Simple Ways to Research a Prospect

This week's tip has to do with prospect research, the often overlooked but critically important step in the major gift cycle. When you're looking at major donors, you want to look at both inclination and passion to find out who are the major prospects in your database. 

Those who have a strong passion, but not a lot of wealth may not qualify as major gift donor, so what are ways to research their potential wealth?

• Find out their interests and networks.

• Find out their occupation and how long they've been in that position.

• Find out the value of their home.

After you do some more research, you'll start to see who might be the major donors in your database.