Breaking News: WealthEngine Merger Creates World's Most Influential Data Mining Company

The merger of WealthEngine and Wealth ID, two leaders in database screening and online prospect research services, made a big splash at the annual Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) conference in San Diego this August.

“The future of prospect research is here and our combined companies will deliver the best range of services with the strongest data sources and client support available,” says Tony Glowacki, President and CEO of WealthEngine. “Our focus has always been first on our clients. With our combined experience and resources, we will now take our clients' visions to an even higher level, developing tools and providing services which are flexible and powerful enough to serve nonprofits of all sizes and missions."

Joining Tony in his announcement was Jay Frost, President and CEO of Wealth ID, a prominent leader in the research and fundraising field. "We are very excited to be a part of the WealthEngine family and to combine our data, services and support with theirs to create a company uniquely able to serve the global nonprofit marketplace in identifying opportunities to advance their missions."

Both Tony and Jay emphasized that the merger holds tremendous promise for the development of products and services for both domestic and international organizations in the nonprofit sector. At the same time, each stressed that current customers will see no change in their existing relationship or the products and services they are receiving. For the future, you may expect more data and more dynamic features to enhance the products you use daily

For more information, please attend one of our informational briefings scheduled for:

• Thursday, August 25 at 10 a.m. (EDT)
• Tuesday, August 30 at 10 a.m. (EDT)
• Thursday, September 1 at 2 p.m. (EDT)

Details for the teleconference are:

Teleconference number is 1(800)861-4084
Conference code is 2364572

Specific questions may be directed to info@wealthengine.com or (301)215-5980.

Learning Opportunities: Workshops – Free for WealthEngine Clients

Would you like to learn more about the new updates or great features that WealthEngine offers? Then sign up for one of these free hour-long workshops. They are conducted via teleconference and webinar.

WebService History Workshop – August 24, 10:00 a.m. (EDT)
This workshop is ideal for people who want to learn the advantages of the History section.

Access Manager Reporting Workshop – September 6, 1:00 p.m. (EDT)
This WealthEngine workshop is designed for people who want suggestions on how to make the most of their screening results and reporting. This training is perfect if you need ideas on filtering data, running reports, adding data to constituent files or changing formulas on constituents.

Sign up today as they fill up fast! Call or email Jaime Davis to sign up – 301/627-6874 or jdavis@wealthengine.com.

Feature Article: Partner Graham-Pelton Consulting Uses WealthEngine Technology for Fundraising Campaigns

Lisa Grider, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of WealthEngine partner Graham-Pelton Consulting, Inc. talks with WealthEngine about today’s fundraising campaigns and ways that Graham-Pelton Consulting uses Prospect Surveyor, a multi-faceted electronic screening tool, with clients.

Technology continues to become more critical to the success of modern fundraising efforts. Lisa Grider, Executive Vice President and COO of WealthEngine partner Graham-Pelton Consulting says, “The role of technology and information is one of the key ways that campaigns have changed over the past decade. Successful fundraising and campaigns today are data-driven. There is an increased need to capture data. To increase both dollars and donors, an organization must be able to segment and track information.”

“Those who participate in campaigns – volunteers, trustees, organization presidents and vice presidents – all come with expectations from the real world, and there continues to be a desire for more and better information,” continues Grider. “There’s also an increased need to capture data and provide it in a format that a layperson can read. And, this is one of the reasons that we partner with WealthEngine – for the very usable reports that are provided.”

“However, fundraising technology is just one tool. Prospect Surveyor gives wonderful information, but that can’t and shouldn’t replace traditional prospect review. Things like having the right people around the table are important,” notes Grider.

“While Prospect Surveyor enables us to know the capabilities of a prospect, it takes both capacity and inclination to make a major gift,” continues Grider. “The actual work of a campaign is what moves a prospect from where he or she is to an inclination to make that major gift. A wealth screening is just the beginning.”

Graham-Pelton Consulting uses Prospect Surveyor in campaigns for many clients. One frequent use is with organizations that have a solid and stable annual campaign or a strong direct-mail campaign, but that have never really developed a major-gifts program. Typically, these organizations would have a wonderful database of people, but no idea about their capabilities.

“Our role at Graham-Pelton Consulting is to get stretch gifts from donors,” says Grider. Prospect Surveyor provides insight into gift capacity for these consistent, but small, donors.

Graham-Pelton Consulting also uses Prospect Surveyor as a tool to help give campaign leaders the confidence to make the ask. Grider explains, “We’ll say, ‘Based on such-and-such annual gift, we recommend a solicitation amount of …..’ Sometimes, the volunteer solicitor will be shocked by the amount. Seeing it on paper in a wealth-screening report helps motivate the solicitor to ask for the right amount.”

“WealthEngine is a wonderful product and a dynamic and ongoing tool for daily use in a development program,” summarizes Grider. “But, it doesn’t do any good just to download the information. You must use it. All the data in the world doesn’t replace the need to ask for a gift.”

Graham Pelton Consulting, Inc. is a full-service fundraising and nonprofit management firm. To learn more, visit www.grahampelton.com.

Success Story: GSUSA Uses WealthEngine to Enhance Fundraising of 300+ Councils Nationwide

J. Cynthia Weber, Director of Council Funding Resource Development, and the staff at the Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) national headquarters work with more than 300 Girl Scout Councils around the country. GSUSA believes that increased funding is essential for each council’s success in providing the Girl Scout experience in building character, confidence and courage for girls. To make that belief reality and change the lives of more girls, GSUSA works hard to increase the fundraising capacities, particularly in the areas of individual giving and major gifts, of councils across the United States.

WealthEngine now plays a big part in this strategy and its success to date.

“We do look at the numbers of American philanthropy. We know that more than 84% of all charitable giving comes from individuals,” says Weber. “And, we partner with Girl Scout councils to increase the skills and tools they need to fundraise from individuals.”

While acknowledging the extraordinary efforts of girls through the Girl Scout Cookie® Sale Program which supports troops and councils, and continued but greatly reduced United Way contributions, these sources are not enough for councils’ current operating expenses or for the funding of specific projects, such as a new program center for girls or the installation of a computer lab at a Girl Scout camp. Increased funding from individuals is a strategic, effective and efficient way to secure this needed current and future funding.

Selecting one company to work with GSUSA and all its councils was not an easy decision. Weber explains, “Councils range in size and in fund development sophistication. We were looking for a way to meet a wide range of needs and capabilities. Additionally, some councils needed services that they could begin using immediately, since typically 10% of councils are planning or in a capital or major fundraising campaign at any given time.”

The GSUSA program with WealthEngine includes several services:

• WebService – All councils are able to access the online WebService year-round for data-mining. GSUSA funds all costs as an incentive for the councils to try and build more individual-giving programs. Nearly half of the councils have used this service over the past five months. Weber adds, “As word gets out about WebService and that it’s both useful and free to councils, more will use it before the end of the year.”

  This summer, a new feature is being introduced, My WebService, which will give each council the ability to store look-ups in their own History section, while still sharing a single account with the other councils.

• Donor Screening – GSUSA offered batch screenings as a pilot program to an initial 20 which expanded to 25 councils for a combined “tool and training” pilot. The pilot program featured the opportunity to screen up to 5,000 names with GSUSA and the council sharing costs 50-50. Councils could screen additional names at a greatly reduced price.

  For those councils participating in the pilot program, GSUSA set the expectation for each council to have two people attend an educational event on individual giving. Weber says, “GSUSA provided two opportunities to meet that expectation with its own 3-day courses on individual giving. But, councils were equally encouraged to attend an external opportunity in their local communities. One council in southern California put together its own individual giving conference using the services of an accomplished major gifts officer from a local university and invited surrounding councils to join with them for this all day event.”

  According to Weber, the pilot program has already seen successes:

  • A screening for one council revealed a prospect who had just sold his business for $7 million, raising the prospect’s giving capacity significantly from what the council had previously suspected. Weber notes, “That piece of information alone, the council CEO said, justified the council’s time and expenses involved in the pilot program.”
  • One of a council’s Most Promising Prospects (MPPs) turned out to be the best friend of the councils volunteer Fund Development Chair; he was unaware of the financial ability of his friend.
  • A council’s screening identified another individual who sold a business for $57 million. This prompted the council to make a personal call on the prospect and his wife. During the visit, the council discovered a memento from her Girl Scout days hanging on the kitchen wall! Both husband and wife are now being actively cultivated.

  “The WealthEngine services both create opportunities and allow councils to confirm known opportunities,” Weber says,” The program has been effective for smaller councils that might have thought donor screenings were too expensive.”

• Training – Weber says, “WealthEngine has been so willing to package Girl Scout-only trainings for staff from 10-20 councils at a time.” To date, at least two people from more than 150 councils have received training on the WebService. Councils participating in the pilot screening program have all received intensive training on the Access Manager. Initial trainings were completed, at times convenient for council staff, via online webinars over a two-week period. Since then, new trainings have been scheduled for other councils as they elect to participate.

WealthEngine has similar programs with other national organizations like the Easter Seals, for example. The program and its components are of particular use to healthcare systems, museum groups, universities, or any other organization that has multiple locations and is working to strengthen individual giving among its individual chapters or other entities.

Contact your WealthEngine sales person or Kimberly Mullins at 571/344-2798 or kmullins@wealthengine.com for more information on the program.

Questions & Answers

Q: I conducted a search, and the major gifts the prospect gave to my organization are not listed in WealthEngine’s Charitable Donations. Why?

A: While our database of Charitable Donations is quite comprehensive with over 3 million gifts, it is not an exhaustive list. This is because the source of the database, Waltman’s Donor Series, is compiled by individuals collecting annual reports and scanning them into a computer, so we only have those gifts that are listed in the annual reports they have scanned. If you have annual reports from other organizations or even your own that you would like included in our next Charitable Donations update, please feel free to send them to us at 4339 Montgomery Avenue, Bethesda, MD 20814.

Q: There are no property listings showing for my prospect, and I used his home address. I am fairly confident that he owns the property. Why is it not coming up on his report?

A: This could occur for any number of reasons including the property ownership being listed under the prospect’s company or the prospect could be renting. Regardless of the cause, WealthEngine suggests you use the DataQuick link to verify real estate information. Once there, we recommend entering only the property address without a prospect name. On most occasions, DataQuick will provide you with the detail on this property including the name of the individual who is on the title.

Staff Profile: Mishka McCowan

Mishka McCowan has been with WealthEngine since March 2000. Mishka, WealthEngine Developer, spends his days keeping WealthEngine services running smoothly for clients and working on features to enhance current WealthEngine products. While Mishka has more than 10 years of experience in computer programming and development, he has an eclectic background. Before joining WealthEngine, he worked for several years in public affairs for a nonprofit. Other jobs have included a position with USIA in Vienna, Austria and as a black-jack dealer in a casino. He holds a B.A. in music from Oklahoma University with a concentration on clarinet.

Also, WealthEngine congratulates Claire Grimm, Vice President of Sales, on her recent nuptials.

Special Offer for WealthEngine Clients: 50% Savings on The Chronicle of Philanthropy

WealthEngine has arranged for clients to receive four free issues of The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Clients will also have the opportunity to receive a full-year subscription at half off the regular price ($72 for 24 issues). Thanks to WealthEngine, you’ll receive 28 issues in all for just $36! Click here to sign up for this special WealthEngine rate.