Friend, Not Foe: Prospect Research and AI

by | Nov 12, 2024 | AI, Guide, Prospect Research

As AI has taken the world by storm in recent years, we’re seeing it being implemented in our daily lives more than ever – it can help you write content, assist you with brainstorming, analyze data and so much more.  

However, as the use of AI has grown rapidly with many positive applications, it has also raised some apprehensions and questions. Is the data I share with AI private? How accurate is AI generated data? How can I use AI in a meaningful way for prospect research? This post will aim to help answer some of those questions and provide some insight into how AI might be able to make your day easier as a prospect researcher! 

Your Data Privacy

Data privacy is paramount in donor and prospect research. As you integrate various AI tools into your workflow, it is crucial to understand how your interaction data is being handled.  

For example, one popular AI tool provider, OpenAI, states that their business-tier products do not use your interaction data by default to help improve their models. For individual-tier products, interaction data is used unless you manually opt-out in your account settings. 

Anthropic, another popular provider, states that by default your interaction data will not be used unless you explicitly grant permission either through submitting feedback or reaching out to them directly. 

By reviewing the usage policies of any AI tools you consider, you can confidently safeguard your data privacy while also taking advantage of the various benefits that AI has to offer. 

Are AI Tools Accurate? The Short Answer: It Depends.

At their core, most AI tools are built on Large Language Models (LLMs), which generate responses by predicting the next word based on patterns learned from vast amounts of training data. This enables AI to excel at tasks like answering questions about well-known topics, drafting emails, or writing code. 

However, AI isn’t perfect. Some tasks that are precise and rule-based – can challenge AI, which relies more on patterns and probabilities versus exact calculations. This is why the context you provide in your prompts can also have a significant impact on the accuracy of the responses you receive.  

Providing clear context in your prompts can greatly improve the accuracy of AI responses. Since AI models rely on patterns rather than true understanding, they might misinterpret vague requests or lack the additional data needed to generate accurate results. By being specific and outlining exactly what you need, you help the AI produce answers that are more precise and aligned with your expectations, especially for tasks that require exactness and adherence to specific rules.  

A practical example of this is CharityCAN’s AI generated summaries. To ensure we produce accurate summaries of prospect profiles, we provide the AI model with detailed information like donation history, board memberships, compensation and more. Additionally, we structure our prompts to ensure that only the provided data is used to create the summary. This ensures that the AI generates content that is relevant and specific to each profile. If we simply supplied the profile name, ambiguity could arise – the AI might mix up people with the same name or fill in gaps with incorrect information. This highlights how providing clear and detailed context greatly improves the accuracy of AI generated data. 

Practical Applications of AI in Prospect Research

Now that we’ve covered the details surrounding AI tools and data privacy and accuracy, how exactly can AI assist prospect researchers with their daily workflow? 

One significant advantage of AI is its ability to accurately analyze large volumes of text when given the proper context. For example, if you’re tasked with reviewing annual reports over 20 pages long to find mentions of grants or scholarships, AI tools that support file uploads (like GPT-4o) can be invaluable. Simply upload the document, and the AI model can help you pinpoint the information you need by answering specific questions about the content.  

Another great way to incorporate AI is by using it to inquire about well-known or widely publicized topics. Some AI tools, such as GPT-4o, offer a web browsing feature that allows the model to search the internet for your queries. This means that you can get up-to-date answers along with cited sources.  

Speaking of citations, many AI models can provide links to their information sources when prompted. By asking the AI to cite its sources, you can easily cross-reference and verify the data it provides, adding an extra layer of trust to your research process. 

Conclusion

By choosing AI tools that respect data privacy and providing clear context, you can leverage it to streamline your workflow – like analyzing lengthy documents or quickly finding reliable information. Embracing AI thoughtfully can make your day easier and let you focus on what matters most in your work.  

Key Features and Data 2024

by | Aug 7, 2024 | Company, Features, Guide

Features 

Donor Discovery

Donor discovery is a new way to identify prospective donors that builds on a classic donation record search by adding relationship filters. Use donor discovery to quickly identify a list of prospects who have a history of supporting your cause and have relationship map connections to your organization. 

Integrated Search 

An integrated search looks for information in all of CharityCAN’s datasets for an individual, foundation or corporation. This search is perfect for researching a prospect or finding out more information about a current donor. 

Relationship Mapping

Relationship Maps show you who your prospect is connected to. CharityCAN maps relationships based on:

  • Shared time on charity boards
  • Shared time on corporate boards
  • Shared time on the board of federally registered corporations
  • Shared ownership of a federally registered plane or boat
  • Shared surname and postal code

You can use relationship mapping to:

  • See how your prospect is connected to your organization
  • Search board members’ networks for major gift prospects
  • Better understand your prospect’s network and connections
  • See how your donors are connected to your prospects 
  • Create your own relationship maps 

Relationship Paths 

Relationship paths allows you to quickly identify connections among people, charities, and companies. This search is perfect for seeing who your board members, major donors, corporate donors, or any other friend of your organization is connected to. 

Household Data Search

Using CharityCAN to find out household data information is simple. Navigate to Household Data and enter a 3 or 6 digit postal code and CharityCAN will return the following information: 

  • Average household net worth
  • Average dwelling value
  • Average dwelling value minus mortgage
  • Average household annual income
  • Average household discretionary income
  • Average household annual donations to religious and non-religious organizations

This data set can also be used to populate a list of individuals CharityCAN has been able to associate with a postal code and view connections to any individuals who live in the postal code.  

Foundation Search 

Foundations are an important source of funding for fundraising organizations and CharityCAN makes it easy to search for potential foundation donors. You can search by name, keywords, charity number, cause/category, charity type, location and revenue level. You can also search by donee category and program.

Data 

Donation Records 

Donation records are aggregated from Canadian NOZAsearch records, which have been gathered from publicly available websites across the internet, and the gifts to qualified donees section of the T3010 charity tax filings from the Canada Revenue Agency. All donation records are updated monthly. 

Canadian Who’s Who 

Canadian Who’s Who is the standard reference source of contemporary Canadian biography, listing prominent Canadians on merit alone. Biographies are updated on an ongoing basis and each biography lists the date it was last edited.  

Political Donors 

Political contributions are from Elections Canada’s open data sets and are updated monthly. 

Refinitiv & Corporate Canada 

Both our Refinitiv salary records and Corporate Canada records are sourced from Refinitiv and include compensation and biographical information on the board of directors and top named executive officers from public and large private companies across Canada. Records come from public disclosure documents from Canadian companies required by the Canadian Securities Administrators and are updated daily. 

ZoomInfo 

ZoomInfo search results come directly from ZoomInfo’s contact database. ZoomInfo uses their diverse portfolio of proprietary technology, community of 300,000+ users, and third-party integrations to collect, organize, validate, and publish the most comprehensive directory of business data in the marketplace. 

Public Sector Salaries 

Public sector salaries are released by their respective provincial governments and imported once a year. Records are updated when governments disclose salaries.  

Charity Directors 

Data on the directors of charitable organizations are sourced from the T3010 tax filing required by each registered charity in Canada. Records are updated on a monthly basis. 

Prospect Profiles 

Prospect profiles are programmatically created profiles that attempt to identify unique individuals within the various CharityCAN datasets and bring that information together into one profile.  

Profiles are updated monthly. 

Household Data 

Household data values are estimates based on past Census data, the Survey of Household Spending, the Survey of Financial Security, the monthly Labour Force Survey and the monthly Consumer Price Index from Statistics Canada; Royal LePage’s quarterly Survey of Canadian Housing Price; and monthly housing statistics from the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation. 

This dataset is updated annually.  

FullContact Social Data 

FullContact social data is available on our corporate and saved prospect profiles and can provide an overview of an organization or individual’s social media accounts, a social media biography, and a summary of social media interests. 

Aircraft Registry 

Search Canadian aircraft owners with our Aircraft Registry Search. You can search for owner name, type of aircraft or geographic area to find some plane owning prospects near you. 

Marine Craft Registry

Search marine pleasure craft from Transport Canada’s Register of Vessels. Boats on this registry are mostly vessels of 7 metres or longer whose owners want to register their vessel name or need a marine mortgage. If your prospect’s name is on the list as an owner, we’ll show you the vessel’s name, size and date of registration in our Integrated Search results. 

Federal Corporations 

Data from Corporations Canada on all federally registered corporations and their directors. This data includes information on not only privately held corporations but also not-for-profits, co-operatives and boards of trade from all across the country. 

Obituaries 

Obituary data from Canada Deceased List’s ObitScan and Canada Bereavement Registry products. With their help we’ll be providing thousands of recent Canadian obituaries from public online sources every month.

Donor Screening vs Wealth Screening

by | Apr 30, 2020 | Donor Screening, Features, Guide

Donor screening and wealth screening are sometimes used interchangeably in fundraising. Since wealth screening is almost always a component of donor screening, this misunderstanding is understandable. Nevertheless, it is important to understand the limitations of pure wealth screening when compared to full donor screening. Let’s look a closer look at both types of screening.

Wealth Screening Overview

Wealth screening is solely concerned with wealth. Here are some of the things wealth screening can tell you:

  • Net worth
  • Dwelling value
  • Salary
  • Other assets and liabilities

Donor Screening Overview

Donor screening is also concerned with wealth and any quality donor screen will include the elements of wealth screening listed above. However, donor screening will also look for the following:

  • Relationships and connections to your organization
  • Past philanthropic gifts in general
  • Past philanthropic gifts to similar causes and/or organizations
  • Non-giving philanthropic engagement such as serving on the board of a charity
  • Political giving

Capacity and Affinity

Where wealth screening and donor screening differ concerns capacity and affinity. Wealth screening tries to determine how much money a person has. Donor screening expands on wealth screening and looks at a person’s overall viability as a donor in addition to how much a person can give. Wealth screening focuses on capacity. Donor screening focuses on capacity and affinity. 

Yes, it is critical to have an idea of a person’s capacity to give – this makes sure our gift asks are reasonable and accurate. However,  we also need to know the person’s affinity for the cause or organization if we want to maximize our chances of success. Wealth screening helps determine the gift ask. Donor screening helps determine the gift ask and the likelihood of success.

Conclusion

Although sometimes they are confused due to their similarity, it is important to understand the differences between wealth screening and donor screening. If you are solely concerned with a person’s capacity to give, wealth screening is the exercise for you. If you are concerned with a person’s capacity to give and his or her connections to your organization and likelihood to give to your organization, donor screening makes the most sense.

Introduction to Donor Screening

by | Jan 30, 2020 | Donor Screening, Features, Guide

What is Donor Screening?

Donor screening is a process where a list of potential or current donors is analyzed and, usually, ranked. Typically, the names on the list will be ranked for their viability as a major gift prospect, but donor screening is also used to identify monthly, annual giving, and other types of prospects. Donor screening is extremely useful in better understanding your donor database and the people in it. 

Why is Donor Screening Useful?

Prospect Identification

Consider the following scenario. There is a donor who has been faithfully giving your organization $100 every month for the last few years. This donor is very likely entrenched firmly in your organization’s monthly giving bucket. And rightfully so; based on gifts to your organisation, this donor fits the profile of a monthly donor. 

Donor screening has the potential to reveal information about this donor that will alter that profile. Perhaps the screen reveals that, based on external wealth indicators, this individual has the capacity to make a six-figure gift. Perhaps the screen analyzes external donation records (gifts to other organizations) and reveals this donor is on the board of private family foundation that routinely makes five-figure gifts to the local hospital. 

In this scenario donor screening has helped your organization realize that a fantastic monthly donor is actually more of a major gift prospect. 

Database Segmentation

Donor screening also helps you segment your database. A good donor database is used by multiple people for multiple reasons (or, sometimes, one person assuming multiple roles). For example, a donor database should be able to tell a major gift officer who her top prospects are. It should also be able to tell an annual giving officer who his top prospects are. And it should also be able to tell the organisation what postal codes are likely to have the biggest impact for an upcoming mailout. 

How do I do it?

Typically, you will send a donor screening service a spreadsheet containing names pulled from your database. This spreadsheet may also include email addresses or postal codes depending on a) the data the service needs to conduct a screen and b) the data they will return to you. 

The service will then attempt to match those names (and other data points, if included) to external data sets. External data sets used in a donor screen can include: real estate wealth, connections to your organization, donation records, and salary records. After the names have been matched the screening service will append the spreadsheet you sent with the data they have pulled and rank your list of names based on any agreed upon criteria.

Conclusion

Donor screening is an immensely effective exercise for a fundraising organization to undertake. It can quickly help identify under the radar prospects in a database and also segment a database for more effective out-reach. Donor screening is a crucial step in developing a better understanding of a donor database and the people in it. Organizations that understand who their donors are raise more money.

Relationship Mapping – Using Intermediary Connections

by | Nov 8, 2019 | Guide, Prospect Research, Relationship Mapping

Relationship mapping has become an integral part of philanthropic prospect research. Relationship mapping can show you how to connect with a prospect, the connections of a board member or major donor, and the different ways your organization is connected to another organization. 

Most of the time when we map relationships we are looking to realize, or visualize, a certain connection. Perhaps you want to see how your board connects to the board of Barrick Gold or maybe you want a list of corporate boards a new board members sit on. In both cases we know the beginning and the end of the relationship chain we are trying to map.  

This type of relationship mapping is incredibly useful and this utility is the main reason relationship mapping is such a big component of CharityCAN. That said, you are leaving potentially important information on the table if you are only concerned with getting from point A to point B.

Consider the Relationship Path search below:

In this search, we are looking for connections Headwaters Health Care Foundation has to Enbridge Inc. There are 14 total connections and the strongest one is Ron Hay to Al Monaco. This is a big win: Headwaters has a connection to the CEO of Enbridge (Al Monaco) through a past board member (Ron Hay). If we were prospect researchers looking into the viability of Enbridge (or Al Monaco) as a major gift prospect our relationship mapping exercise has been an unqualified success. That said, there is something we may be overlooking here: Blake Goldring, the intermediary in the Headwaters-Enbridge connection. 

Let’s take a closer look:

When we expand Blake Goldring’s organization list we can see he is quite active on both philanthropic and corporate boards. He’s connected to organizations including WWF Canada, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Sunnybrook, AGF and Acuity. On first glance, Blake Goldring appears to be an interesting prospect – as a major gift prospect himself or as a link to the companies he’s associated with. Let’s dig a little deeper to see if our fledgling assumptions about our intermediary connection hold true. 

When we look at the donation records CharityCAN has on file for Blake Goldring, we see over 300 gifts to a wide variety of causes, including a number of six and seven figure gifts. When we look at the donation records CharityCAN has on file for AGF (Blake Goldring is the CEO and Chairman of the Board), we see over 400 gifts to a wide variety of causes, including a number of six and seven figure gifts with a decided tilt towards healthcare and hospital giving. 

While the original intent of this relationship mapping exercise was to explore connections between Headwaters and Enbridge, we would be remiss to not acknowledge the value surfaced when we explored Blake Goldring, the intermediary connection in our original search. Blake Goldring is a legitimate major gift prospect. The companies he is associated with are legitimate donation/sponsorship prospects. Paying attention to the intermediary connection in our search has been a good use of time.  

As more fundraising organizations engage in relationship mapping, the ones that pay attention to the entire map, not just the point A to point B journey, will be the ones that come out ahead.