Helen Brown Group

  • Home
  • Our Services
    • Dedicated Research Support
    • A la carte research
    • Wealth Screening Assistance
    • Research Training
    • Customized News Alerts
  • Resource Library
    • Learning Media Library
    • Wealth Lists
    • Prospect Research Links
    • Prospect Research for Fundraisers
    • Register for Free
    • Log In
  • About
    • What We Believe
    • Helen Brown
    • Meet the Team
    • HBG Privacy Policy
  • Blog
    • Archive
  • Contact

March 27, 2014 By Helen Brown 6 Comments

Why wealth screenings are a waste of money

Money down the drain

“Yes, we did a wealth screening a couple of years ago. We didn’t really find it very helpful.” <pause>

“Well, to be honest, we didn’t really do anything with the information when it came back. It just kind of sat there.”

If I had a twenty for every time someone said that to me I’d be making major gifts already.

It absolutely kills me, too, because wealth screenings

     a) are not cheap, and

     b) can be worth every single penny.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Effective searching, Most popular, Prospect identification, Wealth screenings Tagged With: database screenings, electronic screenings, prospect research, wealth screenings

March 20, 2014 By Helen Brown 1 Comment

What your capital campaign plan is missing

There’s a critical piece of information missing from most capital campaign feasibility studies:

          The amount of money an organization’s constituency can actually give.

We need the answer to that before we can set the goal, right?

And yet… most of the time nonprofit organizations launch their campaigns without knowing the full answer to that question. They wait until after they’ve launched to finally get all the pieces in place. Which seems kind of crazy to me.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Prospect identification, Wealth screenings Tagged With: database screenings, prospect research, wealth screenings

May 17, 2012 By Helen Brown 1 Comment

Ten tips for a successful wealth screening

You may remember a few months ago I talked about how Brown University got a 500% return on the proactive research they did for the Boldly Brown campaign.  One part of that was successfully integrating the results of several wealth screenings that they did.

Because some of the vendors are offering database screenings at a deep discount this quarter, a number of our clients are taking advantage of the savings … which means that it’s screening analysis season here at HBG!

Andrea, Jennifer and Maureen have been collaborating closely as a unit and with our clients on these screenings, and I’ve been really interested as I listen to them share ideas over lunch or at our afternoon tea breaks.

There’s a lot of delight and excitement when a screening is returned, but also some regret when they find an opportunity that was missed.

What I hear from their conversations underscores that how you approach a screening really makes a difference in the end result.

So I thought I’d ask them to share their top tips for making the most of an electronic screening so that we can all boost our return on screenings to Brown proportions.  If you have more tips to share with readers, we’d love for you to add them!

From Andrea:

I’ve become a big fan of wealth screenings lately.  I’d say my top three tips are:

  • Include as much information as possible: middle initials and spouse names are particularly important in helping save time later.
  • Don’t trust the database’s judgment: verify everything! Screenings are a good jumping off point but the human element of analysis is important.
  • Once the data is returned, try several different sorts to see if there are any trends.  I generally start to look for patterns sorting by confirmed assets, then by identified assets and filtering by state, zip, and past giving.  It’s really interesting what you can find!

 

From Jennifer:

  • Pay particular attention to high net worth individuals in New York City – chances are if they own a co-op apartment that the entire co-op building is being counted in their assets.
  • Cleaning the data beforehand is well worth the time investment. Fix any typos and check to be sure addresses are consistently entered – bad data is the #1 way why matches aren’t made. Time spent on this in advance can save lots of time (which is money!!) confirming later.
  • Don’t include anyone that only has a PO Box address.  Either leave them out or find their street address.

 

From Maureen:

  • Purchase an address update (NCOA) as part of the screening if you haven’t done one recently – a significant match point for assets is address.
  • If your budget is tight, don’t waste it on screening donors that you already know well.
  • Depending on the size of your screening, make sure to allocate at least one staff member to do the analysis when the results are returned.  Screenings are expensive and you don’t want the results to just sit there gathering dust.
  • Don’t screen if you don’t have the front-line fundraising staff to follow up on the leads that are produced.  Be strategic in the number of prospects that you screen and consider doing rolling screenings.

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Effective searching, Fundraising Analytics, Prospect identification, Wealth screenings Tagged With: database screenings, electronic screenings, prospect research, screenings, tips and tricks, wealth screenings

Get the Intelligent Edge

Our weekly update provides insight and commentary on breaking philanthropy news and the latest innovations in fundraising intelligence.

HBG Privacy Policy

By sharing your information you give us permission to send you our newsletter. You may unsubscribe at any time.

New Articles

  • A lot to love
  • The HBG Book Club is starting a new book!
  • Are We in a New Golden Era of CSR?
  • Civil discourse
  • Aaargh! It was Right. There!

Keep Updated

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Get the Essential Handbook

Get Your Copy

Learn More

Categories

  • Campaign Success
  • Career development
  • Effective searching
  • Fundraising Analytics
  • Fundraising Ethics
  • HBG Book Club
  • International prospect research
  • Most popular
  • News
  • Non-profit trends
  • Podcast
  • Prospect Development 101
  • Prospect identification
  • Ratings
  • Relationship management
  • Research Department Success
  • Researching Companies
  • Researching Individuals
  • Social Media
  • Strategic planning
  • Trust & Foundation Research
  • Uncategorized
  • Wealth screenings

ABOUT HBG

The Helen Brown Group was formed in 2002 with a goal to be different.

Allow me to explain my personal philosophy to you.

  • Learn More About HBG

Latest Intelligent Edge Articles

  • A lot to love
  • The HBG Book Club is starting a new book!
  • Are We in a New Golden Era of CSR?
  • Civil discourse
  • Aaargh! It was Right. There!

Privacy Quick Links

  • Privacy Policy
  • Privacy Tools

Copyright © 2019 The Helen Brown Group LLC.

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.OkPrivacy policy