In case you’ve labored within the nonprofit sector for a while, you realize that your group’s fundraising potential is dependent upon its means to know and engage its donors. The significance of figuring out your donors will increase with their giving stage—potential main donors, particularly, will solely wish to contribute to organizations that make them really feel like an integral a part of furthering the nonprofit’s mission.
Prospect analysis is one of the simplest ways to achieve perception into these high-impact donors’ giving capacities, motivations, and preferences. On this information, we’ll reply among the commonest questions nonprofit professionals have about prospect analysis when getting began so you may take advantage of this course of. Let’s dive in!
What’s prospect analysis, and the way is it used?
DonorSearch’s prospect research guide defines this time period as “a way utilized by nonprofit fundraisers, main present officers, and improvement groups to determine high-impact donors inside and past a company’s present donor pool. By means of this course of, nonprofits collect an immense quantity of knowledge—details about donors’ backgrounds, previous giving histories, wealth indicators, philanthropic motivations, and extra particulars that assist decide prospects’ probability of giving.”
Prospect analysis is helpful for locating donors for a mess of initiatives that rely on giant presents, together with:
- Launching new mission-related neighborhood applications or increasing current ones.
- Securing the estimated 60% of annual fund income that comes from main presents on common.
- Finishing your present vary chart in the course of the quiet part of a capital marketing campaign.
- Constructing out your group’s legacy giving program.
Whereas most nonprofits use prospect analysis primarily to determine new potential donors in the beginning of a fundraising initiative, it’s simplest when it’s an ongoing course of. When you’ve discovered a viable prospect, proceed researching to remain up-to-date on their wealth and philanthropic particulars as you domesticate relationships with them and solicit presents. Plus, periodically screening your donor database might help you discover main donor candidates amongst your current supporters.
What data are you able to study by way of prospect analysis?
Probably the most frequent misconceptions round prospect analysis is that it’s synonymous with wealth screening. In actuality, prospect analysis is extra complete, considering not solely potential donors’ monetary capability to present but additionally their willingness to make a big contribution to your particular group primarily based on their philanthropic tendencies and affinity on your mission.
As you display screen prospects, search for the next knowledge factors (additionally known as markers or indicators):
- Capability indicators: Actual property possession, inventory holdings, enterprise affiliations, political giving historical past
- Philanthropic indicators: Earlier donations to your nonprofit or different related organizations
- Affinity indicators: Connection to or ardour on your trigger; nonprofit involvement historical past (event attendance, volunteering, board service, and so on.); private data similar to pursuits, values, and household ties.
In your group to think about somebody a viable prospect, they need to exhibit indicators from all three classes, demonstrating that they’d have the option and prepared to make a significant present.
What instruments do it’s worthwhile to conduct prospect analysis?
Usually talking, there are two sorts of software program it’s worthwhile to conduct prospect analysis: databases and AI fundraising solutions. Let’s take a look at each classes in additional element.
Databases
These options type the spine of prospect analysis, permitting you to search out capability, philanthropic, and affinity details about potential donors. Guarantee your staff has entry to the next instruments earlier than you start:
- Prospect analysis database: Gives entry to third-party wealth and philanthropic knowledge by compiling data from numerous trusted sources, starting from actual property data to different nonprofits’ annual studies.
- Inside donor database: Serves as a place to begin for studying about current supporters’ main giving potential and a centralized place to retailer and set up prospect analysis knowledge in particular person donor profiles.
- SEC funding data and FEC political contribution data: Complement wealth knowledge on potential donors with a deeper dive into their inventory holdings and political giving historical past.
- Matching presents database: Lets you realize which prospects may have their contributions matched by their employers in addition to offers extra perception into donors’ skilled connections.
Along with leveraging these platforms, merely googling your prospects and trying out their social media profiles may give you a greater sense of their pursuits and values.
AI Options
When you’ve gathered your prospect analysis knowledge, AI instruments might help you type by way of it extra effectively and improve your outreach. The most effective sorts of nonprofit AI solutions to leverage for prospecting are:
- Prospect generator instruments: Make lists of prospects who’ve supported related causes to your group’s and create studies summarizing an important, actionable data on every prospect.
- Predictive modeling options: Charge prospects’ probability of responding to outreach and changing into donors, set up your prospect lists accordingly, and make solutions about which potential donors to achieve out to first for effectivity.
- Content material era instruments: Assist you to create tailor-made outreach messages for every prospect primarily based on predictive modeling insights.
Though research shows that nonprofits are integrating AI into their operations even quicker than for-profit firms, nonprofit AI continues to be an rising subject. Work with trusted suppliers, observe greatest practices for data security and ethics, and be clear along with your neighborhood about how your group makes use of AI to stop dangers and maximize the advantages of those instruments.
What are the subsequent steps to take after conducting prospect analysis?
As NXUnite’s donor relations guide explains, prospect analysis lays the muse for constructing a human-centered relationship with every potential donor. Whereas you will get a way of prospects’ motivations for supporting your mission and the initiatives they’d be all in favour of contributing to, one of the simplest ways to make sure about this stuff is to listen to instantly from the donor. Plus, cultivation exhibits that your nonprofit values its donors as particular person individuals fairly than simply pondering of them as income sources.
After you’ve recognized potential donors by way of prospect analysis, begin cultivating them by:
- Assembly with them one-on-one to get to know them personally and introduce them to your group
- Establishing a daily communication cadence to maintain your nonprofit high of thoughts and share related sources on present initiatives.
- Providing different engagement alternatives to present prospects a firsthand take a look at your group’s work by way of volunteering, attending occasions, or consulting on initiatives.
Preserve every prospect’s profile up to date in your donor database as you study extra about them by way of these relationship-building actions and your ongoing analysis. This fashion, when the time involves solicit a major gift, you should use all of this data to request an quantity and recommend a designation that aligns with their distinctive giving capability and motivations.
As with different new processes at your nonprofit, getting your strategy to prospect analysis proper will seemingly take time and observe. Monitor the usefulness of the info you discover and the effectiveness of your research-driven outreach efforts. This fashion, you may hone your course of over time and finally deliver in additional main presents on your mission.
Concerning the Creator
Sarah Tedesco
Sarah Tedesco is the Govt Vice President of DonorSearch, a prospect analysis and wealth screening firm that focuses on confirmed philanthropy. Sarah is accountable for managing the manufacturing and buyer help division regarding consumer contract achievement, rising retention fee and buyer satisfaction. She collaborates with different staff members on quite a lot of points together with gross sales, advertising and marketing and product improvement concepts.