A presentation of finding your best prospects using the top five markers of philanthropy. This presentation was created by DonorSearch for Little Green Light users. DonorSearch is a prospect research company that starts with proven philanthropy.

1. Identifying Your
Best Prospects
NOVEMBER 2014
RYAN WORONIECKI
ANDREW SUTHER

2. Introduction
 Ryan Woroniecki
 Executive Director of Partnerships
 4+ years working with hundreds of nonprofits
 APRA – MD board member
 Andrew Suther
 Sales Manager
 Worked with APC members and research consultants
 6+ years in research
 DonorSearch
 Bill Tedesco, CEO
 Prospect research company
 8 years old
 Nearly 1,000 active clients

3. Identify potential in your database:
 Planned Gifts – Identify prospects most likely to respond to planned giving
marketing, segment prospects based on marketing approach, focus on the
most loyal and financial potential.
 Major Gifts – Identify prospects independently of prior giving history that have
proven philanthropic inclination and capacity to prioritize portfolios, isolate
prospects based on upgrade potential, interest categories and potential wealth
types.
 Club Level Giving – Identify existing donors most likely to stretch to $250, $500,
$1,000, etc. gift clubs, prioritize prospects that warrant high-touch approaches.
 Annual Fund – Identify existing donors who are most likely to renew and/or
upgrade, qualify lapsed donors according to who is most likely to renew, find
similar prospects in your acquisition successes, set campaign priorities for the
entire file.
 Special Events – Identify potential sponsors and underwriters, qualify
attendees based on philanthropic potential and capacity before or after the
event.

4. Charitable Giving in America
 In 2013, the total giving in the U.S. reached over $335
Billion
 4.4% increase from 2012
 Individual giving accounted for roughly 72% ($240.6 Billion)
 Foundations accounted for roughly 15% ($48.96 Billion)
 Giving by bequest accounted for roughly 8% ($27.73 Billion)
 Corporate giving accounted for roughly 5% ($17.88 Billion)
*Giving USA, 2014

5. A History of Giving
 95.4% of households give to charity
 The average annual household contribution is $2,974
 Charitable giving accounted for 2% of gross domestic product in 2013
*The Center for Philanthropy Indiana University

6. Giving Within your
Donor Database

7. The 80/20 Rule
The top 20% of your donors will account for 80% of your overall
donations.
20% Donors
80% Donations
How do we identify that top 20%?

8. What are the Five
Markers of
Philanthropy?

9. 1st Marker: Analysis of Previous Giving
 A donor’s giving history to your organization is the single best indicator
when predicting future philanthropy.
 PROS
• The data is free if you have collected it over the years.
• The predictive capabilities are not usually impacted by the average
recording errors or inconsistencies.
• The calculations are simple: RFM (How Recent, How Frequent, and How
Much Money)
 CONS
• Limited to the success or failures of previous marketing efforts. You may
not have many donors.
• Difficult to project opportunity outside of previous performances.

10. 1st Marker: Analysis of Previous Giving

11. 2nd Marker: Outside Philanthropy
 A Prospect’s giving to other organizations is the second best marker of
future philanthropy.
• PROS
• Much of the data is free and easy to understand. Nonprofit annual reports and recognition
documents are readily available.
• Many of the largest nonprofits use the Internet to recognize donors.
• CONS
• Some Internet-based annual reports are taken down after time.
• The data available publicly is just a fraction of all gifts made. Publishing giving information is not a
regulatory requirement.
• It can be difficult to find older giving reports.
• Printed donor recognition documents are not usually readily available when you need them. You
have to find an old copy.
• Some reports show a name, but do not show gift amounts.
• Can’t always determine if a listed name is your constituent.

12. 3rd Marker: Foundation Trustee
 A prospect’s participation as a foundation trustee is more important
than any wealth marker.
 PROS
• IRS requires all foundation to file an IRS 990PF form annually that contains the amount of
money the organization gave away and the names of board members.
• Many foundations list their trustees on their website.
• Guidestar offers a free service that lists trustees and other info. The Foundation Center, Big
Online and Guidestar all have paid services where you can see more.
 CONS
• IRS 990PF reports often lag two or more years.

13. 4th Marker: Political Giving
 Your prospect’s lifetime giving to Federal political campaigns is an excellent
predictor of future philanthropy.
 PROS
• A single lifetime FEC gift of $250 puts your constituent in the top 6% of the US
population. A single gift of $1,000 puts your constituent in the top 1/10th of 1% .
• Virtually every FEC donor with lifetime political giving of $10,000 is wealthy and has
the capacity to make a major gift.
• Virtually every FEC donor with lifetime political giving of $15,000 has made a 4,5,6, or 7
figure charitable gift somewhere.
• Political giving is readily available from multiple free internet sources.
 CONS
• Not all charitable donors are political donors.
• The reason large political donors are large charitable donors is not known so
fundraisers are skeptical.

14. 5th Marker: Real Estate
 A prospect’s real estate holdings can be used to predict overall capacity in
future philanthropy.
 PROS
• Most real estate information can be easily found on public websites.
• Overall value of property is a good way to determine a prospects wealth.
• One mailing address can lead to the discovery of multiple homes owned by the
same person.
 CONS
• Some people rent, lease, or own apartments/townhomes that are harder to find with
traditional real estate searches.
• Real estate may be owned under a company name or in a revocable trust, and
therefore harder to find.

15. Use DS Ratings to segment your
prospects
 DS1-1: An exact match as a donor giving $5,000 or more to a
nonprofit or political organization
 DS1-2: An exact match to exceptional markers of wealth & capacity
(real estate holdings of $2 million+, business revenues of $5 million+)
 DS1-3: An exact match to lower but notable markers of wealth (real
estate holdings between $1 million and $2 million, business revenues
of $1-$5 million)
 DS1-4: An exact match to real estate holdings between $500,000
and $1 million
 DS1-5: An exact match as a donor to other organizations at levels
less than $5,000

16. Keeping Track of Your
Donors

17. Generate Detailed Profiles Within an Individual
Constituent’s Account

21. Identify Real Estate holdings
using Lexis Nexis and Zillow.
Use networking tools
like the Who Knows
Who database to
generate new leads.

23. With the assessment process,
our in house researchers
manually edit results. This
provides a short list of
opportunities for you to
approach immediately.
The Quality Score measures
how likely the profiles are to
be correct. A score of 17 +
means the matches are
likely to be correct. This lets
you plan who will take more
time to verify and whose
profile is most likely to be
accurate

24. Likelihood scores are
predictive modeling and
use your data and what
we append to determine
how likely a prospect is to
respond to specific
marketing. The scores are
0 – 300 the higher the
better. This can help
determine who to mail to
multiple times.

25. Using DonorSearch results in LGL to develop action
plans for renewal, lapsed and nondonor segments.

26. Special Little Green Light User
Pricing Available!
 Level One: Unlimited use of Integrated Search tool, complete with
unlimited training and DonorSearch button inside Little Green Light
 Level Two: Unlimited use of entire ProspectView Online Suite,
including Integrated Search, Prospect Generator, Gift Search, at My
Portfolio, complete with unlimited training and DonorSearch button
inside Little Green Light
 Level Three: Batch screening of up to 5,000 records, Unlimited use of
entire ProspectView Online Suite, complete with unlimited training
and DonorSearch button inside Little Green Light AND a full
integration of the results from the batch screening
*Contact Andy after the presentation for special webinar pricing!

27. Questions?
 Ryan Woroniecki
ryan@donorsearch.net
(410) 702-4223
 Andrew Suther
andy@donorsearch.net
(443) 355-4068
Call (410) 670-7880
Visit our website at www.donorsearch.net