Wealth screening, and prospect research more broadly, are important parts of a major gift program. With databases in the tens or hundreds of thousands, Wealthscan helps organisations identify those supporters who not only have an interest in their work, but also have the capacity to make a larger gift. FR&C operates within both Australian and New Zealand privacy legislation, and Wealthscan is a trusted service to help organisations quickly grow their major gift pool with minimal processing of data.
2. Will Wealthscan work for my organisation?
We screen for all types and size of organisations - the only requirement is a constituent database!
In the schools sector, we have screened for:
Girls schools
Boys schools
City schools
Regional schools
We screen for the whole of the nfp sector - including very large organisations as well as those with only a few thousand constituents. Our match rate is around 1% - so even with a small database of a few thousand records, we would expect to find matches to make the process very worthwhile.
It is fast and cost effective way to jump start a new major donor program, grow the prospect pool for your existing program, or demonstrate the potential in your database to justify additional resources for your major donor program.
3. Is my data safe?
Data security is taken very seriously at FR&C as our business depends on it. We have robust measures in place to ensure that all client data is transferred and stored securely, and in 20 years we have never had a data breach. We use reputable Australian companies both for data transfer and storage of your data while it is in our care, and we delete all client data from our server after completion of work.
We are very happy to answer any questions about our procedures, as well as those of our hosting and transfer services.
4. What is the process?
We sign a confidentiality agreement our clients that covers how we look after your data, and notes that we only use your data for the purpose in which it was sent.
After we receive your signed confidentiality agreement, we send through a secure link to upload your data via encrypted FTP. That data is downloaded on to our secure server until the work is completed. During that time, your data is not shared or used in any way other than for the purpose of the screening work.
Once work has been completed, we delete your data from our server entirely - so please ensure that you have downloaded and saved all reports from your screening as we aren't able to resend them once the data has been deleted.
5. How should I prepare for Wealthscan?
Firstly, if you are considering a screening it is important to ensure that your privacy policy includes that you use constituent data for fundraising purposes and that you may append third-party data to constituent records. Most organisations do have these clauses in their privacy policy, but it always good to review that first.
If there are other stakeholders in your organisation who need to sign off, it is useful to discuss early on so they can understand how Wealthscan works and have any questions answered. We are always happy to have a chat!
Once privacy is sorted and you have sign off to proceed, it is time to think about what data you send. Our data requirements sheet contains useful information on what data to send, and what to exclude (ie known major donors) so that you get the best results from your screening. If you are going through a CRM conversion imminently or have plans for a data cleansing, we suggest completing those before proceeding with a screening.
6. Wealthscan came back with so many matches! How do I prioritise the best matches for my budget?
Our average match rate is about 1% - though it can vary depending on the type of organisation and location from .4% to 3%+. If you screen 100,000 records, we would expect to find around 1,000 matches. We can help you select the best matches that suits your budget.
7. What do I do with the results?
Receiving the RFI report with the results of your screening can be overwhelming - it's a lot of data! Ideally, you will have a prepared a plan for how to work through the results.
Broadly, the best way to start is by looking at the data we've sent along with what you know about your organisation's relationship with each match to determine the best plan for each person. Once you have prioritised the results along with your existing prospect pool, we can help with further in-depth profiling to get a clearer picture of wealth, philanthropy and other information that will you to better understand your potential major donors.
8. How often should my organisation screen?
The answer, of course, is it depends. And it depends a number of different factors. How much churn do you have in your major gift program? How many new donors/constituents do you add to your database each year? What are your fundraising goals? Are they achievable with your existing prospect pool?
Many of our clients screen every few years in order to refresh their major gift pipeline; some screen new donors yearly to quickly identify those who might have the interest and capacity to engage with the organisation in a more significant way.
New names work
Do I need to notify individuals of collection when receiving new names information
This does not constitute legal advice, but yes, under APP 5, organisations need to notify individuals that their information has been collected as soon as practical. In the case of new names, this would likely be at the point of initial contact, and in the initial contact directing individuals to your privacy policy which includes opt-out options.
Not finding the answers you are looking for? Please get in touch!