Data Services & Scoring

The best place to find new prospects for mid-level or major gifts is often in your current database.

Database Scoring: The best place to find new prospects

The best place to find new prospects for mid-level or major gifts is often in your current database. While it can be tempting to fall into a “grass is greener” approach in your prospect identification — in other words, always looking for someone new — it is a mistake to neglect the donors who: 

  1. Have already proven their interest in your organization through their giving. 
  2. Have already given you a clear path to connect with them. 

You may be asking yourself, if my current donors really could give substantially more, wouldn’t they be doing so already? Not necessarily! 

Among other reasons, donors with significant capacity need to be presented with a solid Case for Support to justify a higher gift. You also must build a meaningful experience for them with your organization, for example through a targeted Mid-Level Program or thoughtful Donor Cultivation & Stewardship

Donors must see evidence that their gift is necessary and urgent.  They should feel close and loyal to your organization, which will drive them to make a larger gift. You likely have untapped potential in your current audience that is waiting to be uncovered. 

Major Donor Probability Scoring 

Through data analytics and wealth database screenings, Faircom New York can help your nonprofit find mid-level and major gift prospects in your current base. With Major Donor Probability Scoring, we can identify donors who demonstrate a high-level of dedication to your cause and a likelihood of increased giving, combining:  

  • Donor history, such as the number of gifts or total amount of gifts given. 
  • Psychographic and demographic data. 
  • Other third-party transactional data.   

This information is run through machine-learning algorithms to rank your current donors and identify donors with a higher propensity and capacity to give. We also include likelihood indicators of an individual having a donor-advised fund (DAF) or the ability to make additional or larger gifts.  

Your scored file will come back with the top 20 percent of donors, up to 100,000 names, having assigned capacity and propensity scores. The higher the score, the stronger the prospect — as simple as that! 

Wealth/Demographic Appends and Analysis 

In addition to scoring your existing donors, Faircom New York works with our partners to append key demographic and wealth data from donor files. A data append can uncover valuable information about your donors and prospects including: 

  • Wealth indicators or estimates, looking at public assets like real estate values.  
  • Propensity or likelihood to give, based upon earlier charitable giving behavior.  
  • Other demographic details useful to donor profiles, such as age, gender, or the presence of children.   

These data markers can provide a base upon which to rank or target donors, for example the incorporation of planned giving opportunities or targeted women’s giving circles. 

Data-Driven Strategy Development 

With the data points above, Faircom New York can take a deeper dive into your program history to identify opportunities to strengthen your donor journeys and better target your fundraising asks. 

For example, alongside the information gained through scoring and appends, we can review donors’ total number of gifts, cumulative or average giving, first gift channels, cross-channel giving behavior, length of time on file, and more. Reporting and analysis on emerging trends based on donor traits can help us pinpoint the ways that your program is meeting or exceeding expectations as well as failing to deliver. 

These insights are valuable add-ons to Faircom New York’s integrated marketing strategies, with implications for direct mail or digital marketing plans as well as the creation of higher-tier Mid-Level Marketing & Program Development goals. By incorporating these services into a broader strategic approach, your nonprofit can benefit from the greatest added value of Faircom New York’s integrated approach to fundraising and communications.

Need Help With Screening Your Database?

We can customize a scope of work to respond to your greatest needs — building either a standalone project to fill essential gaps in the short term or looking at a longer-term relationship for ongoing strategy consulting. 

If you aren’t sure where to begin, we are eager to open up a conversation to explore more!