1. Introduction to Prospect Research
Tips and Tools for Researching and Managing Prospects

2. Agenda What are prospect research and prospect management?
What is a major gift prospect?
Indicators of a major gifts prospect
Major gifts prospect managing and tracking
Developing a major gifts prospect portfolio
Researching prospects using external and internal sources
Tips and Strategies

3. What are prospect research and prospect management?
Prospect research involves the discovery and evaluation of prospective donors based on their inclination, relationships, and capacity to make a gift to an organization.
Prospect management is the managing, tracking and reporting on an organization’s activity with its prospect pool.

4. What is a major gifts prospect?
Individuals with the identified capacity and inclination to make a large gift to your organization.
Many organizations set a minimum dollar amount, such as a $25,000 pledge over five years.
Major gifts fundraising involves more personal one-on-one contacts and visits, as compared to annual fund, in which funds are raised through telephone, mailings, and e-solicitations.
Cultivation, qualification, and solicitation of a major gift can take a long period of time, typically months or years.

5. Major Gifts Prospect Identifiers
Affinity
Other philanthropic activity
Wealth capacity
Other factors

6. Identifying Major Gifts Prospects: Affinity to your Organization
What is this individual’s relationship to the FFA? Former member; past officer on the national, state, or chapter level; awards; volunteer in any capacity, including board service.
What is the giving history to your organization? Number of years individual has been giving and at what level.
Are there existing relationships that could help move the prospect forward? Board members, fellow staff, employment history with a corporate donor, family members.

7. Identifying Major Gifts Prospects: Other Philanthropic Activity
How philanthropic is this individual? Search for donations to other organizations and try to find at what level they give.
Does this individual have a family foundation? If yes, find public documents (such as tax forms) that determine what other organizations it supports and at what level.
What is of interest to this individual? Do they support other agricultural and/or youth organizations?
Has this individual served on any other boards or volunteered with similar organizations? Look for any type of board memberships that may indicate an interest in the FFA and/or a relationship with other individuals who may be able to help move the relationship forward.

8. Identifying Major Gifts Prospects: Wealth Capacity
Common indicators of wealth capacity:
Real estate ownership (primary and secondary ownership)
Business ownership
Compensation
Stocks
Philanthropic gifts
Private foundations
Note: Wealthy individuals have hidden assets. Benchmarks can be used to help gauge giving capacity.

9. Identifying Major Gifts Prospects: Other Factors
Current life situations - family obligations or other circumstances that may preclude them from making a major gift.
Occupation history - ideally a professional bio.
Education - look for studies/training in agriculture.
Upbringing - growing up on a farm or any other exposure to agriculture.
Family members - especially any family members who may have an FFA background.

10. Phases of Prospect Management
Where the individual is in the prospect management continuum determines the amount of research that is needed.
Discovery: A basic level of research (capacity and affinity) determines that an individual would likely make a good major gifts prospect.
Qualification: The gift officer will make contact (typically in-person) to determine directly from the individual the ability and inclination to make a gift. Spot research is done in advance of the qualification visit to ensure that that gift officer is prepared.
Cultivation: Once a prospect has been qualified, they will move to the Cultivation stage in which the gift officer will continue to make contact and visit a prospect, working towards making a major gift. At this stage, more in-depth research is conducted to determine the individual’s giving interests and ask amount.
Solicitation: A proposal is created and presented to the prospect.
Stewardship: Once a gift is received, gift officer will thank donor for their support. Individual will typically be moved back into cultivation to work towards the next major gift.

11. Major Gifts Prospect Tracking
Each fundraiser is assigned a portfolio with major gifts prospects to continuously track progress.
Portfolios should represent individuals a gift officer plans to contact in a given year. Typically, portfolio sizes range prospects.
All prospects are tagged as Discovery, Cultivation, Solicitation, or Stewardship and moved to the next phase as the relationship progresses toward closing a gift.

12. Research Resources-Internal
Establish what information you already have internally about a prospect.
Maintaining a donor database with accurate and up-to-date information greatly enhances research efforts.
Information that can be used to build your donor database include:
Call notes from visits (any personal contact, including , phone call, and face-to-face visits).
Gift history
Membership rosters
Archives
Past board member lists
Event attendees
Call notes from visits
Survey data

13. Research Resources- Examples of Free Online Sources
National FFA Archives, IUPUI: contains correspondence, minutes, newsletters, publications, reports, audio cassettes, video cassettes, and photographs.
County assessor websites: information on land ownership and values.
Zillow: determining home values, particularly a recent sale.
USDA: information on agricultural land.
Online Foundation Directory: information on family and corporate foundations.
LinkedIn: information on executives and businesses.
Yellow Pages: helpful for tracking down contact information.
Salary.com: helps to provide salary benchmarks.
Million Dollar List: high dollar donor list (individuals and foundations).
Google Maps: Provides a visual the prospect’s property and immediate area.

14. Research Resources- Paid Subscription Examples
LexisNexis Development Pro: Property and address history directly from source documents, including deeds and tax assessment records. Other information includes employment locators, business ownership, and potential relatives.
NOZA: Giving activity among individuals and foundations that have been captured and published in online annual reports.
ResearchPoint: A wealth screening software by Target Analytics providing estimated giving capacity based on real estate assets, compensation, and securities.

15. Research Resources- APRA
Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA): Online resources, research tips, networking. A good resource for learning about the latest industry trends and newest products available for research. Annual dues are required for membership.
APRA chapters at the state and regional level are a great resource for learning from research experts in your local area. State APRA chapters also hold annual events, such as skills workshops and conferences for those wishing to learn more about prospect research.

16. Research Resources- Wealth Screenings
Individual records are matched against a collection of databases, such as D&B, Larkspur, NOZA, Assessors, SEC, FEC, etc.
Information is returned with a reliability score segmenting prospects into annual, major and planned gift prospects.
Screening is helpful in identification and prioritization, but data should be verified through research.
Wealth screening companies:
Target Analytics
DonorScape
Donor Search
Wealth Engine
True Givers

17. Tips and Strategies
Use standard templates for writing profiles and call reports.
Review the major gifts portfolio on a monthly basis and set guidelines for moving prospects out if there is a lack of progress: for instance, disqualify if you cannot contact a Discovery prospect after a period of one year, and either disqualify or reassign a Cultivation prospect if there is no movement after two years.
Identify and prioritize the highest capacity prospects for qualification and develop a monthly contact plan to work towards asking for a gift.

18. Appendices

19. What to include in a research profile template
Full name and full spouse name
DOB or age
Location
Current occupation
Educational degrees
Any affiliations and board memberships
Giving history to your organization
Career history
Family ties (in particular spouse information, if applicable)
Assets
Other philanthropic interests

20. What to include in a call report template
Date of contact (when the call/visit/letter took place)
Full name
Contact information (additional information not already in database)
Contact made by (everyone involved, such as staff, volunteers, state/national officers)
Type of contact: phone call, letter, in-person meeting
Purpose of contact: qualification, cultivation, solicitation, stewardship
Any new information about FFA involvement, such as FFA membership, volunteering at state or local level, awards, judging.
Any new information about wealth, such as land or business ownership, job changes, retirement, etc.
Results of call, i.e., move from discovery to cultivation, etc.
Next steps, i.e., what are your next steps and by when?

23. Contact Info
Abby Christensen
Donor Prospect Researcher
National FFA Foundation