The Role of Wealth Screening in a Major Campaign: A Guide

Whether you’re embarking on a capital campaign or looking for ways to significantly grow your annual fundraising effort, success in fundraising often depends on prioritizing donors who are most likely to make significant contributions to your cause. 

Wealth screening is a key process that will help you identify and pursue high-capacity donors and prospects in these major campaigns. 

So, what is wealth screening? The name itself is a bit of a misnomer; the best wealth screenings don’t just focus on donors' wealth but also their philanthropic tendencies. When you conduct a wealth screening, you analyze publicly available financial and philanthropic data to assess an individual’s financial capacity, affinity for your cause, and likelihood of giving a gift. 

Equipped with this information, you can make better moves management decisions about when to ask donors for a gift, how, and for how much. This allows you to make the most of your team’s time and resources and get closer to reaching your fundraising goals!

In this short guide, we’ll explore how you can make the most of wealth screening in your next major campaign. As we get started, remember that wealth screening is just one part of a successful donor cultivation and stewardship strategy. To build genuine, long-lasting relationships with those who care about your cause, you’ll need to go beyond wealth screening data and apply additional effort to better understand your donors and their needs. 

Let’s dive in!

How to conduct a wealth screening

You’ll conduct a wealth screening well before your major campaign begins, usually during the planning phase. To kick-start the process, begin by taking a critical look at the donor data your organization has on hand. This will likely mean turning to your CRM to review details like:

• Names
• Contact information
• Giving history 
• Geographic location
• Additional engagement history, like volunteering and event attendance

Employ data management best practices to ensure that all your CRM data is accurate so you can be confident in your screening results. You can also segment your data if running a screening on your full data set isn’t feasible. For example, you might just screen recent first-time major gift donors, consistent annual donors, or “hidden gems” (extremely loyal donors who could become campaign champions). 

Next, you’ll select a wealth screening tool. Momentum and DonorSearch, for example, offer AI capabilities that can help you determine the best next steps to take after completing your screening. By leveraging predictive AI, the tools can help determine not only a donor's propensity to give but also their likelihood of giving.  

To identify top prospects and donors for your fundraising work, the tool will look for specific markers: 

Capacity markers: These signal that an individual has the financial ability to give a large gift.

• Examples of common markers: Real estate ownership, SEC transactions, political giving history, net worth, and business affiliations 

Philanthropic and affinity markers: Philanthropic markers tell you an individual is philanthropically inclined, while affinity markers indicate someone may be passionate about your specific cause or work. 

• Examples of common markers: Past donations to similar organizations, history of nonprofit board service, engagement in philanthropic circles, and involvement in charitable foundations 

While donors and prospects don’t have to exhibit all of these markers to be prioritized in your fundraising strategy, you’ll want to see a healthy mix of both capacity and philanthropic and affinity markers. After all, just because someone is wealthy does not necessarily mean they want to give to charitable causes. 

Wealth screening as a starting point 

Though a thorough wealth screening will provide your nonprofit with useful insights to help you with critical tasks like creating a campaign gift chart and initial outreach to top donors, screening insights alone aren’t enough for truly understanding who your donors are. 

Instead, building long-lasting donor relationships will require you to go beyond data points and get to know your prospects and donors as people. The best way to do this is through personalized interactions, and it will take some time and effort on your part to get right. 

Let’s look at a few strategies that can help!

Digging deeper: 5 additional ways to understand donors & prospects 

• Ask loyal donors or other stakeholders to make introductions. If you’re preparing to reach out to a new prospect, find out if someone at your organization is connected to them. Having a personal connection makes it easier for you to get your foot in the door and begin building a relationship. 

• Have frequent conversations. These conversations can take a variety of forms, from one-on-one lunch meetings to major donor events and regular phone calls. During these conversations, prioritize listening. Get curious about each individual, not only asking about their philanthropic values and priorities but also their everyday lives, like their recent family vacation or how things are going at work. Remember to revisit your donor profiles often to record everything you learn from these conversations. 

• Personalize the asking experience. When you feel confident that it’s the right time to ask someone to give a gift to your campaign, tailor that experience to their needs and preferences. Some donors may enjoy getting a personalized letter from one of your nonprofit’s leaders, for instance, while others may appreciate a face-to-face conversation instead. 

• Engage beyond the ask. Your donors will likely be interested in opportunities to be involved with your organization beyond giving a monetary gift. Using what you know about them, invite them to volunteer or take a leadership role on a campaign committee. This will help deepen their connection to your cause. 

• Ask for feedback. Ask your donors to let you and your fundraising team know how you’re doing. Do they feel like your level of communication is too much, or just right? Are there other things you could be doing to make them feel like partners in your campaign? Not only will collecting feedback be useful for your team, but it will also demonstrate your effort to build trust with your donors. 

Get started with wealth screening

If you’re getting ready to start a major campaign, conducting a wealth screening is a great first step to getting to know your top donors and prioritizing your fundraising work. However, remember that wealth screening is just a starting point, not a silver bullet that will erase the need to build genuine relationships. Use the tips above to conduct a thorough screening and get to know your donors on a deeper level! 

Learn how Momentum can help you identify potential major donors through wealth screening, foster relationships, and streamline your workflows. Explore Momentum for Major Gift Fundraisers.

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