Donor Research & Prospect Identification Strategies for Nonprofits
Find the Right Donors and Make the Case to Reach Them
Effective fundraising starts before the first conversation with a donor. Prospect research helps you identify who is most likely to give, understand their capacity and interests, and prioritize your outreach so your time and energy go where they'll have the most impact. Done well, it transforms fundraising from a numbers game into a relationship-building discipline grounded in data.
AFP's donor research resources cover the full prospect research process — from building and managing a qualified prospect pipeline to analyzing donor capacity, understanding philanthropic motivation, and applying research insights to cultivation and solicitation strategy. You'll also find benchmarks, sector-wide research reports, and international fundraising trends to help you contextualize your own data and make the case internally for resource investment.
Whether you're new to prospect research or looking to sharpen a more sophisticated approach, AFP's library connects you with the tools, frameworks, and real-world practice you need to identify and engage your best donor prospects.
It’s October, and that means the fundraising community is celebrating Ethics Awareness Month! And I do mean celebrating—because ethics is the cornerstone of fundraising. Ethics allows us to do all the amazing work we do—especially in this challenging time where our efforts are so critical with so...
Today, AFP releases our latest Compensation and Benefits Report covering both salaries and benefits in the fundraising position for 2019, along with new data on the demographics of fundraisers, job satisfaction and other issues. I’m going to talk about the U.S. data today, and here is the Canada...
(Warning: Some contents of this report may be triggering.) Last July, we conducted The Fundraising Workplace Climate Survey 2020, which aimed to better understand diversity and inclusion issues in the fundraising workplace. The survey was answered by 1,783 AFP members from a random sample (1,598 U.S...
Tracey Webb, one of the co-architects of Black Philanthropy Month, shares four tips on how to find and engage with black donors.
On Aug. 13 at 2:00 p.m. EDT, AFP held an in-depth and timely discussion about pay inequity for Black women in the U.S. and Canada. Our panel included Ofronama Biu, author of Race to Lead: Women of Color in the Nonprofit Sector; Paulette Senior, CEO and president of Canadian Women’s Foundation; and...
In one week, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) will release the Fundraising Workplace Climate Survey 2020, which asks about work environment with a focus on diversity and inclusion. A random sample of AFP members will be asked to share their views about their work and work...
With many senior staff and board members telling fundraisers they should not ask donors for support during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the fundraising think tank Rogare has completed a project to develop counter-arguments to the most frequently encountered objections to fundraising. These...
FRANÇAIS New Survey Looks at Fundraising Activities Ahead, Challenges of Working From Home More than 70% of charities in Canada are expecting to raise less money in 2020 than they did in 2019, and two-thirds believe the same will happen in 2021, according to the Association of Fundraising...
New Survey Looks at Fundraising Activities Ahead, Challenges of Working From Home More than half of charitable organizations in the United States are expecting to raise less money in 2020 than they did in 2019, and an equal percentage believe the same will occur in 2021, according to the Association...