Prospect Research without Losing your Mind
One of the parts of grant funding that I get asked about the most is prospect research. Organizations want to know how to find the funders who give grants. A limited amount of staff time can make us prone to pushing prospect research down on our priority lists, sometimes even forgoing it entirely. I encourage my clients to always be prospecting—you want to continue to fill your pipeline with more prospects than you think are necessary, especially in an ever changing funding environment. So where should you look?
Your Own Data
It sounds almost too good to be true, but many organizations overlook a goldmine that they already access daily. Your donor database is the single best place to start. Some quick searches you could run:
Lapsed grant donors from the past 3-5 years
Declined proposals
Personal connections to foundations
Donors who have engaged in personal and/or corporate giving but not foundation giving
Your strategy should be to re-engage those who haven’t given recently or begin a new conversation with funders who declined your previous proposals. For personal connections, consider your board, staff, and volunteers—who do they know at foundations that could help you? Individual and corporate donors often have connections to corporate or family foundations where you can upgrade a gift beyond their personal or business capacity to give.
Your Competition’s Donors
This can feel not-so-nice, but organizations who aren’t doing this are missing out. If a foundation gives to other organizations in your sector, there’s a chance they will give to you! This is most effective when you compare your organization to organizations serving similar populations. If you’re an afterschool program, look at summer camps, community centers, youth sports, and other youth development programs. If you work in the arts, who’s giving to your city’s biggest museums and cultural institutions? Most of the time, foundations make multiple grants in a year. Why can’t the foundation give to your “competition” AND your organization? Check the following:
Website lists of donors
Annual reports
990s
Event programs
Board membership lists
Read the News
Reading the news is another great way to find potential donors. Some sources to consider:
National and local sources focused specifically on philanthropy
Newsletters or listservs from your local funders or philanthropy groups, including community foundations, philanthropic intermediaries, giving circles, and service clubs
Local business journals
Social media of reporters who cover stories about your population to be served
When reading these articles, you are looking both for explicit requests for proposals and funding opportunities, as well as information about funders’ investments in their communities.
Google & Free Search Options
I personally use Google Alerts to push news from specific foundations and subject areas to my inbox on a regular basis. You can also access free information online such as obituaries, alumni magazines, business profiles, and other data that can give you good clues as to which foundations may have recently obtained assets or made significant gifts. Don’t fall into the trap of Googling for hours—if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the first few pages of your search results, try adjusting your keywords.
Paid Databases
Paid prospect research databases are available for your use. These databases cull publicly available information into easier-to-use profiles about funders. Many have functions that allow you to sort by area of interest, geographic location, gift dates, and more. While paid databases can assist you in your search, I recommend using them last. The information in the paid databases is sometimes outdated or inaccurate and needs to be followed up with additional research.
Why Hire a Consultant for Prospect Research?
Prospect research is an ongoing task. In a future post, I’ll cover what information to log about a prospect and where to keep it. However, sometimes as soon as information is found, it can change! Working with Sarah Writes Grants allows your team to:
Focus on building relationships, not wasting hours searching online.
Pay only for the consultant’s time—no separate subscriptions to manage for databases and grant newsletters. Sarah Writes Grants subscribes to many of the top publications and search tools so that you don’t have to!
Never be caught off guard during a funder meeting again. Your consultant can make sure you have the latest updates available to prepare yourself to have an informed conversation.
Obtain a verified list of prospects for your moves management cycle and donor portfolios.
Have questions about prospect research? Contact us to get started.