Best Donor Prospect Research Software
Nonprofit organizations use donor prospect research software to find potential donors. This type of software is used to identify hidden prospects by accessing and analyzing large volumes of data provided by vendors. Donor prospect research software can provide donor information and match nonprofits with donors based on donor interests. Advanced donor prospect research software can also include tools for intelligent recommendations on how to approach donors or scoring prospects based on their affinity and capacity to donate.
Donor prospect research software usually integrates with nonprofit CRM to manage the relationships with the donors and with fundraising software, as well as nonprofit accounting to process and track payments, gifts, donations, etc.
To qualify for inclusion in the Donor Prospect Research category, a product must:
Featured Donor Prospect Research Software At A Glance
G2 takes pride in showing unbiased reviews on user satisfaction in our ratings and reports. We do not allow paid placements in any of our ratings, rankings, or reports. Learn about our scoring methodologies.
At DonorSearch, we’re passionate about helping nonprofits achieve their fundraising goals by providing powerful donor intelligence tools. Since 2007, we’ve been dedicated to supporting organizations o
2,804 Twitter followers
Nexis for Development Professionals streamlines your fundraising research, so you can connect with the perfect donors, maximize contributions, and avoid reputational risk. Enhance your donor databa
1,266 Twitter followers
On average, Raiser's Edge NXT customers experience: - 35% growth in number of donors - 48% growth in number of gifts - 44% growth in total dollars raised Blackbaud Raisers Edge NXT is a cloud-ba
Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT is a tool for fundraisers to track relationships with donors and manage various tasks such as gift processing, database management, email communications, and workflows. Reviewers like the user-friendly interface, the ability to track effectiveness of appeals, the robust capabilities for pulling and segmenting data, and the continuous updates and improvements to the platform. Users reported issues with the lack of integration with other software like Microsoft, slow loading times, lack of certain functionalities in the web view, and dissatisfaction with the customer support.
32,610 Twitter followers
iWave by Kindsight is a comprehensive prospect research and donor intelligence platform designed to empower nonprofits in their fundraising efforts. This innovative solution provides fundraising profe
iWave is a tool for public information, providing a search feature for individual prospects and offering data on donors and donations from nonprofits across the country. Users frequently mention the ease of use, the breadth and depth of source materials, the efficient search feature, and the integration with Salesforce as key benefits of using iWave. Users mentioned issues such as occasional glitches when searching for numerous people in a row, the need for more nonprofit charitable contributions in the database, and difficulties with the screening template and knowledge base library.
Windfall is a people intelligence and AI company that gives go-to-market teams actionable insights. By democratizing access to people data, organizations can intelligently prioritize go-to-market reso
1,138 Twitter followers
GrantStation.com provides nonprofits, educational institutions, and government agencies with access to one of the largest professionally curated databases of grant opportunities. Our platform helps yo
4,130 Twitter followers
Foundation Directory Online is a valuable resource for nonprofits’ fundraising needs. With interactive maps and charts, RFPs, and key funder and grants insights, FDO helps nonprofits identify funding
Instrumentl is the only all-in-one grant solution that turns your entire grant lifecycle into a strategic advantage. Discover best-fit opportunities, craft winning proposals faster, streamline your gr
719 Twitter followers
WealthEngine™, Inc. is the leading provider of predictive marketing analytics, audience development and wealth intelligence services to nonprofit organizations, financial services, and luxury brands.
8,011 Twitter followers
EverTrue is a fundraising and donor engagement software platform built for nonprofits and educational institutions. Headquartered in the United States, EverTrue supports fundraising teams across highe
2,804 Twitter followers
Fundmetric is an AI driven data capture infrastructure platform designed for nonprofits. We leverage the data you already have, augment it with additional data sources, and generate new constituent d
559 Twitter followers
Unify operations. Deepen customer relationships. Grow revenue. Tessitura is a nonprofit technology company dedicated to helping arts and culture organizations thrive. Our comprehensive CRM platform i
Tessitura is a software platform that integrates ticketing, marketing, and fundraising functionalities to provide a comprehensive view of a customer's journey. Reviewers frequently mention the software's robustness, customization options, and excellent customer support, along with its ability to handle large amounts of data and provide detailed outputs, which enhances productivity and workflow. Reviewers noted that Tessitura has a steep learning curve, can be overwhelming for new users, and requires additional resources, both human and financial, for optimal utilization, with some also mentioning issues with specific features like the Education Registration Extension.
3,099 Twitter followers
Fundraising Report Card is a cloud based analytics & reporting platform for nonprofits that drill-downs on donor retention, donor churn, and produces interactive charts and visualizations that hel
20 Twitter followers
Millennium is a donor relationship management tool that provides you with a view of donation activity, communications received, events attended, and personal relationships.
76 Twitter followers
DonorScape is a suite of prospect analysis services developed from over fifty years of fundraising best practices, research, and analysis at top tier non-profit institutions. We're currently offering
877 Twitter followers
Learn More About Donor Prospect Research Software
What is Donor Prospect Research Software?
Donor prospect research software provides fundraising intelligence that helps nonprofit organizations identify prospective donors and strategically tailor their outreach. These solutions pull data from various sources to identify donor affinities and past philanthropic history and use wealth screening to estimate giving capacity. Fundraising teams can then integrate this prospect research into their donor database and identify their top prospects. This is especially useful when targeting outreach for major gifts and capital campaigns, but all fundraising efforts benefit from this donor data.
While most donor prospect research solutions focus on identifying new prospects for individual giving, some products may also provide corporate and foundation fundraising intelligence that helps grant writers seek out new fundraising opportunities.
What are the Common Features of Donor Prospect Research Software?
The following are some core features within donor prospect research software that can help fundraisers identify new major donors:
Searchable database: Donor prospect research tools are powered by data providers that feed different data sets into a searchable database. Users can access prospects' biographical, philanthropic, and wealth data to identify past giving history and current giving capacity and determine how to connect with these potential donors. Users can search for prospects in specific career areas or affinity groups.
Prospect profiles: After identifying specific prospects, profiles can be built to aggregate all relevant information in one accessible location. Users can quickly access demographic information, contact information, and probability scores for donor potential.
Wealth screening: Wealth screening pulls from sources such as real estate investments, political contributions, corporate affiliations, and stock holdings to determine a prospect’s estimated giving potential. By knowing the realistic giving range of a prospect, fundraisers tailor their stewardship efforts more strategically.
CRM integration: Donor prospect research software should integrate with a nonprofit CRM or similar donor management system. This allows users to populate donor records with the data gained from the prospect research and, in some cases, automate the process of re-screening and updating the wealth and philanthropic data. These additional insights can help sort donor records and build lists of prospects for specific campaigns based on rankings assigned by the donor prospect research tool.
Predictive analytics: Newer donor prospect research software uses AI to provide actionable insights to fundraisers and help them hone in on the prospects most likely to support specific campaigns and initiatives, from major gifts, to planned giving, and even specific program grants. Modeling tools help identify prospects most aligned with existing donor profiles. With analytics, fundraisers can craft better messaging to the right donors at the right time and boost donor acquisition and retention.
What are the Benefits of Donor Prospect Research Software?
The primary benefits of donor prospect research software are mentioned below:
Data-driven prospecting: Donor prospect research systems help fundraisers access deeper insights into prospective and current donors, saving time in their outreach efforts. By removing the guesswork, fundraisers know how much to ask from their prospects and which prospects to target for specific giving areas. Users can drill into specific wealth ranges or donor affinities and uncover missed opportunities in their current supporter base as well.
Improved donor retention: Aided by analytics and automation features, fundraisers can ensure they send the proper messaging to donors at the right time. It is easy to overlook donors when caught up in acquisition and prospecting efforts, so donor prospect research software removes some of this burden from fundraising staff. Additionally, fundraisers don’t have to worry about making unreasonable gift requests from donors with incompatible giving capacities.
Better donor relationships: Donor prospect research software allows fundraisers to access an incredible amount of information about prospective and current donors. This wealth, philanthropic, and biographical data help fundraisers know their donors better as people, leading to stronger relationships overall. Donors want to feel valued and connected to missions that align with their affinities.
Who Uses Donor Prospect Research Software?
Fundraising and development teams use donor prospect research to support fundraising campaigns. Wealth screening and donor affinities are extremely useful data points when determining which current and prospective new donors to target for solicitations. Fundraisers can craft better messaging if they know that a prospective donor has a particular interest in their organization’s mission, and they can set more realistic expectations for a donor’s giving capacity. Grantwriters and corporate relationship staff also use these tools to identify grant and sponsorship opportunities.
Software Related to Donor Prospect Research Software
Related solutions that can be used together with donor prospect research software include:
Nonprofit CRM software: Wealth and giving capacity information pulled by donor prospect research can often be integrated into donor records in a nonprofit CRM database.
Alumni management software: Educational institutions also rely on donor prospect research tools to target alumni for fundraising campaigns.
Challenges with Donor Prospect Research Software
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Data relevancy: Donor prospect research software relies on data integrations and providers to power the search functionality. Without a sufficient amount of publicly accessible information, users may not be able to get entirely accurate prospect research. Wealth screening may not reflect a donor’s current giving potential, and philanthropic history can be spotty if the donor makes anonymous gifts.
Pricing model: Some donor prospect research tools charge per prospect screening, which may be prohibitive to nonprofit organizations with a smaller budget. This can result in the prospect research database being used too infrequently to generate accurate data or still results in many missed opportunities due to rationing out prospect screening.
Ineffective stewardship strategy: While donor prospect research software offers actionable insights, fundraising staff still have to have an effective strategy in place to use that data and build donor relationships. The software cannot automate every part of the process, and fundraisers must interpret the data with their specific circumstances in mind. If an organization has an understaffed fundraising team or cannot retain donor relationships, the prospect research will not be as well utilized as it could be.
How to Buy Donor Prospect Research Software
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for Donor Prospect Research Software
Whether a company is just starting to explore donor prospect research software or is looking for a more appropriate solution for their needs, G2.com can help inform buyers of the market and assist them in selecting the best software product for their business.
For donor prospect research software, the core functionality does not differ much across products. They will likely only differ in which data sources power their search tool and which specific donor databases they integrate. Some products also focus more on foundation and corporate prospecting than individual donor data. Most importantly, buyers should consider the pricing model for each potential product. Donor prospect research providers may charge a monthly or annual subscription or charge per prospect report pulled. Depending on the intended use cadence of this software, nonprofits should weigh the cost versus the benefit.
Compare Donor Prospect Research Software Products
Create a long list
The first step to finding the perfect software solution is to create a preliminary list of products that fit the buyer’s general needs. The next step is to narrow down the list by selecting specific features that are must-haves or requirements for the buyer. G2.com provides information about the best donor prospect research software, allowing buyers to filter options and user reviews to help narrow the product list to a more relevant selection.
Create a short list
Creating a short list of software products is an essential step in the buying process. While it may be daunting to filter through various products, users can get help by utilizing G2’s compare feature. This feature will take products of choice and display them side by side so the buyer can easily determine which software ticks the important boxes on the list. Some donor prospect research tools may only focus on wealth screening and donor affiliations, while others may offer predictive analytics and score prospects based on a variety of data points.
Conduct demos
Once the buyer has narrowed down the product list, the next step is to conduct a demo. Demos allow buyers to see a product and its features in more detail. To ensure a buyer gets the most out of a demo, it’s important to go in prepared. Some of the questions to keep in mind would be: How intuitive is the software for their team? What data sources inform the prospect research? Does it have the potential to screen for both individual donors and grantmaking foundations? Additionally, buyers should inquire about cost, integrations, vendor support, and any concerns they have about the product. Adequate preparation will make it easier for a buyer to compare products after completing the demos.
Selection of Donor Prospect Research Software
Choose a selection team
Executive leadership and senior-level fundraising staff should be involved in the selection process, as they have the biggest stake in achieving an organization’s fundraising goals. The director of fundraising should have the largest influence in the process, as their team’s donor management and fundraising strategy relies on having access to the most comprehensive set of donor data.
Negotiation
Once the selection team has narrowed down their software picks, it’s time to discuss integration options, pricing, and the type of support needed from the donor prospect research vendor. It’s always important to address pricing options, even when they are listed on a vendor’s website. Buyers must determine whether the vendor offers subscription-based or pay-per-report pricing. Many software vendors will provide discounts and custom pricing options based on the buyer's needs.
Final decision
Once a buyer has made the final decision on a product and is ready to move forward with a purchase, it is recommended to conduct a final demo with the entire fundraising team. They can enquire about a trial run and determine the next steps if the product doesn’t ultimately fit their needs. These steps can give a buyer an additional sense of security and confidence when making a final decision.
