How to Identify Top Prospects

Mary Enloe
Mary Enloe
Fourth Anniversary Participant
in ResearchPoint™ General Discussions

Hello! I work at a small University in a small Advancement department. (I am responsible for all data in RE). I am new to Research Point and Target Analytics. I have been looking at KBs, webinars and several things on the community to gain a better understanding of how it all works.

I understand that I need to run a RP wealth screening on specific individuals or a group of individuals. Being a small shop, I don’t have much time to analyze who I should do screenings on and then work on “confirming” the data.

Does anyone have any tips or best practices on how to identify who I should run RP screenings on? For example, a report of the top prospects or a query to run to identify them?

Thanks!!!

Comments

  • Heather MacKenzie
    Heather MacKenzie
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 5 August 2025 Monthly Challenge Badge bbcon 2025 Attendee Badge

    Following! I'm in the same spot as you, Mary, and hope you and I can both get some great tips!

  • Carol Belair
    Carol Belair Blackbaud Employee
    Tenth Anniversary Kudos 2 Name Dropper Participant

    Mary, this is a great question. I believe you have NXT, so you have some embedded NXT ratings within Raiser's Edge. There is an on-demand session you can watch that will explain these ratings as a way to identify prospects that you may want to do a deeper dive on with publicly available prospect research information for a WealthPoint screening in your ResearchPoint software (either individual screening or batch record screening) entitled, "Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT: Basics of Ratings" that I believe will be helpful. You could focus on those with a Next Ask Amount of $1,001-$5,000,n $5,001-$10,000 and $10,001+, depending upon how many each yields. From this group you could focus on recent donors or those who have given larger amounts recently. All three of these Next Ask Amount ratings would correlate with a Donor Type of Major, so you could go this route too in your criteria. Also look to screen those with Overall Wealth Ratings of 3 or more stars, indicating identified public assets of $1M+ in the NXT view, or in the database view it would be those with Overall Wealth Ratings of A, B, C, or D, to get the same results. Via the integration with ResearchPoint, you can then import a query created in the database view of Raiser's Edge and screen the batch of prospects via research lists. The KB solutions entitled, “How to add a query from Raiser's Edge to screen in ResearchPoint” and “How to submit a record(s) for WealthPoint updates” will help provide information on how to do this.

    I hope this is helpful Mary!

  • Jennifer Vincent
    Jennifer Vincent
    Eighth Anniversary Kudos 3 Name Dropper Participant

    Depending on the size of your alumni base and the number of screenings you have, I would always use the batch screenings for alumni and incoming parents. Each year I would run the new incoming parents for traditional students through as a batch to see what kind of wealth and philanthropic potential they had. I also ran 2 class decades through each year, so that all alumni had a capacity rating from within the past 5 years. So, since this year ends in a 1, I would be running all class decades ending in a 2 or 7 (i.e, 1942, 1942, 1952, 1957, etc.) I had to purchase some extra screenings, but it was a really useful way to stay up-to-date on those with the greatest potential.

    • 2021 run class decades ending in: 2 & 7
    • 2022 run class decades ending in: 3 & 8
    • 2023 run class decades ending in: 4 & 9
    • 2024 run class decades ending in: 5 & 0
    • 2025 run class decades ending in: 1 & 6
  • Deborah Drucker
    Deborah Drucker
    Ninth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant

    I start with alumni who are already donating to the college and, per Carol's post, have also used the NXT ratings. I would encourage you to think about the demographics of your particular student/parent base as well. We don't screen parents because of our college's demographics - the vast majority of students come from low-incomee families, so it would not be worthwhile. The major donor prospects show up 20+ years after they graduate. You can do small test batches to see which indicators are the most fruitful for your particular college. I did a test batch on long-time alumni association members, and found that while a lot of them make great planned giving prospects, there is not a strong correlation with major giving.

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