Unlock Major Donors With Prospect Research - Proven Research Strategies Revealed

Most charities rely on supporters just showing up from their social posts or even out of thin air. While it’s nice to have a community of people to give, it’s not always the most efficient way of going about things. What if it were possible to search for donors who are almost guaranteed to give while also understanding why they would give to you and how much they’re capable of offering. For many nonprofits, it’s a game changer. And that’s exactly what prospect research is all about.

Prospect research is a systematic process nonprofits use to identify, evaluate, and prioritize potential donors based on wealth, giving history, and connection to the cause.

When done correctly, it takes most of the guess work of where your next donation is actually coming from in a very systematic way. The idea is you can find high net worth individuals through databases that cover everything from stock ownership, real estate, or business holdings while also flagging affinity indicators such as past donations, board memberships or event attendance at nonprofit events.

And it works. Take for example the Houston Grand Opera. They decided to go with using prospect research as their foundation for increasing their fundraising. Because they committed to actually doing the work necessary and evaluating their ROI, they raised their contributions by 82% in three years! That is a massive increase. And there are other case studies that definitively show, prospect research increases donation levels when used correctly as a tool.

So, what goes into solid prospect research? At its core, you’ll be looking at:

• Wealth screening – spotting financial capacity through public records and data.
• Philanthropic history – tracking previous donations to your org or others.
• Affinity assessment – measuring how connected someone is to your mission.
• aWealth markers – assets, business ties or major life events that signal giving potential.
• Fundraising strategies – turning the data into a smart outreach plan.

Prospect research isn’t about prying. It’s about being prepared, respectful, and strategic. The idea is that when you know your potential donors in a more deep and meaningful way, you can gravitate towards the ones that have a potential affinity for your cause rather than wasting time on someone who just isn’t interested. This is what smart allocation of resources looks like.

What Does Prospect Research Mean for Nonprofits?

All prospect research really is, is simply gathering and analyzing data about potential donors. In plain terms, it’s figuring out who might support your cause, how much they can realistically give, and why they’d care about your mission in the first place. Instead of guessing like so many non-profits do, you’re working with real information that helps you focus on the right people while maximizing your resources.

Reactive vs. Proactive Research

There are two main ways nonprofits approach it:

• Reactive research happens when a donor is already on your radar. Maybe they just bought tickets to your gala or signed up for a newsletter. You don’t want to make a blind ask, rather you dig deeper into their background to learn more about them so you can make a meaningful an ask that relates to them.
• Proactive research flips that around. You’re actively searching for new prospects who aren’t yet involved in your charity yet show signs of being a good fit. This could be as simple as a business leader in your city with a record of charitable giving.

Both are valuable. Reactive research makes sure you don’t miss opportunities with people who’ve already demonstrated their interest. Proactive research helps bring in new donors so you’re not always pounding on the same individuals for funding.

The Data That Fuels Prospect Research

So what kind of information are we talking about? A mix of publicly available and subscription based sources such as:

• Public records (real estate holdings, SEC filings, political donations).
• Philanthropic history (gifts to other nonprofits, event sponsorships).
• Professional background (LinkedIn profiles, company bios).
• Social media and news mentions (clues about interests, affiliations, or causes).
• Specialized databases (wealth screening tools, donor research platforms).

When you do prospecting like this, you’re getting a clear donor profile that allows you to assess their capacity, interests and their potential support of your mission.

Ethics and Data Privacy

It’s important to stress, prospect research isn’t about spying! It’s about using responsible and highly ethical methods to gather information. Nonprofits must comply with data privacy laws like GDPR in Europe and CCPA in California. That means collecting only the information that is relevent to your organization and storing it securely as well as being completely transparent if asked. The Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) sets clear ethical guidelines to follow so please read them carefully. Respect matters. If donors feel their information is misused, trust is gone! And without trust, there’s no giving.

Prospect Research vs. General Donor Research

Quick Takeaway

The most effective fundraising plans use both strategies. Start with wealth screening to narrow down the amount of potential donors, then use prospect research to deepen the relationship and craft a personalized approach.

Prospect Research vs. Wealth Screening

Another common approach that helps nonprofits identify and prioritize donors is wealth screening. This type of research is a more focused and data driven process that evaluates a prospect’s financial capacity to give (their wealth), primarily through indicators of wealth such as real estate holdings, stock ownership, or business affiliations. So it focuses on financial capacity, identifying who can give, often as the first step before more detailed research. This type of screening is usually done with tools for automation and can run through data sets of millions of names at a time unlike the process of prospect research we’ve already mentioned.

Wealth Screening

• Key Components: Property values, investments, business ownership, income estimates
• Purpose: Quickly flag individuals with significant giving capacity
• Process: Automated tools scan large datasets and generate ranked lists of prospects
• Example: A hospital filters 10,000 donors to highlight 200 with assets over $1M for major gift outreach

Advantages

• Fast and scalable for large donor pools
• Provides clear, objective wealth indicators
• Cost effective with automation

Challenges

• Lacks insight into donor motivations or interests
• Can produce false positives (wealth ≠ willingness)
• Dependent on data accuracy and timeliness

Prospect Research

Advantages:

• Provides a nuanced understanding of prospects so you can make more targeted asks.
• Helps build long term relationships by aligning appeals with your donor interests.
• Identifies not just wealth but also propensity to give reducing wasted time on uninterested prospects.

Challenges:

• Time intensive as it requires skilled researchers to compile and analyze data.
• May involve subjective interpretations which can vary in accuracy.

Key Differences

When to Use Each Approach

• Prospect Research: Best for major gifts, legacy gifts, or building long term relationships and when you need a deep understanding of your potential donor’s interests and motivations.
• Wealth Screening: Best for quickly narrowing large donor pools. Ideal for annual funds, capital campaigns or identifying top prospects in big databases, especially if you’re targeting whales.

To get the absolute most from these two types of activities, it’s best to use them together in a strategic way. For example, use wealth screening to narrow down a list of 5,000 prospects to 100 high net worth individuals. Then conduct prospect research on those 100 people to understand their interests and giving patterns so you can create a targeted outreach strategy.

Prospect Research Tools to Help You Find Gold

Prospect research tools can automate many of the steps involved in finding those perfect donors that not only align with your vision, but can also afford to fund your progress. And some of these tools can do it rather quickly as well since they can streamline this process, pulling data from public records, philanthropic databases and other sources so you can quickly prioritize prospects instead of piecing everything together manually. CRM integration takes it further by tying prospect data to your donor management system. This means you can track interactions, like when a prospect attends your gala or responds to an email all in one place.

Free vs. Paid Tools

• Free Tools: Public records, LinkedIn, and Google searches can reveal useful information, but free tools have limits as well and they’re slowand you’re stuck piecing things together yourself.
• Paid Tools: Wealth screening software and integrated CRMs aggregate diverse data including real estate and other investments, affiliations with other charities and even their giving history into a single donor profile all while saving you hours of work and enabling your marketing team to create more strategic outreach strategies. Paid tools aren’t cheap, though. A robust platform might run $1,000-$5,000 a year depending on it’s features. So align your investment with fundraising goals and scale when you get a positive ROI.

How Tools Help You Win

Strong platforms don’t just deliver raw data, they actually interpret it as well. Features like wealth scoring, giving capacity rankings, and CRM integration help you extract a variety of important information and use it wisely to:

• Prioritize prospects with the highest likelihood and ability to give
• Track interactions and engagement over time
• Leverage AI driven insights to anticipate giving behavior

Picking the Right Tool

Not all tools are created equal. Here’s how to evaluate them:

1. Cost: Does the price fit your budget? Free tools work for small charities, but if you’re aiming big, investing in a paid platform can save time and unlock bigger gifts. Compare annual subscriptions and check for nonprofit discounts.
2. Features: Look for tools that pull a diverse data set and include wealth, giving history, affiliations and integrate all of this with your chosen CRM. Bonus points if they offer AI insights or customizable reports. Ask: Will this help me prioritize my top 10 prospects?
3. Ease of Use: A tool’s no good if it takes a PhD to figure out. Test the interface. Can your team jump in without weeks of training? Look for intuitive dashboards and solid customer support.

Using Tools Ethically

Effective fundraising is built on trust. Use only publicly available data and respect privacy regulations like GDPR and CCPA which we mentioned above, and focus on donors who align with your mission, not just their bank accounts!

How to Get Started

1. Experiment with free resources to get a feel for donor research.
2. Test a paid tool with a trial run on a small donor list.
3. Set clear goals like identifying your top 10 prospects this quarter.
4. Stay informed with professional resources like the Association of Fundraising Professionals (afpglobal.org).

Bottom line: Prospect research tools aren’t about chasing a bunch of rich people, they’re about working smarter and finding people that have the funding and the heart to actually make a contribution to your cause.

The Top 5 Tools to Research Donors

Prospect research tools help nonprofits zero in on donors who can make a big impact. They save time, sharpen your focus, and uncover hidden opportunities like finding a donor who’s quietly passionate about your cause. Here’s a rundown of five standout tools chosen for their ability to deliver actionable insights, integrate with your systems, and fit a range of budgets. Each one’s got a unique edge, so you can pick what works for your team. Let’s dive in.

1. iWave (Kindsight)

• Accuracy & Sources: iWave aggregates data from dozens of vetted sources—reports mention “40 different vetted, high-quality sources,” with updates on a weekly to monthly schedule.
• AI-driven scoring & CRM integration: The platform offers predictive scores and real time updates plus seamless CRM integrations such as Salesforce.
• Pricing: Not publicly detailed although verified reports cite a starter plan at approximately $3,745/year although you can request a free demo.

2. DonorSearch

• Philanthropic Focus: Known for combining wealth screening with philanthropic giving indicators and now supported by AI-enhanced analytics.
• Data Scale: Holds one of the largest prospect research databases with over 1 billion data points and weekly updates.
• Pricing & Access: Only offers custom pricing while detailed pricing isn’t public

3. Instrumentl

• Main Use: A full-cycle grant discovery and management platform that’s ideal for nonprofits and grant professionals.
• Features: Includes grant matching, AI-enhanced proposal crafting, pipeline tracking, CRM integrations, onboarding & training.
• Pricing: Tiers include:
  • Basic: ~$179/month
  • Standard: ~$299/month
  • Pro: ~$499/month
  • Advanced: ~$899/month
• Funding & Growth: Instrumentl received a $55 million investment from Summit Partners in April 2025 and has grown to over 4,500 organizational clients to date. They also have a robust AI pipeline expansion planned which could make the tool even better and more powerful.

4. Dataro (ProspectAI)

• AI-Powered Research: Uses AI to automate prospecting based on your CRM data, so it’s not giving you prospect data but rather giving you the tools to better understand your own data.
• Functionality: Integrates with your existing donor system while delivering predictive analytics and leveraging models like “Future Giving” to forecast giving over time.
• Pricing: Custom and not publicly disclosed although demos are available on their website.

5. Candid (formerly GuideStar + Foundation Center)

• Overview: Candid is an information service offering in-depth data on nonprofits and grantmakers including 990 forms, profiles, and sector analysis.
• Access & Pricing: Offers Foundation Directory Online (FDO) with:
  • Monthly plans starting at ~$219.99
  • Annual plans around ~$1,599
  • Free access is often available at certain public libraries

Choose the right tool for your goals:

• iWave or DonorSearch → Best for large campaigns and major gift strategies
• Instrumentl → Ideal for grant funding and foundation research
• Dataro → Perfect if you want AI-powered speed and predictive insights
• Candid → Great for budget-conscious research and smaller teams

Start with a demo or free trial then run 50 names through the system and see which prospects rise to the top. Then, personally connect with your five strongest leads through a tailored email or a personal invite to something like a behind the scenes tour of your program. Log the results in your CRM and adjust your outreach and repeat. If you’re getting great results, stick with the tool. If things don’t seem to work the way the tool is saying, time to move on to the next one.

Key Prospect Research Strategies to Find Your Best Donors

Want to connect with donors who’ll actually connect with your organization on a truly deep level, and have the financial ability to help you succeed? There are a few smart prospect research strategies that work and can almost transform the way you do donor research. These seven are the ones we find most important.

Step 1: Set Clear Goals

You need to know who you are looking for in order to find them. So start with a ‘why’? Are you hunting for major donors to fund a new community center? Or smaller, loyal givers for your annual fund? With a clear goal like, say finding 10 donors who can each give $5,000 to cover three months of operational expenses, you know anyone without the credentials to make a donation that large needs to be put aside while focusing on the ones that can. But by possibly targeting local business owners with a history of charity support, you can hit your goal in a month.

Action: Write down one specific fundraising goal. Include the dollar amount and donor type (e.g., major donor, recurring giver).

Step 2: Build Donor Profiles

Creating a donor profile, no matter how small the donor or your organization, is probably the smartest thing you can possibly do, and you can do it from day one. Just think about having a list of name that you want to call on the phone and ask for a donation. How would you connect with them without sounding like a cold caller, or even email them without looking like another SPAM email asking for money? It’s the little things! What if you knew Judy was helping out at an animal shelter? Now you have something to talk about, an immediate connection. Plus you know she’s willing to volunteer her time and supports philanthropic causes. Who would you rather call, Judy or Mrs. Doe?

Action: List 3 to 5 traits of your ideal donor. Things like she owns property, supports education, lives nearby. Then use free tools like LinkedIn to find 5 prospects matching this profile.

Step 3: Dig into Data

Any nonprofit enterprise that wants to stay relevant is going to need to understand how important data is. So start by using public records, donor databases, or wealth screening tools to uncover giving history, real estate holdings, or nonprofit affiliations. AI tools like Dataro can take it further, predicting who’s likely to give based on past behavior. The more data you can dig up on someone, the more you’ll understand how much time to spend on prospecting them. If you’re just using a bunch of names with no data, you could possibly never find a donor, or at least none that really matter.

Action: Pick one tool, you can try Candid for free data or iWave for paid research and research 10 prospects and note their giving patterns or interests.

Step 4: Map Relationships

Donors don’t exist in a vacuum. Map out their connections, friends, colleagues, or board members tied to your organization. This “relationship mapping” can reveal warm leads since birds of a feather flock together. It’s the same in the nonprofit space. Often people that give also hang out with others that give. Some are even part of philanthropic clubs. Imagine getting into one of those! Someone that is already connected to your organization could easily give you a personal introduction, or at least pass on your materials to their friends.

Action: Draw a quick map of one prospect’s connections using LinkedIn or your CRM. Reach out to a shared contact for an introduction.

Step 5: Integrate with Your CRM

Don’t let data sit in a spreadsheet going unused. Plug it into your CRM whether it’s Salesforce or whatever else you’re using and start to tracking interactions and prioritize your prospects. Log every call, email, or coffee meeting with some detail to start building solid profiles for each person. This gives you things to talk about or write about in follow up emails and future events.

Action: If you use a CRM, import your top 10 prospects’ data today. If not, start a free trial with a platform or free service and log one interaction.

Step 6: Use AI for Smarts

AI isn’t just for tech geeks. Machine learning tools can easily analyze donor patterns to predict who’ll give and when. This is the future of smart targeting and it’s best if you start getting used to these types of tools as soon as possible. And they’re available to any sized nonprofit, even a start up with no money can take advantage of AI tools.

Action: Test an AI tool’s free trial or demo then run a list of 50 donors and see who ranks highest for a big gift.

Step 7: Keep Refining

The only constant is change, so adapt to what works and scrap what’s not. Prospect research isn’t a one and done deal. Review your data monthly. Drop prospects who don’t engage and double down on those who do. Look for patterns when it comes to the people that do engage and support your cause, who are their friends, what can you learn from them. Then tweak as necessary.

Action: Schedule a 30 minute review this month to update your prospect list. Cut 5 low potential names and add 5 new ones.

Prospect Research Strategy Framework

You don’t have to be super techie or have a master’s degree to do prospect research correctly, with the steps we’ve provided above any organization should be able to transform their donor acquisition strategies into a cost effective strategy that gets results. It just takes a little time and effort, but it’s so worth it!

Trends in Prospect Research

Prospect research is evolving fast due to all the technical advances being launched almost daily. Charities that embrace these changes will be far more competitive than those that don’t. So take a look at what’s changing the nonprofit landscape and start familiarizing yourself with these tools and you’ll be far ahead of most of your competitors.

Top 3 Emerging Trends in Prospect Research

• AI and Predictive Analytics: No other technology will impact the future more than AI and machine learning. Tools like Dataro use AI to predict who’s likely to give and how much by analyzing past donations and behaviors. These tools are perfect to sift through huge data points and find exactly what you’re looking for, from simple research to finding major donors, nothing can compare to AI.
• Virtual Research Methods: Due in part to the pandemic, digital tools that let you work virtually have exploded and will continue to grow. By using LinkedIn, Zoom and online databases, anyone can find supporters remotely. This is also important for smaller organizations that need support but don’t have the funding. People from around the globe can easily, and often cheaply if you’re looking for employees, help you build your brand. Try LinkedIn to find three prospects with ties to your cause and send a personal message and see if you get a reply. If not, change your messaging. If so, start making this a daily routine.
• Ethical and Sustainable Prospecting: Donors want to see ethical impact but they also value their privacy! Sustainability is an area that is growing and will continue to, so take advantage of supporters who value sustainability, like those funding green projects. Tools now prioritize GDPR-compliant data to build trust and demonstrate you’re doing things the right way. So check your data sources against privacy laws before contacting your prospects.

Why It Matters

AI cuts research time, virtual methods save travel costs and ethical practices keep donors happy. Nonprofits using these trends will have a major advantage, and using all three should guarantee that your organization stays funded well into the future. So start getting familiar with them and add them to your strategies.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What’s the difference between reactive and proactive research?
Reactive looks deeper into people already showing interest like your event attendees while proactive seeks out brand new prospects who may fit your cause.

2. Isn’t prospect research just spying?
No. It uses only ethical, publicly available information and follows strict privacy laws and fundraising guidelines. Your just using already public knowledge in a more strategic way.

3. What is wealth screening?
It’s a data driven scan of an individuals financial health by looking at things like real estate, stocks, or business ties to quickly identify high net worth individuals that may align with your cause.

4. Why use both wealth screening and prospect research?
Wealth screening narrows a large pool of potential supporters quickly to see if they have the means to give, while prospect research adds depth about their motivation and interests. Together you’ll understand if they can contribute, and why they would.

5. Are free tools enough for small nonprofits?
Yes, you can start with LinkedIn, Google and public records. This is often enough to get started. But as you become more profitable, understand tools will dramatically speed up the process and provide more complete profiles.

Final Thoughts

Prospect research isn’t about chasing wealthy people, it’s about working smarter, respecting privacy, and finding people who genuinely care about your mission. By blending wealth screening with deeper research, you can uncover not just who can give, but who wants to give. This is far more powerful for building stronger relationships and having more meaningful conversations with your prospects. This all culminates into a fundraising strategy that actually works. Whether you’re a small nonprofit just getting started or a large organization scaling up, investing in prospect research turns guesswork into clarity and missed opportunities into lasting support.

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