What a Wealth Screening Can Tell You About Your Donors
Somewhere in your donor database are people ready to give far more than they do now. The problem is knowing who they are. A wealth screening is one of the most useful tools for answering that question, and it's often misunderstood. Here's what it actually does, and what it can and can't tell you.
What a Wealth Screening Is
A wealth screening runs your list of donors and prospects against external data sources to estimate each person's financial capacity and their likelihood of giving. It pulls from signals like real estate holdings, business affiliations, past charitable giving, and other public indicators, then flags the people most likely to have both the means and the inclination to make a larger gift.
What it can tell you: Three things, mainly. First, capacity: a realistic estimate of how much someone could give if they chose to. Second, propensity: signals that someone is charitably inclined, like a history of giving to other organizations. Third, and most useful, priority: where to focus. Instead of treating every name equally, you learn which relationships are worth the most attention right now.
What it can't tell you: This is the part that matters, because wealth screening is often oversold. It cannot tell you whether someone will give to you, only that they could. It doesn't measure affinity for your specific mission, the relationship you've built, or a donor's personal circumstances. A high-capacity name with no connection to your work is not a prospect, it's a stranger with money.
Note: The screening is a starting point for a conversation, not a substitute for one.
How to Use It
The screening produces a list. The value comes from what you do next. Use it to prioritize which major-gift relationships to invest in, to spot quiet donors who've been giving modestly but have far more capacity, and to prepare for donor conversations with better context. Then do the human work: cultivate the relationship, connect the person to your mission, and make the ask when the time is right.
A wealth screening won't fundraise for you, but it will tell you where to point your limited time and energy, which for most organizations is exactly the thing that's missing. Used well, it turns a long, undifferentiated donor list into a clear set of priorities.
Curious what a wealth screening might reveal about your donors? It's one of the services we provide, and we're happy to walk you through how it works. Reach out for a free 30-minute conversation at hello@accessphilanthropy.com or complete the form.
