prospect research seek and ye shall...

Prospect Research –

Seek and Ye Shall Find!

Oliver Taylor, University of Manchester

Manchester and me

• University of Manchester: 8th in UK, 54th in world (Times Higher Education World University Rankings)

• Almost 40,000 students (largest in UK)

• Research strengths in advanced materials, energy, cancer global inequalities, industrial biotech

• Fundraising target of £150m between 2016 and 2021

• 93% of our rated prospects alumni;

• I joined in 2015 after 12 years in prospect research at the University of Leeds

Troubled times

Etherington review 'did not go far enough', MPs conclude

G D P RGeneral Data Protection Regulation

Enters force 25 May 2018

Replaces DPA

Strengthens data rights of individual

Prospect research is …

• “humanising the process of fundraising” (Chris Carnie, Find

the Funds, 2000 – still one of the best books written on prospect research btw!)

• “the knowledge which empowers us to achieve our goals” (seen at APRA conference, 2010)

• “the means of identifying those donors who not only are passionate about an organization but also capable of making large, transformative gifts” (Marc

Keller, University of Pennsylvania)

Prospecting – some definitions …


£ £ £

£ ££ £

£ £ £ £ £ £

£ ££ £

£ £ £

£ £ £ £

£ £ £ £ £

£

£

using tools, resources, other people, your own brain (!) to work out which of your stakeholders are likeliest to be able to give you large gifts …

… and finding enough out about them to give you the best chance of getting those gifts!


“humanising the process of fundraising” (Chris Carnie, Find

the Funds, 2000 – still one of the best books written on prospect research btw!)

“the knowledge which empowers us to achieve our goals” (seen at APRA conference, 2010)

“the means of identifying those donors who not only are passionate about an organization but also capable of making large, transformative gifts” (Marc


“the means of identifying those donors who not only are passionate about an organization but also capable of making large, transformative gifts” (Marc



… not necessarily as time-consuming as you might think!

[insert generic picture of happy man]

A numbers game?Gift level Number of

gifts

required

Number of

prospects

needed

Total £ sterling

required

Cumulative total

Leadership

gifts

£10,000,000 1 4 £10,000,000 £10,000,000

£5,000,000 1 4 £5,000,000 £15,000,000

£2,500,000 2 8 £5,000,000 £20,000,000

£1,000,000 7 28 £7,000,000 £27,000,000

Major gifts £500,000 12 48 £6,000,000 £33,000,000

£250,000 25 100 £6,250,000 £39,250,000

£100,000 50 200 £5,000,000 £44,250,000

Special gifts £50,000 120 480 £6,000,000 £50,250,000

£25,000 160 640 £4,000,000 £54,250,000

£10,000 200 800 £2,000,000 £56,250,000

General

gifts

Up to

£10,000

Many £3,750,000 £60,000,000

Campaign

total

578 2312 £60,000,000 £60,000,000

A numbers game? (2)Gift level Number of

gifts

required

Number of

prospects

needed

Total £ sterling

required

Cumulative total

Leadership

gifts

£10,000,000 1 4 £10,000,000 £10,000,000

£5,000,000 1 4 £5,000,000 £15,000,000

£2,500,000 2 8 £5,000,000 £20,000,000

£1,000,000 7 28 £7,000,000 £27,000,000

Major gifts £500,000 12 48 £6,000,000 £33,000,000

£250,000 25 100 £6,250,000 £39,250,000

£100,000 50 200 £5,000,000 £44,250,000

Special gifts £50,000 120 480 £6,000,000 £50,250,000

£25,000 160 640 £4,000,000 £54,250,000

£10,000 200 800 £2,000,000 £56,250,000

General

gifts

Up to

£10,000

Many £3,750,000 £60,000,000

Campaign

total

578 2312 £60,000,000 £60,000,000

Finding new prospects

• Your own database is your friend, and a great starting point for in-house prospecting

• How well do you know it / him / her?

- its fields

- its tables

- its reporting capabilities

• Data mining is simple, rewarding and fun! (honest)


Gift level Number of gifts required

Number of prospects required

Number of prospects identified

“Leadership” gifts

£1,000,000+

11 44 49

Only 24 of these 49 prospects appear on any sort of Rich List …!

So how did we find them?


• Even long-forgotten tables in your database can hold the key to prospect discovery

• Hey, someone once thought this stuff was worth adding

• Ask, probe, experiment! What were they thinking? - why was this guy thought important enough to be invited to that event way back in

2006? What clues are there?

- all these 54 records have the same “contact coding”, put on back in 2008, but why?


• Do you really know who’s in your database?

• Run a search for anyone with a senior-sounding job title: President, Chief Executive, Owner, Founder, Chairman* (remember to use wildcards to make sure you get everyone!)

* A list of the ones I use is available on request. Contact me on [email protected].

ID Name Class of Organisation Position

65438 John C Churchen

1983 OCI Connect Ltd Chief Executive

43247 Myra B Lyle 1976 Synergize Ltd Chief Executive Officer

98715 Colin B Lambert

1989 Pointerson plc Chief FinancialOfficer


Who’s already giving “look at me” gifts?

ID Name Gift Date Gift

Amount

Fund ID Gift

Payment

8646 Fred J Trensom 07/08/2017 £350.00 ALUMNIRES Credit card

7654 John T Rhodes 23/08/2017 £800.00 ALUMNIRES Personal

cheque

4323 Sara L Cottee 30/08/2017 £250.00 ALUMNIRES Credit card

Try searching your database to see who’s already giving tidy sums to your

annual fund, and how recently

This query looks at everyone who made a single gift of £250 or more in the

month of August 2017.


Postcoding: Mouseprice’s site (www.mouseprice.com) still the most helpful and easy to search (just put in the first part of your postcode!) but there are others

- Zoopla (www.zoopla.co.uk)

- OurProperty (www.ourproperty.co.uk)

- Proviser (www.proviser.com)

http://www.mouseprice.com/

http://www.zoopla.co.uk/

http://www.ourproperty.co.uk/

http://www.proviser.com/


• Don’t just do it the once …

• Regular checks are key …

• Especially if your institution has a lot of data movement


At UoM, we maintain a suite of database checks

Check Performed

Canvasser meeting notes check Weekly

Business info added/changed Monthly

Classnotes added to website Monthly

LinkedIn Group joiners Monthly

Non Alumni & Development gifts added Monthly

Private bank donors Monthly

New single givers to Annual Fund of £250 or more Monthly

Wealthy streets Every six

months

Other ideas

• Event attendees / customers – who’s coming, how often, where from?

• People with titles – can be red herring, but worth a look

• Forms of address

• Peer screening

• Past meeting notes

• Similar causes – donor lists


• Results are guaranteed!*

DISCLAIMER: of course, only a small percentage of them will be major gift prospects …


• But it gives you a lot of leads to follow up – make sure you make time for this!

• And, if you’re starting out, and putting together a prospect pool from scratch, checks like these are a great way to gain early momentum …

• … and demonstrate to colleagues that you’re on the ball!

Wealth screenings

LAGOTTO SOLUTIONS

• Some variation …

• but the general idea is that you send off a batch of your data to be matched against the screening company’s own database of the wealthy

• as a minimum, you’ll probably need to have the names (!) and home addresses of the people you are sending; other info (like date of birth/spouse name) will get you a better match

• Consider getting your data cleaned beforehand to ensure best results

Wealth screenings – usual procedure

Proud sponsors of this bullet point

• Normally the company will do you an audit at either low or no cost, to see how many matches you have

• Procedure thereafter variable, but general idea is that you’ll pay to view your matches on a per match basis

• Usually, different levels of report are available (at different prices!) for more, or less, detail on the names

• Costs vary, but, as a guide we paid £3,500 in 2015 for 370 matched names …

Wealth screenings – usual procedure

cost-effective

allows processing of huge swathes of data

as well as finding new prospects, good way of adding info about those you already know

usually good aftercare to help you make sense of results

× risk of being deluged in data

× results still need to be qualified by you – don’t take them entirely on trust

× risk that the data is not easy to integrate with your current database or systems

× still might be deemed too costly

Wealth screenings – for and against

Dr Beth Breeze,co-founder of the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent

Published February 2017, available at https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/publications/documents/good-asking.pdf

https://www.kent.ac.uk/sspssr/philanthropy/publications/documents/good-asking.pdf

94% of respondents

had carried out prospect research

92% of respondents agreed that carrying

out research had enabled them to raise funds from individuals

88% agreed that research means a

reduction in unwanted or

irrelevant commsbeing sent out

75% said any new restrictions on research would damage their

charity’s ability to carry out its work

Thank heavens for Timhttp://2040training.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Fundraising-DP-guide.pdf

https://2040infolawblog.com/author/tim2040/

http://2040training.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Fundraising-DP-guide.pdf

https://2040infolawblog.com/author/tim2040/

The law is the law. DPA Principle 1: Personal data must be processed fairly and lawfully.

• This is the first data protection principle. In practice, it means that you must:

• have legitimate grounds for collecting and using the personal data;

• not use the data in ways that have unjustified adverse effects on the individuals concerned;

• be transparent about how you intend to use the data, and give individuals appropriate privacy notices when collecting their personal data;

• handle people’s personal data only in ways they would reasonably expect; and

• make sure you do not do anything unlawful with the data.

Bases for lawful processing of data under GDPR

Article 6 EU GDPR

"Lawfulness of processing"

1. Processing shall be lawful only if and to the extent that at least one of the following applies:

(a) the data subject has given consent to the processing of his or her personal data for one

or more specific purposes;

(b) processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the data subject is

party or in order to take steps at the request of the data subject prior to entering into a

contract;

(c) processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller

is subject;

(d) processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the data subject or of

another natural person;

(e) processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public

interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;

(f) processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the

controller or by a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or

fundamental rights and freedoms of the data subject which require protection of personal

data, in particular where the data subject is a child.

NB. Not a hierarchy!

All are equal, but you must select the appropriate one

Above all, you have to apply it consistently

Arguments for and against consent as your legal basis

Means the people on your database are on there because they’ve told you it’s OK

Needs to be granular; you mayneed separate consents for each area of your activity

Reduces the scope for complaints, from the data subject or regulator

Needs to be refreshed periodically (albeit you can define how often)

May be especially suitable for new or very recently-established charities

How are you going to get it from everyone?

Arguments for and against legitimate interest as your legal basis

Allows wider scope for data processing without needing consent

Are all of the things you are doing genuinely justifiable?

Actually reduces the risk of data errors through misinterpretation of what someone’s consent wishes are

You are at greater risk of having to explain why someone is on your database

No need for refreshing consents or needing to collect them for different parts of your data processing activity

You are going to need to write and communicate a privacy statement which explains what you do with data

Privacy notices

• Essential for compliance

• Must outline all the types of data you collect

• Must outline the reasons you have for collecting that type of data

• Must describe any processes that you intend to use that data for (e.g. wealth screening)

• Must make it clear how people can object / opt out / submit a Data Subject Access Request

• Be clear and transparent – even at the expense of being concise

• Don’t shirk from describing the things you do

• Use every opportunity to communicate it to your data subjects

• Don’t panic.

Thank you!

Oliver Taylor, University of Manchester

[email protected]

0161 275 4282

mailto:[email protected]

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