6 Reasons Why Your NonProfit Should NOT Implement Wealth Screenings

Do you remember the first time you learned about wealth screenings? You remember the excitement you had when you saw all the tools that could help you identify who your big donors were? Did you get the “kid in the candy store” look when you thought about the potential donors that could put your organization on sound financial footing?

It’s ok to admit it, we all started out naive.
We were all convinced that wealth screening would make fundraising much, much easier.

It didn’t take long for that feeling to dissipate. For many of us, wealth screenings become an afterthought. It got shoved in the corner and anytime someone mentioned doing a wealth screening a mixture of disappointment and resentment welled up inside. So what went wrong?

What is a wealth screening?

For those who have never been to the candy store, Wealth screening is a tool that nonprofits can use to help determine donors’ capacities to give. Wealth screening looks at contact records in your database and searches publicly available data to find top indicators of wealth, like real estate ownership, business affiliations, and stock holdings in public companies.

Why Wealth Screenings Don’t Work

A 2017 Study shared that only 56% of nonprofit organizations have used wealth screenings. Clearly, if this tool was a game-changer that number would be 80% or more. So why are nonprofits not using wealth screenings?

Here are the five main reasons why wealth screenings don’t work for some nonprofits.

1. No Plan

Wealth screenings are not successful in a vacuum. They only work as part of a larger donor management plan. If there is no plan or process in place your staff will have no idea how to act on the data provided. It is crucial to develop a donor communication plan as well as to set up a moves management system before you implement a wealth screening.

2. No Responsibility

Often people get excited about wealth screening and elect to implement it without a “champion.” With no one to shepherd the process along, the project is doomed to failure. When deciding if you should invest in a wealth screening tool you need to make sure you include the cost of managing the tool and implementing a plan with the data collected. If you don’t, disillusionment comes swiftly!

3. No Integration

The one thing that is worse than having no data is having too much data spread out all over the place. The data pulled from a wealth screening needs to be incorporated into your CRM. Ideally, this should be done dynamically with a direct integration. If that is not possible your CRM should allow data to uploaded in bulk and connected to a record via a contact ID. This makes it much easier to run reports with the screening data included and gives you a better understanding of the data and how it relates to other data collected about a contact.

4. Data Overload

Wealth screenings provide you with columns and columns of data about each contact. If you are not sure what data is important and what is frivolous, you will be overwhelmed quickly. You probably don’t need to know if they own three boats and two planes (unless you travel often and want a private flight!).

What you will need to know is their giving capacity and if they give often. You may also want some other data like political giving and past giving history as well. To ensure you don’t get overwhelmed:
a. choose 4-5 data points that you feel are the most important.
b. Take the time to read the guidance provided by the wealth screening tool. The more you understand how their system works the less overwhelmed you will feel.

5. Bad Data

How many times do you come back from the store and realized you bought the wrong part and it has no value to you other than as a paperweight? Unfortunately, wealth screening tools will never have a backup role. If your CRM does not have addresses then the wealth screening tool will not be effective at all. The more personal information you have, full names, spouse names, addresses, gender, and age the better the odds are that you will find a match.

6. Unrealistic Expectations

Although wealth screenings can be immensely beneficial, it does have its limits. remember that these tools can only access publicly available information. Often times data found on people will be incomplete and the giving capacity will not be accurate. For these reasons using wealth screenings and expecting 100% accurate results is unrealistic and leads to unrealistic expectations.

How wealth screenings can be used effectively

I just finished explaining in detail how nonprofits are disappointed by their wealth screening results. So why are 56% of nonprofits using wealth screening tools? Obviously its because they are doing it right. If you avoid the pitfalls mentioned above wealth screenings can be very effective. Here are five ways how.

1. Screen Unknowns

You undoubtedly have contacts in your database who you don’t know, your staff doesn’t know, and they don’t seem to be involved in your organization. Often times you have contacts in your CRM from a public event, walk/run, benefit concert etc. Screen any unknowns for their giving capacity and you are sure to find a prospect or two or three.

2. Constituent Analysis

Running a screening on your entire CRM (or at least people who have contributed to your organization) will give you a better understanding of who your donors are and their general interests are. This will help you plan donor programs based on the trends you find in your screenings.

3. Meeting Preparation

Wealth Screenings can be very helpful if you have a meeting set up with a potential donor who you don’t know very well. Aside from giving capacity, you pickup other tidbits of information that can help you develop a stronger relationship.

4. Interests Evaluation

By seeing who they have donated to in the past you can learn what interests them. This will help you target people that give to causes similar to your own organization’s mission.

5. Political Leanings

It goes without saying that you will want to steer your organization clear of any politics (there is already enough internal politics right?). However, knowing if your donor is has donated to certain politicians will help you decide if he is someone you should be reaching out to or stay far away from.

To wrap this all up, I hope I caught you before you dove off the wealth screening deep end. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of what needs to be done to implement a successful wealth screening program!