If you happen to’ve labored within the nonprofit sector for a while, you realize that your group’s fundraising potential is dependent upon its capacity to know and have interaction its donors. The significance of figuring out your donors will increase with their giving stage—potential main donors, particularly, will solely need 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 realize perception into these high-impact donors’ giving capacities, motivations, and preferences. On this information, we’ll reply a number of the most typical questions nonprofit professionals have about prospect analysis when getting began so you’ll be able to profit from this course of. Let’s dive in!
What’s prospect analysis, and the way is it used?
DonorSearch’s prospect analysis information defines this time period as “a method utilized by nonprofit fundraisers, main reward officers, and growth groups to determine high-impact donors inside and past a corporation’s present donor pool. By way of this course of, nonprofits collect an immense quantity of information—details about donors’ backgrounds, previous giving histories, wealth indicators, philanthropic motivations, and extra particulars that assist decide prospects’ chance of giving.”
Prospect analysis is helpful for locating donors for a mess of initiatives that rely on massive items, together with:
- Launching new mission-related group packages or increasing present ones.
- Securing the estimated 60% of annual fund income that comes from main items on common.
- Finishing your reward vary chart in the course of the quiet section 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 at first 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 items. Plus, periodically screening your donor database can assist you discover main donor candidates amongst your present supporters.
What info are you able to study by way of prospect analysis?
Probably the most widespread misconceptions round prospect analysis is that it’s synonymous with wealth screening. In actuality, prospect analysis is extra complete, bearing in mind not solely potential donors’ monetary capability to provide but in addition their willingness to make a big contribution to your particular group based mostly on their philanthropic tendencies and affinity in 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 in your trigger; nonprofit involvement historical past (occasion attendance, volunteering, board service, and so forth.); private info equivalent to pursuits, values, and household ties.
In your group to contemplate somebody a viable prospect, they need to exhibit indicators from all three classes, demonstrating that they’d have the ability and prepared to make a significant reward.
What instruments do you must conduct prospect analysis?
Typically talking, there are two sorts of software program you must conduct prospect analysis: databases and AI fundraising options. Let’s have a look at each classes in additional element.
Databases
These options kind the spine of prospect analysis, permitting you to seek out capability, philanthropic, and affinity details about potential donors. Guarantee your workforce has entry to the next instruments earlier than you start:
- Prospect analysis database: Offers entry to third-party wealth and philanthropic knowledge by compiling info from varied trusted sources, starting from actual property data to different nonprofits’ annual experiences.
- Inner donor database: Serves as a place to begin for studying about present 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 items database: Lets you realize which prospects may have their contributions matched by their employers in addition to gives extra perception into donors’ skilled connections.
Along with leveraging these platforms, merely googling your prospects and trying out their social media profiles can provide you a greater sense of their pursuits and values.
AI Options
When you’ve gathered your prospect analysis knowledge, AI instruments can assist you kind by way of it extra effectively and improve your outreach. One of the best sorts of nonprofit AI options to leverage for prospecting are:
- Prospect generator instruments: Make lists of prospects who’ve supported related causes to your group’s and create experiences summarizing a very powerful, actionable info on every prospect.
- Predictive modeling options: Price prospects’ chance 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 based mostly on predictive modeling insights.
Though analysis reveals that nonprofits are integrating AI into their operations even quicker than for-profit corporations, nonprofit AI remains to be an rising area. Work with trusted suppliers, observe finest practices for knowledge safety and ethics, and be clear together with your group 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 information 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 inquisitive about contributing to, one of the simplest ways to make certain about this stuff is to listen to instantly from the donor. Plus, cultivation reveals that your nonprofit values its donors as particular person individuals relatively than simply considering 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 an everyday communication cadence to maintain your nonprofit high of thoughts and share related assets on present initiatives.
- Providing different engagement alternatives to provide prospects a firsthand have a look at your group’s work by way of volunteering, attending occasions, or consulting on tasks.
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 manner, when the time involves solicit a significant reward, you need to use all of this info 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 apply. Monitor the usefulness of the information you discover and the effectiveness of your research-driven outreach efforts. This manner, you’ll be able to hone your course of over time and in the end deliver in additional main items in your mission.
Concerning the Creator
Sarah Tedesco
Sarah Tedesco is the Government 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 shopper contract achievement, rising retention fee and buyer satisfaction. She collaborates with different workforce members on quite a lot of points together with gross sales, advertising and product growth concepts.
