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Finding the right donors takes more than luck. With limited resources and growing competition for funding, nonprofits can't afford to waste time on donors who aren't the right fit. Yet many organizations struggle to identify which prospects are most likely to support their cause.
Systematic donor prospect research changes this guesswork into strategy. By understanding who your potential donors are - their giving capacity, their interests, and their connection to your mission - you can focus your outreach efforts where they'll have the most impact.
In this guide, we’ll show you exactly how to find and evaluate the right prospects for your nonprofit's unique needs.
Prospect research is how nonprofits identify and evaluate potential donors who are most likely to support their cause.
It's about understanding not just who can give but who will give - by looking at factors like their giving history, connection to your mission, and financial capacity. This systematic approach helps you focus your limited resources on building relationships with the donors most likely to become long-term supporters.
5 benefits of Donor Prospect Research
1. Reveals donor potential
Prospect research identifies potential major donors by examining their giving capacity, their connection to your mission, and their inclination toward your cause. This analysis also helps you uncover mid-level donors with the potential to make larger gifts.
Analyzing donor-giving patterns reveals when supporters prefer to give, how they like to donate, and which initiatives they care about most. These insights help create targeted fundraising and stewardship strategies that resonate with donors.
Prospect research helps you understand each donor's giving capacity by examining their previous contributions and engagement history. This allows you to make appropriate asks that align with both their interests and ability to give.
By aligning your requests with a donor's giving capacity, you increase their likelihood of supporting your nonprofit's mission.
4. Maintains updated records
Regular prospect research helps you track changes in your donors' lives - from new jobs to relocations to shifts in giving capacity. Keeping these details up to date means you won't miss opportunities to deepen relationships or adjust your approach as donors' situations change.
5. Saves time and resources
Stop chasing the wrong prospects. By understanding who's most likely to give before you invest in outreach, you can focus your limited resources where they'll have a real impact. This targeted approach means higher response rates and better returns on your fundraising efforts.
4 key components of donor prospect research
1. Wealth screening
Wealth screening helps nonprofits identify donors with significant giving potential. It uses capacity markers, also known as wealth indicators, to assess a prospect's financial ability and determine appropriate ask amounts, such as:
Income level: Understand how much your potential donors earn to ensure you make informed, realistic fundraising requests
Real estate holdings: By learning about the real estate properties your supporters own, you can evaluate their net worth and potential for planned giving
Business affiliations: This includes details about a potential donor's employment status, board memberships, advisory roles, or any other connections they share with a business
Stock holdings: A donor's investments can indicate their financial position and liquid assets for charitable giving
2. Philanthropic markers
Philanthropic markers, also known as affinity markers, help to find potential donors whose values and experiences align with your mission. These markers often include:
Donations to other organizations with similar mission to yours
Political involvement or history of participating in community work or serving on nonprofit boards
Past involvement with your organization or relationship with current donors in your database
3. Engagement indicators
Engagement indicators measure how actively potential donors interact with your organization, helping to assess their connection to your mission and the likelihood of supporting your cause. These indicators include fundraising event attendance, volunteer involvement, and digital engagement through email responses, social media interactions, and website visits.
4. Personal information
Personal information gives you a well-rounded understanding of who each prospect is and how you can connect with them on a more meaningful level. These include:
Full and preferred name and title
Gender
Marital status
Email and postal address
Phone number
Hobbies
Date of birth
5 steps to carry out prospect research for your nonprofit
1. Define your ideal prospect profile
Start by defining your ideal donor profile - maybe you’re trying to reach someone with substantial financial resources or an individual deeply invested in your mission. Outlining clear donor criteria helps focus research efforts and identify the most suitable prospects.
For example, a childcare nonprofit's ideal donor profile might include:
Parents or grandparents with significant financial capacity
Business leaders in family-friendly companies
Individuals with previous donations to child-focused organizations
Local community figures interested in early education
Nonprofit board of other youth-focused nonprofits
Former educators or child development professionals with substantial assets
2. Clean up your old database
Before starting prospect research, ensure your database is clean and well-organized. This will ensure that your new records don’t get mixed up with outdated information.
Some data hygiene practices to focus on include:
Removing duplicate donor records
Updating contact information, including addresses, phone numbers, and email addresses
Standardizing data entry formats for names, addresses and giving amounts
Recording and updating any changes in donor status or engagement level
Scanning your donor database for typos
3. Create a new list of prospects
With a clear donor profile established, you can start looking for new prospects using these methods:
Analyze your donor database: Review your existing records to identify three key groups - current major gift donors, regular contributors, and people who have participated in events or volunteering activities
Rely on LinkedIn: Use LinkedIn’s advanced search filters and profile summaries to identify individuals and organizations actively supporting causes similar to yours
Check out company websites: A company about us or members page helps you find potential prospects and their career achievements, interests, and professional responsibilities
Turn to existing donors: Ask your current supporters to introduce you to peers and families in their network who may have an interest in your mission or share similar values
Look into peer organizations: Check out other nonprofits' donor walls, annual reports, websites, or social media channels to find people with an interest in social causes
4. Compile prospect profiles
After identifying potential prospects, develop detailed profiles for each individual. You need to include basic personal information like age, profession, and education. Then, add their giving history and financial capacity data, covering assets like real estate holdings, business affiliations, and stock ownership.
Some sources to gather these details include:
Public records: Websites like SEC’s EDGAR database offer insights on prospects if they are executives or major shareholders of a publicly traded company
News sources and press releases: Local newspapers, industry journals, and business magazines often publish about philanthropists, high-net-worth individuals, or corporate donors
Foundation records: Check private foundation tax returns (Form 990-PF) to understand their giving patterns, board affiliations, and grant amounts to similar causes
Social media: Browse X (formerly Twitter), Facebook, and Instagram to understand which social causes or community work your prospects are interested in
5. Analyze and categorize for solicitation
Once you've identified prospects, it's time to categorize them. Segmentation allows you to personalize your outreach and strengthen connections with different donor types. You can segment your donors based on characteristics such as:
Donation level: Categorize supporters into major, mid-level, and entry-level donors. This helps create specific outreach plans that match their giving capacity
Donation frequency: Track giving patterns to identify consistent donors and one-time supporters. These insights can help you strengthen engagement with regular supporters while developing targeted strategies to convert occasional donors into recurring contributors.
Geographic location: Grouping donors by location makes it easy to understand regional interests, plan local events, and create area-specific campaigns that connect with local community priorities.
Interests: Monitor donor giving history, survey responses, and event participation to share relevant updates and impact stories that match their specific interests
Type of support: Separate your database into different support groups like volunteers, corporate partners, individual donors, and more to reach out with appeals that resonate with them like volunteering, partnership, or advocacy campaigns
Demographics: Consider age groups, professional backgrounds, and other key factors to craft messages that speak to different donor groups
Communication preferences: Record whether donors respond better to emails, phone calls, letters, or in-person meetings to communicate in their preferred way
Download our 100% free donor prospect research template
8 tools to perform donor prospect research for your nonprofit
WealthEngine
Kindsight (iWave)
DonorSearch
Candid
Zeffy
Salesforce
LinkedIn Sales Navigator
Hootsuite
1. WealthEngine: Wealth screening tool
WealthEngine creates detailed donor profiles with information about wealth, income, and charitable giving history. The platform focuses on propensity to give, which rates an individual's likelihood of donating based on wealth and philanthropic data. It automatically identifies and fixes data errors in your database, preventing outreach errors.
Key features:
Comprehensive donor profiles with wealth, income, and philanthropy data
Predictive analytics for gauging donation likelihood
Data enrichment tools to automatically update donor databases
2. Kindsight (iWave): Wealth screening tool
Kindsight, formerly known as iWave, is another prospecting tool for wealth screening and philanthropic profiling, focusing on donor capacity and inclination. The platform uses sophisticated data aggregation, predictive modeling, and analysis to create prospect lists.
Key features:
Scalable search for donor capacity and affinity markers
Customized scoring to rank donor prospects
Integration with donor management systems for seamless updates
3. DonorSearch: Philanthropic database
DonorSearch maintains one of the largest philanthropic databases worldwide. The platform completes missing donor information and identifies new prospects for major gifts and planned giving. Its keyword search feature helps you quickly find essential donor profile details for informed fundraising decisions.
Key features:
Largest searchable database of charitable giving and wealth indicators
Keyword-based search for efficient prospect identification
Insights into planned giving and major donor trends
4. Candid: Philanthropic database
Candid provides nonprofits access to Form 990 filings to identify foundations and major donors supporting similar causes. The platform offers tools to search for grant opportunities tailored to specific missions and geographic areas.
Key features:
Grant search tailored to missions and regions
Access to private foundation financial records and giving patterns
In-depth data on funding priorities of donors and organizations
5. Zeffy: The ONLY 100% free nonprofit CRM
Zeffy is an all-in-one 100% free donor management software designed exclusively for nonprofits. Our platform helps you organize and act on your prospect research with powerful donor management tools. While Zeffy doesn't conduct prospect research directly, we offer essential features for managing prospect data and donor relationships in a single place.
With powerful donor tracking and engagement tools, Zeffy helps nonprofits build meaningful relationships with supporters while keeping every dollar for their cause.
Key features:
100% free - No transaction, platform, or hidden fees—maximizing every donation for your cause
Store and organize detailed prospect profiles from your research
Comprehensive profiles with donation history and engagement trends for better outreach
Manage campaigns, events, and recurring donations within the same system
Personalize thank-you emails and reports to build stronger donor connections
Track performance metrics and fundraising progress through intuitive dashboards
Bloomerang is a donor management and engagement tracking tool that helps build meaningful relationships with prospects. It offers tools to track donations, create targeted communications, and manage fundraising campaigns.
Key features:
Tools to track donations and analyze engagement
Customizable dashboards to visualize donor activity
7. LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Social media listening tool
LinkedIn Sales Navigator allows your nonprofit to find and connect with corporate leaders and professionals aligned with your mission. Its advanced search filters spanning geography, industry, company, and more help you identify individuals with philanthropic interests or organizations actively supporting social causes.
Key features:
Advanced search filters for geography, industry, and company
Personalized outreach options for high-value leads
Real-time updates on professional achievements and transitions
8. Hootsuite: Social media listening tool
Hootsuite helps nonprofits track hashtags, keywords, and social media mentions to identify potential donors discussing your mission-related topics. It also uncovers opportunities to engage with businesses and individuals actively supporting similar initiatives.
Key features:
Monitors keywords, hashtags, and social discussions
Scheduling tools for social engagement campaigns
Analytics to measure social interaction and donor interest
3 best practices for donor prospect research
1. Work with prospect research consultants
When your team is stretched thin, prospect research consultants can multiply your impact. These specialists bring expertise and dedicated resources to quickly identify your best potential donors.
They will work with your unique needs and budget to deliver targeted prospect lists, whether for annual giving programs or major gift campaigns.
2. Attend community events
Community events like concerts, galas, and dinners help you connect with individuals passionate about social causes. By researching social media and public records, you can do some background research and gain valuable insights into their interests and community involvement.
With these details, you can start a conversation and establish meaningful relationships based on shared values.
3. Focus on relationship-building
Once you've selected qualified prospects, create a plan to build on those relationships instead of directly asking for contributions. This plan should outline which channels to use, when to approach, and what message to use.
It will define whether to call your prospect, invite them to an event, connect with them in person, or send them a personalized letter based on their preferences and past donations.
Effective prospect research transforms fundraising from random outreach to strategic donor partnerships. By understanding who your best potential donors are, you can focus on building meaningful connections that lead to lasting support.
Zeffy's 100% free donor management system helps you organize donor data, track relationships, and manage outreach - all without paying a single fee. Our platform gives you the tools to turn prospects into committed supporters while keeping all of your donations for your cause.
You should update your donor prospect information regularly, ideally at least twice a year, to keep your donor database fresh. This timing helps capture important changes in donor lives, from career movies to changing philanthropic interests.
Before launching significant fundraising efforts like major gift initiatives or capital campaigns, take extra care to verify whether you have the right and complete information on donors.
Donor segmentation in prospect research organizes potential donors into distinct groups based on their giving capacity, interests, and past engagement. By segmenting donors, you can develop targeted approaches for each group with similar characteristics instead of creating individual strategies for every donor.
For example, donors interested in education programs can receive updates about scholarship impacts, while those passionate about community development hear about local initiatives.
When conducting donor prospect research, your nonprofit must ensure compliance with privacy laws like GDPR or CCPA. Use only publicly available information, like social media profiles, public records, or official websites, to avoid violating someone's privacy.
You must respect donor confidentiality by securely storing data in a protected donor management system. Try to also ensure transparency with prospects by informing them how their information will be used, particularly if they are already engaged with your nonprofit.
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