International Prospect Research Shapes a Campaign

Background:

You might not expect groundbreaking cancer research from a university without a medical school, but that is just what is occurring at Nottingham Trent University (NTU). Their John van Geest Cancer Research Centre is on the brink of a medical breakthrough that could lead to vaccination against certain types of cancer. With a project of this magnitude, however, come substantial financial requirements. For that reason, prospect researchers at NTU are having an important impact on this scientific research.

Challenge:

To support a project of this size, the NTU Development team knew that they would need to expand their prospect research beyond the UK. This was new ground for Steve Barwell, Director of Development Services at NTU, and his team. To conduct prospect research on international prospects, they required new tools with international data and strong search capabilities. The prospect research team identified two primary objectives that the new tool would need to be capable of: “We needed to find NTU alumni residing in the US with the affinity and ability to support this project. We also needed to research grant-making trusts in the US that would give to cancer research and would support a US/UK collaboration,” said Steve.

Solution:

After some research, Steve chose iWave as the tool best capable of fulfilling the international research requirements of NTU. The result? “iWave gave us the insight into the US market that we needed,” said Steve. To find alumni and US trusts, Steve’s team was able to enter specific search criteria (i.e. immunotherapy) and quickly filter the results. By searching with specific keywords like this, they were able to uncover prospects with a connection to their cause that they may not have found otherwise. After searching and mining the data, Steve’s team was able to easily create and save profiles for NTU alumni and trusts, add research notes, and share these reports among the development team and with scientists. This collaborative approach ensured that specific research goals aligned with potential ‘asks’ for the project.

As a result of using iWave, Steve’s team successfully discovered high net work NTU alumni in the US, identified US grant-making trusts, and generated a prioritized list of prospects with an affinity to both NTU and the school’s cancer research facility.