Hancks shares a nuts-and-bolts guide to setting up a research shop and discovering who an organization's donors really are. She is the director of Prospect Research and Management at Western Illinois University, and she serves the wider nonprofit community as Chair of the Best Practices in Prospect Development subcommittee for the Association of Advancement Services Professionals.

Prospect Research Is a Verb: Fundraising Is the Subject is a prospect research manual that's down-to-earth, easy-to-follow, and even fun to read. Meredith Hancks and Cara Rosson divide the manual into four Parts, each dealing with a specific aspect of project research. They make innovative use of the old-fashioned gift pyramid to provide a surprisingly helpful visual aid for examining the levels of research required for different types of prospects. In chapters 1 through 10, you will learn about the foundations for the profession. This information lays the groundwork for each of the next sections of chapters. Chapters 11 through 16 discuss basic research skills for foundational prospects-generally considered annual fund prospects. When presented with a very preliminary request for research, you will probably need the information in this section. Chapters 17 through 22, Middle of the Road, build upon the first two sections of chapters but can also stand alone. In these chapters, you will learn about research for real estate, gift capacity, and networks. This chapter is the starting point for identifying potential major gift prospects. Finally, chapters 23 through 27 address the types of research you will conduct when completing a full profile or preparing for a solicitation for a major gift ask. Throughout, the authors offer helpful and interesting sidebars, and take the time to give you specifics. About the Authors Meredith Hancks, author of the well-received Getting Started in Prospect Research: What You Need to Know to Find Who You Need to Find, uses data daily to uncover hidden gems in the database at Western Illinois University, where she is the Director of Prospect Research and Management. She is serving the wider nonprofit community as Chair of the Best Practices in Prospect Development subcommittee for the Association of Advancement Services Professionals and as Vice President for the Illinois Chapter of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement. She is currently a Doctoral Candidate at the University of Minnesota completing an Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration. Cara Rosson has been doing internet and prospect research for well over ten years now. She has worked as a prospect research analyst for Florida State University and Bradley University, and has done executive recruiting and sourcing for a small boutique agency, BizWerks. She lives in Peoria, Illinois with two boys and two basset hounds. She loves traveling, reading, and community organizing and activism. About the CharityChannel In the Trenches Series You'll know an In the Trenches book not just by its cover, but by the author's fun, upbeat writing style. But don't be fooled by its down-to-earth approach and ample use of sidebars. In the Trenches books are authoritative and cover what a beginner should know to get started and progress rapidly, and what a more experienced nonprofit-sector practitioner needs to move forward in the subject.

Essential tools for implementing right-sized prospect research techniques that help nonprofit organizations reach their fundraising goals Written especially for front-line fundraisers, Prospect Research for Fundraisers presents a practical understanding of prospect research, prospect management, and fundraising analytics, demonstrating how research can be used to raise more money. Filled with examples, case studies, interviews, and stories, this unique book is structured around the fundraising cycle and illustrates the myriad of current and ever-changing prospect research tools and techniques available to boost an organization's fundraising effectiveness. From essential overviews to how-to-search skills, this practical book gives development officers the tools to understand how to use prospect research in ways that best fit their goals for each stage of the fundraising cycle. Provides practical insight to understand the best use of each prospect research tool and technique Features a companion website with a variety of online tools to help readers implement key concepts Part of the AFP Fund Development Series Prospect Research for Fundraisers provides fundraisers with an understanding of what prospect research is and which resources are available to small organizations that have limited internal capacity, medium-sized organizations building capacity, and large organizations wanting to maximize their strengths. It offers a practical understanding of the relevant tools at the disposal of development officers and managers responsible for hiring, outsourcing, purchasing, managing, and implementing prospect research within their organizations.

Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits, Second Edition is a detailed guide to expanding your donor base by implementing an advancement research plan. Written by a prospect researcher, this unique book provides you with the tips you need to find your next major gift donors. Novice and experienced researchers as well as fundraisers will appreciate this updated edition that focuses on prospect researching and the art of identifying and qualifying potential donors to nonprofit organizations. In addition to a detailed introduction to each step of prospect researching, the text includes sample forms and information on policies and procedures.

What happens when a Prospect Researcher moves from a higher education advancement army of data analysts and researchers to strike out on her own at a community non-profit? Sole Searcher learns how to deal and even thrive. Learn more about how Preeti handled her first years in this new and exciting role. She did a bit of everything, from crafting profile templates to handing out name cards at donor events. She suffered through silence at strategy sessions, cleansed a bloated prospect pipeline and bid farewell to a great fundraiser. She traveled to hang with other researchers, hated on big data and then eventually learned to like it. Then came all the data (or lack thereof) on women, her best philanthropic prospects. As forewarned by colleagues, being Sole Searcher was both fun and frustrating. Prospect Researchers in shops of all sizes will identify with her challenging adventures. Fundraisers and other advancement professionals in the back office will also relate to Sole Searcher.

Find the Information You Need! is designed for the person who suspects that Google and Facebook aren’t always giving them the best results for their specific information needs. Created for anyone who wants to understand how to select better information resources, deploy smarter search strategies, and evaluate results more effectively, Find the Information You Need! provides: concrete exercises demonstrating successful queries on a variety of topics; clear explanations of search techniques and when to use them; descriptions of the different types of information resources available including commercial databases, digital libraries, and open-access repositories; and helpful advice about evaluating and organizing search results. No existing book offers what Find the Information You Need! does: a plain-language text that teaches the layperson--the end-user--what information brokers, competitive intelligence professionals, and librarians know about finding authoritative information. A key advantage of this handbook is its arrangement. Students in an information discovery course can work through the book in a linear fashion from beginning to end. Others can dip into the text at any point that serves their needs. It someone is only interested in figuring out the best non-profit for their donations of money and time, they can use the chapter presenting exercises and explanations for exactly that kind of search. If they’re intrigued by the exercises, they can use the chapters explaining the more technical side of information organization and access to learn more. Find the Information You Need! is organized into two main sections. Section I, Make It Work, helps the become a better searcher right away by supplying practical exercises to try. The six chapters in Section I focus on concrete steps to take for results and gives only as much explanation as needed to prevent confusion. The six chapters in Section II, How and Why It Works, provide technical details and explanations of search systems and retrieval methods. Three appendices present carefully selected web-based resources where readers can find information for a broad swath of subjects. Appendix I focuses on commercial databases accessible from state library websites, at no charge to residents of the respective states. Appendix II lists freely available encyclopedias including not only Wikipedia but many others that are more focused and more authoritative. Appendix III provides links to a variety of information resources including health-related data and guidance from U.S. government agencies, huge digital libraries from major educational institutions, and other troves of knowledge treasures. Find the Information You Need! can be used by high school and college students undertaking research assignments. But it treats such assignments as a quest for information that anyone in the real world of business, government, the sciences, journalism, and other fields might undertake. As a result, anyone wanting to go beyond the usual web search engine and the biases built into its algorithms can use the book to learn specific, sophisticated resources and techniques not only to search, but to also actually find useful, authoritative information.

This book has the insightful and cost-effective techniques you can use today that will deliver tremendous returns for years to come.