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Year-End Review: iWave’s 2018 Highlights

And there it goes!  Another year in the books with another coming up fast.

Here at iWave, to call 2018 a “big year” would be the understatement of, well, the year. Our latest trip around the sun was a busy period of hard work, learning, and growth.

A highlight of our year has been the addition of a number of bright minds to our iWave team. We quickly put our newest team members  to work to help shape (and reshape) iWave’s platform, data, and features. We listened to you, our clients and partners, to learn about the problems you face and opportunities we have to enhance your experience. We did our best to provide the highest quality data, the finest client experience, and the most innovative and dependable fundraising intelligence platform available to the nonprofit community.

So, what were all the buzzworthy updates of 2018?  Here are a few of the highlights.

A New, Simpler iWave Brand

In case you didn’t know, iWave has been around for nearly thirty years. Since  the beginning we’ve been committed to building quality products and providing excellent customer service. As we look to the future, we decided it was time to update the iWave brand. This rebranding exercise included a number of components:

• The company name “iWave Information Systems” was shortened to “iWave”
• Our platform was renamed from “Prospect Research Online” to “iWave”
• We adopted the ethos and tagline: “Fundraise with Confidence” to reflect our unwavering focus on giving our users data, features, and insights they can have confidence in.

Enhanced iWave Screening

As one of the most trusted wealth screening providers, iWave’s screening allows nonprofits to uncover top potential donors that are both inclined to give and have the capacity to donate a major gift to their cause.

Improved screening services are often at the cutting edge of fundraising intelligence technology. That’s why iWave made screening a major priority for 2018. Some of the largest enhancements include:

1. Multiple Affinities – Users are able to identify prospective donors who are connected to more than one cause (e.g., education and the arts).
2. Improved Real Estate Matching – Real estate information is now matched with even greater sophistication, including matching on spouses.
3. Name Variation and Common Name Matching – An age-old industry challenge, iWave has taken a new approach that will ultimately result in even more information returned on prospective donors.
4. Gift Capacity Range – Estimated capacity amount is still available, but capacity is now also presented in the form of a range.
5. Improved Insider Filings Matching
6. DatabaseUSA – Added to screening results.
7. Additional analytics – Added analytics that contain descriptive analytics based on iWave Score and RFM.

Addition of DatabaseUSA Database

Mid-way through 2018, we introduced DatabaseUSA to iWave’s suite of wealth and philanthropic data. DatabaseUSA offers key insights on over 250 million individuals and 15 million triple-verified businesses to further help clients in their prospect research efforts.

This was a phased approach but as of this month the entire suite of data has been added to iWave and DatabaseUSA is now included in screening results, scores, and capacity ranges.

New ‘Get Score’ Feature

You asked and we listened. The new Get Score feature enables iWave users to score, build a profile, and generate a capacity rating with just a name. Now it really is as simple as clicking a button to create an initial qualification-level profile. This is a tremendous accomplishment and one that is aimed at making our users’ work easier and more efficient.

Home Tab for Easier Navigation

Because usability is always one of our leading drivers, this year we also launched a new ‘home tab’ designed to help users more easily navigate iWave. Many of our users still love and depend on the 360search but with the new hometab, it makes your first step in iWave a simple one.

Overhaul of iWave for Salesforce App

iWave’s long-standing partnership with Salesforce.org saw the development of an updated integration between the iWave and Salesforce platforms. The updated app includes the following features:

1. Bidirectional syncing of information between iWave and your Salesforce CRM platform
2. Promote new leads and updated scores from iWave to your Salesforce CRM
3. Enhanced reporting; including reports on charitable donations, business affiliations, real estate holdings, and more
4. More iWave data in your Salesforce CRM, so you can work more efficiently and gain a more holistic view of prospects.

And that’s not all!  Stay tuned in early January for yet another Salesforce Integration announcement!

iWave Named the Top-Rated Donor Prospect Research Software

G2 Crowd, a peer-to-peer third party review platform named iWave the top-rated donor research platform in their winter, spring, and fall reports. The reports are based on ratings by nonprofit professionals who work in prospect development and research. iWave received the following designations: High Performer, Leader in the Fundraising Software space, Highest Rated, and Easiest to Use.

“To receive such positive feedback from the nonprofit community is a real honor,” said iWave President and CEO Ross Beattie. “Our team cares about providing only the best products and services to prospect development and fundraising professionals, and to have them validate our work in this way demonstrates iWave is on the right track.”

Daily Patient Screening Launched

In 2018 we launched a daily patient screening tool for Healthcare organizations. iWave’s Daily Patient Screening is a time-saving feature that enables healthcare organizations to turn grateful patients into valued donors. It enables healthcare organizations to segment hundreds of patients you know very little about into a prioritized list based on capacity and inclination to give.

iWave and Gravyty Partnership Announced

Artificial intelligence isn’t just a buzzword — it is already changing the philanthropic landscape. iWave recently partnered with Gravyty, the first provider of AI-enabled fundraising software. This partnership involves a roadmap of joint solutions that combine Gravyty’s AI-enabled suite of tools and iWave’s comprehensive wealth and philanthropic data. Together these solutions will provide frontline fundraisers and researchers with the tools to reach the right donor at the right time with the right major gift ask and ensure personalized, donor-centric outreach, at scale. In essence, it’s Gravyty AI powered by iWave.

iWave Joins the Giving Institute

Earlier in 2018, iWave was invited to join The Giving Institute, a group of carefully selected organizations who embrace and embody core values of ethics, excellence, and leadership in philanthropy.

“Security, trust, and confidence in the organizations and data you work with are key considerations in today’s fundraising world,” iWave CTO Gerry Lawless said in a June press release. “We’re committed to The Giving Institute’s standards because we believe in doing right by our clients, and in doing the right thing, plain and simple.”

New Board Members Bring Experience and Passion for Social Good

iWave’s board of directors welcomed two new members in 2018:

• Cary Fulbright — former Salesforce SVP, CRM and cloud software expert, and longtime nonprofit volunteer;
• Scott Johnson — former chief executive officer of both Zephyr and Social Solutions Global, which has over 10,000 nonprofit organizations using their platform today. Scott is also the founder of the nonprofit organization Jehovah Jireh.

iWave Lite

Here at iWave, we have an ambitious goal to make fundraising intelligence solutions available to every nonprofit. That’s why we introduced iWave Lite: a sleek, modern research platform designed with small shops in mind. Equipped with essential wealth and philanthropic information, iWave Lite makes it possible for any nonprofit, no matter the size of your team or budget, to fundraise with confidence.

Looking Ahead

So yes, you could say 2018 was a “big year” at iWave. But will 2019 be even bigger?  We like to think so!

Stay tuned to the iWave Blog and Newsletter for product updates, new data and feature announcements, and the latest posts and webinars. Look for us at community events hosted by Apra, AFP, CASE, Salesforce.org, and many other partner organizations throughout the coming year. And as always, please reach out with any questions, concerns, or just to say hello.

Happy holidays to you and yours from all of us at iWave. We wish continued growth and success for you and the organizations you represent. Our greatest goal is to help our clients as they make the world a better place. Though there is always more to be done, let’s take a moment to celebrate. Here’s to you, our clients and partners, on a job well done!

Now, who’s ready to get back to work?