integrating wealth data€¦ · introduction ... tions and education institutions with this guide...

August 2011

Integrating Wealth DataInto Your Donor Management System for Better Fundraising Results

September 2011

A WealthEngine and Heller Consulting White Paper

2 | A WealthEngine and Heller Consulting White Paper

Acknowledgements

special thanks to those clients that have participated in the case studies in this report:

House of RuthJoyce grand, director of operations

stevenson UniversityRob turner, director of Advancement services

Healthcare charitiesmarianne grifasi-miller, senior Information systems technologist

© 2011 wealthengine, Inc.™, Heller consulting and/or their respective affiliates. All Rights Reserved.

Reproduction and distribution of this publication in any form without prior written permission is forbidden. the information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. this document is informational in nature and we do not guarantee any of the information either expressed or implied. Readers are encouraged to consult with their appropriate legal, accounting and profes-sional counsel before implementing any suggested actions. wealthengine and Heller consulting have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in the information contained herein or for interpretations thereof and shall not be held liable for any claims or losses that may rise from the implementation of the best practices in this report.

A WealthEngine and Heller Consulting White Paper | 3

contents

Integrating wealth data Into Your donor management system for Better Fundraising Results ............. 4

Introduction .................................................................................................................................................................................................. 5

Using wealth data for Better Fundraising Results .......................................................................................................................... 6

Integrating wealth data: what You need to know ......................................................................................................................10

conclusion ...................................................................................................................................................................................................19

case studies ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 20

Healthcare charities .................................................................................................................................................................................21

House of Ruth .............................................................................................................................................................................................24

stevenson University ...............................................................................................................................................................................27

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 30

determine Your Approach .....................................................................................................................................................................31

create a tactical Plan ...............................................................................................................................................................................31

set Up and test ..........................................................................................................................................................................................32

go live ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................34

wealthengine, Inc.™ is a leading provider of sophisticated prospect research and analytic solutions to nonprofit organizations, hospitals, institutions of higher education, financial services and luxury goods firms. Heller consulting helps nonprofits streamline their operations and maximize their use of software for fundraising and mission management. together, they have teamed up to provide nonprofit organiza-tions and education institutions with this guide to integrating wealth data into donor management systems for better fundraising results.


IntegRAtIng weAltH dAtAInto Your donor management system for Better Fundraising Results

Introduction ................................................................................................. 5

Using wealth data for Better Fundraising Results .......................... 6

what You need to know ........................................................................10

conclusion ..................................................................................................19


IntroductionUnderstanding your donors better and identifying new pros-pects helps you to build a strong, long-term fundraising program. Integrating wealth data into your donor management system (dms) or constituent relationship management (cRm) system arms your organization with additional information and insight into your donors and prospects. this added insight gives you the ability to:

» see a complete view of your donors or constituents

» Build more effective segmentation and cultivation strategies

» Assign and track development tasks

» leverage your investment by sharing wealth data across your organization

» Increase the visibility of the research function within your organization

» create a data-rich environment for data mining and predictive modeling projects

this paper reviews the benefits of integrating wealth data into your dms or cRm and presents key factors to consider when planning and executing a dms or cRm integration, including the level and complexity of integration, the need to validate data, and the timeframe and steps for planning and implementing the integration. It is designed as a basic guide for organizations looking to integrate wealth and giving data into their dms or cRm to help drive better fundraising results.

note that for the purposes of this paper, the terms donor management system (dms) and constituent relationship man-agement (cRm) are used interchangeably. while these two types of applications may differ in the nuances in which they are structured and used, they accomplish the common objective of using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes related to finding, attracting, and winning new constituents — whether those constituents are donors, volunteers, members, or other types of supporters. these systems also are used across organizations to manage efforts to nurture and retain individuals that the organization already has relationships with, entice former constituents back into the fold, and streamline the overall marketing, sales, business develop-ment and client service process.

Integrating wealth data into your DMS or CRM arms your organization with the additional information you need to gain more insight into your donors and prospects.


Using wealth data for Better Fundraising ResultsIt just makes sense: the more you know about your constituents’ capacity and propensity to give, the better armed you’ll be to target the right prospects with the right fundraising asks and get the best response. Integrating wealth screening and other prospect research data into a single, centralized location — preferably your donor management system (dms) or your constituent relationship management (cRm) system — helps you better understand your donors and identify new prospects. And that ultimately helps you improve your fundraising results.

consider these 5 benefits of integrating wealth data:

1. Get a 360 Degree View of Your Constituents

Integrating your wealth data and screening results into your dms or cRm allows various departments within your organization to have a more complete view of each constituent. Information commonly found in your system such as contact details, event attendance, campaign involvement, giving history, and other interactions with your organization are stored in one place and can then be coupled with wealth, philanthropic and biographi-cal details for a comprehensive view of your constituents. For example, organizations involved in the arts, theatre and culture that conduct events or programs can track membership, atten-dance, ticketing and giving history within the same framework in which they track giving capacity, enabling the development team to better target and time their asks. likewise, healthcare organizations that run grateful patient programs are better able to coordinate and time their fundraising ask with the patient’s visit or interaction with the hospital.

“ The Convio Common Ground™ and WealthEngine integration provides us with the capa-bility to perform real-time lookups from Common Ground into the WealthEngine database. This allows our Major and Planned Giving Officers to be even more prepared prior to any interaction with our prospects, and it saves us a tremendous amount of time and resources when it comes to data prospecting, enabling us to easily identify which prospects are worth pursuing based on a clearly defined giving capacity and propensity-to-give score.”

- Jamie l. klobuchar, Vice President, Individual, major and Planned giving, Juvenile diabetes Research Foundation International

Integrating prospect research and screening data with your DMS/CRM allows you to:

Update profiles immediately before meeting with key staff and/or constituents

determine if an ask amount should increase/decrease due to changes in prospect wealth

make an educated decision (based on real data) before making an ask

easily identify which prospects to pursue and automate your marketing and donor outreach activities accordingly

save time and streamline workflow by syncing prospect research with constituent data


2. Build Effective Segmentation and Cultivation Strategies

Integrating wealth screening results into your dms or cRm enables you to get the most out of your mined data from screening. You can conduct side-by-side comparisons of donors, prospects, and other constituents to ensure that you’re effec-tively managing the best prospects through the fundraising cycle. Additionally, you can identify individuals that may be assigned to a fundraiser, but have little capacity to give, and those that are unassigned and have significant capacity. By seeing the full range of constituent data in one single report, your develop-ment team can better segment and prioritize donors and assign them to the right giving programs and development officers for cultivation. this data can include, among others:

» gift history – recency, frequency, monetary (RFm) value

» gift capacity

» Inclination to give

» community influence

» Propensity to give (P2gtm) score

» modeling, analytics and other ratings

some organizations have gone a step further by using integrated data to automate marketing and donor outreach. You can sort donors and prospects by their giving score and automatically implement cultivation tactics accordingly. For example, those donors with a score of 1 or 2 get a personal phone call, those with a 3 get an email, and all others get direct mail.

“ With all of the information in one place, our gift officers can quickly understand the donor or prospect and determine how to best approach that individual.”

- marianne grifasi-miller, senior Information systems technologist, Healthcare charities

3. Systematically Assign and Track Development Tasks

Having wealth, asset, and donor activity information in one system enhances your ability to ensure the correct prospects are cultivated efficiently. It also allows you to quickly identify new prospects that should be moved along the pipeline or targeted for an increased donation amount. Your fundraising staff and development officers can easily spot major donor prospects among their pool of annual donors, and choose who to call on immediately following their gift.


Plus, tracking this data within your dms or cRm allows your development team to easily identify fluctuations, growth and/or reduction of a constituent’s wealth profile — your team can identify changes within constituents’ real estate, securities hold-ings and other hard asset data points captured during prospect research and screening. this allows the team to determine if a proposal’s ask amount should increase or decrease due to changes in a prospect’s wealth.

“ Now our major gift officers won’t have to waste any time or money. With wealth data accessible from directly within DonorPerfect™, they can focus all of their time directly on those most likely to donate a major gift.”

- Joyce grand, director of operations, House of Ruth

4. Share Wealth Screening Results

whether you’re using a client-server or web-based cRm/dms, your system is a centralized tool for managing activities by all of your organization’s constituent-facing departments. with donor and/or prospect wealth data and screening results integrated into your system, information is easily shared across your orga-nization. even within your development team, communication and collaboration becomes more efficient. every prospect researcher and development officer has access to screening data and can instantly view a prospect’s hard asset data including their analytics scores. Instant access to data changes means that your development officers can quickly update a constituent’s profile before meeting with him or her. By evaluating these types of metrics, your development team can more easily identify which prospects are most likely to donate and which are bogged down in the development process and need further stewardship.

“ The fact is, you have to screen and bring the data back into your DMS so everyone can see the data, make comments and remarks about an individual. Having it all centrally located increases efficiency within your organization. There’s no need to spend time updating records because the data is cleaner, transparent and readily accessible for everyone in our advancement office to view. The integration between WealthEngine and Datatel® makes all of our lives easier.”

- Rob turner, director of Advancement service, stevenson University


5. Elevate the Research Function

making wealth and other research data a part of the overall fundraising environment raises the profile of your organiza-tion’s research function within the development team and the broader organization. Your research team is able to deliver greater visibility into the prospect research process. they have greater insight to help your organization make educated deci-sions based on real data, and they can use wealth, philanthropic, and biographical data and analytics to help validate the data your organization already has, such as a donor’s giving history. If your organization does not have a prospect research function, incorporating wealth data into your fundraising environment will help fill the gap.

“ Using WealthEngine data within The Raiser’s Edge® platform has allowed us to step up our fundraising, and has raised the profile of Healthcare Charities among our affiliate hospitals and organizations. Our affiliates’ fundraising teams can get a complete view of our donors and follow up in a more timely fashion so no opportunity is ever missed.”

- marianne grifasi-miller, senior Information systems technologist, Healthcare charities

who Benefits from data & dms Integration?Prospect Researchers streamline the research process and provide actionable results to the development team

development officers Quickly understand the prospect’s profile and gift capacity, prepare for meetings and trips, and rank your top prospects with the addition of wealth data

leadership Use combined wealth/gift history profiles to brief leadership on your best prospects to maximize every special event or networking opportunity

marketing teams Use ratings and scores to segment/target solicitations and automate donor outreach efforts

It team Better organize the prospect research and database functions and streamline data management

organization as a whole Be more effective and efficient in fundraising and marketing activities, so you can focus more resources on meeting your organization’s mission


Integrating wealth data: what You need to know over the years, we’ve seen many reasons that organizations cite for not integrating wealth data or screening results into a dms or cRm. By far, the most common are:

» Uncertainty as to how to validate the data prior to importing

» Resource constraints on performing the integration

» Fear that the data will be misunderstood or incorrectly interpreted

» confusion regarding the process for importing and integrating the data

» misunderstanding of cost and scalability

In reality, this type of project can be successful and relatively painless. this section includes the considerations and steps you will need to take for a successful integration.

Project scope

the scope of a wealth data integration project depends on your organization’s planned use for prospect research and screening. the first thing you need to consider as you begin such a project is your team’s processes and needs. Based on your team’s needs, you’ll have to decide between two types of data integration:

Mass ImportFully integrating the wealth screening data into your dms or cRm

Individual Recordlinking out to a separate application that houses wealth data for ongoing, record-by-record research

Key Factors to Consider When Planning a DMS/CRM Integration:

level and complexity of integration required

type of dms or cRm that your organization uses

data validation

timeframe, staffing and steps for executing a dms/cRm integration


Building the Plan

once you’ve made this initial decision, your development and It teams should work together to determine the plan, responsi-bilities and timeframe for executing the integration. they must communicate and coordinate among themselves and with the solution provider to ensure a smooth integration. Here are four considerations for developing your dms/cRm integration plan:

1. Level and Complexity of Integration

there are two basic types of integration: mass import and individual record. the method you use, and when you use it, depends on what type of fundraising activities you’re trying to support and where you are in the cycle of a particular strategy.

Mass Import

» Records are exported and screened against the vendor’s data, and then imported back into the dms or cRm using a variety of file types, including microsoft excel® (.xls), comma- separated value (.csv), and text (.txt).

» wealth-related fields are incorporated into contact or donor records for quick access to the most pertinent prospecting statistics and easy segmentation for broad communications.

» this method is usually managed by more technical staff on your team, with end users benefiting from the results. development should work with It to determine the optimal format for importing data and the require-ments for adding wealth-related fields to contact or donor records.

Individual Record

» A direct link is established between the dms or cRm and the data vendor’s information. when viewing an individual’s record and more information is needed (or information needs to be updated) you simply press a button and see up-to-date data.

» this method is most frequently used by giving officers soliciting individual prospects (such as major donors, planned giving, and capital campaigns) and by prospect researchers conducting deeper research.

» Although technical staffers are involved in implementing this capability, end users can easily update the information themselves.

Stevenson University

Following fundraising best practices, Stevenson University integrates the data gathered through screening directly into their Datatel Colleague® Advancement DMS. They use two types of integration that support different fundraising activities at various points in the fundraising cycle:

» Mass import of data from screen-ings they’ve conducted, and

» Individual record links to data using WealthEngine’s ProspectLinkTM API, known as WealthConnectTM.

Stevenson’s researchers use WealthEngine on a daily basis to look up individuals. Using WebConnectTM within Colleague Advancement, they connect to the individual’s complete wealth profile within WealthEngine’s FindWealth OnlineTM research tool, and results are then easily integrated back into Colleague Advancement.

“Having the ProspectLink API through Datatel and WealthEngine has made working with these two platforms easier and more user-friendly. With just the click of a button within Datatel, we’re able to view the WealthEngine Advanced Search results and bring a summary of the results back into Datatel,” says Rob Turner, Director of Advancement Services.


the complexity of implementing each of these methods depends on three primary factors:

Your DMS or CRM

specifically, how “open” is it to exchanging data? For a mass import, it will be easier if your dms has strong export and import features. Usually, exporting is easier than importing; older systems may have limited importing capabilities. As previously mentioned, one of your technical staff members likely will need to manage this process. For individual record integration, your dms or cRm will need to be able to directly “tie into” an external data source; the feature that enables this is called an API (Application Program Interface). this feature is more common in higher-caliber, contemporary dms or cRm systems. It’s rarer in older dms products and, when it is avail-able, can include an additional cost to activate and configure.

Your Data Vendor

Vendors vary in their ability to work with clients on a range of systems. some leave all of the work up to your organization while others have experience with a wide variety of dms and cRm systems and provide substantial support to new clients. As with your dms/cRm system, a vendor’s own database may be more or less open to smoothly providing information to you.

Your Staff

depending on the complexity or ease of your integration situation, you’ll need appropriate skills and knowledge on staff to manage the integration. If you have a contemporary, open dms or cRm system and work with an experienced, open vendor, the effort needed from your staff will be less. on the other hand, if your dms is older or “closed,” or your vendor’s support and system “openness” is likewise minimal, your staff will need to be more involved to make the integration successful.

House of Ruth

In preparing for the next stages of House of Ruth’s major gift and planned giving programs, the organi-zation had to consider a research approach that was both comprehen-sive and efficient. Using WealthEngine’s FindWealth Online data and screening solutions and integrating with their DonorPerfect donor management system via WealthConnect, the House of Ruth was able to enhance their entire database with demographic and financial information on their top donors and prospects.

The integration has enabled House of Ruth to achieve the following results:

» Narrowed universe of top prospects from 500 to 100 donors for major gift solicitations

» Enhanced donor data with extensive financial and personal information

» Combined the updated donor data with DonorPerfect’s Moves Management module to guide donor development plans

» Saw a return in screening and integration investment within one year

“Picking out potential planned gift donors can be a big challenge. With the added information from WealthEngine, such as age and income, targeting planned gift donors was made much easier,” explains Joyce Grand, Director of Operations.


2. Type of DMS/CRM Used

Fundamentally, there are four steps for wealth data integration:

» create a list of records for screening

» share those records with your data vendor

» Receive the results of the screening

» Import the results into your dms or cRm

Regardless of what type of system you have, the first step is similar. However, at the second step, things start to diverge:

» If your dms is “client-server” based and resides within your organization, you’ll need to send data to your vendor, or allow them to connect to the data through your organiza-tion’s firewall. Firewalls are, by their nature, restrictive; this makes connecting to external systems — for both sharing and receiving information — more complex. therefore, client-server dms or cRm systems can be harder to integrate with data sources outside your organization.

» If you’re using a web-based dms or cRm, it’s already out-side of your organization’s firewall, so the barriers to shar-ing information will be minimal. these systems are more contemporary — more than likely, they were developed with sharing and “openness” in mind. such openness has raised valid questions about data security and confidenti-ality, but many concerns have been satisfactorily resolved over time through experience and product refinement.

Your data vendor’s information likewise resides either in an Internet-accessible environment, or an exclusively client-server environment. the same issues will be valid here. If your data vendor doesn’t offer Internet connectivity to the data, any integration will have to go through their firewalls as well. If your data vendor offers Internet connectivity and the attendant security, sharing and integration will be more straight-forward.

create a list of records to screen

share list with data vendor

Receive results of screening

Import results into your dms/cRm

Key Steps in a Wealth Data Integration


Based on these considerations, the ideal scenario is if your dms or cRm is web-based and your data vendor has made their information accessible via the Internet. the second best scenario is if at least one of the systems is web-based. there are cases in which a sophisticated client-server dms or cRm system sharing information with a data vendor’s web-based data sources can be functionally equivalent to two web-based systems. It may require a bit more effort during the initial setup, but for some of the most common combinations, there are established precedents and best practices. the least desirable and most complex situation is if both your dms or cRm and your vendor’s data are behind firewalls in client/server systems.

there are several emerging and growing partnerships between prospect research/screening providers and dms/cRm pro-viders for both web-based and traditional software solutions. Because of this, your level of effort is minimized; the bulk of the integration work is performed by the vendor(s). Also, these pre-built integrations typically provide on-demand refreshing of constituent profiles, eliminating the need for you to export and import data.

Independent consultants or solution providers that specialize in implementing dms/cRm systems can ensure that the integra-tion process is smoother and there is less, if any, burden on your organization’s development office and It team.

DMS/CRM Integration Workflow


3. Data Validation

Validating every piece of data associated with a prospect can seem daunting. Ideally, you should develop a strategy to validate the minimum amount of data to yield the highest fund-raising results, thereby maximizing your return on investment. this starts with having clean inputs by confirming the accuracy of data already in your dms/cRm, such as contact information, checking for duplicate entries and standardizing gift tracking. with the assurance that the data is as clean as possible and staff has been well trained in interpreting results, you can be more confident in the quality of match with the wealth database.

consider these aspects of data validation:

Where does the wealth data originate?

Is the source regulatory or voluntary? How recent is the data? knowing the answers to these questions allows you to determine which data sources need to be further verified versus which can be accepted.

What is your validation strategy?

A validation strategy that prioritizes prospects for validation based on certain criteria, such as higher giving capacity, higher interest or affinity, makes the data validation process smoother.

What types of data will be reviewed and validated?

Understanding what types of data will be reviewed and validated (for example, stock, real estate, political or charitable contributions, or biographical data), helps ensure that the screening is accurate and the gift capacity ratings and estimates are on target.

How will you share the validation process?

since the integration can make prospects’ data visible or accessible to many members of your organization, it’s important to document and share the data validation process with anyone that has access to view or edit the data. this ensures there are no questions as to why a certain data point is or is not included.

Using analytic tools such as WealthEngine’s Quality of Match (QOMTM) allows organi-zations to quickly review their full database of records and prioritize those with specific QOM scores, which defines the reliability of the data and eliminates the need to validate each record individually.


4. Developing an Implementation Plan

As with any major initiative, having a well-thought-out plan is the key to success. Before you think about your plan, take a minute to consider what unsuccessful integrations look like so you’ll know what to avoid.

Avoiding an Unsuccessful Integration

the most basic definition of an unsuccessful integration is one in which fundraisers and their strategies don’t receive value from the data vendor’s information, and fundraising results and/or processes are not significantly impacted. In our experience, the most common reason for this is not related to the integration itself. It’s in the planning. the unsuccessful organization doesn’t take the time in advance to make a clear connection between their fundraising strategies and the prospect information they’re getting. In this case, the organization doesn’t recognize what they’ll need to do once they have the information to act upon it, so the new information sits in their dms unused while their fundraising efforts continue as they always have.

Ensuring a Successful Integration

now that you know what to avoid, consider what your plan should include. It should include the tasks along with the names of the person or team responsible for completing those tasks. As It resources are often scarce, it is important to include the It team in the implementation plan, soliciting their input early in the process.

once the integration is complete, ongoing prospect research and other cultivation information should be continually tracked in the dms/cRm, especially as new donors or prospects are added to the system. moreover, it is important that those who have access to the screening results data have some training and reference documentation available to help interpret the data.


the Plan

Appendix 1 provides a step-by-step guide for building a success-ful integration plan. key steps in the plan include:

» Determine Your Approach – depending on your fund-raising strategies and the activities you need to support, you should decide if you need a mass import or individual record integration. Your fundraising strategy and calendar will also drive decisions regarding timing. Also important is to assign the person or team who will be responsible for the implementation and make sure they have the skills, time and resources to be successful. If employing a team approach, you should have a person from development to represent the end-user’s needs, and a person who is technical that can support the more complex aspects of the integration. the latter may be your database adminis-trator or someone from your It department.

» Create a Tactical Plan –You will need to work with your data vendor to clarify what information they will provide based on your requirements to support your fundraising strategy, and develop a plan to meet those requirements. You will need to determine how much information you need to store, where in your system you will store it, and which records in your database you want to screen, and then audit that record set for quality. organizations some-times err on the side of storing too much information, making it difficult to find and work with the information that’s genuinely important and provides the most strategic value. If you have the option, consider starting with less data in your dms/cRm and expanding what you store as you learn to work with the information and your strategies become more sophisticated.

» Setup and Test – Provide your data vendor with a sample file, to serve as a “dry run”. this allows the vendor to evaluate your existing data, and it will let you test the export capacities of your dms. You will need to set up your dms to accept returning data, which may require adding fields and/or table values. In general, you should store the information where you’ll be easily able to access and use it. You should then test the import features by importing the sample file into your database. You can use the test data to practice creating lists and reports, test any modifications to business practices, and to prepare for a dry run of your next cultivation. If from the test all looks in order, you’re ready to go. If you hit minor snags, you likely can move ahead and make the requisite adjustments as you “go live” with the data. If the issues seem more complex, you may want to repeat the testing process.

Healthcare Charities

Healthcare Charities uses The Raiser’s Edge from Blackbaud® for fundraising and for managing their donor information. Using a mass import approach, they looked at the available fields and prioritized which fields they would add to the system based on the criteria provided by the fundraising teams within their affiliate hospitals and organizations.

“While some of our affiliates wanted every bit of information in there, we couldn’t put it all in. We had to prioritize. By working with my WealthEngine client services manager and being able to seek advice from her, I used WealthEngine’s core tables as a starting point and then deter-mined what fields were necessary to include,” explains Marianne Grifasi-Miller, Senior Information Systems Technologist.


» Go Live – working with your data vendor, you should identify when you’ll send the data and when they’ll provide a return file, and use this to establish the “go live” plan. You can then receive and import your data following the “go live” plan. make sure you give your colleagues a “heads-up,” even asking them to pause data entry if appropriate, and provide them with training so they’ll know how to use and interpret the data.

Beyond the first day, there’s more (and more important) planning to do. How are you going to start using your new informa-tion? what fundraising strategies and appeals will benefit first? the sooner you start using the information, the more value you’ll get from your investment of time and money. with the integration complete, the most important challenge will be in weaving this information more deeply into your fundraising practices. It doesn’t belong to just one department; it doesn’t support just one strategy, it has the potential to drive many fundraising decisions. the integration of wealth data into your database can help you cultivate deeper relationships with all your constituents.

steps to Planning a dms/cRm Integration

See Appendix 1 for a complete guide to these steps.

The guidance of an indepen-dent consultant or authorized solution provider that special-izes in implementing your DMS/CRM system can make the integration process far smoother — allowing for more efficient use of the results and more attention spent on donor solicitation and cultivation.

Determine Approach

1. clarify the fundraising strategies you’ll be supporting

2. decide if you need a mass import, individual record integration, or both

3. decide when you will use the data to create your prospect lists and/or support individual cultivation

4. Assign one or two people to be in charge of the implementation

5. ensure project leaders have the proper skills and time to be successful

Create A Tactical Plan

6. clarify what informa-tion you will be asking your data vendor to provide

7. determine how much information you want to store in your dms

8. determine where you will store the informa-tion in your dms

9. determine the records in your database for screening

10. Audit that record set

11. develop a plan with your data vendor that includes training and support

Setup and Test

12. Provide a sample file to your vendor

13. set up your dms to accept returning data

14. test your import features

15. Receive and import a sample file, after you receive the test file from the data vendor

16. Practice your business practices

17. conduct an end-to-end test run

Go Live

18. Pick a “go live” date

19. establish a “go live” plan

20. train your team, especially the end users

21. Receive and import your data

22. keep it going, keep making it better


conclusionAn integrated solution that ties your prospect research and screening to your dms/cRm makes data management more effective and efficient. It allows your development organization to get real-time, easy access to a donor or prospect’s wealth profile, and to pull this essential information directly into constituent records within your dms/cRm. this permits broader access to and effective use of the data. cross-departmental knowledge of the screening results and resources ultimately leads to better segmentation, tracking of prospects, and estab-lishing a higher profile for the research function within your organization.

when deciding how to integrate with your dms/cRm, you should consider factors such as the type and complexity of integration that is needed, how data can be integrated into your dms or cRm, the need to validate the wealth data, and the plan and timeframe for implementing a dms/cRm integration. while you will face challenges to successfully complete a dms/cRm integration, you can overcome them by investing the time and resources in the initial planning process and by fostering open collaboration between your development and It departments.

As the number of partnerships between dms/cRm providers and wealth data/screening providers expands, there are more opportunities for you to leverage pre-built integrations that allow you to conduct individual or batch screening from within your dms/cRm, saving you valuable time. these services typically provide on-demand refreshing of constituent profiles. with the guidance of an independent consultant or authorized solu-tion provider that specializes in implementing your dms/cRm system, the integration process is smoother — allowing for more efficient use of the results with more attention spent on donor solicitation and cultivation, further enabling the mission of your organization.

While you may face challenges to successfully complete a DMS/CRM integration, you can overcome them by investing the time and resources upfront in the initial planning process and by fostering open collabo-ration between your develop-ment and IT departments.


cAse stUdIes

Healthcare charities ................................................................................21

House of Ruth ............................................................................................24

stevenson University ..............................................................................27


Healthcare CharitiesIntegrating Wealth Data Gives Their Fundraising a Boost

since 1983, Healthcare charities has been serving the people of rural central, eastern and northern maine by supporting the philanthropic efforts of the eastern maine Healthcare system (emHs). with a guiding tenet that philanthropy has a way of bringing people together working for a common goal and realizing amazing success, Healthcare charities works with its local community to garner support for its hospitals and other member organizations to keep them on the cutting edge of technology. thoughtful gifts of all sizes make possible the equipment and research that emHs doctors and scientists need to make the important discoveries today that will help build a healthier tomorrow.

Healthcare charities has traditionally had a sizable number of donors and prospects; in fact, their database holds almost 200,000 records across more than a dozen affiliate hospitals, programs and healthcare organizations. For the past few years, their management team had been looking for ways to build a segmented and targeted approach to fundraising. In late 2010 they decided to consider screening batches of records in order to identify and target their top prospects and inform their fund-raising strategy. In February 2011, they selected wealthengine and engaged its research and screening services, with the follow-ing goals:

» screen recent donors and determine a cultivation plan

» Integrate the screened data into their donor management system

» Use data mining to compare major donor files with patient records to target grateful patients

“We are able to provide our affiliate organizations and hospitals with immediate and direct access to quality, action-able data, thanks to the screening data we integrated from WealthEngine.”

- Marianne Grifasi-Miller, Senior Information Systems Technologist,

Healthcare Charities


screening donors for effective cultivation

Healthcare charities started by screening 21,000 records across seven affiliate hospitals and healthcare organizations to get a feel for who is giving, discover what their wealth profile is, and determine if there is room for additional solicitations. this allows the respective development teams to focus on their top prospects and cultivate relationships for additional gifts. “our data is separated for each of our affiliates, and while each does their own fundraising, they rely on Healthcare charities for guidance, support functions, and for managing their gift processing,” explains marianne grifasi-miller, senior Information systems technologist at Healthcare charities of Bangor, maine. they have found the screened data to be invaluable in planning direct-mail programs, the first two of which are set to launch this summer.

Integrating wealth data for Better Fundraising Results

Determining the Desired Level of Integration - Healthcare charities uses the Raiser’s edge from Blackbaud for fundraising and for managing their donor information. Using a mass import approach they looked at the available fields and prioritized which fields they would add to the system based on the criteria provided by the fundraising teams within their affiliate hospi-tals and organizations.

“while some of our affiliates wanted every bit of information in there, we couldn’t put it all in. we had to prioritize. By working with my wealthengine client services manager and being able to seek advice from her, I used wealthengine’s core tables as a starting point and then determined what fields were necessary to include,” explains grifasi-miller.

Validating Data - Before importing into the live environment, the fundraising teams conducted spot checks to validate the data. Fortunately, no major discrepancies were found, in large part because the team had first confirmed the accuracy of data already in the system, including contact information, checking for duplicate entries, and standardizing gift tracking.

Benefits Realized - the team has found the wealth data invalu-able in analyzing past donor attributes and compiling targets for direct-mailings. they look at charitable giving history, stock holdings and pensions, real estate holdings, hard assets, and propensity to give scores and gift capacity ranges.

Having the data available to the affiliates from directly within Blackbaud’s The Raiser’s Edge DMS brings benefits to both Healthcare Charities and their affiliates. “Using WealthEngine data within our Raiser’s Edge platform has allowed us to step up our fundraising and has raised the profile of Healthcare Charities among our affiliate hospitals and organizations,” explains Marianne Grifasi-Miller, Senior Information Systems Technologist at Healthcare Charities.

For their affiliates, the integra-tion of wealth data has enabled the development teams to be more proactive in their fundraising. “Our fundraising teams can get a complete view of our donors and follow up in a more timely fashion so no opportunity is ever missed,” continues Grifasi-Miller.


“with all of the information in one place, our gift officers can quickly understand the donor or prospect and determine how to best approach that individual,” explains grifasi-miller.

Next Steps - since the initial integration was completed in February and Healthcare charities has had the opportunity to work with the information, they have added some fields that were not included in the initial mass import.

data mining

moving forward, grifasi-miller’s plans to conduct a data mining exercise with wealthengine to analyze their major donors, so that this data can be cross-referenced against patient data that is stored in a separate system. essentially, their hospitals will be able to screen patients on a daily, weekly or monthly basis and cross-reference the results against the major donor file, allowing them to spot those who have previously donated and, with some special attention, may give again.

Using this analysis, the gift officers can cultivate relationships that have potential for major gifts and develop a grateful patient program by targeting individuals for repeat donations based on their estimated giving capacity and propensity to give scores. “we are very excited to do this data mining exercise, as it will allow our affiliates to design a grateful patient program and ultimately better coordinate and time their fundraising ask with the patient’s visit or interaction with the hospital,” explains grifasi-miller.

critical support, every step of the way

Having detailed and accurate wealth data integrated into their donor management system gives Healthcare charities a boost in the work they do with their affiliates. “we are able to provide our affiliate organizations and hospitals with immediate and direct access to quality, actionable data, thanks to the screen-ing data we integrated from wealthengine.”

their satisfaction in having selected wealthengine is evident. As grifasi-miller explains, “wealthengine staff has been extremely knowledgeable and helpful. we have had a great experience working with their team. everyone has been quick to respond, eager to help and willing to go the extra mile. It’s been a plea-sure to work with fundraising professionals that are dedicated to serving me and my organization.”

Healthcare charities

Goal: screen recent donors and determine a cultivation plan

Tactics:

screened 21,000 records across seven affiliate hospitals and healthcare organizations

Assessed wealth profile of donors and prospects

determined opportunities for more solicitations

Goal: Integrate screened data into their dms

Tactics:

Analyzed past donor attributes and compiled targets for direct-mailings

Raised their profile among affiliate hospitals and organizations

enabled affiliates to be more proactive in their fundraising by having a complete view of their donors

Goal: data mining to compare major donor files with patient records

Tactics (In Progress):

target individuals for repeat donations, using wealth and affinity indicators

cultivate relationships that have potential for major gifts

develop a grateful patient program


House of RuthIntegrating Wealth Data to Discover Top Prospects

House of Ruth has provided housing and supportive services for abused women children in washington d.c. and the metro-politan area since 1976. the organization helps more than 600 women and children as they learn the skills to live indepen-dently so they can eliminate homelessness and abuse from their lives.

As director of operations and a 16-year veteran at the House of Ruth, Joyce grand is responsible for managing the infra-structure, processes and systems that are used to support the organization’s mission. ms. grand and her team selected donorPerfect from softerware, Inc.® as their donor manage-ment system over 10 years ago. the donorPerfect system allows them to efficiently manage their fundraising activities and communications with constituents and donors. she and her team have gathered valuable data on their donors, but they needed more biographical and personal financial information to help determine which constituents should be solicited for major gifts and their planned giving program.

more data for Better Fundraising Results

In preparing for the next stages of House of Ruth’s major gift and planned giving programs, ms. grand had to consider a research approach that was both comprehensive and effi-cient. she turned to donorPerfect’s prospect research partner, wealthengine.

“Now our major gift officers won’t have to waste any time or money. With wealth data accessible from directly within DonorPerfect, they can focus all of their time directly on those most likely to donate a major gift.”

- Joyce Grand, Director of Operations, House of Ruth


House of Ruth’s prospect research and screening program now includes:

» Findwealth online data and screening

» wealthconnect integration with donorPerfect

with the integration in place, the House of Ruth is now able to enhance their entire database with demographic and finan-cial information on their top donors and prospects, including: age, real estate, hard asset and stock holdings, charitable con-tributions, and more. All of this data, including wealthengine’s Propensity to give (P2g) scores and estimated giving capacity ranges, is imported directly into donorPerfect for reporting and moves management.

donorPerfect has developed specific tools to import wealthengine data directly into the donorPerfect system. Any data not brought by these tools can be uploaded by the client via a microsoft Access® file, which is included as part of the service. In addition, to help maximize the benefits of the new data, donorPerfect clients are provided a user guide, which contains information, reports and selection filters that have been added to their database when they purchase wealthengine services.

Integration makes Prospect Research easy and effective

Using the additional data and donorPerfect’s features to build reports and apply enhanced filters, ms. grand and her team were able to identify House of Ruth’s top 100 prospects, 50 for each of the organization’s two major gifts officers. As ms. grand explains, “now our major gift officers won’t have to waste any time or money. with wealth data accessible from directly within donorPerfect, they can focus all of their time directly on those most likely to donate a major gift.” she also noted how the wealthconnect button has aided her team, “If the gift officers need new or more data, they use the wealthconnect button to link directly to Findwealth online to gather more informa-tion on each donor or prospect.” the added information also helped the House of Ruth build their legacy circle, which is their planned gift program.

“Picking out potential planned gift donors can be a big challenge. With the added information from WealthEngine, such as age and income, targeting planned gift donors was made much easier.”

- Joyce Grand, Director of Operations, House of Ruth


creating an Action Plan for Fundraising success

Armed with the data from wealthengine to select their top donor prospects, ms. grand used the moves management module in donorPerfect to design, schedule, and carry out a set of contact “moves” for this group of donors.

For example, the development team created a plan to solicit donations from their major donors, including calls, mailings, and since most donors are local, a planned tour/visit to their facilities. each plan includes the specific set of actions (e.g., phone calls, emails, and meetings) to solicit the donors. As each action is completed and tracked, the assigned officer is prompted to schedule the next action in the plan. At anytime, they can see where they are in the process. ms. grand explained, “we use moves management for a lot of our donors simply as a guide to see what we should do next. It really helps take donors from one gift level to the next and it’s easy to use!”

A sustainable Return on Investment

ms. grand acknowledges that wealthengine has helped move House of Ruth along the right path, “we certainly believe that we have earned back our investment in prospect research in the first year, and have since gotten more data for our second year.”

though still only in their second year of usage and primarily targeting donors for the planned giving program, ms. grand is confident things are moving in the right direction. “with the new information we have, such as age and income level, it’s been much easier to pick out likely donors for the legacy circle planned giving program. we’re confident about meeting our goals.”

Results:

narrowed universe of top prospects from 500 to 100 donors for major gift solicitations

enhanced donor data with extensive financial and personal information

Utilized enhanced donor data with donorPerfect’s moves management module to guide donor development plans

saw a return in wealthengine investment within one year

House of Ruth


Stevenson UniversityRapid Growth and Strategic Restructuring Improve Fundraising Efficiency

stevenson University, maryland’s third largest independent university is renowned for its unique blend of liberal arts and career preparation. located in stevenson, maryland, the university has substantially increased enrollment of its student body and alumni in the past decade. Founded in 1947 as Villa Julie college, the university’s Board of trustees voted to change the name to stevenson University after three years of intensive research in June of 2008. In addition, the University completed a restructuring plan with the goal of creating six new schools. with a current enrollment of 3,900 undergraduate and gradu-ate students, stevenson prides itself with its historically high job/graduate-school placement rates.

In 2005, stevenson University initiated a 20 million dollar capital campaign and in 2006 began working with wealthengine to research and screen current and past donors. since then, the University has been actively fundraising for their campaign. In december of 2009 the 20 million dollar campaign was com-pleted with stevenson surpassing their campaign goal.

with an active database of 14,000 alumni, in addition to increased student enrollment, the advancement office has developed processes for enhancing the database and improved procedures for fundraising, data management, and prospect research.

“We use the WealthEngine scores and ratings, primarily Propensity to Give (P2G) and Estimated Giving Capacity, to provide a high level overview of an individual we’re researching. The P2G score is a great identi-fier that directs us as to which individuals to look at first.”

- Rob Turner, Director of Advancement Services , Stevenson University


Under the direction of Rob turner, director of Advancement services, the number of researchers has increased since the University initially signed on with wealthengine in 2006. there are 15 individuals who make up the office of University Advancement. twelve individuals focus on development, of which 3 are researchers, and 3 focus on Alumni Relations.

screening donors for effective cultivation

since implementing a prospect management plan to stream-line their fundraising efforts, stevenson University has seen an increase in individual giving amounts. screening and research-ing their alumni and parents of current students has provided greater insight and allowed turner and his team to target their focus on the right individuals.

wealth screenings have also helped turner and his team to identify assets for a large group of prospects relatively quickly. As they implemented a more comprehensive data collection strategy and screening process, holes in their previous process were identified. turner explains, “In recent years we realized we were missing a key opportunity with our screening process; no one had thought to screen parents of incoming freshmen. our stewardship process and screening results showed there was a need to focus on these parents.”

As turner explains further, “we went back and decided to do a segmented mailing of these individuals. lists of parents were segmented in ascending order by Propensity to give (P2g) score and inclination score. the direct mailings also used campaign codes that allowed us to track potential donors so we could measure the return on investment from targeted mailings. Finally, the advancement team coordinated their phone solicitations following the mailing, which resulted in a far more cohesive plan.”

with these changes, turner revised their fundraising plan to include a strategy for ongoing, regular screenings of differ-ent segments and improved workflow for effective prospect management.

stevenson University

Goals:

Use wealth screenings to identify assets for a large group of prospects

Build a comprehensive data collection strategy and improved workflows

Uncover opportunities in their research process

develop a strategy for ongoing, regular screenings of different segments

Screening and Targeting Process:

Use P2g and inclination scores to segment parents of incoming freshman

create segmented mailings to freshman parents

Use campaign codes to track potential donors

establish metrics to measure the return on investment from targeted mailings

coordinate post-mailing phone solicitations


Integrating wealth data for Better Fundraising Results

Following fundraising best practices, stevenson University uses datatel colleague Advancement as their donor manage-ment system (dms), and integrates the data gathered through screening directly into their dms. stevenson migrated over to colleague Advancement to integrate their results into datatel from a posted .csv file to their secured file transfer protocol (ftp) site. the advancement office uses two different types of integration with wealthengine to link their screening data back into their dms. each method is used to support different fund-raising activities and different points in the fundraising cycle.

Mass import integration with data from screen-ings they’ve conducted, and

Individual record links to data using wealthengine’s Prospect link API, known as wealthconnect.

stevenson’s researchers use wealthengine on a daily basis to look up individuals. Using webconnect, they link the individ-ual’s complete wealth profile within wealthengine’s Findwealth online research tool, and results are easily integrated back into colleague Advancement.

Prior to integrating screening results into their dms, turner worked with datatel to develop an implementation plan to guide their process. they tested the integration with datatel and determined how the wealthengine screening results would be included. wealthengine data is held within the datatel major donor module, which has text boxes that can be filled in with data. As well, clients can customize a page for additional fields and notes. “It’s in this area we are able to customize most of the data with specific notes for others to understand,” adds turner.

simply put by turner, “the fact is, you have to screen and bring the data back into your dms so everyone can see the data, make comments and remarks about an individual. Having it all centrally located increases efficiency within your organization. there’s no need to spend time updating records because the data is cleaner, transparent and readily accessible for everyone in our advancement office to view. this integration between wealthengine and datatel makes all of our lives easier.”

“Having the ProspectLink API through Datatel and WealthEngine has made work-ing with these two platforms easier and user-friendly. With just the click of a button within Datatel, we’re able to view the WealthEngine Advanced Search results and bring a summary of the results back into Datatel.”

- Rob Turner, Director of Advancement Services , Stevenson University


APPendIxstep by step guide for Planning a dms/cRm Integration

determine Your Approach ....................................................................31

create a tactical Plan ...............................................................................31

set Up and test ..........................................................................................32

go live ..........................................................................................................34


task Responsibility

development It

determine Your Approach

1.) clarify the fundraising strategies you’ll be supporting.

� direct mail � email � Phone-a-thon � Annual giving � major or Planned giving � All of the above

2.) decide if you need a mass import/ screening, individual record integration, or both.

� mass import – segmentation for direct mail, email and major donor prospecting.

� Individual record – Adding or updating information on individual prospects for major donor cultivation.

3.) decide when you will use the data to create your prospect lists and/or support individual cultivation.

� look at your fundraising calendar and work backward, giving yourself a couple of weeks of buffer if possible.

4.) Assign one or two people to be in charge of the implementation.

� dms/cRm Administrator or It person � director of Research or Project management

5.) ensure project leaders have the proper skills and time to be successful.

� As necessary, provide project team with training opportunities, and dedicate time in their schedules to work on the project.

create A tactical Plan

6.) clarify what information you will be asking your data vendor to provide. Factors to consider include:

� what information do we need to best support our fundraising strategies? � How much and which pieces of information do we want to store in our

dms/cRm? � what is the cost relative to the value of the information for each option?

7.) determine how much information you want to store in your dms/cRm.

NOTE: Organizations sometimes err on the side of storing too much information, making it difficult to find and work with the information that’s genuinely important and provides the most strategic value. If you have the option, consider starting with less data in your DMS/CRM and expanding what you store as you learn to work with the information and your strategies become more sophisticated.

Team Responsibility


task Responsibility

development It

8.) determine where you will store the information in your dms/cRm.

� Ask your data vendor for suggestions, based on their work with others using the same dms or cRm system.

� check with peers using the same dms/cRm (online forums can be a good source of peer information).

� Identify best practices that have already been developed for your dms/cRm.

9.) determine the records in your database for screening.

� Provide general counts of how many records meet certain criteria. these needn’t be 100% precise at this point; For example:• donors in the last x months, or • what criteria will generate the number of records you plan on screening

(for example, if you plan on screening 10,000 records, how many months will you likely look back and at what giving levels?)

� check the results against your expectations and make modifications as needed.

� Use the query tools in your dms/cRm, which will be important both for the integration project as well as afterward to maximize the value of the information.

10.) Audit that record set.

� determine if your queries result in the right records being captured. � determine the quality of the information on those records. For example, if

many of the addresses are questionable, it may be difficult to match records unless you also do an address update at the same time.

� check for duplicates. Is there a high or low percentage within the records you’ll screen? If so, it’s likely that your data vendor can help you confirm or improve the quality of your record set so you’ll get the most from the screening process.

11.) develop a plan with your data vendor.

� develop a week-by-week time table that includes the tasks both the vendor and you need to complete, with clear assignments and deadlines.

setup and test

12.) Provide a sample file to your vendor.

� Follow your vendor’s guidelines for providing a sample file from your dms/cRm. this “dry run” will let them evaluate your existing data, and it will let you test the export capacities of your dms/cRm.

� clarify with your vendor what data you will be getting back from them.

Team Responsibility


task Responsibility

development It

13.) set up your dms/cRm to accept returning data.

� determine where you will store the data your vendor returns. now’s the time for clarity and some configuration work if you’ll need to add fields and/or table values. In general, you should store the information where you’ll be easily able to access and use it.

� data should be visible to end-users when they view a constituent record, ideally where they would expect to see such information! You may want to store summary information in one place and the underlying details elsewhere. this lets people see what’s most important first and only view the details if they want it.

� data should be accessible to your list-generation and export tools. If you’re going to set up custom fields to store any of the data, make sure that your query and export features will be able to pull on that information when you’re creating lists. don’t take for granted that the fields and values you establish will be accessible — set them up and test them!

� data should be available for reporting. As above, you’ll want to confirm that where you store the information supports your reporting needs, ideally without resorting to custom reporting (or excel!)

NOTE: If this seems like a lot, don’t worry. It’s very likely that your data vendor has helped clients make these same decisions for your DMS/CRM. User forums can provide insights as well. The best practices are probably already out there, you just need to ask and then do some simple testing for yourself.

14.) Receive and import a sample file, after you receive the test file from the data vendor.

� If available from your vendor, arrange to receive a sample data file representing just a portion of your constituents. A couple dozen will do.

� If possible, setup up a “sandbox” version of your database. make a copy of your whole database to a separate instance. People often dedicate a separate workstation for this copy so it’s clear that it’s not the “live” version.

� Import the sample data file, based on the fields you’ve identified in the previous step. this lets you verify the dms/cRm import features and validate your own skills in using them. If you find that you need to get more training on imports, modify how you’re setting up your fields to receive the data, or investigate alternative import methods, you’ll have time now!

NOTE: Not everyone can set up a separate “sandbox”. If you can’t, no problem. Just be extra careful to back up your DMS/CRM before importing any data, and audit small samples that you can delete manually, if needed, before committing to importing large amounts of information.

15.) Practice your business practices.

� Use the test data to practice creating lists and reports. � test any modifications to business practices, such as managing constituent

data, gift entry and donor cultivation. when something works well, establish it in your “live” database tool (if you’re using a “sandbox” system. If not, you’re done!)

Team Responsibility


task Responsibility

development It

16.) conduct an end-to-end test run.

� do a dry run of your next cultivation — i.e direct mail appeal, email campaign or major donor mailing. test creating your lists, enter a few sample gifts and test your reporting. If all looks in order, you’re ready to go. If you hit minor snags, you likely can move ahead and make the requisite adjustments as you “go live” with the data. If the issues seem more complex, you may want to repeat the testing process.

go live

17.) Pick a “go live” date.

� with your vendor, identify when you’ll send the data and when they’ll provide a return file.

18.) establish a “go live” plan.

� Plan for what your team will do on the day the data is received, and afterwards. How are you going to start using your new information? what fundraising strategies and appeals will benefit first? the sooner you start using the information, the more value you’ll get from your investment of time and money.

19.) train your team.

� Provide training to your colleagues, especially implementers and end-users.

20.) Receive and import your data.

� make a backup of your current database (and verify it!). � Review the files the vendor returns for any obvious concerns (did they return

the number of records your expected? the fields you expected?). � give your colleagues a “heads-up,” even asking them to pause data entry if

appropriate. � conduct your imports. � Audit the data (both summary queries and individual record spot checking). � give your colleagues the “green light” to start using the system again.

21.) keep it going, keep making it better.

You’ve done the big (technical) piece. now you’ll want to maintain the “freshness” of the information and make sure it’s regularly updated with your vendor. stale data loses value quickly. Your vendor can help make this smooth and easy via subscription services and suggestions on routine database refreshing.

Team Responsibility

wealthengine is a leading provider of sophisticated prospect research and analytic solutions to nonprofit organizations, hospitals, institutions of higher education, financial services and luxury goods firms. more than 3,000 clients use wealthengine’s products for comprehensive wealth identification on individuals, companies and foundations. Headquartered in Bethesda, md, wealthengine offers products in both the United states and United kingdom. For more information, visit www.wealthengine.com.

Heller consulting helps nonprofits streamline their operations and maximize their use of software for fundraising and mission management. the company specializes in software selection, implementation, optimization and train-ing for products from salesforce, convio and other leading providers. with offices in san Francisco, chicago and new York, the Heller consulting team has helped hundreds of nonprofits nationwide. For more information, visit www.teamheller.com.

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