FND 231 | Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Donor Prospecting

Prospect research is a technique used by development teams to learn more about the personal backgrounds, giving histories, wealth indicators, and philanthropic motivations of your donors, allowing you to evaluate a prospect’s capacity to give and their affinity for your organization. This course enables you to create efficient, compelling, and numerous opportunities for donors to support your organization through the successful management of the development department. You will gain practical skills necessary to effectively engage board members, staff, and volunteers by setting attainable department and team metrics and timelines.

This course will also investigate technological solutions for donor research and management.

Key Concepts

• Compare and contrast donor-research platforms and donor-management systems.
• Assess indicators, trends, and characteristics (such as wealth markers and connection to your cause) that identify your donor constituency, including how to find donor data and how to conduct prospect screening.
• Estimate gift levels based on internal and external analysis.

• Fundraising and development staff
• Marketing/communications staff
• Senior leadership
• Board members, especially those serving on fundraising committees