PROSPECT RESEARCH:

Myths, Misconceptions and

Reality

Special Libraries Committee

Prepared by:

Greg Barber

The evening

• Nonprofit sector

• Sunnybrook

• What do Prospect Researchers do?

• What makes a great prospect?

• Data Mining to find new prospects

• Prospect Research example

• What do you mean you can’t find that?

• Skills and Career

• Questions

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Nonprofit sector

• Canada’s charitable and nonprofit sector is the 2nd

largest in the world; the Netherlands is the largest; the

United States is the 5th

• there are an estimated 170,000 nonprofits and charities

in Canada

• 2 million people are employed by these organizations

representing 11.1% of the economically

active population

• $106 billion or 8.1% of GDP (larger than the automotive

or manufacturing industries)

Source: Imagine Canada

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• Bayview and Lawrence (north Toronto)

• 1.2 million patient visits each year

• 10,000 employees

• Heart, Cancer, Trauma, Women & Babies

• Sunnybrook Foundation raises about $60M

annually

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Prospect Researchers

• Assist frontline fundraisers to find Major

Donors for our organizations.

• Fundraisers AKA Major Gift Officers,

Advancement Directors, Development Directors

• Prospects are potential donors, “prospective

donors”

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Prospect Research and Major Gifts

• Major Donors = Major Gifts

• Largest donations that your organization will receive

• At Sunnybrook a major gift is $25,000

• Prospect Researchers research donors with $25K Capacity

• Capacity = Ability to give

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Who is a prospect?

• Myth: all rich people are prospects

• Related myth: Prospect Research is all about

stalking rich people.

• Wealth and philanthropy are key

• But not all wealthy people are prospects

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Major Gifts ≠ Cold Calls

To get Major Donors/Major Gifts a charity

needs

• Connection(s) to the prospect/donor

• Who can help? Who do we know that

knows them?

• Board member, volunteer, friend,

physician

• Funding interest

• Health care

• A way in8

Gates Foundation funding interest --

supporting developing countries

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Major Gifts, Major Donors

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Connections, Funding interest

• Loretta Rogers has been a

Toronto General Hospital

Foundation board member

since 2005

• Ted Rogers suffered from heart issues

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Where do we find great prospects?

• The best prospects are

already giving you money

• Data Mining

• Internal information

• Raiser’s Edge (RE)

• Donor Management

Database

• Daily screening of gifts of $1,000+

• Looking for signs of Capacity to give $25K+

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After $1K+ screening, do research to

find:

• Gifts to Sunnybrook

• Connection(s)

• Career, biography

• Wealth

• Philanthropy

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Data Mining $1K+ example – Robert M.

Ogilvie

• Robert gave $1,000 in December 2015 in response

to the annual board appeal.

• Previously he gave $5,000 to Heart Centre in

2013; he gave $5,000 to Heart in 2012 as well.

• His company, Toromont Industries, sponsored the

Golf Classic in 2014 at the request of board

member Don Jay.

• Robert and Don golfed together at the event.

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Robert looks like a great prospect!

• Total giving $11K

• (Possible) funding interest

• Program area (Heart)

• Timing of the gift

• Recently - December 2015

• Connection

• Robert and Don Jay golfed together.

• Board member Don Jay is our connection.

• We can ask Don to help us approach Robert.

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Additional research on Robert

• Career, biography – easier for public companies

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Robert’s wealth

• SEDAR filings

• Five top paid executives of a public company

• Compensation, shares held, value of shares

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But usually…

Most prospects will be less visible and not

with public companies• Job title

• President, Owner, Founder, Partner, Managing

Partner

• Private company revenues

• Scotts, Hoovers

• News, size, scope, operations

• Any public wealth information you can cobble

together

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Less visible people, private companies

• Robert is the Founder and Managing Partner of

Lampfield Capital which has $60M in assets under

management.

• Robert presides over several privately held

companies in Markham. No revenue figures are

available. The companies include Bonwick

Enterprises, a soil testing company founded in

1986 which has 25 employees and offices in

Calgary as well as Markham.

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Robert’s real estate

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But usually…

Less real estate information is found

• Prominent neighbourhood, street

• Robert lives in Hoggs Hollow on

Donwoods Drive

• Dilemma of the $1M home in Toronto

• Homes elsewhere

• Florida

• County tax appraisal records

• Cottage

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Robert’s philanthropy - where else has

Robert made major gifts?

• PRO Online, Charity Can

• Aggregators of Donor Reports

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But sometimes…

• Robert has no major giving history.

• Smaller gifts $1,000+, $5,000 not usually

of interest

• $10,000+ is the floor

• Absence of major gifts elsewhere is not a

problem if there is already giving to your

charity, wealth and connections.

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Packaging, format. How you present

research depends on workplace, workstyle

• Gifts to Sunnybrook

• Connection(s)

• Career, biography

• Wealth

• Philanthropy

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Myth: Prospect Research is all about

research profiles

Name Title/Company

Connection SunnybrookAffiliation

Research Notes

Recommendations

Robert Ogilvie

ChairmanToromont Industries (construction and heavy equipment seller)

He is connected to SF board member Don Jay.

Robert has given $11,678 to SB including $10K to Heart. Last gift in Dec 2015.

His company sponsored the golf classic at the request of Don Jay and they golfed together.

Robert holdsToromont shares worth $63.5M.

He has given $5M to Mount Allison University.

Consult with Don Jay. He appears to know Robert well.

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Myth: Prospect Researchers can find anything about anyone

Did Sandra Chang

sell her family

company? For

how much?

What’s the status

of the XYZ Corp

IPO?

How old is she?

Didn’t she just

divorce her

husband?

Why did they

make that gift? Is

the pledge done

yet?

When will his term

on that board

end?

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Norm Jones is

heavily invested in

gold. We need to

track gold prices.

How is Jon Smith

related to Alan

Smith?

We need a family

tree for the Clark

Family!

Career landscape

• 53% work for Higher Education; 19% for Healthcare; 9%

for arts & Culture

• 91% work full-time; 3% contract

• 60% have completed Master’s degrees while only 50%

of the positions require Master level

• 61% earned $50,000 - $79,999.

• The average salary was $65,000 in 2013

Source: Membership Survey. APRA Canada (Association of Professional Researchers in

Advancement), 2013.

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Skills

• Research needs to be your passion

• But learn to think like a fundraiser

• Business/company/industry research

• Investment terminology, financial services

industry

• SEDI, SEDAR

• Read business section, appointment notices

• Fundraising industry

• Raiser’s Edge

• Volunteer experience

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Skills

• Excel

• Less for math than sorting, creating lists of prospects

• Data mining, data quality, data cleansing

• Information Management, Knowledge Management

• Patience, persistence, skepticism

• Creativity, strategy

• Discretion

• Further Reading: APRA Body of Knowledge for Prospect Development

Professionals

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Courses, Learning

• iSchool offering elective this year; one day

workshop in the past; both taught by Jennifer Zhang

• Hogan, Cecilia. (2008). Prospect Research: A

Primer for Growing Nonprofits. Boston: Jones and

Bartlett.

• Prospect Research in Canada: An Essential Guide

for Researchers and Fundraisers [forthcoming]

APRA Canada. Civic Sector Press, 2016.

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Network

• APRA Canada

• Semi-annual conference Oct 12 – 14, 2016,

Toronto, Courtyard Marriot

• Webinars periodically

• Toronto social meetups

• Mentoring program for new researchers

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Questions?

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Thank You!

Greg Barber

greg.barber@sunnybrook.ca

gbarber000@sympatico.ca

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