Introducing Prospect Research William Cordery Program Officer Marguerite Casey Foundation Armando E. Zumaya Chief Development Officer Playworks

WHY? WHAT? Basic research will help you focus your time on the most likely prospects and help you shape your engagement strategy. Biographical information Contact Information Assets (real estate/stock/etc.) Giving History Affinity/Interests

Agenda Intros of facilitators (10 min) o Name, Organization, Location o How did we get into this work? Goals for session (5 min) o To identify tools and practices to find major donor prospects o Find ways to narrow the pool and focus on viable prospects o To provide insight on how to determine how much to ask for · Power Point Presentation (20 min) Prospect Research for Development Officers · Q&A on PowerPoint (10 min) · Break into small group (5 min) Small group work (20 min) Brainstorm: o What does your major donor look like? (What do they give to? Community involvement? Other philanthropic issues?) o Where do you currently find your prospects? o What are tools you are using to find information on prospects? o What else do you need in order to successfully build your major donor portfolio? o How do you first approach these prospects? · Report back (20 min) o Share responses to questions answered in the small group · Q&A (20 min)

Prospect Research: Why it doesn’t happen Seems unethical and dirty to outsiders, boards and volunteers. Cost. Not seen as an investment but waste of money. Many Founder centered/personality driven organizations. The “we know our donors” mentality We are “too small and grassroots” for that type of stuff.

Getting it done, why? Know who to ask and for how much, 80% of the battle Because otherwise your wasting a lot of time. Real diversity vs. token diversity: leadership and donors Raising a great deal more money. Serious money If you can ask for $100 you can ask for $100,000. Because the right surely is advanced to this level of fundraising.

Getting it done, how? Hire a full time staffer.  $45-75k a year Hire a freelancer or firm.  $1,000-$3,000 monthly Train a existing staffer or volunteer.  $2-3,000 one time Do it yourself.  Free, but lots of staff time

Look around, who cares about our issues? Example…my current work… Children’s Museums Children’s Hospitals After School Programs School Reform Anti- Bullying Organizations LGBT Rights and Youth Organizations Autism Organizations Police Athletic Leagues YMCA’s, YWCA’s Education donors at the Local university Anti-Obesity Organizations Anti-Gang Organizations What else?

Google them, yeah, Google Advanced Exact Phrase Search Try “gift from …” Donor and _________

Getting to them Who knows them ?  Your Board, donors, employees, alumni?  What boards do they sit on?  Industry?  Alumni of schools? Linked In  In Mail Facebook. Muckety Easy one’s to reach  Lawyers  Real Estate people  Anyone looking for clients

Crucial Web Sites Charitable Donations NOZA, Foundation searching is free and is a good way to build lists of people. Premium search is available for a fee. Can search by keyword, e.g. youth development,to find organizations that have that as a focus; use those lists to find prospective donors. Guidestar, data/index.aspx (can be used to build lists of organizations which may have donors who would support Playworks). Premium search is available for a fee.

Free Resources Biographical Information The Business Journals, Look for your city and look up the movers and shakers ; in addition, most have annual lists of lists which can be used to find groups of people. Forbes, Contact Information 411.com, Manta Big Book www. Bigbook.com

1) Google (or similar search engine) 2) (I no longer use this because I get fuller info from LexisNexis, but if I didn't have access to LexisNexis, I would use Zabasearch all the time) 3) for real estate values. I find it quicker than going directly to Zillow and you still get the Zillow value. 4) Blockshopper (I usually get to this through Google) 5) - free information available even though you can pay for premium content. (I usually find the free info is sufficient)

Advanced Resources Professional Licensing Organizations (physicians, engineers, lawyers, etc.) Every state licenses professionals and you'll often be able to find contact information. You can also use martindale.com/ (Martindale Hubbell-lawyers) and org/doctorfinder/recaptcha.jsp (AMA-doctors). Federal Election Commission, (political contributions) You'll get a sense of what a person might support by looking at their political contributions; states often have their own contribution sites, so look for those. Data Mining (use the database). If you conduct events, take the lists of people who attend and match against those who have given. Give higher priority to those who have attended multiple events and have consistent (even if it's modest giving). Match addresses with high net worth areas (ask research for lists of zip codes).

THANKS !! To reach us… Armando Will