Empower Your Nonprofit with Customer Prospecting for Nonprofit

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I'm Karen Eber Davis, and I'm talking with Jen  Filla, a prospect research fundraising expert.   And we're here to answer your CEO questions  about buying prospect research expertise for   your nonprofit. So, Jen, let's start with  the basics. What is prospect research?   Prospect research is a lot like market research.  It's all the activities you're going to do to   identify prospects, cultivate them,  solicit them and steward them,   so all the way through that whole giving cycle. So, it's a little bit like LinkedIn or no? Well, yes and no. Absolutely LinkedIn is this  treasure trove of information that people   self-report mostly about their careers but  then also sometimes interests like nonprofit   board memberships or volunteering. But there's  a big difference between. Let's say you're going   to go in a meeting, and you go out to LinkedIn.  You want to check out the person, know a little   bit about them, especially what they've put  out in the public space before you go on that   meeting. So that's just, you know, standard due  diligence for business meetings. But prospect   research is a whole methodology. So when you do  prospect research or when we do prospect research,   what we're doing is, even with an initial  assessment of a prospect, we're taking a look what   is the philanthropic activity of this person as a  whole. Do they have a family foundation? Do they   volunteer? Do they give to other organizations?  What do they do with our organization and then   also an assessment of capacity? So how capable  are they of giving a gift, and that wealth   assessment can be really complex because people  make wealth in a million different industries. You're right, Jen. There's nothing like that  on LinkedIn, but that raises another issue.   I choose what I put on LinkedIn. I'm concerned  about privacy. My donors may not like me   digging around in their information. Well, it is so interesting, the   privacy issues. It always makes me chuckle  because prospect researchers in our field,   we talk a lot about ethics, and we squabble  over stuff. So, I'll give you an example of   how into the weeds we get. We are concerned  about using only public information.   We talk about things like, do you think the  donor intended to publish that information   on Facebook for the world to see, or did they  think it was private? Because the intention   of publishing information matters to us in  prospect research. If we are in the profession,   if someone adheres to the ethics code  of AFP, the Association of Fundraising   Professionals and APRA, the Association of  Professional Researchers for Advancement,   I don't think you have much to worry about. We  really teach about ethics, not just what's legal. That's a lot of checking on the ethics of what's  going on. Switching topics, when do nonprofits   get involved in prospect researching? It's  not something you do from the first day. I'll tell you a lot of times  it happens in a campaign,   and the reason is because that's a typical  pressure point for the organization to raise   a lot more money than they're currently raising,   and research comes to the rescue. It really  can be a catalyst for raising a lot more money. Should I get my database ready before I  contact someone about prospect research?  Those databases, the bane of our existence.  They're fabulous. They move us forward,   but they're always a problem. And, I kind of  think of databases like having children. You know,   having babies, you are never ever going  to be ready, so you just have to do it.   So I would say that you never need  to be held up from your database. I'm imagining people watching this video and  saying we can't afford a full-time prospect   researcher. What are my options? Say I'm  in a medium-sized shop what can I do?   Yes, or even a tiny nonprofit can  benefit from prospect research,   where there's just a development  director. What I found is that   you can do it in a number of different ways,  so it depends on your goals. Like the biggest   difference probably is, what am I going to do when  I have good prospects? When I have prospects who   can give larger gift amounts than they're giving  to me now, if what I'm going to do is ask for the   next larger gift, you know, a cash gift in that  year, then I'm sure I can work within my staffing.   You know, maybe there's an executive assistant  or a development assistant who has an interest   or a database administrator who has an interest  who can help me. If I'm looking to really ask   for multi-year campaign gifts, you know, that  push or pushes the edge too much higher gifts,   like $50,000, $100,000, and especially pledges,  then I probably need some outsourced research. Jen, I've identified someone in-house  who I'd like to have them know more   and be our lead person on prospect research  right now. What can you do to help me?   I actually developed a course at the Prospect  Research Institute, and it's called, The   Essentials for Successful Fundraising Research.  It came out of some private training I had done   for a development assistant. They were  in a campaign, and it's a sampler course,   so instead of trying to turn your development  assistant into a top-rated prospect researcher,   who might then leave you for a higher-paid  job. You're giving your development assistant   just the key concepts and skills and  resources for all the different aspects. Thank you, Jen. The Internet is a warren of  rabbit holes and troll dens. What Jen has   available through AspireResearchGroup.com  can help your staff and nonprofit   to find what they need and bring more  donor gifts to your organization.   CEOs, if you would like to know more, there's  information about Jen in the notes below,   and if you like this video, please share it with  a friend who is curious about prospect research.