1. Two Paths to Opening Doors with Donors part 4
Strategic Prospect Research
2011 Annual AFP Statewide Conference
INSPIRE YOUR PRACTICE
July 22, 2011

2. Two Paths: Proactive Research
Path #1 = Friendraising  working through people
Path #2 = Proactive research  working through data
We’ve gone through the friendraising path, and now it’s time to turn to the data path. Kassy: Discuss types of people, prefer different methods. Maybe (hopefully) you’re not doing everything, but you might be!

3. Building Your Support Base
This is a thought exercise to illustrate the process of Friendraising and Proactive Research.
Imagine that your organization is your home. There are two paths leading to the front door—one from the street and another from the driveway representing friendraising and proactive research. You invite people into your house from either path. After they’re inside, they can see how great your home is, so they want their friends to come over too! You can then invite their friends over by taking either path, but as you do, you have to build additional rooms to fit all of your great friends (donors) into your bigger home (organization).
The goal is here to start with your one-room casita and end up with the Ronstadt House!

4. Proactive Prospect Research
By engaging in Proactive Prospect Research, you will:
know when you have a high affinity/high capacity donor hiding in your donor database
find new potential donors who have not yet donated to your organization
Proactive Prospect Research will perhaps be the tougher path for you to follow as many of you probably are already versed with talking to people to find new potential donors. Proactive PR means that you’re stuck in front of a computer and have only yourself to rely on for choosing your research methods. Hopefully after this conversation you’ll feel more confident about the process and sources that you’ll use to do your research.
To reiterate, proactive PR allows you to:
Find those donors in your database
Find new potential donors waiting for you
Potential Connections that you should look for: Spouse, children, other relatives, friends, business partners, etc. Identifying these relationships will allow you to use your friend-raising skills to perhaps make a personal introduction.
When you are searching for financial information, there are some things that you will and won’t be able to find. Private vs. Publicly traded companies, salaries for top executives vs. estimated salary tools based on title and location, property information, stock information for top officers, directors, and insider owners of publicly traded companies.
Hobbies, interests in your field, what motivations do they have that make them give? Make sure that these are all relevant to your prospect profile so you avoid the pitfall of unnecessary information!
Proactive Prospect Research involves identifying:
Potential Connections
Financial Information
Relevant personal background information

5. Proactive Prospect Research: The Smart Way!
Stay away from the Pitfalls of Prospect Research!
Identify the list of prospects
Start with your profile
Come up with a plan of relevant resources
Set a time limit
For your prospect research plan: What information can you find from which sources—identify those most likely to yield the information that you are looking for and focus on them.
Do poll now: Please raise your hand if you live outside of Pima County.
Most of the resources I will show you now are accessible to anyone for free regardless of where they live in the state. However, a few of the resources that I will be mentioning require a Pima County Public Library card with database access—those living outside Pima County should contact their local public libraries to see what databases may be able to supplement these free resources where gaps exist.

6. Proactive Demo: New Prospects
Topic: Arizona wildlife rescue group that helps care for sick wildlife of all types.
Keywords: wildlife, conservation, animals
Nonprofits with similar missions
Newspaper Databases
Biography Databases
Google News - Advanced
Take a moment to consider the work you do in the community. Are there organizations that you collaborate with who have donors who may be interested in your work? Who’s helped sponsor their fundraising events, buildings, programming? Try to keep in mind that this isn’t stealing other nonprofits donors but helping donors find opportunities to make gifts to programs that they believe in and are interested in. Guidestar.org is a great resource for this. When you search, you find Tucson Audubon Society, the Forever Wild Animal Rehabilitation Center, Snakes & Critters Animal Sanctuary, Safari Club International are just a few.
Periodically you should scan newspaper databases (much easier than reading the paper each day!). Coming up with key words and concepts that are related to the work your organization does will allow you to keep your finger on the pulse of realm in which you operate. Are there any big projects going on at other nonprofits? Who’s donating to them? Organizations that are merging? Change in the local nonprofit realm can be a boon to your research efforts.
Biography databases can help you identify people who live in town who are somehow affiliated with the work you do.
News feature, advanced search feature. Another way to keep in touch with what’s going on locally.

7. Proactive Prospect Research: Existing Donors
Your donor database houses your best prospects in terms of affinity.
Find those donors who are just waiting for the right approach to give more.

8. Proactive Demo: Donor Database
Noza Prospect Research Profile
*You’ll need a Pima County Public Library account to access this database.
+Biography Reference Center, Britannica Biographies, MasterFILE Premier, TOPICsearch
Prospect Full Name
Your Donor Database
Home Address
Pima County Assessor, White Pages, ReferenceUSA*
Business Address
RefUSA*, AZ Corp. Commission, Yellow Pages, business website
Affiliation with Organization
Management Background/Career Highlights
Google, Newspaper Source Plus, Biography Databases+, RefUSA*, Business Source Complete
Corporate Board Memberships
RefUSA*, Business Week, Forbes, Newsweek, Regional Business News, Google, Yahoo Finance
Slide breaks– funny photos!

9. Remember to avoid the pitfalls!
Spending too much time.
Being unfocused/finding irrelevant details.
Everyone should care no matter what the research shows you.

10. Proactive Demo: Donor Database
Nonprofit Board Memberships/Community Affiliations
Newspaper Source Plus, Proquest*, NewsBank*, other newspapers, Foundation Directory Online**, Arizona Guide to Grants & Giving**
Biographical Background/Family History
Newspaper Source Plus, NewsBank*, Pima County Clerk of the Superior Court
Educational Background
Biography Databases, Newspaper Databases, Social Networking websites (Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.)
Family/Private Foundations
Foundation Directory Online**, Arizona Guide to Grants & Giving**
Other Philanthropic Giving
Newspaper Databases, Google
Proquest = Arizona Republic & Wall Street Journal
**You’ll need to visit a branch of the Pima County Public Library or another Foundation Center Cooperating Collection to access these databases.

11. Remember to avoid the pitfalls!
Spending too much time.
Being unfocused/finding irrelevant details.
Everyone should care no matter what the research shows you.

12. Proactive Demo: Donor Database
Political Donations
Open Secrets
Real Estate
Pima County Assessor, “?” County Assessor, Zillow
Additional Assets
David Lamb’s Prospect Research website
Stock Holdings
Market Watch, Yahoo Finance, Edgar, AnnualReports.com
Stock Options
Yahoo Finance, Edgar
Compensation History
Forbes, Edgar, Salary Estimates, AnnualReports.com

13. Remember to avoid the pitfalls!
Spending too much time.
Being unfocused/finding irrelevant details.
Everyone should care no matter what the research shows you.
Worst pitfall = no action!

14. Breakout: Brainstorming Session
Name two other local nonprofit organizations that share the same values or have a similar mission to your organization.
What are three key words or phrases that describe the things your nonprofit addresses?
3 minutes.

15. Resource List for Prospect Researchers
Pima County Public Library Grants & Nonprofit Info Center’s prospect research webpage
Visit the Arizona State Library for a list of databases free to AZ residents
For access to the Foundation Directory Online, go to any PCPL branch library or find the closest Foundation Center Cooperating Collection to you
See your handouts for Foundation Center Institutional Donor profile and NOZA Individual Prospect Profile samples