Ops Insights #026 Research Profiles
October 13, 2023 | Read Time: 2 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
Hello, it’s so great to have your attention. Thank you for tuning in and being here to learn, grow, and accelerate your expertise. Today, we are talking about prospect research profiles. If you are a small to midsize organization and one of your many duties is prospect research, then this edition is for you. If prospect research is your entire role, you can skip this week, as this is for beginners in philanthropy operations where prospect research is part of their various roles.
Let’s dive in. Prospect research tends to get pushed to the bottom of the priority list when tasked with multiple roles. I’ve been there and understand and am here to help you with the basics.
A sample base-level profile is below if you are asked to provide research profiles. It typically takes me 30 minutes to compile one of these, and many times, I can go down many rabbit holes (oh, those rabbit holes) but have to keep re-focusing on the task at hand.
This is a quick informational profile to gather so a frontline partner can make a personalized outreach/connection.
Image provided by Unsplash
Sample Research Profile
Prospect Name (CRM ID: #)
Connection to Us (what you can find in your CRM)
Such as relationship to your org, involvement in boards or committees, volunteering, etc.
Current or former prospect manager assigned.
Any meaningful past or recent outreach recorded to highlight.
Background/Contact (what you can find in your CRM)
Such as age, city/state, phones, emails, LinkedIn link.
Employment (quick LinkedIn or company website look-up)
Such as length of their career, current employer and role, and condensed summary of past roles.
Past Giving (what you can find in your CRM)
Such as lifetime giving, last gift amount/date, and largest gift amount/date.
Potential
Target ask (and a few words on why, as in what variables contribute to that - such as real estate, stocks, external giving, etc.)
Giving capacity based on wealth.
Giving capacity based on giving found externally (if you have it).
Engagement score you came up with (and a few stats on why).
Additional Resource
If you need the next level of prospect research profiles, I have compiled a handy Research Profiles Sample sheet to get you started. Enter your email and then click Get Sample.
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