Prospect Research Challenges, From a Pro

Schambeau says the issue she’s had in terms of prospect research is having complete data on donors. The organization has addressed this issue by working to clean up its database and make it as useful as possible so it has only the most clear, concise information about its donors.

In its upgrading efforts, Special Olympics has begun creating “passion profiles” for a lot of its donors in addition to wealth overlays. Passion profiles rate donors based on about 20 different scoring measures. The combination of a wealth overlay and rating donors in this way helps Schambeau and Special Olympics’ development staff pick the donors who have the highest giving potential and those who have the most affinity or passion for the organization and to target them accordingly.