Prospect Research Inquiry

Shelley Bell

Greetings All!


Our organization is looking into any/all options regarding prospect research and I would love to get opinions from this group as to what works well with our current RE/NXT software? I had some basic experience using ResearchPoint at my former position, but was wondering if that was still a viable option based on our needs. I'm interested in hearing what other folks are currently using or other online resources that you have found to be helpful. Basically, what is the best bang for our buck... :-)


Here is some basic information

• What we already have and do:
  • Clean database
  • Good record-keeping for giving, appeals, staff interactions, events, volunteering, etc.
  • 2x/yr affinity scoring by professional Prospect Researcher
  • NXT Wealth scoring
  • Continual re-sorting of our own data using all the above points to find potential candidates for gift officer portfolios (“staffing”)
• What we need:
  • Additional, tangible, reliable, outside-our-database research that could identify Family Foundations, Trusts, individuals’ giving to other organizations and interests, etc. connected to our own constituents
  • A way to simply, easily funnel that information back to us
  • Time-saving recommendations for what constituents should be moving off/onto staff portfolios

Thanks in advance for your help. Looking forward to your responses.

Patti Hommes

It depends on your budget, but I have used iWave in 3 different organizations and I love it! They have recently upgraded to a more user friendly webview, and have just added a robust advanced Foundation and Company screening process. I would check them out.

Judy Spigarelli

At my old org, we found iWave to be cost effective. You do lose the integration of ResearchPoint, unless something has changed. I feel each service offers very different information, so see what works best for you.

Deb Dressely

I've worked with both iWave and DonorSearch and love them both. I know DonorSearch syncs with NXT and I believe iWave has a plug-in available. Ask for a demo of each and compare. They will do a test screen of a small number of records.

Irene Hui

Hi Patti! I was looking for info regarding iWave and came across your reply to Shelley. ? We are looking into iWave to supplement what we currently have. I was wondering if you have found it to be cost effective and what you think about their foundation and company screening. We just saw a demo last week. Thanks!

Hi Shelley! I would be curious to see what application you ended up with. ? Thanks!