Why This Distinction Matters

Major gifts are the backbone of nonprofit fundraising. But success depends on more than just asking the right person at the right time — it depends on how you prepare for that conversation.

Unfortunately, many fundraising teams confuse wealth screening with prospect research. The two are related, but not the same. And understanding the difference can be the key to unlocking transformational gifts.

What Wealth Screening Really Is

Wealth screening tools give you a snapshot of a donor’s capacity. They scour public records and static databases to estimate net worth and philanthropic capacity.

That means things like:

• Real estate ownership
• Stock holdings
• Business interests
• Past giving to charities

This is useful data — but it’s also limited. Wealth screening can tell you what a donor could give, but it rarely tells you why they would give.

Even more problematic: this data is often outdated or incomplete. A static snapshot may have been accurate two years ago, but life circumstances, passions, and priorities change.

Prospect Research = Wealth Screening + Context

Prospect research is far more comprehensive. Yes, it uses wealth screening as one input. But it goes much deeper, layering in the context that actually makes conversations meaningful.

A strong prospect research profile often includes:

• Work history and career trajectory
• Philanthropic activity and past giving history
• Board memberships and professional networks
• News mentions and recent life events
• Personal interests and affinities tied to your cause
• Conversation starters so you don’t walk in cold
• Even a photo or face to put to the name

This is what turns fundraising from transactional to relational. Instead of going into a meeting talking about property records, you go in ready to connect on passions, shared causes, and meaningful touchpoints.

The Big Problem: Time

Every fundraiser knows how powerful this kind of research is. The problem is it takes time.

Building a comprehensive research profile the old way can take hours — sometimes half a day. That means fundraisers often reserve it for only the very top handful of prospects, while hundreds of other names in their database go overlooked.

As one fundraising leader put it:

"It can take from 1 to 4 hours of work for a well researched report to share with our executive team"

In other words: fundraisers want to do research right, but they’ve been forced to make tradeoffs because of time.

The New Era: Every Donor Gets the Royal Treatment

This is where technology changes the game. AI-powered prospect research has made it possible to generate rich, real-time profiles in minutes — not hours.

That means every single prospect can now receive the “royal treatment” of a full research report, not just the top 20 people on your list.

The payoff for fundraisers is huge:

• Speed to insight: Research time collapses from hours to minutes.
• More relevant conversations: Profiles surface affinities, interests, and conversation starters tied directly to your mission.
• Hidden donor gold uncovered: You’ll discover high-potential supporters already in your database who wealth scans alone would miss.
• Confidence in every meeting: No more scrambling with incomplete data — every fundraiser walks in prepared.

As Katy Clarke, Development Manager at Casey House explains:

“ProspectAI has turned tasks that once would have taken hours, into just minutes!”

Why This Matters for Major Gift Success

At the end of the day, major gift fundraising is about relationships. Wealth screening gives you numbers. Prospect research gives you people.

When you understand both capacity and context, you can:

• Prioritize the right donors
• Build authentic, mission-aligned conversations
• Save time while deepening relationships
• Raise more money, faster

And thanks to new AI-powered tools, comprehensive prospect research is no longer reserved for the lucky few at the top of your list. It’s now possible for every prospect, at every stage.

The Future of Prospect Research

Wealth screening has its place. But by itself, it’s like looking at a balance sheet without understanding the story behind it. Prospect research brings that story to life — and in the AI era, it’s scalable like never before.

That’s why we built ProspectAI: to give every fundraiser the power to move from stale, static data to live, contextual intelligence — in minutes.

Because when every donor gets the royal treatment, every fundraiser has a chance at major gift success.

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