The nonprofit’s guide to wealth screening

You care about your community and want to help it improve. You’re eager to create a positive change. To achieve this, you want to support your nonprofit organization in getting enough funds. But in order to effectively fundraise, you need to know as much as possible about the donors you’re approaching. That’s where wealth screening comes in. 

Let’s go through some of the ways wealth screening can support a successful fundraising strategy – and how to get started. 

What Is Wealth Screening?

Wealth screening is a process used by nonprofit, education, and healthcare organizations to identify individuals with the greatest potential to contribute large donations to support their cause. In other words, wealth screenings help fundraising organizations determine which prospective donors have the ability to donate to a cause.

Wealth screening usually involves manually uploading a large group of prospects or donors into software to get a score and an estimated capacity amount for each individual. The software analyzes publicly available information to assess their financial capacity, such as their income, assets, property ownership, donations, and other indicators of wealth. This information can help organizations prioritize their fundraising efforts by focusing on individuals who are more likely to make substantial donations or support their cause in significant ways. Now used hand-in-hand with prospect research, wealth screenings scan wealth, philanthropic, and biographic records to provide a holistic view of your prospects and donors.

Wealth screenings enable development departments to segment hundreds or thousands of individuals you know very little about into a prioritized list of prospects with the greatest capacity and inclination to donate a gift to your organization. This data is then used to estimate the gift amount your team can ask for, ensuring no money is left on the table.

What does wealth screening offer to nonprofits? 

Every time a nonprofit prospect researcher or fundraiser considers a prospective donor, there are three big questions to answer:

• PROPENSITY: Does the person have a history of philanthropy?
• AFFINITY: Does the person have a connection to my cause?
• CAPACITY: Does the person have enough wealth to contribute a major gift?

If the answer to all three questions is yes, you have a great prospect. However, if you’re missing, or even ignoring, one or two of these prospect ratings, you’re missing the complete picture. Unfortunately, time often works against you. You could spend days or weeks determining just one prospect’s philanthropic fit. Automated processes like wealth screening help you segment and prioritize large groups of prospects simultaneously.

Wealth screening is a prospect identification process that highlights individuals with the greatest potential of contributing large donations to a particular nonprofit organization.  

Wealth screening offers several benefits to your development team, such as helping you complete tasks like these in a fraction of the time and cost it would take with manual, one-on-one prospect research or peer screening.

• Determine if current donors can contribute larger gifts and if they are already doing so with other organizations
• Model major gifts, annual gifts, and planned gift donor profiles based on the wealth capacities and philanthropic histories of past and current donors
• Identify new gift prospects who fit your ideal donor profiles
• Reconsider and revamp old fundraising approaches with new strategies based on cutting-edge internal and external giving data

What are the benefits of wealth screening? 

The insights provided by wealth screenings can help nonprofits identify major donors with both the capacity and the affinity to contribute to a cause. The right wealth screening will also uncover annual fund prospects, planned giving prospects, and more. This is just the tip of the iceberg – whether you want to support your annual fund or host a successful gala, wealth screenings can help secure the results you’re looking for.

By segmenting donors according to various fundraising strategies, you can streamline your organization’s fundraising efforts and donor solicitation process. From narrowing in on key prospective donors to helping you determine exactly how much to ask for, wealth screenings can help to provide a clear path forward. Here’s an overview of the top 6 benefits of wealth screening:

1. Wealth screening helps you find major donors…

Of course, major donors are always vital to your fundraising goals. With wealth screenings, you’ll be able to uncover who could potentially become a major donor by making large annual gift donations to your organization.

To put this into perspective, research shows that compared to other donors, major donors who contribute between $5,000 and $10,000 to a nonprofit organization are five times more likely to make a future donation. Taking advantage of accurate wealth screenings will better ensure the livelihood of your organization for years to come. A major donor may also be part of a legacy gift program (in other words, a planned giver). About 78% of legacy gift givers contribute donations throughout their lives to the same nonprofit they give a planned gift to.

2. …And helps to determine matching gift eligibility

The premise of matching gifts is simple: Certain companies pledge to match their employees’ donations – usually up to a fixed amount. They are often an under-utilized resource, but can often double the gift amounts you are receiving. 

Fundraisers can use prospect research to determine which supporters work for companies offering this program, and then run a wealth screening to determine the gift ask. Matching gifts also allow you to reach out to those with a lower wealth capacity to give with a big return for your organization. This may encourage more donor prospects to make a contribution, since their gift will make an even greater impact.

Expanding your reach in this way can significantly increase how much you receive from your more extensive lower-tier donor base.

3. Wealth screening helps nonprofits understand who their donors are (quickly!)

In the past, gathering a comprehensive understanding of your donor base took a tremendous amount of time. Now, you can put together an accurate and wide-ranging portrait quickly. This saves you precious time you can dedicate elsewhere in your organization.

4. Wealth screening helps you set solid fundraising goals…

Once you’ve performed wealth screenings and have identified potential major donors, you will then be able to build an accurate and attainable fundraising goal. Use this research to build out your fundraising plan for the year and work your expenses around this number. This will help you stay on track and ensure your nonprofit remains organized.

5. And tailor asks based on affinity

All donors prefer to feel like individuals instead of mere demographics. Wealth screenings can also help you plan more personal asks, geared toward connecting your story to the donors who care. They give you a sneak peek at the donor and what their interests may be, helping you tailor your gift ask to the specific prospect.

If a donor has a keen interest or passion for a particular branch or program within your organization, you can focus your ask on the ways their donation can keep that program up and running for years to come.

6. Wealth screening helps to increase donations made by annual donors

If someone donates to your cause consistently, they may be a good candidate to up their gift size – even by a small amount. Since wealth screenings reveal capacity, you can see who can give more. For instance, maybe a donor is currently giving $25 but could be giving $250. The information you glean from wealth screenings can help nurture these donors.

What is the difference between prospect research and wealth screening? 

Prospect research is known by different names like donor research, donor prospecting, and development research, but they all mean the same thing. This type of research uses different methods and strategies to find, evaluate, and build relationships with potential donors, which helps increase the funds and goals of a nonprofit organization.

Prospect research is a detailed way to find potential donors who might be interested in supporting your cause and have the means to do so. On the other hand, wealth screening focuses only on looking at people’s wealth and financial status.

Wealth screening is often used to check on current donors in your records. While it is a form of prospect research, it doesn’t take the place of thorough prospecting that helps you discover new donors. Both provide a lot of value to nonprofits – used together, along with other tools in a fundraiser’s toolbox, nonprofits make faster, more informed decisions and strengthen relationships with key supporters. 

Wealth screening data to consider

When performing a wealth screening, there are two main indicators you should look at first: philanthropic indicators and wealth indicators. These indicators are then broken down into smaller, more specific data sets.

Philanthropic Indicators

Past giving history: Has the prospect given to likeminded charities in the past? Do they donate often, such as every week, every month, or every year? If so, how much and when do/did they give?

Nonprofit involvement: Does the donor prospect volunteer frequently? Do they serve on a board? Do they regularly attend events? Have they participated in specific programs? If so, which ones and when were they involved?

History with Your organization: Have they worked with your team before? Have they contributed money, time, or resources in the past? If so, in what ways? Do they care about a specific initiative or aspect of your overall cause?

Wealth Indicators

Real estate ownership: How many homes do they own? What is the value of the home(s)? A donor prospect who owns many properties may be more likely to give. Compared to the average donor, someone who owns $750,000 to $1 million in real estate is twice as likely to make a charitable contribution. Moving up, prospective donors who own $2 million or more in real estate are 17 times more likely to give.

Stock ownership: Do they own a lot of stocks? Do those stocks hold high value? Not only does stock ownership indicate a donor prospect’s capacity to give, but it also means they have the potential to donate stock to your organization. Along with that, there could be an opportunity to pursue a corporate grant.

Business affiliations: Does their company offer matching gifts? Is the company prominent in their field? Are they an executive, major investor, or board member? If so, this could be an indicator that they have wealth to give.

The more factors a wealth screening scans for, the more complete a picture you’ll receive, helping you save time and easily find the right supporters for your cause. Combining philanthropic and wealth information enables you to see clearly which donors have the capacity to give, a history of philanthropy, and an affinity for your cause. By letting this sweet spot be your guide, you set yourself up to meet your fundraising goals more efficiently.

Wealth screening best practices

Crafting the perfect wealth screen requires three major ingredients:

1. A list of prospects provided by the nonprofit;
2. Internal data about the nonprofit’s current donors, such as previous donation type and amount;
3. External wealth, biographic, and philanthropic data provided by an electronic screening vendor.

A complete wealth screen requires the right data to determine the three keys. Screening isn’t just about finding high net worth indicators like high salary and real estate holdings. And just because a person may be wealthy, that doesn’t automatically mean they are philanthropic. A complete wealth screen will effectively show an individual’s ability to give, their interest in philanthropy, and if there is a connection to your specific cause. Here’s our six-step plan for wealth screening effectively:

1. Determine Your Goals

When beginning a wealth screen, the first step is to determine your goals. What do you want to gain from this screen? Maybe you only have interest in creating quick profiles for a handful of prospects, or maybe you are screening your entire database.

Consider these six questions:

1. What do we need to know from the results?
2. How do we define success?
3. What group of prospects do we want to segment?
4. Are we segmenting based on budget? How many returns can we reasonably get through? Is there a specific constituency type that we need to know more about? Or do we want to screen the whole group to get a baseline?
5. Who will be responsible for dealing with the information when it comes back?
6. Does the person have time for or need help doing the analysis, verification, rating, and coding needed?

2. Clean up and segment your database

No matter which screening solution you choose or how advanced technology becomes, results will always include some errors. These errors are often simple things such as misspelled names or addresses, outdated data, and empty fields in your database. Remember, screening poor-quality data won’t produce actionable results.

To remedy poor-quality data, first consolidate duplicate records. Then, update old information when and wherever possible. Within your team, be sure to define a set of rules for regular data hygiene. For example: data older than two years should be updated or deleted.

Try to include contact information, internal giving records such as a gift date, gift amount, and gift frequency, as well as any existing relationship data.

If you don’t have the time or interest in screening your entire database, consider segmenting the database. Try screening these groups:

• Reunion classes
• Lapsed donors who recently resurfaced
• New patients at your hospital or non-alumni parents and grandparents who are affiliated with your education institution
• Season-ticket holders, purchasers of luxury box seats, or regular ticket buyers
• New-to-you donors giving above a particular threshold
• Donors in specific states or geographic regions

3. Prepare the Template

Depending on the screening tool you’re using, you will receive an input template or have the opportunity to download it yourself. It might be, for example, an Excel spreadsheet with a number of rows and columns. You have the option to use a standard template or custom template.

4. Customize Screening Parameters

One size doesn’t fit all with fundraising, major gift donors, or with wealth screening. It is important to customize screening parameters according to your organization’s strategy and goals:

Define “major gift”

Not every gift is made equal. Remember, what one organization considers a “major gift” could be very different for another. In order to ensure you’re segmenting major gift prospects based on your specific fundraising strategy, customize your settings to reflect your expectations of a strong capacity rating.

Select your preferred affinity

Not every wealthy donor will have a strong connection to your cause. Therefore to help find the best prospects, be sure to screen for the individual’s giving affinity. This will not only prioritize prospects based on capacity, but also how interested they are in your specific cause. If available, in your tool’s settings, select from a list of affinity categories such as Education, Healthcare, Arts and Culture, and many more.

Analyze internal giving

If your screening tool includes recency-frequency-monetary (RFM) scoring, you can use this feature to uncover major gifts that may be hiding in your database. There may be a longtime mid-level donor with the capacity to warrant a larger “ask.”

To ensure this is accounted for, input Total Gift Count, Total Gift Amount, and Last Gift Date in the screening template to unlock RFM insight. While you’re at it, make sure to customize RFM ratings just as you did with the capacity ratings.

Adjust the confidence rating

With some screening tools, a Confidence of Match (COM) setting controls the strictness of the filter that matches records to individuals. For example, each record involves a ‘score’ on a 1-10 scale which indicates iWave’s confidence that the record matches that particular individual. iWave has a pre-set, recommended confidence rating that will give you high-confidence records, but for more advanced users or unique scenarios, you can adjust this rating. The higher you set the COM, the stricter the matching algorithm. This means it will match against more input criteria and provide more accurate results with fewer false positives. It also means that fewer records will be returned.

Customized the propensity-affinity-capacity weighting

Depending on your project goals, you may consider identifying and segmenting prospects based on wealth indicators over anything else. Conversely, you may be only interested in philanthropic individuals regardless of their wealth. The standard weighting is often 33% to each of propensity, affinity, and capacity. However, the weighting can be easily adjusted if your organization has a specific focus.

5. Do a trial run of wealth screening results

Consider running a small sample screen before submitting a larger list. A test list is beneficial because you can adjust your settings and template to find what works for your organization. When performing the test, try submitting three groups within your overall test screen: 20 individuals you know well, 20 you know something about, and 20 that represent a cross section of each of your constituent types.

6. Submit the File

When you have filled in all the information you need, it’s time to submit the file to the vendor. Depending on the tool you’re using, results might come in minutes, or weeks. 

Criticisms and challenges of wealth screening

When it comes to fundraising, wealth screening is a critical tool. But it’s no longer enough. Uploading static donor lists may provide a starting point, but it alone misses the daily shifts in donor capacity and motivations. Thanks to today’s technology, we can now move beyond traditional wealth screening with more automated systems that continuously update donor data in real time. 

After all, a prospect’s wealth profile can change rapidly, or their philanthropic focus could shift – or is influenced by personal life changes or emerging social issues. If your organization relies solely on outdated profiles, it may result in misaligned fundraising asks that come across as out of touch, driving donors away instead of bringing them closer. By not keeping up with real-time updates on donor interests, you risk losing their engagement entirely, reducing the effectiveness of your outreach efforts. 

In other words: as technology advances, we can now collect huge amounts of data like never before. This lets us learn more about people, organizations, and companies, and figure out why they choose to donate – all while it’s happening. And new real-time profiling tools (we can recommend a great one!) are now finding a place in fundraisers’ toolbox, alongside wealth screening, to truly empower nonprofits to thrive. 

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Mary Cote

Mary Cote is the VP of Product at Kindsight. She spends her time helping nonprofits, institutions and other fundraising organizations get the right tools in their tech stack to power their mission, and achieve their goals.