With charities facing the ongoing challenge of fundraising during an economic crisis, identifying potential major donors is more important than ever. Enter wealth screening – a powerful tool that enables you to identify individuals with the capacity and propensity to give significant gifts. It involves analysing publicly available data about individuals, including their estimated wealth, publicly available philanthropy and other corporate and social connections. In this article, we’ll explore three essential steps to successful wealth screening.
Step 1: Understand your audience
Wealth screening is the process of systematically identifying potential donors who have the capacity and propensity to give significant gifts. This information can help charities to identify their best prospects, engage with them and secure major gifts.
By wealth screening your existing database, you can identify the people already supporting your cause who have the ability to give a large or even transformational gift to your organisation. This is also an opportunity to gain insight into these supporters’ professional and philanthropic motivations, giving you insights that enable you to tailor your fundraising approach and ask for an appropriate gift amount. By personalising your outreach efforts, you’ll build stronger relationships with potential donors.
Step 2: Determine your supporters’ potential
Three key factors determine a person’s potential as a major donor: capacity, affinity and proximity.
Capacity refers to a person’s ability to give. Wealth screening enables charities to identify individuals with a high net worth who are capable of making major gifts. By knowing a person’s estimated wealth, you can tailor your fundraising approach and ask for an appropriate gift amount.
Affinity is a person’s interest in, or connection to, your cause. Wealth screening can reveal an individual’s known philanthropy, which alongside their connection to you, enables you to identify those who are most likely to be suitable to approach for higher-value gifts. This information can help you to personalise your approach and build stronger relationships with potential donors.
Proximity refers to how easy it is to reach a person. If they are identified through screening, you know you have a way to reach them as they are already a supporter. You can also use wealth screening to identify high-net-worth supporters who live in specific geographic areas which may be very helpful if you are running events around the country. This information can help you to target your outreach efforts and engage with potential donors more effectively.
Step 3: Get the timing right
There are a range of times when wealth screening may be appropriate. For example, if you’re planning to set up a major gifts program, screening to assess feasibility can help to determine whether you have the potential to receive major gifts. During the planning stages of a new programme, screening can help to ensure that you have enough prospects in your pipeline to meet your fundraising goals. Finally, regular screening can help to keep developing prospects and top up the pipeline as people progress through the funnel.
At Prospecting for Gold, we specialise in research, wealth screening, consultancy and regulatory compliance, making fundraising more effective and successful.
Wealth screening can help you expand your donor base and boost your fundraising. By understanding your supporters, you can personalise your approach, making your fundraising efforts more effective and efficient.
Successful major gift fundraising isn’t just about securing a donation. It’s about building relationships, understanding people’s motivations and aligning their interests with your cause.
To find out how we can help you on your fundraising journey, get in touch with us today.