Prospect Research & Portfolio Intelligence
How a shop learns who a donor is before meeting them, without turning a person into a file: identification, screening, verification, qualification, and a research function a small team can run.
Through the International NGOs lens
Wealth screening tools are built for domestic public records, so they weaken fast for donors outside the country of incorporation, which means affinity, sponsorship tenure, response to program updates, has to carry more of the qualification weight than capacity ever will here. A substantive conversation may be a video call rather than a visit, since most donors will never see the program in person, and institutional funders need a separate track closer to grants than to individual major-gift work.
Continuing education
1.25 points
Current and Prospective Donor Research · Leadership and Management
Learning objectives
- Explain what donor research is for, what it must not become, and how the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement's ethics and the organization's privacy standard bound it.
- Identify potential donors from internal and public sources, run and interpret a wealth and affinity screening, and verify the results before anyone acts on them.
- Apply a written qualification standard so that a portfolio holds people with whom a true invitation is possible, and review the portfolio by relationship as well as by capacity.
- Design a research function proportionate to the shop: hours, tools, ownership, policy, and the first ninety days.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 20 min
Video lesson
Research is how you see a person before you meet them
II See · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 20 min
Field guide· PDF
Screening, verification, and the qualification standard
III Discern · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 20 min
Template· DOCX
The research profile and portfolio review template
II See · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 16 min
Worksheet· XLSX
Building the research function in a small shop
III Discern · Leadership and Management
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
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