Stop Over-Researching Your Prospects Before the First Conversation
By Lisa Scott
A note to the reader: This article is intended for large nonprofits or smaller nonprofits that outsource research to a third party. If this is NOT you, feel free to check out my article on identifying transformational gift prospects without expensive research tools.
A promising prospect may come onto your organization’s radar in a number of ways. Maybe they surfaced through a wealth screening. Maybe they made a larger-than-usual gift. Maybe your team uncovered evidence that they have significant philanthropic capacity.
So, the prospect is assigned to a fundraiser’s portfolio, and the research team receives a request for a comprehensive profile.
The report may include everything from the prospect’s career history and real estate holdings to their family foundation, board affiliations, political contributions, business interests, social connections, past charitable gifts, and possible links to your organization.
All of that information may eventually be useful.
But you probably don’t need it yet.
In fact, requesting a detailed research report before the first conversation may be slowing down your fundraising rather than strengthening it.
The hidden cost of researching too much, too soon
Research feels productive. It gives fundraisers a sense that they are preparing carefully and reducing uncertainty.
But the longer your team spends researching a prospect, the longer you delay the activity that matters most: building the relationship.
This is especially challenging for larger nonprofits with many prospects, multiple Relationship Managers, and a prospect research team that is small relative to the number of fundraisers it supports.
If every newly identified prospect generates a request for a detailed profile, the research queue quickly becomes backed up. Fundraisers wait weeks or sometimes longer for information they believe they need before initiating outreach.
Meanwhile, the prospect remains untouched, aside from any one-way email broadcasts they’d usually get from being in your database.
The truth is, you do not need to learn everything about someone before having an exploratory conversation. Too much information can even get in the way by tempting the fundraiser to enter the meeting with assumptions rather than curiosity.
Early research should help you decide whether a prospect warrants pursuit. It should not become a prerequisite for beginning the relationship.
Three levels of prospect research
I first learned this streamlined approach a decade ago from Charity Jovanovic, former VP of Prospect Development for City Year and cofounder of the prospect research firm Heart in the Cloud.
It frames prospect research in three distinct levels, each aligned with a different stage of the Strategic Relationship Management Cycle.
The mistake many organizations make is jumping straight to detailed research, instead of taking this more simplified approach.
Level 1: Determine whether the prospect warrants a conversation
During the Qualification stage of the Strategic Relationship Management Cycle, there is very little you need to know. If someone is a long time donor or current donor, you’ll want to do internal research in your CRM system to get historical context and information.
Beyond that, Level 1 research should take approximately 15 minutes when your organization has access to the appropriate research tools.
It should answer two questions:
1 - What is the prospect’s external giving behavior?
What are they giving to other nonprofits?
Look at the size, frequency, and duration of their known gifts. Are they giving at a low or mid-level? At a major-gift level? Have they made principal or transformational gifts elsewhere?
Giving behavior matters because it shows what someone has actually chosen to do philanthropically, rather than what they may be financially capable of doing.
2 - What is their estimated giving capacity to your organization?
Based on the information currently available, what is your best estimate of what this person could give to your organization over five years and through a single gift?
This is not a definitive rating. It is an informed estimate based on factors such as known wealth indicators, past giving, existing engagement, and possible alignment with your mission.
The TGP qualification process places Level 1 research before the exploratory conversation and identifies external giving behavior and estimated giving capacity as the two essential pieces of information needed at this stage.
Once you have those two answers, assign a Relationship Manager can move forward with outreach.
The exploratory conversation will tell you what research cannot
Research can tell you a great deal about what a prospect has done.
It cannot tell you what they care most deeply about now.
That is the purpose of the exploratory conversation.
During that conversation, you begin learning about the prospect’s:
- Motivations
- Aspirations
- General philanthropic interests
- Impressions of your organization
These are the insights that help you determine whether someone is truly a transformational prospect for your organization.
A wealth screening may reveal significant assets. A research database may reveal large gifts to other institutions. But neither can tell you whether the prospect’s vision for change fully aligns with your mission, or whether they see your organization as a possible partner in achieving that vision.
Only a relationship can reveal that.
Level 2: Research to shape the cultivation strategy
After the exploratory conversation, you may determine that the prospect warrants continued pursuit.
That is when Level 2 research becomes valuable.
This is the time to dig deeper, but the research should still be focused and time-bound. Level 2 research should take up to an hour and should concentrate on the information that will help your Cultivation Team form a preliminary strategy for cultivation.
Now your research is no longer broad and speculative. It is informed by what you have learned directly from the prospect.
For example, the conversation may reveal that the prospect cares deeply about a particular community, program area, geography, or type of impact. They may mention formative life experiences, family priorities, business interests, philanthropic affiliations, or a legacy they hope to create.
At this stage, deeper research can help you:
- Better understand their philanthropic history and largest known gifts
- Identify personal, professional, or institutional connections
- Explore interests that surfaced during the conversation
- Review business, board, or committee affiliations
- Clarify past giving to and engagement with your organization
- Refine your estimate of giving capacity
- Determine who should be part of the Cultivation Team
- Design experiences and engagement opportunities that are relevant to them
For a foundation prospect, Level 2 research might also include its mission and giving areas, key staff and trustees, typical grant size, recent relevant awards, allowable uses of funds, application process, and known relationships your organization may be able to leverage.
The goal is not to gather everything you could possibly know. It is to identify the information that will help you make better strategic decisions about how to cultivate the donor.
Because you have already spoken with the prospect, the research is more focused, more useful, and less likely to send your team down irrelevant paths.
Level 2 research has a clear purpose: informing the cultivation strategy and helping your team decide how to advance the relationship.
Level 3: Research to prepare for the ask
Level 3 research happens shortly before solicitation and only when additional information is needed to finalize the ask.
By this point, your team should already understand the prospect’s interests, motivations, aspirations, relationship with the organization, and likely giving capacity to your organization. Any additional research should be highly specific, such as confirming a recent liquidity event, reviewing the structure of a family foundation, or clarifying the best ask amount, timing, or solicitation team.
The question is no longer, “What else can we learn?”
It is, “What do we still need to know to make the right ask?”
Remember: Research is only one part of the relationship-building process
At TGP Consulting, we help organizations move prospects through the full Strategic Relationship Management Cycle: from Identification and Qualification to Strategy, Cultivation, Solicitation, and Stewardship. The goal is not simply to gather better information. It is to use that information at the right time to build stronger relationships and create the conditions for transformational gifts.
That full system is what we teach inside The Transformational Giving Playbook™ On-Demand Essentials™ course.
If your team needs a more consistent, repeatable approach to qualifying prospects, managing donor relationships, and moving opportunities forward, the On-Demand Essentials™ course gives you the framework, tools, and training to put the entire process into practice.
Click here to learn more about The Transformational Giving Playbook™ On-Demand Essentials™ experience.