If you want to write winning proposals and increase your organization’s rate of success when fundraising, then conducting thorough research is key. Prospect research is the process of gathering information about prospective donors. It allows you to get to the heart of your prospect, thereby revealing linkages to your organization, their ability to donate, and their interest in the cause you represent. Establishing LAI (linkage, ability, interest) is possible for even the smallest development office, if you know where to look and what to look for.

Create a profile of your prospect

Whether you are researching an individual, a corporation, or a grantmaking foundation, maintaining an accurate and up-to-date profile of your prospect will keep you on track and help direct your fundraising efforts. Creating the profile, including LAI, will also reveal which prospects will be most likely to give to your organization.

Corporate profiles should include:

  • Contact information
  • Type of company (public or private)
  • Senior officers and directors
  • Financial overview
  • Philanthropic policies – contacts
  • Giving history
  • News abstracts
  • Other linkages (Who on your committee may know someone there?)

 

Individual profiles should include:

  • Contact information
  • Personal history and career history
  • Directorships
  • Indicators of wealth (location and size of their home, kind of car they drive, where children attend school)
  • Memberships, honours, and awards
  • Relationships with organizations/past giving (culturally driven? related to their family history?)
  • News abstracts

 

Foundation profiles should include:

  • Contact information
  • Purpose and interests – granting policies
  • Geographic scope
  • Granting limit
  • Application procedure
  • Past giving
  • Other giving

 

Find the information you need

Once you know what information you are looking for, you need to know where to find it. Information can be gathered from hard copy sources, paid online sources, free web sites, and people resources.

Hard copy information sources include:

  • Directory of Directors
  • Canadian Who’s Who
  • Key Business Directory
  • Phone books
  • Journals
  • Newspapers

 

Remember that when considering hard copy resources, it isn’t always necessary to buy them, especially if your organization is small or doesn’t have the funds to do so. Your local library should have this information.

Paid electronic resources include:

 

While these paid resources do a lot of the research for you, subscription fees can be costly, and of course, there is no guarantee that using the information provided will always yield results.

Free electronic resources include:

 

The Internet contains vast amounts of information, much of which is available for free, so it makes sense to take advantage of this research tool whenever you can. Nowadays, the majority of companies, as well as many foundations, have web sites. Use your favourite search engine and look for a company or foundation. Start with a series of words and whittle them down until you find the information you need. Chances are, you’ll find what you are looking for, and hopefully much more.

Consider other resources

Keep in mind that as great as the Internet is, a web site can only tell you so much. Take a look in your area and check out existing donor walls, newspaper inserts, entertainment sections, event programs, libraries, or other forms of donor recognition. Most importantly, don’t forget about the people resources all around you. Talk to internal stakeholders such as staff and volunteers. Find out who they think a good prospect might be, and which of your current prospects they already know. This can be invaluable when trying to establish linkages. Also, work on stewardship by talking to your existing donors and redeveloping relationships that may have lapsed.

Talk to your prospect!

Research is critical to success because it paves the way for approaching your prospect. However, we often wait and wait to talk to potential donors because we are afraid we don’t have enough information. Don’t be held back by a lack of resources. Get out the door and talk to them before they make commitments with other organizations. Look at linkages, their ability to give, and what is going on with them. Find the linkage that will touch your prospect’s heart and turn him or her into a donor!

Based on a presentation at the 2002 Alberta Fundraising Conference by Kim Taylor, of DVA Navion. For more information about DVA Navion, visit: www.dvanavion.com.