Tired of Manually Searching Through Databases, One at a Time?

Reduce your research time with a robust prospect research tool and get to know your donors better than ever before.

prospect research tool
search databases

Search over 40 data sources simultaneously

Search a single name across all of iWave’s wealth, philanthropic, and biographical data providers simultaneously— with just one click. Or focus your search by drilling down into any of iWave’s premium data sources and using custom parameters to narrow down your search results.

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generate prospect profiles

Generate prospect profiles in seconds

Generating a comprehensive profile is easy. No matter which search option you use, you can use our prospect research software to generate a prospect profile with the click of a button. Plus, automatically keep your profile up-to-date with the latest intelligence by setting a Smart Alert.

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search for detailed foundation info

Uncover detailed foundation and company information

Search seven datasets simultaneously for detailed information about a foundation or company. You can find essential prospecting details such as employee data including executives, contact information, gift matching programs, and more.

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research and find alumni

Keep up-to-date on alumni

Are you looking for an easy way to research and find alumni? Simply select an Alma Mater in 360search and hit search to instantly discover new sets of alumni with a proven affinity to your cause.

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Advanced Search Tools for Effective Prospect Research

The vast amount of information available today means that you need help sorting through and organizing your results. This is why our search tools enable you to easily curate your results, get a quick snapshot of your constituent, and generate a comprehensive profile—in seconds, not hours.

Smart Search

Leverage the power of AI to collect and curate the most relevant records, generate a score, and create a prospect profile with just a few clicks.

360search

Search for an individual, foundation, company, or alumni. View all records associated with your search, easily drill down into specific records, and select the records you would like to add to a profile.

Tap Into Billions of Data Points

iWave’s data provides a 360° view of your prospect’s capacity, propensity, and affinity to give to your cause. With over 40 wealth, biographic, and philanthropic data sources, iWave offers access to billions of data points at your fingertips. A few of our most popular datasets include:

CoreLogic

REAL ESTATE: CoreLogic

The most comprehensive real estate intelligence data source with 5.5B+ records.

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VeriGift by iWave

Donations: VeriGift

iWave’s proprietary data source and the fastest-growing charitable giving data set with 185M+ records.

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Dow Jones

News and Obituaries: Legacy and Dow Jones

Curated content to help cut out the clutter. Quickly discover newsworthy mentions and obituaries.

Boost Productivity with Automation

iWave gives you more ways to eliminate mundane tasks and free up your time.

smart alert

Automated intelligence delivery

Rather than sifting through rows of records looking for a change, would you rather have new intelligence delivered to you automatically? You can with iWave’s Smart Alerts.

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search alert

Search alerts

Set an alert on a specific search within VeriGift and Thomson and Reuters datasets. iWave automatically monitors and alerts you on new records such as alumni additions, company events, insider filings, donations, and more.

Accelerate Your Foundation & Corporate Research Efforts

iWave Screening

iWave’s Foundation and Company Screening unlocks the ability to search, screen, and create a detailed profile on a foundation or company. Plus, you can quickly segment thousands of foundations and corporations into a prioritized list with actionable insights for your top prospects.

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Are You Searching for New Prospects?

Prospecting doesn’t have to be challenging. Excel at finding high-quality prospective donors by using fundraising intelligence to build hyper-targeted lists.

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Helping leading nonprofits fundraise with confidence

Susan G. Komen
The Hospital for Sick Children
Guggenheim
University of Toronto
Yale University

Want to See How You Can Secure More Grants and Gifts With iWave’s Advanced Search Options?

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University of North Florida

"With iWave’s 360search feature, UNF finds prospects employment information, real estate, donations, philanthropic connections, and director connections with the click of a button."

Mary Jamieson Dee

Director of Prospect Research

University of North Florida

Search FAQs

What is prospect research in fundraising?

Prospect research is a tactic utilized by fundraising organizations of all sizes to identify, understand, and connect with prospective or existing donors. Although using traditional wealth screening can effectively help you identify and segment prospective donors with the greatest giving potential, prospect research goes a step further and involves an analysis of personal backgrounds, history of giving, wealth indicators, and philanthropic motivations. 

There are three avenues that nonprofits use for conducting prospect research

  • In-house prospect research
  • Prospect research consulting
  • Fundraising intelligence software

To learn more about prospect research, read our blog post What is Prospect Research.

How do you do prospect research?

To start prospect research, your team or researcher will compile data on a potential or existing donor’s giving history, involvement with other charitable organizations, wealth, business affiliations, etc. to provide a full picture of their ability and propensity to give to your organization.

If you choose to invest in a prospect research software like iWave, this technology will instantly scan through billions of data points and return records that match your prospective donor.  

Whether you compile donor data by hand or using prospect research software, your team will then synthesize the data and identify donors you may want to consider asking for a major donation. This information is used to fuel fundraising activities such as day-to-day fundraising or annual campaigns, and can also be utilized to improve your budgeting and end goal setting.

Check out our blog post Leverage Prospect Research to Fill Gaps in Your Donor Pyramid to learn more about how you can use prospect research to increase fundraising at your nonprofit.

What does prospect research typically involve?

Prospect research involves an analysis of personal backgrounds, history of giving, wealth indicators, and philanthropic motivations of potential or existing donors. This research is then used to evaluate a donor’s ability to give as well as their personal affinity towards the organization. In simple terms, prospect research helps you find the best potential donors for your nonprofit’s mission.

Prospect research tools can significantly reduce research time without the need for complicated queries, and provide you the insights you need for effective donor cultivation. Get in touch with us today to see how using prospect research tools is a sure way to raise more donations.

What makes a good prospect researcher?

Short answer: the ability to transform information about prospective donors into stories that fuel donor-focused cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship. 

Good prospect researchers have strong qualitative, quantitative, analytical, and research skills. These skills are used to analyze donor data to identify prospects, recognize and assess wealth indicators, and evaluate giving capacities.

Although prospect researchers specialize in working with detailed information, upfront organization is key to making sure they can find the detailed information they need—but not get lost in it. They need to have proficiency in locating relevant information in a variety of formats and consolidating it in a well-organized format.

Prospect researchers are also excellent collaborators and possess the ability to communicate and relate to a diverse audience. To learn about challenges that prospect researchers face and how to overcome them, check out our guest post by John Filla, Top 3 Things Prospect Researchers Struggle With.

What are the key elements in donor prospect research?

The success of any nonprofit organization is dependent on its ability to identify, understand, and connect with prospective donors. Three key elements in donor prospect research are:

  • Prospect identification: finding new prospects that can support your cause
  • Qualification: evaluating their potential to make a significant gift
  • Relationship management: relationship-building activities that turn prospects into major donors

What is prospect analysis?

Prospect analysis is the process of identifying and qualifying prospects using a screening tool, constituent segmentation, data mining, and constituency rating. This information is used to inform executive-level decisions for defining fundraising priorities, setting campaign goals, and long-term organizational planning.

iWave makes prospect analysis a breeze by providing access to the industry’s most comprehensive database covering billions of wealth and philanthropic data points, so you can easily segment donors, understand donor affinity, and go after the right donors with the confidence to make the right ask. Click here to learn more about iWave’s modeling and analytics or schedule a demo to see how donor prospect research tools can help you raise more donations.

What is your approach to researching and identifying potential donors and prospects?

At iWave, we start with great data but then we help you segment it properly and understand donor affinity so you can go after the right donors with the confidence to make the right ask. Our solutions provide actionable insights that enable fundraising teams to identify, qualify, cultivate and retain donors by making strategic data-backed decisions.

How do I prospect for donations?

Prospecting for donations starts with the 3 keys: propensity, affinity, and capacity. Before prospect research technology was available, nonprofit organizations focused their efforts on identifying wealthy prospective donors who had the capacity to make a donation to their organization.

Now, organizations depend on a much more holistic view of a donor before determining if they have the potential to make a donation. This holistic view includes a donor’s propensity or proven , and affinity, a connection or passion for a specific cause. When you find a donor with all 3 keys the donor is most likely ready to move through cultivation and solicitation for a donation.