Boost Donations by Identifying Best Prospects and Writing a Winning Fundraising Letter

Need help writing a fundraising letter? Get a quote.

Your nonprofit organization likely has a database with addresses and phone numbers for their donors. These are the people who’ve identified themselves as interested in your cause. Perhaps they’ve donated in the past or maybe they’ve volunteered their time. Before you hire a non-profit copywriter to compose the perfect fundraising letter, you may want to have your data screened.

Data screening can tell you who is the most likely candidate to donate to your nonprofit. Researchers put these clues together in profiles so you can make funding asks with the right prospects.

Following are some of the tried-and-true companies that will help screen your database and provide you with actionable data, for a price.

1) WealthEngine 

WealthEngine provides advanced wealth identification and prospect research solutions with unique profiles of more than 250 million people in the US. This comprehensive database helps nonprofit organizations:

• Elevate their campaigns
• Expand their target audience
• Decrease donor acquisition costs
• Increase donations
• Boost the lifetime value of their donors or customers

Some helpful components of Wealth Engine include BoardEx, Boardroom Insiders, RelSci and Wealth-X. Together, they provide data and intelligence on people most likely to make a positive impact on a nonprofit organization’s success.

2) Research Point: Used with Blackbaud’s Raiser’s Edge

ResearchPoint (RP) is a database solution for completing prospect research on current and potential donors. ResearchPoint provides wealth screening, philanthropic giving, and the highest-power analytics available to aid in prospecting and stewardship decisions.

ResearchPoint combines the industry’s most comprehensive individual wealth and philanthropic insights under one umbrella, providing you with an easy-to-navigate platform and custom user experience to build a successful fundraising roadmap.

Using ResearchPoint you’ll be able to:

• Seamlessly integrate constituent data
• Navigate deeper into each individual’s capacity
• Determine that individual’s inclination to give
• Access custom-built modeling solutions to identify most likely supporters

3) iWave

Nonprofit organizations use iWave to identify, qualify, and retain donors to raise more major gifts. iWave’s intuitive and easy-to-use solutions give access to the industry’s highest quality wealth and philanthropic information so you can determine:

• Who to ask for donations
• Prioritize prospects capable of making major gifts
• How much to ask for
• When to ask

Researchers enjoy iWave’s data tabs that include Dun & Bradstreet company data, real estate data, foundation data and much more.

4) DonorSearch

DonorSearch connects giving desire to giving capacity. It’s based on the belief that philanthropy markers connect what’s in people’s hearts – their passion and aspirations in life – to causes they have the capacity to give to.

DonorSearch helps you connect with people who have an affinity for your cause. With the largest philanthropic database globally, nonprofit organizations choose them because they start with proven philanthropy.

When you appeal to donors, let them know if you accept financial grants, sponsorship opportunities, and product donations.

 

5) Nexis for Development Professionals

This tool offers development officers and researchers content that spans news, company information, individual records, and more.

Its extensive archive stretches back more than 45 years and includes:

• Valuable data such as key wealth markers and giving indicators
• Financial data and company news on 240 million+ quoted and private companies across the world
• Biographical information on 75 million+ executives

 

Optimize Your Fundraising Campaign

The above companies are very helpful in providing the clues that a good prospect researcher will put together with other data from your organization to identify best potential donors. The researcher will usually create a short but detailed profile with bulleted points that briefs the development officer about the prospect.

The development officer then has the option to work with a professional fundraising copywriter to develop a compelling letter that will lead to a personal visit and an opportunity to get to know the prospect better.

That visit and deeper relationship will be the jumping-off point towards cultivating a major gift, or passing the prospect to the annual fund because the donor was not able or not interested enough in giving at a higher level.

Experienced fundraising copywriter Daria Walsh explains the strategy. “The research provides the background. The copywriter provides the introductory fund-raising letter. And the development officer provides the on-the-ground experience of what’s best for both the donor and the organization. A win/win for all.”

If you’d like more information about prospect research, or need a nonprofit writer who has the knowledge and experience to help write your fundraising letters, annual reports, newsletters, white papers and more, please contact us. We’d love to help!

 * * *