Building Donor Relationships: Tips for Prospect Research

Research is essential in identifying prospective donors for your organization and building donor relationships. Identification is the first step in the donor lifecycle. In order to create a donor pipeline to build donor relationships, you need to establish ways to identify giving capacity and affinity to your organization through prospect research.  

Here are some tips and tools to aid in your prospect research:

Prospect Research: Online Tools and Software

There are many tools (like Wealth Engine, Lexis Nexis, and Donor Search to name a few) that compile information on wealthy individuals and can be linked to your donor management software. Statistics like net worth and income are all data points you can use to start understanding the prospective donors giving capacity.

Building Donor Relationships: Social Media

Social media is a great tool for prospect research that you can use to learn more about the personal life of your donor. You can get an idea of interests from what they share. Use social media to begin to understand the donor, but not as a conversation starter. 

Moves Management: Past Giving

When looking at a prospect who has the ability to give but hasn’t given yet to your organization, you need to ask yourself: What is the donor journey? What are this person’s interests? Does it align with our mission? Looking at past giving can be a critical indicator on where a prospect’s heart lies.

Once you understand your prospective donors through extensive research, you will be able to establish a plan to build a donor relationship that can lead to monetary support. Julep has the tools to help build a moves management plan Schedule a demo today!