As conversations around equity deepen and gain urgency across the nonprofit sector, prospect researchers are increasingly challenged to examine their own practices through a more intentional and inclusive lens.
This blog post explores how themes of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) intersect with prospect research—whether we’re identifying individual donors or institutional funders, and whether we’re supporting explicitly equity-focused organizations or advancing equity-driven projects within more traditional institutions. We will incorporate anonymized case studies to illustrate how these themes manifest in real-world prospect research scenarios.
Prospect researchers play a critical role in advancing equity by approaching their work with intentionality, awareness, and ethical rigor. To do this effectively, researchers should focus on the following key practices:
Working with organizations that are deeply invested in the community fundraising model has taught our prospect research team at Campbell & Company to broaden the scope of traditional research methods to uncover potential supporters who share that commitment. No longer are wealth, proximity, and philanthropic inclination sufficient evidence that an individual is a potential donor; they must demonstrate an investment in equity both through their giving and their public lives. Just as prospective funders vet the organizations they support, nonprofits have the prerogative, and perhaps the obligation, to determine if a funder’s values align with their own, sometimes upending traditional prospect research practices.
A recent partnership with an equity-focused arts organization, which sought to diversify funding sources and reduce its reliance on foundation grants, provided a valuable lesson in how to operate with greater perspective and flexibility in research strategy.
Operating in a conservative location, the organization preferred that research focus on individual major gift prospects outside their community because they felt that those within their locality were disengaged from, if not hostile to, their equity-focused mission. Through brainstorming with our client, we collectively arrived at bespoke regional guidelines for the research that we hope will uncover individual prospects aligned with their mission, demonstrated through major giving.
A partnership with a Native American Tribe, aiming to identify prospects for their Tribal Museum, provided another opportunity to innovate existing prospect research practices to meet the needs of the Indigenous, equity-driven organization.
Identifying potential institutional funders often involves reviewing peer organizations with similar missions, as their supporters may also be strong prospects. During this discussion, Tribal members offered several examples of existing museums they felt exemplified the vision they held for their own institution, but equally important were examples they offered of museums or exhibitions whose tone, contents, and verbiage they did not want to replicate. These examples, generally the products of historically white-led organizations, offered reductive and stereotypical representations of Native American culture derived with little to no Tribal input. The Tribe felt that donors and supporters of these institutions likely would not reflect their values of inclusivity, equity, and cultural self-determination. This anti-prospect profile proved useful in identifying appropriate potential supporters who demonstrated a genuine commitment to Native-governed institutions.
As the field of prospect research continues to evolve, integrating equity into our methods is not just a moral imperative—it’s essential to the effectiveness and integrity of our work. By confronting bias, rethinking traditional tools, and adapting strategies for diverse organizational contexts, we can help ensure that philanthropy truly reflects and supports the communities it aims to serve. The path forward requires humility, intention, and a shared commitment to lasting change.
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