Finding Your People: A DIY Guide to Donor Research

Here's something nobody tells you when you start fundraising: the mysterious, elusive donor you're imagining — the one strolling around with gold clinking merrily in their pocket, just waiting to discover your work and open their checkbook — probably doesn't exist. Or rather, they almost certainly already know you. They're in your phone. They've been to your shows. They liked your last three Instagram posts and haven't said a word.

Prospect research isn't about finding strangers. It's about paying closer attention to the people already in your orbit — understanding who they are, what they care about, who they can introduce you to, and how they might want to be part of what you're building. Think of it less like a treasure hunt and more like finally learning the names of all the plants in your own backyard. They were always there. You just hadn't looked closely yet.

👤 The Three Things Worth Knowing About Anyone

Before you start poking around the internet, it helps to have a framework. Professional prospect researchers — yes, this is a whole job that exists — evaluate potential donors on three axes:

❤️‍🔥 Affinity is about connection. How much does this person actually care about you and your work? Do they show up? Do they share what you make? Have they given before?

🦾 Propensity is about habit. Is this person someone who gives, generally? Do they donate to other organizations, volunteer their time, sit on boards? Giving is a muscle — people who use it regularly tend to keep using it.

🌱 Capacity is about resources. Not just money (though, yes, money), but also time, skills, and connections. Can they give anything, and if so, what and how much?

Every person in your network is some combination of high and low across all three. Your best friend might be an 11/10 on affinity and a 3/10 on capacity. A former colleague might have the propensity and the means but barely remember you exist. Neither is a lost cause — they just call for different approaches. That's the whole point of this exercise!

🪺 Setting Up Your Research Habitat

Time to build your nest. The simplest setup is a spreadsheet but it’s worth looking into a CRM or donor management platform as your fundraising ambitions grow.

Your first column: names. Populate it with everyone you can think of:

• ✉️ Past donors and mailing list subscribers
• 👩‍👩‍👦‍👦 Friends, family, former collaborators
• 💼 Professional contacts and peers
• 🌐 Social media followers who engage consistently
• 🎟️ People who've attended your work, even once

From there, start adding columns for your three categories: affinity, propensity, and capacity. You'll rate each of these on a simple 1–5 scale. No need to be scientific about it — these are starting points, not verdicts.

👀 The Research Itself (It's Less Creepy Than It Sounds)

This part can feel a little weird. Digging into the lives of people you know — or sort of know — in order to figure out how to ask them for money has…an odd energy, to say the least. But here's the thing: you're only looking at publicly available information. The goal isn't to uncover secrets. It's to avoid going in blind and asking the wrong person for the wrong thing in the wrong way.

Start by searching the prospect's name, maybe add their city or employer if they have a common name. Note their job, any organizations they're affiliated with, anything that gives you a sense of their world.

A few places worth checking, depending on the person:

🔎 LinkedIn can tell you a lot about someone's career history and interests — just know that people can see when you've viewed their profile. (The author of our original guide on this topic admits to creating a fake profile for research purposes. We're not here to judge 😅)

🗳️ The FEC database (fec.gov) lets you search individual political donations. Political giving is one of the clearest indicators that someone is in the habit of giving at all.

🏠 Zillow or your local property records can give you a rough sense of someone's financial situation, if you know their address. Just remember: owning a $1.2M home in Austin doesn't mean they have a lot of cash on hand. Context matters.

🔬 GuideStar is useful if you suspect someone is connected to a family foundation. A quick search for "[Lastname] Family Foundation" can sometimes turn up a whole giving history.

For most people in your network, a basic web search plus what you already know will be plenty. You're not writing a biography. You're just filling in a few blanks.

💌 What You Do With What You Find

Let's say you research a hypothetical prospect — we'll call her Sasha. Sasha came to two of your performances last year, follows you on Instagram, and recently joined your mailing list. You know she works in nonprofits and lives in a mid-sized city. She's never donated, but she volunteers with another arts org. A quick search confirms she's given to a couple of local campaigns.

Based on all that, Sasha has solid affinity, decent propensity, and moderate capacity. She's probably not your first call for a major gift — but she might be a great candidate for a crowdfunding ask, a small recurring donation, or even a volunteer opportunity that deepens her investment in your work over time.

That's the whole point of this exercise: not to rank people by their dollar potential, but to understand how to actually engage with them. Who do you invite to an event before asking for anything? Who do you send a personal note to before your campaign launches? Who might say yes to a monthly $10 gift but feel weird about being asked for $500?

Segmenting your outreach this way isn't about being calculating. It's about being thoughtful. People respond better when it feels like you actually know them — because you do.

💭 A Few Things Worth Remembering

Prospect research is a starting point, not the final word. People's circumstances change — financial situations shift, life gets complicated, someone who seemed like a cold lead warms up after seeing your next project. Update your spreadsheet when things change, and let the ratings evolve.

Also: not every form of support shows up in a spreadsheet. Some of the most valuable people in your community are the ones who'll spend a Saturday helping you hang a show, or introduce you to someone who changes everything. Capacity isn't only financial, and your relationships aren't transactions. This process is meant to help you fundraise more effectively — not to turn your community into a portfolio.

At its best, prospect research is a form of paying attention. It's how you figure out who's already invested in what you're making and how to bring them even closer. The artists who fundraise well aren't the ones with the richest networks — they're the ones who actually know their people.

You probably know more of your people than you think. Time to find out. 🌱

Ready to go deeper? Pick your own adventure and learn more about mailing lists, donor stewardship, CRMs, or beating the emotional bosses of fundraising:

• an artist's guide to mailing lists
• 9 tips for soliciting from family and friends
• Keeping Donors Happy: A Donor Stewardship Guide for Artists
• Artists, Use a CRM and Spend More Time Creating
• Beating the Emotional Bosses of Fundraising
• A Robust Funding Community: Connectors, Traders, Volunteers, Donors
• how to tap into creative community