Whether you work for an independent school, a university, or a traditional 501(c)(3) nonprofit, major gifts are critical to your organization’s success. These large contributions often make or break your projects’ and programs’ success, and they can bolster your annual fund so you have a stronger safety net in times of fundraising uncertainty.

The first step in effective major gift fundraising is conducting prospect research (i.e., gathering data on potential donors to determine if they could be a good fit for your organization’s needs). Jumping into prospect research isn’t too difficult if you have the right tools, but like any nonprofit process, it takes practice and strategic consideration to make the most of it for your mission.

In this guide, we’ll walk through three tips to get your prospect research efforts off the ground and set your organization up for successful major gift fundraising. Let’s dive in!

1. Conduct Comprehensive Screenings

In discussions of major gift fundraising and prospect research, the term “wealth screening” may come up. Traditional wealth screening focuses on analyzing prospective donors’ financial giving capacity to determine if they can make large contributions. However, just because someone can make a major gift to your organization doesn’t mean they want to.

You’ll find the best major donor candidates if you conduct wealth and philanthropic screening. This comprehensive approach to prospect research involves assessing the following three types of data (also known as markers or indicators) to determine whether prospects are holistically a good fit for your fundraising needs:

  • Capacity indicators: The data on prospects’ financial situations evaluated during traditional wealth screenings, including real estate ownership, stock holdings, business affiliations, and political giving histories.
  • Philanthropic indicators: Information demonstrating a potential donor’s philanthropic tendencies, which encompasses all of their past donations to your organization and to other nonprofits.
  • Affinity indicators: Details that show whether a prospect would want to support your organization specifically, such as a connection to or passion for your mission, a history of non-donation nonprofit involvement (event attendance, volunteering, advocacy, etc.) and other relevant personal information (e.g., interests, values, and family ties).

A potential donor needs to exhibit all three types of indicators for your organization to consider them a viable prospect. Consider the quantity and quality of each prospect’s markers so you can prioritize your list and make sure to reach out to the most capable, philanthropically inclined, and willing candidates.

2. Research New and Existing Donors

A common misconception about prospect research is that it’s only useful for identifying potential donors who are brand new to your organization. In reality, periodically screening your existing supporters is also highly recommended. You might already know your nonprofit’s next major donor—they’re just hiding among all of the records in your database!

Here are some tips for finding potential major donors among your existing supporter base with the help of prospect research:

  • Integrate your donor database and prospect research tools. Connecting these tools allows you to automatically screen new supporters as they enter your donor database, and the information you find through prospecting will automatically transfer to your database for storage.
  • Keep all donor profiles up to date. Your prospect research platform integration will make this easier, but you should also record all interactions that may take place offline or in other solutions so you have a full picture of each individual donor.
  • Identify and engage mid-level donors. As Allegiance Group + Pursuant’s mid-level giving guide explains, “If you can find a few key ways to enhance your organization’s relationship with your mid-level donors [e.g., tailored communications or exclusive opportunities], you should reap some significant rewards, such as more upgrading, higher retention rates, and a bigger pipeline for your major donor program.”

While it can take time and effort to screen all of your existing supporters, you’ll typically have less work to do on the backend when you find prospective major donors in your database. Because these individuals already have a relationship with your organization, it tends to be easier to convince them to increase their support than it is to cultivate a new donor.

3. Incorporate AI Into Your Prospecting Processes

Artificial intelligence (AI) has often been called the future of fundraising, but it’s increasingly becoming the present. Reports of the total number of nonprofits using AI in their work range from just over 50% to a whopping 82%, and this technology is prevalent across various verticals and sizes of organizations.

While there are many ways to incorporate AI into nonprofit activities—from automating administrative tasks to executing marketing plans—prospect research is among the best use cases for these solutions. DonorSearch’s guide to nonprofit AI tools breaks down the two primary types of AI-powered platforms and how they can enhance prospecting as follows:

  • Generative AI tools develop original content (text, images, videos, etc.) based on the datasets they’re “trained” on and user prompts. Large language model (LLM) chatbots like ChatGPT and Gemini are among the most common solutions in this category, which your nonprofit can use to create outreach materials, donation requests, and thank-you messages enhanced by prospect research data. There are also nonprofit-specific generative AI platforms that can develop prospect reports and other tailored resources.
  • Predictive AI tools can recognize patterns in data and use that information to identify trends and forecast possible future activity. Predictive modeling solutions designed for prospect research provide deeper insights into your collected data by showing which prospects are most likely to respond to outreach, make a first gift, become repeat donors, and more. That way, you can truly understand who your best prospects are and prioritize cultivation accordingly.

The best nonprofit AI strategies involve generative and predictive solutions working together. Whether you go this route or test the waters with just one type of tool, make sure to work with trusted software providers and develop internal policies to guide your team toward responsible AI usage.

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With these tips and trusted prospect research tools on your side, you can set your organization up to make connections with the best potential major donors and secure critical contributions for its mission. Just remember that while technology can assist with many aspects of the process, major donor cultivation still requires a human touch. Prospect research tools can provide you with data, analytics, and foundational materials, but it’s up to you to put all of those elements together and build a relationship with each prospect that leads to long-term support.