Prospect Research + Matching Gifts:

The Inside Scoop

Essential Takeaways (TL;DR)

Matching Gifts Multiply Impact. 🎁✖️

Prospect research uncovers high-capacity donors, but matching gift programs double or triple their potential, and tangible mission impact, without asking for larger out-of-pocket gifts.

Employer Data Connects Opportunities. 🏢🔗

Wealth screening reveals approximate financial capacity, but employment data unlocks eligibility for workplace giving through matching gifts, volunteer grants, and payroll deductions.

Data Enrichment Drives Revenue. 🪪💸

Appending up-to-date employer details to their donor and volunteer records allows development teams to segment prospects by program eligibility and automate follow-ups with tailored next steps.

As a nonprofit fundraiser on the lookout for new ways to maximize charitable support, there are a few avenues your team might not be paying enough attention to: prospect research and matching gifts. And the good news is that the two ideas often go hand in hand!

Gathering the right data can have a huge impact on the success of your donor engagement, relationship-building, and solicitation efforts. Meanwhile, matching gifts enable organizations like yours to double the funds they bring in.

When you unlock additional revenue streams, your organization is better able to serve its mission, bankroll important programming, and continue working toward its goals.

Quick Note: This guide focuses specifically on the intersection of prospecting and matching gift strategy. To access our complete A-to-Z playbook for building a complete donor research process, check out our Ultimate Guide to Fundraising Intelligence.

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The Basics of Matching Gifts and Prospect Research

What Are Corporate Matching Gifts?

Matching gift programs are a specific type of corporate philanthropy initiative through which companies match employee donations to eligible nonprofit causes.

If a donor from Bank of America contributes $250 to a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or educational institution, the company will double their donation by supplying an additional $250 to the same cause. All the donor has to do is fill out a brief form requesting a match on behalf of the organization they support.

In the end, the nonprofit receives two generous gifts for the cost of soliciting one!

What Is Prospect Research?

Prospect research is a process performed by a nonprofit’s fundraising and development teams to gather additional data about their donors, supporters, and other potential givers. This information then equips nonprofits to evaluate an individual’s potential to support their particular causes (i.e., the prospect’s ability and affinity to do so).

To better understand the value of prospect research, take a look at the following scenario:

A donor with major giving potential contributes an average-sized gift to a crowdfunding campaign (let’s say $50). This individual may be willing to give a lot more to your nonprofit but hasn’t so far. Why? Crowdfunding efforts tend to ask for smaller donations to appeal to the masses, with many supporters choosing from the recommended giving levels.

But now, you’re soliciting donations for a capital campaign. If you base your appeal on the individual’s current giving level, you might request a gift in the $50 to $100 range. Since a donor isn’t likely to give a gift significantly above what you ask for, their contribution would likely fall well below their capacity, and you may end up leaving hundreds, or even thousands, of dollars on the table.

Missed opportunities like the one above are exactly why it’s critical that organizations take the time to examine their donor pool. With a few donor data insights, however, you can sift through your database and segment contacts based on their giving potential and more.

In other words, prospect research is the key to allocating resources in a way that generates the largest return on investment for your cause.

65%

The percentage of Fortune 500 companies that offer matching gift programs

3% - 65%

Typical matching gift participation rates, depending on specific marketing efforts

51%

The average increase in donation amount an organization sees when it mentions matching gifts in its donation appeals

20%

The average percentage of an individual’s total wealth that is representative of their real estate holdings

The likelihood that donors who have contributed $5,000 – $10,000 to charity are to make a donation compared to the average person

32x

The likelihood that donors who have made a $100k+ donation are to give compared to the average person

Sources: Double the Donation’s Workplace Giving Research, The Big-Give Research Initiative

Matching Gifts & Prospect Research FAQ

What’s the difference between wealth screening and prospect research?

While often used interchangeably, prospect research and wealth screening serve distinct roles in nonprofit fundraising. Here are the key differences to keep in mind as you build out your organization’s approach.

Wealth Screening (Capacity): A specialized type of donor research focused strictly on assessing an individual’s financial ability to make a major gift. It analyzes publicly available wealth indicators, such as real estate holdings, stock ownership, business affiliations, and political contributions.
Prospect Research (Capacity + Affinity): A more thorough type of evaluation process that gathers broader donor data to determine both an individual’s financial ability and their personal inclination to support your cause. It looks beyond financial assets to analyze personal interests, giving history, board service, and network connections.

In short, wealth screening reveals how much a prospect can give, while prospect research determines how likely they are to give to your specific organization.

What are the benefits of prospect research and matching gifts?

Prospect research offers significant benefits for nonprofits by turning raw supporter data into targeted, high-return fundraising strategies.

Tailored Donation Appeals: Customizes messaging based on a supporter’s interests, giving history, financial capacity, and employer details. Personalized appeals increase donor engagement and boost the likelihood of securing a contribution.
Uncovered High-Potential Prospects: Analyzes public giving data to discover new, unaffiliated donors who have a proven affinity for similar causes and the capacity to make significant gifts.
Informed Donor Strategies: Examines historical giving patterns, gift frequency, and workplace giving eligibility to segment supporters and predict future donor behavior accurately.
Prioritized Outreach for Maximum ROI: Identifies high-capacity supporters so fundraising staff can focus their limited time and resources on cultivating major gift relationships, leading to a higher return on investment.

How does employment data serve as the missing link?

While prospect research provides a holistic view of a donor and wealth screening indicates financial capacity, there’s often a disconnect between identifying a wealthy donor and securing a matching gift.

The solution? Employment information.

Donor employer data is the only reliable way to connect prospecting and screening efforts to workplace giving opportunities. You can know a donor’s real estate value, stock portfolio, and political giving history, but without knowing where they work, you cannot determine their matching gift (or broader corporate giving) eligibility.

Therefore, employment data acts as the bridge between “capacity” and “opportunity.” Wealth screening tells you an individual has the means to give $10,000, and employment data tells you they work for a company that would match the full amount.

Which organizations should be conducting prospect research?

Just about any fundraising organization can use prospect research as a way to boost the results of their revenue generation strategies. Enlisting this tool can go a long way in empowering these nonprofits (and more!) to become increasingly efficient and focused in their donor engagement and outreach efforts:

Higher education institutions
K-12 schools
Greek organizations
Healthcare and medical researchers

Arts and cultural organizations
Environmental groups
Faith-based organizations
Youth and community organizations

What are some of the most common prospect research use cases?

Matching Gifts:

Corporate matching gift programs can multiply donors’ contributions, but millions of dollars go unclaimed due to a lack of awareness. Prospect research uncovers employer details and identifies match-eligible donors to automate targeted follow-up.

Major Gift & Capital Campaigns:

Uncover hidden prospects by tracking giving patterns, board service, and wealth capacity for your largest fundraising initiatives. Analyze donors’ engagement to build tailored solicitation strategies for major contributions (including during a capital campaign’s quiet phase!).

Annual Fund Growth:

Annual giving provides predictable, unrestricted operational funding. To boost these efforts, development teams leverage prospect research to find new supporters with a history of giving to similar causes, allowing organizations to easily expand their reach.

Planned and Legacy Giving:

Prospect screening strategies can pinpoint top candidates for bequests, trusts, and other deferred gifts. By evaluating individuals’ long-term affinity, consistent giving history, and overall wealth level estimations, teams can easily optimize their planned giving plans.

Check out these sample supporter profiles to get a feel for the kind of information you should be collecting:

How Prospect Research & Matching Gifts Work Together

Prospect research and matching gifts go hand in hand for effective nonprofit fundraising. While prospect research unveils a world of new prospects, matching gifts allow organizations to maximize those generous gifts.

A key component of a well-rounded prospect research strategy is centered on potential donors’ corporate or business affiliations. This includes employment data, such as where prospective donors and their spouses work⁠, or from which they are retired.

With tens of thousands of businesses (including more than 65% of Fortune 500 companies⁠) currently offering employee matching gift programs, there’s a huge potential to turn gifts of any size into larger, more impactful donations.

Here’s an example: Imagine a prospective donor works for General Electric, which matches employee donations up to $50,000. If the individual has the potential to contribute a sizable gift, which can then be doubled by their employer, they might shoot to the top of your priority list!

From there, you can take a tailored approach to informing the individual about their workplace giving potential throughout the engagement, cultivation, and solicitation processes.

Even many of your smallest-dollar donations can be stretched twice as far (or more) for your organization’s cause, with matching gifts bumping tons of contributions into the next giving tier. Meanwhile, major gifts become even more impactful when a single donation can count twice, thanks to corporate matching.

When you introduce matching gifts into your prospect research efforts (or prospect research into your matching gift efforts!), the results can be very rewarding. Take a look at the following benefits!

A matching gift search tool can help you identify corporate and individual prospects from a list of people who have already made matching gifts to your nonprofit.
Matching gifts can encourage prospects to reach for new levels of giving with your organization through the comfort of their place of work.
Prospect research and matching gifts can assist your nonprofit in growing your corporate engagement efforts on the whole.
Focusing on donors with matching gift potential makes the value of that donor’s potential gift twice as high.

Data Points to Inform Prospect Research & Matching Gifts

Philanthropic Indicators

Philanthropic indicators represent an individual’s willingness to give to your organization. These include:

Wealth Indicators

Wealth indicators represent an individual’s ability to give to your organization. These include:

Previous Nonprofit Donations
Past giving is the best indicator of future giving because it means the supporter is interested in your cause and has already made a contribution. Prospect research helps uncover these previous donations so your organization can leverage that data and reach back out.
Other Nonprofit Donations
If your donors are philanthropically minded, they probably aren’t only giving to your nonprofit. Let prospect research unveil past giving to organizations with causes that are similar to yours.
Nonprofit Involvement
Giving isn’t the only indicator that an individual is philanthropically minded. With prospect research, you can identify other types of nonprofit involvement, such as advocacy work, volunteerism, and board membership.
Personal Information
While knowing the basics, such as a donor’s preferred name, gender, and marital status, can help when you send out donation appeals, prospect research can also help you learn more about the hobbies and interests of your prospects. Much of this information can be collected online or through data appending services and can help you identify ideal prospects.

Real Estate Ownership
The quality and quantity of real estate someone owns is always a top wealth indicator your fundraising team should be aware of. Individuals with notable real estate are proven to have large giving capacities that you can capitalize on in your nonprofit’s fundraising initiatives.
Business Affiliations
Prospect research can help you detect and leverage existing business connections among your donors. This research includes details about a donor’s career and salary estimates, which can indicate wealth and ability to give. You may also discover information about a donor’s employer’s corporate giving program, which can provide insights into potential matching gift opportunities.
Stock Ownership
Knowing about a contributor’s stock ownership can give you even more insight into their wealth and capacity to donate to your organization.
Political Giving
Chances are that an individual who has made sizable donations to a political campaign also has the giving capacity to donate major gifts to your nonprofit. By using prospect research to target this group, you can focus on winning over prospects with the potential to make generous contributions.

Navigating the Complete Prospect Research Process

The nonprofit makes a plan.
The nonprofit determines exactly how it will approach the research process by establishing goals, deciding on a screening method, and building an intended timeline.
The nonprofit cleans its data.
The nonprofit ensures its donor data is clean and tidy prior to performing prospect research. Look for duplicate entries, outdated information, and lapsed donors!
The nonprofit conducts the screening and validates the results.
The organization conducts a screening of donor information using a combination of publicly available and privately held data sources. Once the fundraising team has its results, it should check for issues like common names, inaccurate real estate records, or outdated employment information.
The nonprofit analyzes the results.
The organization analyzes the results to identify individuals who are most likely to contribute significant amounts. Then, it makes a plan for developing or deepening those relationships.
The nonprofit solicits donors.
The organization should use the information uncovered by prospect research to craft their donation asks. Asks should be tailored according to ask size, communication channels, matching gift eligibility, and more.
The donor makes their contribution.
The donor supports the organization by contributing an online gift, direct mail donation, legacy gift, gifts of securities, and more.
The nonprofit encourages the donor to submit a match.
The nonprofit sends a reminder regarding the individual’s eligibility for a match along with helpful information and online form links to guide the donor through the request process. This step can be simplified by using a matching gift database tool like Double the Donation!
The donor completes the matching gift request process.
The donor completes the matching gift request process and secures a donation match from their employer on the nonprofit’s behalf.

While most companies require employees to complete a simple online form, others are even enabling Double the Donation’s auto-submission functionality to further streamline the experience for supporters!

Top Prospect Research and Matching Gift Tools

There are a few ways to complete prospect research, depending on the tools and resources at your team’s disposal. Some organizations might choose to conduct in-house research, while others will engage a third-party screening company. Others still may opt to utilize dedicated software.

Keep in mind that there’s not necessarily a right or wrong answer here; it’s all about finding the right combination for your assets and capabilities, and choosing a solution that helps you track, sort, and evaluate your records effectively.

Let’s explore a few recommended picks:

#1: Double the Donation’s Prospect Research + Workplace Giving Tools

Double the Donation’s innovative fundraising tools are designed to help nonprofits and schools capture missing workplace giving revenue.

While prospect screening tools simply locate donor insights, Double the Donation activates them, turning raw data into revenue.

Here’s how our solution activates your employment information:

Automated Identification: Capture employer details during the donation process to screen supporters instantly for matching gifts and broader workplace giving eligibility.
Seamless Integrations: Connects directly to organizations’ donation forms and CRMs to trigger automated follow-up outreach that drives matches to completion.
Employer Enrichment: Matches supporter records against comprehensive external resources to fill in missing employer details across nonprofit database systems.

Learn more about our Workplace Giving Insights

Prospect research and matching gifts - how employer data can help

#2: NPOInfo’s Prospect Research Tools

A screenshot of NPOInfo’s services page, which lists various appends for boosting your fundraising results.

Like Double the Donation, NPOInfo aims to help organizations bridge the gap between donor data and matching gift revenue by specializing in employer appends. By adding current employer details to your existing donor records, your organization can build the specific data foundation needed to identify and target match-eligible prospects in your fundraising.

NPOInfo works with a variety of organizations, including nonprofits, associations, educational institutions, and healthcare organizations. This makes it a leading choice for securing this most critical data point (employment information) regardless of your mission, structure, or size.

Explore NPOInfo

#3: DonorSearch’s Prospect Research Tools

DonorSearch is a top tool for prospect research and matching gifts.

DonorSearch blends philanthropic and wealth metrics to help your organization make informed decisions about prospects and plan effective outreach. Interested organizations can choose from a few tools:

The complete charitable giving database. DonorSearch’s charitable giving database is comprehensive and constantly growing, housing tons of useful philanthropic and wealth data.
DSGiving search tool. DSGiving is a free, limited prospect research tool that offers no-cost access to a smaller-scale version of DonorSearch’s philanthropic and political contributions data.

Dive Into DonorSearch

Wrapping Up & Further Reading

Prospect research is an essential tool for any organization seeking major gifts, organizing a capital campaign, implementing an annual fund, or otherwise aiming to maximize support for its mission. When prospect research efforts uncover matching gift opportunities, even better!

Just remember: to fully harness the power of these strategies, equipping your team with suitable tools and resources is essential. Investing in a robust prospect research solution—and integrating your matching gift platform—allows you to streamline processes, unleash hidden opportunities, and ultimately propel your fundraising efforts to new heights.