With more organisations vying for major gifts, smart fundraisers are standing out from the crowd with data-based fundraising. Using data to understand your donors’ behaviours and interests means you’re coming to them with targeted asks that reflect what they’re actually interested in. It helps you make an ask with the confidence that you’re not wasting your donor’s time and builds deeper, stronger relationships.
If you’re ready to use data to your advantage, these three tips will get you started.
Wealthscreen to find the hidden gems in your database
The best place to start data-based fundraising is your own supporter database, and you can unlock its potential with a simple wealth screen. Wealth screening involves comparing the information in your supporter database with the information on our Wealth Intelligence Database to find matches.
We’ve been building our Wealth Intelligence Database for over 25 years, it’s updated daily, and it holds information about 270,000 plus high-net-worth and well-connected individuals based in the UK. A prospect that shows up on both your database and our databases is likely going to be a good candidate for a major gift.
Use data to plan your donor cultivation
Using data to plan your donor cultivation takes it from guesswork to a strategy. Identify your top prospects based on their capacity to give, affinity with your cause and your ability to reach them.
Once you know who your top prospects are, carry out some prospect research to get to know them better. This involves learning about your prospective donors, understanding who they are, what drives their giving and how likely they are to support your cause. This can then be used to help you develop a personalised and targeted fundraising approach.
Set measurable goals for each prospect, like booking a meeting, inviting them to an event or securing a major gift. This keeps your cultivation strategy outcome-driven and on track.
Benchmark your fundraising performance
Are you on target to hit your end-of-year goals? Compare your performance against the previous year by looking at year-to-date income, the number of gifts you’ve received, average gift size, and donor conversion rates. Break it down by segment, like major gifts, grants received, or community fundraising. Are there areas that are doing better than expected or falling behind?
Assess your organisation’s performance against sector-wide metrics on income growth, donor retention rates and cost per £1 raised to see if you’re ahead or behind similar-sized organisations. Use these insights to find weaknesses and opportunities. Should you increase cultivation efforts for warm prospects, start a re-engagement campaign for lapsed donors, or cut your cold prospects in favour of fresh research?
At Prospecting for Gold, we specialise in research, wealth screening, consultancy and regulatory compliance, making fundraising more effective and successful.
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.
Our wealth screening and data summary report is free when we screen 2,000 or more of your UK supporters. Ready to transform your major gift fundraising? Contact us today.