By Elisabeth B. Galley, Vice President, Arts Consulting Group
Special initiatives such as establishing a collection fund, renovating a museum gallery, building an addition or launching an endowment campaign are exciting opportunities that can only be achieved with careful planning and thoughtful preparation. However, much can be done well in advance of a campaign launch – even before you know what that next big thing will be. In this two-part series, we explore practical strategies your museum can implement now to position the development team, executive leadership, and board for maximum future fundraising success:
The Value of Wealth Screening
Many nonprofit organizations utilize wealth screening as an integral part of their donor prospect research. As trustees, you may have had members of the development team or executive leadership present proposals to the board for approval of expenditures to conduct this type of research. Here’s what you need to know in order to make an informed decision regarding investing in wealth screening services.
Ideal donors are those who have both an affinity for the museum and the financial capacity to make a significant gift. But how do you get beyond the usual suspects – those families that are the giving pillars of your community? One solution is to look more deeply into your museum’s database. Museums have members. These individuals are valued consumers and have displayed interest by attending exhibits and fundraisers and continuing to purchase memberships year after year. They are primed and ready to be invited to support your museum in a deeper way. But how do you know who, when, and for how much to ask?
Decades ago, before internet research was part of everyday life, development professionals would gather the members of their development committee and review lists of potential donors by gathering information about friends of committee members. While parts of this practice are still valuable, research has come a long way. Today there are several companies that offer wealth screening services for nonprofits, including Donorscape, Wealth Engine, Target Analytics, and iWave. Although the specific information delivered may vary from company to company, the process is essentially the same.
Services provided by these companies help museums electronically screen a large quantity of selected donor records, including lecture subscribers, members, gala ticket purchasers, or other connected individuals, against 14 of the most respected public information databases. When data is matched, the resulting information may report on the prospective donor’s financial position, community connections, board experience, property ownership, age, public and private company ownership and political contributions, among other data points. It also rates the prospect’s propensity to give and affinity for your museum to achieve a balance of connection, commitment, and capacity. This information can be used to determine potential sources of new or increased contributed income from individuals in the form of annual, capital, endowment, and planned gifts.
The returned information rates donors from top prospects who have a strong affinity for your museum and significant capacity to give down to those prospects who may love your work but cannot make a major gift. Development teams can use this information to:
Using wealth screening services, your development team will be able to segment the donor database to understand where to invest fundraising resources to yield the best results, regardless of the size of the museum’s development department. The costs for this service have become much more affordable in recent years and the return on investment is tremendous. By acquiring just one new major gift, this investment will pay for itself.
The information gleaned from wealth screening also helps to shape customized donor cultivation efforts and can inform decisions regarding the identification of ideal members to consider adding to your governing board. These concepts will be explored in Part II of this series next month.
- Understand the value of wealth screening to identify potential major donors,
- Develop customized cultivation plans for targeted prospects, and
- Understand the role of the board committees in campaign preparedness.
The Value of Wealth Screening
Many nonprofit organizations utilize wealth screening as an integral part of their donor prospect research. As trustees, you may have had members of the development team or executive leadership present proposals to the board for approval of expenditures to conduct this type of research. Here’s what you need to know in order to make an informed decision regarding investing in wealth screening services.
Ideal donors are those who have both an affinity for the museum and the financial capacity to make a significant gift. But how do you get beyond the usual suspects – those families that are the giving pillars of your community? One solution is to look more deeply into your museum’s database. Museums have members. These individuals are valued consumers and have displayed interest by attending exhibits and fundraisers and continuing to purchase memberships year after year. They are primed and ready to be invited to support your museum in a deeper way. But how do you know who, when, and for how much to ask?
Decades ago, before internet research was part of everyday life, development professionals would gather the members of their development committee and review lists of potential donors by gathering information about friends of committee members. While parts of this practice are still valuable, research has come a long way. Today there are several companies that offer wealth screening services for nonprofits, including Donorscape, Wealth Engine, Target Analytics, and iWave. Although the specific information delivered may vary from company to company, the process is essentially the same.
Services provided by these companies help museums electronically screen a large quantity of selected donor records, including lecture subscribers, members, gala ticket purchasers, or other connected individuals, against 14 of the most respected public information databases. When data is matched, the resulting information may report on the prospective donor’s financial position, community connections, board experience, property ownership, age, public and private company ownership and political contributions, among other data points. It also rates the prospect’s propensity to give and affinity for your museum to achieve a balance of connection, commitment, and capacity. This information can be used to determine potential sources of new or increased contributed income from individuals in the form of annual, capital, endowment, and planned gifts.
The returned information rates donors from top prospects who have a strong affinity for your museum and significant capacity to give down to those prospects who may love your work but cannot make a major gift. Development teams can use this information to:
- Determine the overall funding capability of your museum’s database.
- Identify a hierarchy of potential major donor prospects to cultivate for higher level gifts.
- Create robust portfolios for each development professional based on the donor prospect hierarchy information, as well as targeted portfolios for the Executive Director/CEO and selected board leadership.
- Develop personalized cultivation strategies and a moves management pipeline to acquire new major donors.
- Understand those donors who will remain core annual fund contributors but do not have the capacity for future major gifts and design appropriate relationship maintenance programs for that group.
Using wealth screening services, your development team will be able to segment the donor database to understand where to invest fundraising resources to yield the best results, regardless of the size of the museum’s development department. The costs for this service have become much more affordable in recent years and the return on investment is tremendous. By acquiring just one new major gift, this investment will pay for itself.
The information gleaned from wealth screening also helps to shape customized donor cultivation efforts and can inform decisions regarding the identification of ideal members to consider adding to your governing board. These concepts will be explored in Part II of this series next month.
Vice President Elisabeth B. Galley has more than 30 years of experience as a fundraising and development professional for nonprofit arts and culture organizations. First joining ACG in 1998 as a Senior Consultant, Ms. Galley worked with Tulsa Opera, Nevada Ballet Theatre, Mozart Classical Orchestra, REPRISE! Broadway’s Best, and the Carmel Bach Festival as Interim Development Director. She rejoined the firm in 2015 to open its Dallas office and expand the Revenue Enhancement practice area. Prior to joining ACG, Ms. Galley served as Chief Development Officer at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science, spearheading its $200 million campaign efforts. During her five-year tenure, Ms. Galley expanded the museum’s operating reserves by $26 million and doubled its contributed revenue to $4 million annually. For seven years, she served as Vice President of Development at the AT&T Performing Arts Center, working on the $335 million campaign to build the multi-venue complex. Ms. Galley was also Director of Development for the Colorado Springs Symphony where she was responsible for all components of the annual contributed income, including individual and corporate gifts, foundation and government grants, and special events. Ms. Galley holds a master of business administration with an emphasis in marketing and nonprofit administration from the University of Delaware.
Contact ACG for more information on how we can implement
wealth screening services at your organization.
(888) 234.4236
[email protected]
ArtsConsulting.com
wealth screening services at your organization.
(888) 234.4236
[email protected]
ArtsConsulting.com
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