Prospect Research software

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We're planning for capital campaign and our consultant has now recommended we look into obtaining some prospect research software.  We're checking on Target Analytics' ResearchPoint and WealthEngine. 



We are probably looking at researching only several hundred prospects.  Ideally it would be nice to have something that plays nice with RE.  We do not have the prospect module so don't know yet how they might even intergrate - just given the assignment today. 



Any other recommendations to look into or warnings on what to think twice about? 



Thank for any help you can provide.



 

Comments

  • Hi JoAnn,



    We currently live in ResearchPoint, and we are at the mid-level subscription, and it has been pretty much worth the effort and cost.  We are able to do group screens with it, and it syncs with RE nicely, once you set up the sync for everyone.  The sync has to be set up for everyone individually, and it broke for us when the upgrade to 7.94 happened, so had to be re-setup, and occasionally it's a bit cluncky otherwise.  Overall, it has been satisfactory for us, and given us what we need, though.  I have also looked at iWave, because I was curious about what else is out there.  I woud suggest you also take a look at that, although I don't remember if it can play in the sandbox with RE or not.  It seemed as powerful as RP.



    Hope this helps you!

    Heather
  • ResearchPoint and Wealth Engine are both fine.  Of course RP plays nicer with RE and I like how they have their info laid out better.  Even though we are a small shop, we decided that it would be better, for long term purposes, to go the extra step and add the prospect module. 

    As mentioned, if there are any "structural" changes to RE, you do have to sync the two up again, but it is not difficult.  In some ways, I think it's a safety mechanism.

    We did our homework on iWave, I would stay away from it.  It is not as robust as RP or WE, though they claim they are.  After digging down and asking them some key questions during the phone demo we knew they were lacking.  Though I must say their sales folks are persistent.
  • Regardless of which system you choose, having the Prospect module will be worth the investment if you are entering a campaign or have a major gift program.  
  • We are looking at several different prospect research products, one of which is ResearchPoint.  Very timely question and responses!  I too am interested in what others think and have experienced, with ResearchPoint as well as other products.
  • The Prospect module and WealthPoint have the potential to be fantastic, unfortunately as implemented they're both almost useless without creating custom reports (even for basic list generation).



    The one-to-many relationships for Proposals and Ratings are very poorly implemented in Query and Export.  There's no such thing as a Proposal or Rating Query or Export, so you have to go with Constituent level and Export everything then filter the output (the Constituent Export filter options for those fields don't align to any really useful data).  Do a quick search of the Idea Bank to get an idea of what you'll be up against.
  • John - I agree, we can have all the greatest wealth screening data but if we can't get the data out using export and query - how frustrating is that?  This area really needs to be looked at and improved.



    Blackbaud - hope you're listening in to this one!
  • Heather MacKenzie:

    Hi JoAnn,



    We currently live in ResearchPoint, and we are at the mid-level subscription, and it has been pretty much worth the effort and cost.  We are able to do group screens with it, and it syncs with RE nicely, once you set up the sync for everyone.  The sync has to be set up for everyone individually, and it broke for us when the upgrade to 7.94 happened, so had to be re-setup, and occasionally it's a bit cluncky otherwise.  Overall, it has been satisfactory for us, and given us what we need, though.  I have also looked at iWave, because I was curious about what else is out there.  I woud suggest you also take a look at that, although I don't remember if it can play in the sandbox with RE or not.  It seemed as powerful as RP.



    Hope this helps you!

    Heather

    Heather - by set up by everyone individually do you mean set up on your local PC/workstation (if you are not hosted I mean) or does the sync just need to be on the server that contains RE.  We are having all kinds of trouble getting the sync to work.  I can use ResearchPoint individually - doing a search - but it is not connected to RE currently  :(

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