WealthEngine

Being part of WealthEngine’s growth over the last 12 years has taught me many things, helping me to form a business philosophy that has become like a second skin: be committed to success, drive innovation and don’t be afraid to fail. This spring celebrates this same mantra as we release our powerful new wealth ratings and scores to all three of our markets; nonprofit, financial services and luxury organizations. More than a year in the making, a team of statisticians and experts carefully examined many of our proprietary wealth ratings and scores—P2G, inclination, planned giving and the like—and enhanced their algorithms, all while developing new ratings and scores to support a broader range of fundraising needs. We are proud to introduce a new set of scores—Net Worth, Total Assets, Liquidity and Estimated Annual Donations—designed to blend our wealth intelligence with your intuition for faster, more precise decision-making. Our goal is to provide you with answers that lead you to more successful fundraising.

The new scores were developed and validated using actual, individual-based data and advanced statistical techniques, resulting in the most accurate and powerful scores available in the marketplace today. This approach is unique as most wealth ratings are based on aggregated, Zip +4 levels. Using individual-level data to develop the scores prevents one household with a multi-million dollar income from skewing the average incomes of other households in the tract. It also avoids classifying renters as homeowners and subsequently inflating actual assets, and includes age as a factor since asset behavior varies dramatically by age. This means that everyone’s assets are seen as their own and the millionaire next door is identified as just that and the more modest family that lives next to him is not overrepresented because of the millionaire’s influence as it was in the historical Zip+4 scores.

WealthEngine’s scores were created from over 60 different algorithms that take into account the amount of data available in the match as well as the source the data originated from. The scoring algorithms have been validated against authentic ‘truth’ files that statistically represent the U.S. population. The result? Through extensive testing, we’ve found that the scores are statistically valid at 95% (within one range above or below). In other words, in over 9 out of 10 cases, our score values will be accurate to within one range higher or lower than the score range we provided. This means that the scores can direct you, with unmatched reliability, to your best donors and prospects, time and again, with the highest degree of accuracy available.

If you are planning a wealth append (screening) or an analytics project, now is the time to do so as you can opt to receive the new ratings and scores (they will cost you a few pennies more per record) in your results. You’ll be one of the first in the country to access the new scores—meaning you’ll be able to rank order your database and start cultivating stronger relationships and ask amounts that will drive higher returns. For our FindWealth Online users, the results will be included in the forthcoming FindWealth 8 interface that will be introduced later this year.

Our entire company is thrilled to introduce these new ratings and scores to you because we know that better, more accurate tools help you do a better, more accurate job in your fundraising. I hope that you will see these ratings and scores as we do—as major step forward in the world of fundraising analytics. Committed to success, innovation, and not afraid to fail—that’s WealthEngine, and I suspect that’s part of you, too. As part of our WealthEngine community, together we are shaping the role that fundraising plays in meeting your organization’s mission. I can’t wait to hear how these new ratings and scores work for you. Do drop me a line at tglowacki@wealthengine.com.

Best regards,

PS:  To learn more about the new ratings and scores—and their availability—view this half-hour webinar.