their prospects.

Your Nonprofit’s CRM

Your nonprofit’s CRM is a basic software for managing donor interactions and monitoring engagement historical past. It shops essential knowledge akin to donation information, occasion attendance, volunteer exercise, and communication preferences, which may be leveraged to construct stronger relationships with supporters.

Efficient use of a CRM helps personalize donor interactions and streamline fundraising actions, making it simpler to domesticate and steward donor relationships.

SEC Funding Information

SEC funding information present details about the funding actions of people and establishments, which may be notably beneficial in assessing the monetary capability of potential main donors.

By inspecting public filings akin to insider buying and selling reviews and inventory holdings, nonprofits can gauge prospects’ wealth degree and philanthropic capability. That is particularly helpful for figuring out high-net-worth people and understanding their funding behaviors.

Predictive Modeling Options

Predictive modeling options use statistical strategies and algorithms to research historic knowledge and predict future donor behaviors. These instruments assist nonprofits anticipate which prospects are probably to donate, their anticipated donation quantities, and optimum occasions for solicitation.

Wealth Screening Instruments

These instruments assist nonprofits assess potential donors’ monetary capability by analyzing knowledge factors akin to actual property possession, inventory holdings, previous charitable contributions, and different publicly out there monetary data. That method, you’ll be able to give attention to prospects with the means and propensity to offer considerably.

As a prime beneficial prospect analysis service, DonorSearch blends philanthropic and wealth metrics so your group could make knowledgeable choices about prospects and plan efficient outreach. Plus, the corporate provides just a few decisions of instruments with regards to conducting prospect analysis:

• Charitable giving database. DonorSearch’s charitable giving database is complete and consistently rising, housing tons of helpful philanthropic knowledge.
• DSGiving search software. DSGiving is a free prospect analysis software that gives entry to a smaller-scale model of DonorSearch’s philanthropic and political contributions knowledge. Merely kind in a person’s identify, state of residence, and present kind, and the software will pull helpful knowledge.

• Double the Donation Matching: Utilizing Double the Donation’s matching present fundraising software program, organizations can uncover beneficial matching present prospects by accumulating employer data inside the donation course of. From there, the answer screens for matching present eligibility and populates the suitable varieties and pointers for submitting a match. Plus, Double the Donation Matching provides a real-time employer appends add-on that immediately scans donor information and robotically provides firm data if out there. Take a look at this video for a better look:

• Double the Donation’s Office Giving Insights: This highly effective new module takes your donor record and gives in-depth prospect analysis knowledge centered solely on company giving potential. It screens donors’ employer affiliations to disclose which corporations supply matching items, volunteer grants, and different office giving applications, reworking a scattering of particular person donors right into a prioritized record of company income alternatives.

Wish to be taught extra about how our cutting-edge expertise can help your prospect analysis and drive higher fundraising outcomes? Attain out to our workforce for a free demo to see the whole platform in motion!

Wrapping Up

Prospect analysis is a useful technique that equips nonprofits with the insights wanted to focus on donors successfully. By harnessing the ability of detailed knowledge evaluation and strategic donor segmentation, your group can unlock new alternatives and maximize the influence of its fundraising efforts.

Should you’re on the lookout for extra details about prospect analysis, take a look at the extra sources under: