In the event you’ve labored within the nonprofit sector for a while, you recognize that your group’s fundraising potential will depend on its potential to know and interact its donors. The significance of understanding your donors will increase with their giving stage—potential main donors, specifically, 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 best 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’ll be able to take advantage of 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 way utilized by nonprofit fundraisers, main reward officers, and improvement groups to establish high-impact donors inside and past a company’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 beneficial for locating donors for a large number of initiatives that depend upon massive presents, together with:
- Launching new mission-related neighborhood packages or increasing present ones.
- Securing the estimated 60% of annual fund income that comes from main presents on common.
- Finishing your reward 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 establish new potential donors originally 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 may help you discover main donor candidates amongst your present supporters.
What data are you able to study via prospect analysis?
Some of the frequent 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 present but in addition their willingness to make a major contribution to your particular group based mostly on their philanthropic tendencies and affinity to your mission.
As you display screen prospects, search for the next knowledge factors (additionally referred to 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 to your trigger; nonprofit involvement historical past (occasion attendance, volunteering, board service, and so forth.); private data equivalent to pursuits, values, and household ties.
On your group to think about somebody a viable prospect, they need to exhibit indicators from all three classes, demonstrating that they’d have the opportunity and keen to make a significant reward.
What instruments do it is advisable to conduct prospect analysis?
Typically talking, there are two sorts of software program it is advisable to conduct prospect analysis: databases and AI fundraising options. Let’s have a look at each classes in additional element.
Databases
These options type 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: Supplies entry to third-party wealth and philanthropic knowledge by compiling data from numerous trusted sources, starting from actual property information to different nonprofits’ annual stories.
- Inside donor database: Serves as a place to begin for studying about present supporters’ main giving potential and a centralized place to retailer and manage prospect analysis knowledge in particular person donor profiles.
- SEC funding information and FEC political contribution information: Complement wealth knowledge on potential donors with a deeper dive into their inventory holdings and political giving historical past.
- Matching presents database: Lets you recognize which prospects might have their contributions matched by their employers in addition to supplies further perception into donors’ skilled connections.
Along with leveraging these platforms, merely googling your prospects and testing 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 may help you type via it extra effectively and improve your outreach. The most effective 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 stories summarizing a very powerful, actionable data on every prospect.
- Predictive modeling options: Charge prospects’ chance of responding to outreach and changing into donors, manage your prospect lists accordingly, and make ideas about which potential donors to achieve out to first for effectivity.
- Content material technology instruments: Enable you to create tailor-made outreach messages for every prospect based mostly on predictive modeling insights.
Though analysis exhibits that nonprofits are integrating AI into their operations even sooner than for-profit corporations, nonprofit AI continues to be an rising discipline. Work with trusted suppliers, observe finest practices for knowledge safety and ethics, and be clear along with your neighborhood about how your group makes use of AI to forestall 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 eager about contributing to, one of the best ways to make sure about this stuff is to listen to immediately from the donor. Plus, cultivation exhibits that your nonprofit values its donors as particular person folks relatively than simply pondering of them as income sources.
After you’ve recognized potential donors via 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 assets on present initiatives.
- Providing different engagement alternatives to present prospects a firsthand have a look at your group’s work via 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 via these relationship-building actions and your ongoing analysis. This fashion, when the time involves solicit a significant reward, you should utilize 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 method to prospect analysis proper will possible take time and apply. Monitor the usefulness of the info you discover and the effectiveness of your research-driven outreach efforts. This fashion, you’ll be able to hone your course of over time and finally deliver in additional main presents to your mission.
Concerning the Writer
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 chargeable for managing the manufacturing and buyer assist division regarding shopper contract achievement, rising retention charge and buyer satisfaction. She collaborates with different workforce members on quite a lot of points together with gross sales, advertising and product improvement concepts.
