Wealth Screening vs. Prospect Research: A comprehensive guide to blending tactics

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Erin Booker

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May 9, 2025

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5 minutes

Nonprofit Trends

How To Nonprofit

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Effective fundraising is the lifeblood of nonprofit organizations. In today's data-driven world, fundraisers have powerful tools at their disposal—wealth screening and prospect research offer complementary yet distinct pathways to fundraising success.

Understanding the nuances between these methodologies can transform your major donor strategy and dramatically improve your results. This comprehensive guide will explore how these approaches differ, their respective strengths and limitations, and how savvy fundraisers can integrate both to maximize their organization's potential.

Once you realize wealth screening + donor prospecting is for you, check out our guide to the best wealth screening tools on the market (Spoiler Alert: Kindsight and Funraise are thee best for nonprofits of all sizes!), instructions on how to build a nonprofit donor base, and donor analytics guide.

Overview of donor wealth screening

For organizations building or expanding major gift programs, wealth screening data is particularly valuable. It helps uncover under-engaged high-net-worth individuals in your geographic or cause area, identifying promising prospects who may have gone unnoticed through traditional prospecting methods.

Definition and purpose

Wealth screening is the process of using public and third-party data to screen supporters in your database for indicators that signal they may be able and willing to give a major gift. It's essentially a systematic approach to identifying the financial capacity of individuals within your potential donor or prospect pool, providing raw data about their wealth markers to help you determine their giving potential.

The primary purpose of wealth screening is straightforward yet powerful: to identify individuals with significant financial resources who could become major donors to your organization. By analyzing public records and proprietary databases, wealth screening tools can quickly process hundreds or thousands of donor profiles to uncover hidden gems.

Wealth screening is particularly valuable for nonprofits with limited resources who need to make strategic decisions about where to invest their fundraising energy. Rather than approaching all donors with the same strategy, wealth screening allows organizations to segment their donor base according to financial capacity, enabling more targeted and effective solicitation approaches.

Key wealth indicators

Wealth screening examines several key financial indicators to assess a prospect's giving capacity. These typically include:

Real Estate Holdings

Property ownership is one of the strongest indicators of wealth. Wealth screening tools analyze property records to identify valuable real estate assets that suggest significant financial capacity.

Business Affiliations

Executive positions, business ownership, board memberships, and other professional affiliations can signal substantial income and net worth. Wealth screening software for nonprofits examines corporate filings, professional databases, and other public sources to identify these connections.

Stock Transactions

Public company stock ownership and transactions can reveal significant wealth, especially for executives and major shareholders. Wealth screening tools monitor SEC filings and other public records to identify individuals with substantial equity holdings.

Political Contributions

Political giving data is publicly available and serves as both a wealth indicator and a demonstration of a person's willingness to financially support causes they believe in.

Income Estimates

While direct income information is private, wealth screening tools use various data points to estimate income levels, including professional positions, neighborhood demographics, and other public indicators.

Overview of prospect research

For many nonprofits, prospect research represents a strategic investment in relationship-building. By understanding the full context of a major gift donor's life, values, and giving patterns, organizations can develop more meaningful connections and create personalized cultivation strategies that resonate on a deeper level.

Prospect research represents a more holistic approach to current donor evaluation than wealth screening alone. While wealth screening focuses primarily on financial capacity, prospect research examines a broader spectrum of factors that influence giving decisions. The fundraising goal is not just to identify who can give, but to understand who is likely to give to your specific organization and why.

Evaluating donor behaviors

Effective prospect research analyzes three critical categories of indicators:

Philanthropic Indicators

These reveal a prospect's giving history and charitable interests. Researchers examine previous donations to other nonprofits, foundation involvement, volunteer history, and board service to assess philanthropic inclinations.

Capacity Indicators

While wealth screening focuses heavily on financial capacity, prospect research puts these findings in context. Researchers evaluate not just raw wealth data but how that financial capacity translates to realistic giving potential for your organization, considering factors like competing philanthropic interests and family obligations.

Affinity Indicators

Perhaps most crucially, prospect research seeks to understand a prospect's specific connection to your cause. These connections might include personal experiences with your organization, family ties to your mission area, or alignment between your work and their stated values.

Key differences between wealth screening and donor prospecting

Here's what it boils down to: While wealth screening might reveal that a prospect has a net worth of $5 million and could theoretically make a six-figure gift, prospect research might discover that this individual has a personal connection to your cause through a family member's experience, suggesting not only capacity but also a compelling reason to support your work.

Quantitative vs. Qualitative insights

One fundamental difference between prospect research and wealth screening lies in the nature of the valuable insights they provide. Wealth screening is primarily quantitative, dealing with objective financial data points that can be measured and scored. It answers the question, "How much could this person potentially give?" through concrete numbers and metrics.

Prospect research, in contrast, adds qualitative dimensions to the analysis. It explores subjective factors like personal motivations, emotional connections to causes, and relationship strength with your organization. This qualitative approach helps answer the more nuanced questions: "Why would this person give to us specifically?" and "What aspects of our mission would most inspire them?"

This distinction is critical because effective fundraising requires both elements. The quantitative data ensures you're targeting prospects with sufficient resources, while the qualitative insights enable you to craft appeals that resonate on a personal level.

Financial capacity vs. Comprehensive donor profile

We might as well be comparing robots to squishy puppies. Wealth screening creates what might be called a financial snapshot of a potential donor, focused primarily on their ability to give. It excels at identifying indicators of wealth and translating those into potential giving capacity.

Prospect research, meanwhile, builds a comprehensive donor profile that encompasses not just financial capacity but a donor's complete relationship with philanthropy and your organization specifically. This profile includes giving history, engagement patterns, personal connections, professional background, and other factors that influence giving decisions.

While wealth screening can identify who to approach, prospect research helps you understand how to approach them effectively.

Streamlining campaigns vs. Personalized outreach strategies

Let's get into the practical applications of these two methodologies, since they differ significantly. Wealth screening excels at efficiently segmenting and prioritizing large donor pools. It allows fundraisers to quickly identify the most promising prospects from hundreds or thousands of records, enabling strategic allocation of limited outreach resources.

Prospect research, by contrast, informs highly personalized outreach strategies for individual donors. The valuable insights gathered through comprehensive research allow gift officers to tailor their approach to each prospect's specific interests, communication preferences, and giving motivations.

While wealth screening helps you decide who deserves your attention, prospect research helps you determine exactly how to engage them once you've made that decision. Both elements are crucial to a well-rounded development strategy.

Pros and cons of donor wealth screening

Eyes crossing already? Here's our take: Wealth screening provides valuable information, but must be used as part of a broader strategy that includes relationship-building and personal engagement.

Advantages: Efficiency, identification, and scalability

Wealth screening offers several significant advantages for nonprofit fundraisers:

It's an efficient way to identify high-net-worth individuals.

It makes you a "data-driven decision maker".

It uncovers hidden gems.

It's scalable.

Limitations: Context, engagement, and privacy considerations

Despite its benefits, wealth screening has several important limitations:

It lacks personal insights.

It's light on context about life circumstances.

It harbors potential for misinterpretation.

It skirts privacy and ethical considerations.

Pros and cons of prospect research

In case you're not interested in reading our lists, here's the skinny on donor prospecting: Prospect research is a complex, comprehensive process that provides tremendous value but also requires a great investment.

Advantages: Depth, personalization, and relationship building

Prospect research offers several distinct advantages that complement and extend beyond wealth screening:

It provides a deep understanding of donor motivations.

It enhances relationship building.

It provides more accurate giving predictions.

It delivers better stewardship opportunities.

It helps with strategic cultivation planning.

Limitations: Resources, time, and expertise requirements

Despite its benefits, prospect research presents several challenges that organizations must consider:

It's resource-intensive.

It's a time-consuming process.

It (sometimes) requires specialized skills.

It can be challenging to confirm quality information.

It's complex to implement.

Smart leadership: Fundraising experts talk about donor prospecting

And, yes, by "fundraising experts", we mean our Funraise team members, but we also have lotsa conversations with lotsa smart people... and we're dropping some of the best data-based stewardship moments below.

Justin Wheeler on Fundraising Intelligence

Justin Wheeler, Funraise CEO and Co-founder, says, “Funraise has seen firsthand how the power of data intelligence can sustain and accelerate life-changing impact. We’re excited to increase the accessibility of this technology because we know nonprofits are poised to launch into a future where actionable insights will increase impact in a big way.”

Andrew Olsen on Donor Identity

The single largest motivator… people gave because it aligned with their identity – they saw themselves as charitable and generous people, and because of that, they did give.

Andrew Olsen, Senior VP, DickersonBakker, discusses his experience of internal identity driving giving more than external asks.

Mitch Stein and Philanthropy.com on large gift trends

Mitch Stein, Head of Strategy at Chariot, uses Philanthropy.com's analysis of 2025 trends in giving to highlight something specific they saw with regard to large gifts:

"The platforms interviewed... saw double-digit declines in fundraising volume after ...tariffs were announced & financial markets took a nosedive—which was most prominent among donors giving over $500."

Specifically, according to Philanthropy.com, large gifts (over $500) reduced by 50%, while smaller gifts (under $500) reduced by only 30%. But Mitch points out that DAFpay gift size went up by 30%.

"...for folks with DAFs, they aren't thinking about their general investment account or monthly credit card bill when using their DAF 😁 ...The mental barriers to giving are significantly lowered because of the phenomenon of pre-commitment."

More donor data smarties

"Humans are surprisingly predictable... unsurprisingly, past giving is the best predictor for future giving. ...en masse, if you made a previous gift, you're more likely to make another gift." – Wes Moon, Co-founder and COO of Wisely on the Nonstop Nonprofit podcast.

Donor science, the discipline by which nonprofits acquire potential donors and boost donations, combines data, technology, and strategy to enhance fundraising outcomes, according to Michael Peterman, Founder and CEO of VeraData. (That's not a quote, but it's definitely what you'll learn about when you listen to him on the Nonstop Nonprofit podcast.)

Integrating wealth screening and prospect research

By embracing both the breadth of wealth screening and the depth of prospect research, nonprofits can build more strategic, efficient, and ultimately more successful development programs that advance their missions and maximize their impact. Here's some ways to start putting the puzzle pieces together.

Start with broad wealth screening: Begin by conducting wealth screening across your entire donor database to identify individuals with significant financial capacity.
Follow with targeted prospect research: Once wealth screening has identified high-potential prospects, allocate resources to conduct deeper prospect research on the most promising individuals.
Create a consistent research workflow: Develop a systematic process for moving prospects from initial wealth screening to progressively deeper research as donors demonstrate increased interest or capacity.
Implement regular rescreening: Financial circumstances and philanthropic interests evolve over time; establish a schedule for periodically rescreening your donor database to identify changes in giving capacity and emerging opportunities.
Develop cross-functional teams: Cooperation between fundraising teams ensures collaboration on your overall development strategy and prevents valuable information from remaining siloed.

The Funraise + Kindsight advantage

Tools that combine wealth screening capabilities with prospect research functionality streamline the integration process. Funraise's partnership with Kindsight exemplifies this approach, providing "real-time, actionable insights within their CRM, enabling data-driven decisions, personalized outreach, and efficient resource allocation for major gift fundraising."

Seamless integration for enhanced insights

Through this integration, Funraise brings Kindsight's wealth screening capabilities directly into Funraise's platform, meaning Funraise customers can access wealth screening insights without leaving their primary donor management system (Funraise, naturally). These key insights are then directly actionable within Funraise's donor management tools, creating a continuous workflow from research to outreach.

Real-time insights and actionable data

One of the key advantages of having Kindsight information in Funraise is the availability of real-time donor intelligence within your operational fundraising platform. This immediate access transforms how fundraisers can utilize wealth screening and prospect research in their daily activities.

Best practices for organizations of all sizes

Whether you're a small nonprofit just beginning to explore donor research or a large institution with an established development program, certain best practices can help you maximize the value of wealth screening and prospect research. Here are a few, in a nutshell.

Start with clean data: Because inaccurate contact information or outdated records will compromise even the most sophisticated research outreach efforts.
Define clear research objectives: Because different objectives may require different research approaches and prioritization strategies.
Develop a tiered research approach: Because not every donor requires the same level of research.
Train fundraisers to use research effectively: Because it's your job to help your frontline fundraisers understand how to interpret and apply research findings.
Establish regular research cycles: Because regular updates ensure you can identify changes in donors' financial circumstances or philanthropic interests.
Integrate research with moves management: Because connecting your research processes with your CRM translates into concrete fundraising results.
Maintain ethical standards: Because transparent, responsible research practices build donor trust and protect your organization's reputation.

Measuring success and ROI

In today's competitive philanthropic landscape, effective donor research isn't a luxury; it's a necessity if you want to max out your fundraising potential (and we know you do.) Wealth screening and prospect research represent complementary approaches that, when properly integrated, provide a powerful foundation for strategic development. How do you know when it's working, though? To ensure your wealth screening and prospect research efforts deliver meaningful results, you've got to establish metrics to evaluate their effectiveness:

Number of new major gift prospects identified
Prospect-to-donor conversion rate
Average gift size increase
Fundraising efficiency
Overall return on investment

It doesn't stop here; as you monitor these metrics, you should be continuously refining your research approach for even greater fundraising success!

Bonus insights: Donor wealth screening vs. prospect research

Interest signals matter more than income

Sometimes the donor with a modest bank account but a burning passion for your cause will far out-give a richer prospect who lacks interest. An unconventional strategy is to treat a donor’s personal connection and philanthropic history as equally important “currencies” as their net worth.

In practice, that looks like investing in a high-affinity middle-class donor who could become a major donor over time, while realizing that a billionaire with no affinity might never engage.

Segment your segments

Wealth screening allows for segmenting at its most minute, which leads to donor prospecting at its greatest. Segmenting donors into smaller, behavior-based groups allows for more personalized communication, increasing the likelihood of conversion and retention. Incorporating feedback from donors can uncover motivations and barriers to giving that quantitative data alone may miss.

While wealth data ages quickly, relationships endure

A donor’s financial profile can change overnight—markets fluctuate, businesses are sold, fortunes change—but a genuine relationship ages like fine wine. Relying solely on a wealth screening done last year may mislead you today, whereas continuous prospect research in the form of regular check-ins, updates from news or LinkedIn, and staying looped into life events keeps your knowledge fresh.

Avoid the “Rich List” trap

Nonprofits can fall into the trap of chasing the same list of well-known wealthy individuals (the classic top-100 rich list) generated by a wealth screen, while overlooking “hidden gems” in their own donor base. An out-of-the-box approach is to flip the script: use prospect research to find highly engaged but under-asked donors already in your community.

In practice, that looks like a donor giving $500 annually for years might have far more capacity and commitment than you realize. These under-the-radar supporters often respond enthusiastically to a major gift ask because you’ve built trust with them, whereas a billionaire prospect has no such connection.

Bonus tactics to maximize the results of donor prospecting:

Encourage donors to double their donation through company matching
Encourage donors to double their donations by becoming donor matches for specific campaigns
Remember that major donors can be recurring donors, too. Nothing wrong with a $10k monthly donation, right?
Sweeten the pot with naming rights, special access, or something else that speaks to your prospect's heart
Encourage alternative methods of giving: stock gifts, DAFs, crypto, sponsorships, in-kind, introductions, and more
Turn it into a planned giving conversation

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Donor Wealth Screening FAQ

What is the wealth screening process?

Wealth screening is a process where nonprofits analyze data such as real estate, stock ownership, business affiliations, and giving history to assess the financial capacity of donors or prospects. This helps nonprofit organizations prioritize outreach by identifying the individuals most likely to make significant contributions.

What is a wealth assessment?

A wealth assessment evaluates an individual’s overall financial status by examining assets like property, investments, business interests, and philanthropic markers. Nonprofits use wealth assessments to estimate a donor’s giving capacity, enabling more targeted fundraising strategies and personalized engagement based on the donor’s financial ability to contribute.

What is wealth profiling?

Wealth profiling involves creating a detailed financial profile of a donor or prospect by aggregating data on assets, income, real estate, stock holdings, and philanthropic activity. This profile helps nonprofits understand a donor’s capacity and inclination to give, supporting more effective fundraising and building relationships with donors.

What are wealth markers?

Wealth markers are data points that indicate an individual’s financial capacity, such as real estate ownership, stock transactions, business affiliations, and high-value assets. Nonprofits use these markers to estimate charitable donation potential and prioritize prospects for major gift solicitation.

Nonprofit Donor Prospecting FAQ

Who uses prospect research?

Prospect research is used by nonprofit fundraisers, major gift officers, development teams, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations. These professionals rely on prospect research to identify, evaluate, and cultivate potential major donors, ensuring efficient and effective fundraising efforts.

Where does prospecting data come from?

Prospecting data is sourced from public records, real estate databases, stock ownership filings, business affiliations, charitable giving histories, and proprietary databases. Nonprofits may also use specialized software to aggregate and analyze this information for donor identification and segmentation.

How accurate is donor prospecting data?

Donor prospecting data accuracy depends on the quality of data sources and the software used. Reliable platforms ensure high-confidence matches by cross-referencing multiple databases, but results may vary based on data completeness and recency. Regular updates and clean donor records improve accuracy.

What is donor prospect research software?

Donor prospect research software is a digital tool that aggregates and analyzes wealth, philanthropic, and biographical data to help nonprofits identify and evaluate potential major donors. These platforms streamline the research process, providing actionable insights for targeted fundraising strategies.

What is considered a major donor?

A major donor is an individual who makes a significant financial contribution to a nonprofit, typically at a level that has a substantial impact on the organization’s mission. The specific threshold varies by organization, but major gifts often start at $5,000 or more.

How do I identify major donors?

Identify major donors by conducting wealth screening and prospect research to analyze financial indicators like real estate, stock ownership, and giving history. Prioritize individuals with high wealth markers and demonstrated philanthropic interest, then use targeted outreach to cultivate relationships and secure major gifts.