Posted on

How to Ensure Customer Excellence with Big Data and a Human Touch

The lifeblood of any business or nonprofit is happy clients or donors. The challenge is in knowing how to create experiences they’ll enjoy, remember, and keep coming back for. Luckily, innovative analytics has made it easier than ever to ensure customer excellence. This guide covers why you should use big data to guide client interactions and the best strategies to use. It’ll also touch on some tools that automate the process and save you money.

This article is based on a presentation by Chady AlAhmar, Head of Strategy and Finance for U.S. Bank. 

Why You Should Leverage Big Data and Analytics

Customer excellence is when someone will choose your business or organization over anyone else in your industry. However, it hinges on the individual. What delights one person isn’t necessarily going to work on another.

That’s where client data comes in. With the right info, you can take a prospect on a unique journey that has a high probability of converting them. As AlAhmar found out, there are also customer trends that encourage data usage, including desires for experiences that are:

  • Simple – People want it to be easy to do business with you, e.g. no complicated forms
  • Personalized – Clients want to feel like you understand exactly who they are
  • Cheap – People need to know that you’re efficient with their money
  • Responsible – It’s important to customers that the product or organization has a higher social good or purpose

People are also becoming more comfortable with algorithm-based technologies. It doesn’t bother them when Alexa predicts their thoughts or grocery lists. They value this convenience. 

For the same reason, they anticipate you have and will use data about them to improve their interactions with your organization. However, as AlAhmar points out, customers are still thinking, “If I’m doing business with you, I still expect you to really, really take care of my data.” As such, make sure you’re following General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) guidelines. 

Five Top Tips for Customer Experience Strategy

AlAhmar’s team at U.S. Bank uses and recommends this strategy for cultivating customer excellence:

1. Know Your Client

AlAhmar notes, “The client is saying, “I’m a client of the bank. You have my social security, you have all the information on me. So, I expect you to know me.”

And know them you should. It’s easy to gather data about customers. Use that info to create a seamless, VIP experience that makes their life easier. 

2. Reach Out at the Right Time

This doesn’t mean don’t call a prospect at dinner time—although you shouldn’t do that either. Rather, get a big picture view of what’s going on in a client’s life before getting in touch.

“Do not reach out with every single product every day,” advises AlAhmar. “Try to figure out how to use all that data and prioritize it, so that you can figure out [when the client is most likely] going to engage with you.”

This practice, also known as prospect research, can tell you if someone just had a major life change. For example, if a potential donor recently moved or changed jobs, you likely don’t want to approach them for major gift fundraising. On the other hand, someone who has sold their business might be a great candidate. 

3. Use the Right Channel

Some people don’t want to be contacted by phone or would prefer to talk via email. Always learn your clients’ communication boundaries and stick to them.

“Every person has a different way to engage,” instructs AlAhmar. “If you have a client or a donor, you’d better know how to connect with them. [What are] their preferences? That’s going to be key.”

4. Offer Advice, Not a Sale

The best way to engage with your clients? Try to provide advice or a solution before offering a product or making a donation request.

Of course, you can connect this advice or service to your eventual ask. For example, AlAhmar wouldn’t prod a client to roll over her 401(k). Instead, he would start by giving her advice about the new tax bill and what kind of implications it has for her.

5. Incorporate Machine Learning

It’s vital to know which of the previous four strategies are converting your prospects and what needs tweaking. All your client interactions should be connected to a program that can record and analyze them to optimize the process.

AlAhmar describes how his team uses this kind of feedback loop when engaging with their customers: “We have WealthEngine in front of our advisors using Salesforce where any client, any prospect, you have the score right away.”

Source

This Propensity to Give (P2G) score indicates how likely a prospect is to buy or donate. WealthEngine calculates the score by analyzing factors like assets, a person’s history of giving, and more.

“I know that client before I even connect with them,” notes AlAhmar, “and based on whether they agree to meet with me or not, the machine is going to learn. It’s going to tell me this specific trigger is working better than the other trigger.”

Final Thoughts: Leveraging Big Data Helps Care for Clients

AlAhmar was once friends with an elderly man in his congregation named John. Although he was initially hesitant about leaving $7 million to the church, he trusted AlAhmar to allocate the money wisely based on their existing relationship. 

The foundation for his trust was simple. “Whenever [my wife and her mom] cook [John’s favorite meal], they send some to John, because he’s in his 80s and he loves that food,” recalls AlAhmar. This humble act between friends imbued John with the confidence that his gift was in good hands. 

The exchange summarizes AlAhmar’s approach to data-driven customer experiences. The right info at the right time backed up by a positive, pre-existing relationship helps clients feel valued and secure in your partnership. A tool like WealthEngine makes it automatic. Get in touch today for a demo. 

 

Posted on

Building Distinctive and Authentic Strategies in the Era of Data Abundance

In this era of data abundance, it can be tough to formulate a distinctive and successful business strategy that actually leverages data and gives you the growth you are seeking. Tom Monahan, founder and managing partner of Norton Street Capital and a board member of TransUnion,  shed some light on how to accomplish this successfully at the 2019 WealthEngine Prosper Summit.

How Data Changes Organizations

The way organizations use data to engage with clients and prospects in positive and helpful ways is constantly evolving. Companies shouldn’t look at data as a way to make money but instead, see it as an opportunity to genuinely help their clients. 

For example, if you’re an investment manager trying to help wealthy people better manage their money, you can use wealth screening. This is a powerful tool that enables you to pinpoint areas where your clients can be more efficient in their investing. Of course, you would make money off that data, but so would your clients, making it mutually beneficial.

Source

Not only are corporations using data to prospect or get new clients, but companies are also able to leverage data to develop better products and improve internal processes. 

How to Formulate a Strategy That Leverages Data

As a leader in an organization formulating a data strategy, it’s imperative to ask the right questions. Here are some questions you should ask to help build a successful business strategy:

  • How can we use the data we already have to help our clients?
  • What’s the last important thing you changed your mind about?
    • How did data affect your decision?
  • Where do we want to be in the data industry?
  • What are we good at?
  • What’s our ultimate mission?
  • How much risk are we willing to take?
  • How do we keep this data secure?

The point of asking these questions is for everyone to learn something new. It also provides an opportunity to think about how you can create a distinctive strategy for growth. Considering these things also helps to ensure you’re using the data you have available in an ethical manner.

Source

WealthEngine enables building a powerful data strategy with its WealthScoring data analysis. With WealthEngine’s Propensity to Give (P2G) Score, your organization will be able to correctly identify and prioritize those most likely to give. A P2G Score of 1/0 is optimal. 

The Principles of a Successful Business Strategy

As a strategist, it’s important to think about the compounding benefits of good strategic decisions, for long-term growth. How are you going to engage the customer so that you not only gain them as a client but are able to retain them as well? 

It’s not enough to simply have unique data either. You must have a plan for that data.

For example, the Union Pacific Railroad needs data that’s extremely valuable to them. However, for most people, this information would serve no purpose. The data in their positive train control system helps prevent derailments by taking in the track temperature, speed, and other important measurements throughout their system. This data makes it possible to predict situations before they happen. 

While it’s important for a train engineer to know what the temperature of the track will be four hours down the line. The average person does not need or know how to apply this information.

To successfully distinguish your organization within your industry, you should have data that’s unique for you, and have a way to apply it that generates genuine value. A recent webinar with Infutor, one of WealthEngine’s partners, examines the the hidden predictors that signal your top prospects. This information allows you to personalize your messaging to effectively target these donors. 

  • Proper Data Staging and Structuring

How you structure your data should help you understand this information in a way no one else can. You most likely have an abundance of data at your disposal, but how you stage and structure it is going to affect your strategy. 

The best thing you can do with data is to use it to predict something no one else can. Just as the Union Pacific Railroad has, find a way to use your data that makes it valuable to some and like magic to others. 

  • Value Creation

What can you do with data to help you truly excel? How is what you’re doing valuable to others? Figure out what specific value your data can create and see how that fits into your company’s strategy.

  • Extracting Value From Data

Of course, as an organization you want to make money, so how can you extract monetary value from this data? In a successful business strategy, you’re extracting data that helps people and brings you more income.

The Facts Behind “Data Is the New Oil” and How It Affects Your Business Strategy

The term “data is the new oil”, has been thrown around a lot lately. It was originally said by modern data use pioneer Clive Humby, and it has sparked quite the online debate. 

The prevailing online argument about this quote revolves around the question of whether data is indeed the new oil in terms of its value. Some take the position that data is not the new oil because data is renewable while oil is not.

Take a look at this Google trends map and you see blog posts on both sides arguing the simple statement “data is the new oil.” 

Blue= Data is the new oil

Red = Data is not the new oil

Source

What this really shows is how the internet can take information and then make large leaps,  instigating a heated argument. There are great points on both sides of this particular debate. However, it is important to note that what is being so vigorously argued is a shortened, clipped version of what Humby stated.

We believe accurate data is extremely valuable, and find what Humby actually said much more profound than the distorted quote that is often attributed to him:

“Data is the new oil, it’s valuable, but if unrefined, it cannot really be used. It has to be changed into gas, plastic, chemicals, et cetera. Create a valuable entity that drives profitable activity. Data must be broken down and analyzed for [it to] have value.” 

Essentially, like oil, data is nothing unless it is refined. If oil isn’t turned into gas, it can’t be used in your car. If data isn’t turned into something with valuable practical applications, it’s worth as little as salt. 

Ultimately, you as a business leader need to leverage your data and turn it into something valuable. The most important piece of a successful business strategy is the ability to take something that’s worth nothing to others and recognize its value for the right people.

Posted on

Planning and Successfully Executing Virtual Events and Galas

This article discusses why and how adopting virtual technology is fundamental for carrying on day-to-day nonprofit operations. Hosting virtual events is key to maintaining your brand awareness during the pandemic. 

Your donor community must be reminded that your organization continues to function. Your messaging should center on emphasizing the fact that those your nonprofit serves still have needs that must be met. Therefore, learning to host well planned and implemented virtual events is a top priority for meeting your organization’s fundraising goals.

Embrace the Virtual World and Its Advantages

Going virtual, in terms of business operations, requires adaptability and flexibility within your team. Doing so can actually have many long-term rewards provided the transition to virtual technology is properly implemented. Focus on the ways technology can assist your team and further your organization’s goals, and use it to your advantage. 

    • Switch Your Donor Outreach to Virtual Connections

Establishing a personal connection can be challenging in a time that requires social distancing. 

Use virtual meetings to connect with donors. Replace face-to-face visits with a Zoom call or online interaction using a similar platform. 

Virtual meetings are a good substitute for in-person meetings. However, you must allow for flexibility, which is crucial because technological difficulties are bound to occur from time to time.  Flexibility is also a necessity for numerous nonprofit organizations because many, if not most, are currently working with a smaller staff. 

Shift your focus to donors who are willing to do virtual meetings and events. Your time should be going to those who can engage and remain involved virtually. To facilitate this, segment your donors into those who are comfortable with the virtual game. 

Go Virtual With Fundraising Events 

Make the transition to virtual events. In-person galas, fundraisers, and events like golf tournaments are not possible at the moment. That doesn’t mean your organization needs to or can afford to completely shut down fundraising operations. 

With proper planning and implementation, virtual events will keep your donors and clients engaged with your mission. Virtual events offer the advantage of requiring less logistical planning, which reduces the increased pressure and responsibilities that are facing your reduced staff. Rather than viewing virtual events as a mere substitution for in-person functions, embrace the virtual experience as a fresh approach to add to your fundraising strategy.

Strategize and Understand Your Target Audience

Be creative, and be willing to try new things. Make a plan with your team, and have honest conversations about what you believe is possible to accomplish. Be willing to think outside the box and innovate. Strategize by familiarizing yourself and your staff with what will be required to ensure the event is a success.

Tailor your guest list to donors and prospects who are comfortable with the virtual experience. It’s important to target your content to those who are in a position to continue giving despite the current economic climate. Donor Segmentation allows you to correctly pinpoint your target audience that should be extended an invitation to your virtual events. Using this WealthEngine feature leaves you and your remaining staff free to focus your energies on hitting your fundraising goals. 

Source

WealthEngine assists you in accurately identifying your target audience with its propensity to give (P2G) rating. This score is given to an individual based on their financial standing and history of charitable contributions. 

Use virtual technology to do things on a tighter budget to help with your financial planning. Virtual events do not need funds allocated for things like space, food, or drinks. You can capitalize on this to save money. 

Virtual events alleviate the need to plan at the capacity of a typical in-person function. This is important because it saves you time.

Source

Engaging Content: The Key to Giving Your Donors an Enjoyable Experience

The reduction in event costs is a big advantage during this time of increased budget cuts. Understanding how these things will affect your guests’ experience is imperative to the event’s success. 

Providing engaging content these select participants find to be valuable is key to ensuring your donors have a good virtual experience. Hosting an event donors find enjoyable will lead the way in generating the fundraising dollars your organization needs. 

Renew your focus and encourage your staff to plan as much as possible for these virtual nonprofit events. One of the downfalls of doing things virtually is the heavy reliance on technology. 

Technology offers numerous benefits, but one of its drawbacks is increased vulnerability to issues beyond your control. Be as prepared as possible to address these problems as they occur and make adjustments as needed.

Plan, revise, and continue moving forward as you take part in these virtual experiences. Your guests and staff can provide valuable feedback about what they think works well and what improvements they would like to see. Listening to this information is crucial to making these fundraisers successful. The virtual experience offers something fresh to excite and invigorate your donors and prospects. It can provide a way to avoid the stagnation that occurs when traditional events have become formulaic. 

Get creative with your initiatives, and find ways your organization will be able to adapt your original plans to the parameters of virtual technology. As previously stated, your primary goal is to continue your fundraising initiatives. Embrace the ability to conduct these events virtually with a smaller staff. Be prepared to use these virtual strategies in our collective “new normal” that is a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Use Technology to Make the Most of Your Data

WealthEngine’s platform does the work for you, and can make a huge difference in results when your resources are limited. By understanding your donors and prospects, your fundraising strategy can be implemented in the most productive way possible. Doing so facilitates a higher return on investment (ROI) with donors. 

See how WealthEngine’s cutting edge technology can be used to supplement your team during this challenging time. Check out a free WealthEngine demo today. 

 

Posted on

Billionaire Donors Will Ask These 7 Questions Before They Donate

Annual funds

When serving today’s high-end net worth billionaire donor, you can expect them to have some questions before they decide to donate. Jim Lintott, chairman, and co-founder of Sterling Foundation Management spoke at WealthEngine’s Prosper Summit in 2019 to provide us with insight into what questions these billionaires might ask before deciding to donate to your nonprofit.

Approaching billionaires requires a lot of preparation. You get one shot to make your case and create a strong impression. Considering using an executive coach to help you get ready for your meeting.

1. How Can I Make a Difference?

One of the main reasons someone will consider donating is to make a difference. It’s not for their ego enhancement, or tax benefits, though those incentives do exist. Most wealthy donors want to make a difference in the world and genuinely help people.

The donor may or may not know how they want to make a difference. They’re coming to your organization to see how their donation can affect the world. 

It’s your job to support potential donors by helping them see how they can make a difference, and help them realize where their passion lies. People usually have a burning desire to do something good. 

At Jim’s firm, they came up with a great way to help people find their passion. Often, the families that come in aren’t sure what they want to do. The family is taken into a room where 50 headlines are on display heralding good things that could happen. 

These headlines are created after consultation with each family to get to know them and their priorities. Families are asked to take 20-30 minutes and walk around the room to read the headlines. Then, choose three of them they’d like to see come true.

2. What Won’t Happen if You Don’t Get the Money?

This question may seem simple on a surface level, but it’s important to be prepared to answer this question honestly and truthfully. This is necessary for your billionaire donor to understand the importance of their donation. 

Put together case studies of projects your charity has worked on that gave positive results and prepare to present them to your potential billionaire donors. The objective is to clearly demonstrate how their money can help and why they should donate to you. 

Jim Lintott shared an inspiring story at the WealthEngine Summit, about a family who’s 12-year-old daughter was suffering from epilepsy. The family wanted to make a difference in awareness and research into epilepsy. 

The Sterling Foundation Management came up with three projects for the family to consider. The family ended up choosing to participate in all three. 

Epilepsy.com

This resource was created to help guide families in their epilepsy journey. It’s a great first step for people who just found out their child has epilepsy. In only three short years, epilepsy.com became the largest epilepsy-related website that distributed information and helped build a community. 

 

Epilepsy Website Image

Source

Epilepsy Therapy Project

With thorough research, Jim’s firm found that potential new cures for epilepsy weren’t making it to phase two trials. The epilepsy therapy project worked with the pharmaceutical industry to identify ways to move drugs through the testing process and move forward. Six years later, 8 out of the 12 drugs in the epilepsy pipeline were driven by the epilepsy therapy project.

 

The Epilepsy Study Consortium Mission Statement

Source

Epilepsy Study Consortium

One of the major issues identified through research was the lack of people available for trials. The Epilepsy Study Consortium project helped find patients to sign up for new drug trials. Before this consortium, it took years to get a trial going. 

Through the family’s donation, they created a consortium of research hospitals in New York that kept potential candidates for trial in a usable database. When a new trial was proposed, they were able to shorten the recruiting process from 24 months to 60 days. Now, large companies are willing to focus on epilepsy treatments because the path is easier.

Imagine what the world would look like today if this family hadn’t decided to donate so these organizations could be created. How many more people would have suffered without this family’s generosity? This is the type of picture you need to paint for your potential billionaire donors to emphasize the gravity of their donation.

3. Who Can Give Me Expert Help?

Wealthy people and billionaire donors seek out experts for almost everything, including getting information about donating. If you’re putting together a proposal, be sure to show how you’ve successfully done this before.

It’s okay if you haven’t done this type of project. Be sure to show how you’re going to recruit new talent or how you’re going to educate yourself to provide the best results.

Prepare answers to these three questions so you’re ready when billionaire donors ask if you haven’t worked on a similar project before:

    • How are you going to find the expert talent needed to execute this project?
    • What are your requirements to make sure the new talent has experience?
    • What steps are you going to take to ensure the project will be completed on time?

Jim tells a comical, yet noteworthy story about how his firm was able to help their client redo a university library:

“Recently, we had a client come to us interested in redoing a university library. They had been pitched by the school. We sought out the nation’s three leading experts on technology in libraries, learning in libraries, and the future of libraries.”

Jim explains that finding and contacting these experts was done by a 22-year-old in his firm. Research costs were minimal—“two salads and one sandwich.” The information gathered helped the client recognize the potential and completely reshaped the project.

4. How Do We Measure Results?

Talk is great, but eventually, your potential billionaire donor is going to ask how you measure and track project results. First, create a proxy measurement. If you can’t determine a number to go off of, you’re most likely not trying hard enough. 

Use tools like surveys audited results, or attendance records and search for third-party verifiable measurements. This is key to creating long-term relationships.

Jim’s company developed a program in the three rivers area of Nigeria to fight illiteracy. They had the extra benefit of being able to add Basic Aids Education as one of the subjects used to teach people how to read. A review of other studies showed if you can teach adults to read, you can eliminate illiteracy in an area forever. 

This makes perfect sense because no parent who knows how to read would allow their child to be illiterate. By measuring before, during, and after, literacy rates in the three rivers area moved from 23% to 85%. This is the type of information your donors are looking for. 

5. What Type of Flexibility Can I Expect?

Typically, your potential billionaire donor isn’t going to care about the nuances of your organization, such as whether you’re a nonprofit or for profit. They simply want to make a difference. Potential billionaire donors will want to make sure you’re going to be flexible.

As Jim puts it, “Your [donor] wants to make a difference. We need to think outside of our own organizations. Are there partners we should include? Are there investments we should make?”

Jim tells another story to relate how many charities work on the issue of using charcoal for cooking in third world countries. Charcoal is a concern because it’s bad for your health.

However, it’s not as simple as just providing people with better cooking materials, such as liquefied natural gas. It is necessary to change the market completely. 

If you’re in the third world and are impoverished, purchasing 30 cents worth of charcoal is your easiest option for finding cooking fuel. However, you can’t simply purchase 30 cents of liquefied natural gas. 

The smallest container available is five gallons. At least, that’s how it used to be.

Now, there’s a company that will provide the tank for free and sells gas as it’s used. This is a for-profit solution to a bottleneck the nonprofit world could not fix.

Don’t get trapped into repeating what you’ve done before. Think outside the box to solve the problem.

Flexibility Planning

The other part of being flexible with donations involves planning. For example, some depression-era givers have the fear that their personal funds will be depleted. They want to help, but they’re afraid of going broke.

Being flexible with how you handle their money can help your organization get money in the future without pressuring people now. Jim’s firm often works with clients to create a

large charitable remainder trust (CRT). 

Doing so ensures all donations are earmarked for charitable giving. However, donors can draw from the CRT if circumstances demand it. Using a CRT enables your donor to give with confidence.

6. How Can I Involve My Family?

Most wealthy families and billionaire donors want to keep the money in the family for generations, but they don’t want to simply give their children money. Instead, they want to give those inheritances responsibly to ensure the money is managed effectively. 

With an estimated 30 trillion dollars about to be passed from the baby boomer generation to gen-Xers, who will then leave inheritances for millennials, families are considering how they’re going to get the next generation ready to handle their wealth.

A lot of Jim’s clients have parents tell their children, “Why don’t you run the foundation before you run the company?” This practice makes a lot of sense because making decisions is difficult. Reviewing grants and choosing the ones that most align with the foundation’s mission is excellent training for business decision making. 

With a grant, you get to actually make a decision. And with most grants, you get to see if your decision was the right one based on the results. This gives children the confidence they need to make the right decisions in the future when they are in charge of the company.

Passion Finding

Jim explained he has been fascinated by a trend he has witnessed repeatedly in many wealthy families. The second generation has a propensity to find it difficult to identify their life’s passion.

These children most likely don’t want to compete with the fact that mom and dad were so wildly successful economically. Many succeeding generations have found they can find their own life’s passion through philanthropy.

 

Source

Jim tells yet another story, this one is about a passionate child of one of their wealthy clients. The child was very concerned about the siblings of cancer patients. 

The organization dubbed Sibs for Kids was created. This idea was taken to a children’s hospital, where the concept was explained and an agreement was made to get the funding necessary for set up from the family foundation. Being able to witness younger generations find a passion is one of the more rewarding benefits that come with working with your donors to help them realize the extent of the good their donations can do.

7. What Tax Deductions Can I Expect?

As Jim mentioned earlier, tax deductions aren’t the main reason why a wealthy donor decides to give. However, it’s still an important question you should be prepared to answer at your first meeting. Be sure to explain to them what benefits they can get based on how much they donate.

At the end of the day, it’s important to remember that the wealthy want to help you. 

As Jim suggests, “Get to know them, and I mean really know them. Know their backgrounds, know their likes and dislikes, and what really motivates them. Get to know what and why they want to make a difference and help them see that path toward change. Be prepared to change the world together. You will both be glad you did.”

Posted on

WealthEngine Enhances SaaS Offerings With Data and Security Updates, Introduces Wealth-Based Market Potential Reports for Top US Metros

WealthEngine furthers its leadership in the wealth intelligence space and announced today the availability of its new Market Potential Reports for the top US metropolitan areas. These reports leverage the company’s regularly updated database on wealth insights with scores and ratings using publicly-available data for the entire adult population of the United States. These actionable insights provide nonprofits, higher educational institutions, financial firms, and high-end luxury marketers with a deeper understanding of opportunities to reach population segments based on estimated net worth, cash on hand, investable assets, business ownership, giving capacity and history, interests and passions, and propensity to invest, spend, and donate, and much more.

WealthEngine’s proprietary scores and insights incorporate 250 million profiles of the U.S. population from over 50 unique data sources, across thousands of attributes, which are now updated on a monthly basis in one comprehensive platform. These profiles are easily accessible, activated and aligned with API’s that can be embedded into any campaign workflow.

Rapid Market and Customer Segmentation

Clients can use WealthEngine’s Market Potential Reports to determine market size, segments to target, and go-to-market strategies. The metro-specific reports display hard-to-find metrics in clear, visual segments to help organizations identify expansion potential. When used in conjunction with WealthEngine’s continually expanding database and new product enhancements, clients can fast-track their path to finding and prioritizing prospects who have a high likelihood of becoming customers or donors. Sample use cases:

  • Identify millennials who show signs of emerging wealth
  • Spot potential liquidity events before they happen such as high net worth business owners based on age groupings
  • Model who is likely to inherit wealth like children of high net worth individuals
  • Find potential donors based on giving capacity, donation history, and interests
  • Pinpoint real estate investors such as people who own 3 or more local properties
  • Locate new investors based on cash-on-hand, stock holdings, and accredited investor status
  • Identify growing families in need of new financial products or bigger real estate
  • Nurture buyers of luxury goods based on spending patterns with insights such as aircraft or boat ownership

Market Potential Reports may be requested from WealthEngine’s website: https://info.wealthengine.com/market-potential-reports.

WealthEngine Data Platform and Security Enhancements

CEO and Executive Database Updates

WealthEngine released its newest SaaS platform update, version 9.4. This release refreshes WealthEngine’s rich database, which now boasts over 171 million philanthropic and charitable donation records with half a million records being added monthly. More so, this release updates 324,000 officers, directors, executives and CEO profiles to help clients reach wealthy upwardly-mobile prospects.

Clients use WealthEngine to gain wealth-related insights that help identify and segment their most promising opportunities, by uniquely scoring every individual. For nonprofits, identifying donors with a history of giving to related causes or who have had momentous “life events” is critical for their survival in a post-COVID fundraising environment. Identifying accredited investors with specific cash-on-hand or net worth tied to their real-estate property ownerships are also strong indicators of wealth. These insights often become the backbone that enables an organization to know more about their prospects and make informed decisions that propel client expansion.

“With in-person fundraising dramatically curtailed due to COVID, WealthEngine’s insights helped us target a select group for a virtual gala. We raised $25,000 in 60 minutes from 50 people,” said Mandi Fleiner, Director of Philanthropy & Communications, Northern Nevada HOPES.

Cloud Security Enhancements with SOC 2 Type II Certification

As part of WealthEngine’s ongoing activities in platform security, the company today also rolled out its latest security enhancement: multi-factor authentication (MFA). Using freely available authenticator apps, clients can now have an extra layer of security to login to their account, in addition to their username and password.

The additional protection layer is a unique code that a user enters after typing in their password. This code changes every 60-seconds and is available via numerous authenticator apps that can be installed on their mobile device. Using MFA significantly reduces the risk of an unauthorized party accessing a client’s account.

Another component of WealthEngine’s security offerings include end-to-end encryption of client files transmitted for processing. For years, WealthEngine has enabled secure file transfer protocol for encrypted file transmissions. This secure process encrypts both the transmission channel and the file, often referred to in security circles as the payload. After a secure key exchange with WealthEngine, clients can encrypt files before sending them over WealthEngine’s encrypted file submission network, essentially creating a dual-encrypted transfer of data from clients to WealthEngine.

Improved User Experience, Performance and Scalability

Finding accurate information quickly is now easier with improvements to WealthEngine’s user experience. The newly designed tagging, filtering and sorting features provide an easy way to segment donors or clients. When combined with industry’s only Donor Pyramid Modeler, available to nonprofits within WealthEngine’s platform, it creates an automated way to segment current and future donors and prospects.

“WealthEngine’s consistent and customer-first innovation cycles enable us to deliver on one major release every quarter,” says Elizabeth Schiffmann, Vice President of Product Management at the company. “This ability to quickly respond to the evolving needs of data-driven customers is transforming how fundraising and marketing are executed. I’m pleased with our attentive focus on security in this release by adding MFA. Our clients benefit from our leadership in providing innovative solutions that offer data security and leverage machine-learning for predictive analytics.”

Millions Of Identities Enriched and Continuously Updated

WealthEngine’s Open API provides access to WealthEngine’s proprietary wealth intelligence database using any donor management (DMS) or customer relationship management (CRM) system. The company supports over 30 different CRM/DMS systems through its connectors that are available for all licensed users of their platform.

WealthEngine continues to pioneer the industry’s most comprehensive set of wealth indicators that data hub consisting the entire US population. A data platform for advancing social good through its innovative Wealth Data Hub that is a comprehensive, publicly sourced data that is compliant with current regulatory statutes.

“Once you have your foundational data, then the layering of platforms like WealthEngine and their WealthScore™ tool becomes even more critical because now you know how to reach your customers, you know what their WealthScore™ is, and you can make your data so much more powerful. WealthScore™ is an important indicator of someone’s buying potential. It allows you to find the right customers,” said Michelle Tilton, Vice President of Marketing for Infutor.

The company also released its newest version of its Salesforce Connector of the Appexchange, which provides bidirectional updates of new data and modeled scores continuously. This includes WealthEngine’s proprietary WealthScore,™ a single number between 1-100 that takes into account a prospect’s net worth, capacity, propensity, affinity and intent, to help organizations prioritize their top prospects easily. All WealthEngine clients will receive a new link to install the updated version of this connector.

2020 WE Prosper – 3rd Annual Customer and Partner Summit

The company announced it’s third annual WE Prosper Summit, a two-day event held virtually this year on Wednesday, October 14 and Thursday, October 15, 2020. The WE Prosper Summit is a gathering of thought leaders from global causes and brands that will feature key industry speakers including: Rohit Bhargava, Founder & Chief Trend Curator of Non-Obvious Company, David Raab, Founder of CDP Institute, Amir Pasic, Dean of the IUPUI Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Tom Ahern, President of Ahern Communications, Ink, and Dave Chase, Owner of Chase Solutions Inc.

The theme of this year’s WE Prosper Summit is Growing the Pyramid. Thought leaders, experts, partners and clients will discuss the latest trends they’re seeing and best practices in raising more, while spending less considering the current climate. To register for WE Prosper Summit 2020 you can visit https://weprospersummit.com/.

WealthEngine also announced the beta availability of its industry’s first mobile app, which will allow national searches and scores at the fingertips of fundraisers and marketers. This app will support both Apple iPhone and Android(r) users and be available to all customers in October 2020.

About WealthEngine

WealthEngine is the industry’s premier wealth intelligence software-as-a-service provider. The company has been supporting more than 3,000 marquee customers for over two decades. The company enables industry-leading higher education, healthcare systems, advocacy, financial services, and high-end luxury brands and hospitality organizations in capturing and retaining tens of billions of dollars. Fueled by its proprietary wealth and lifestyle signals, WealthEngine customers measurably improve their personalization and effectiveness across fundraising, capital campaigns, marketing, segmentation and overall engagement with their audience.

Rooted in machine learning, with a cloud-native architecture, the WealthEngine 9.x platform boasts an entirely new user experience to provide wealth, demographic and lifestyle signals that come together to formulate powerful scores, WealthScores™ available in real-time. Underpinned by the company’s SmartAction™ technology, it pinpoints, predicts and helps personalize engagement with potential prospects. WealthEngine’s platform is the most convenient way to continually sense and respond to changing motivations for their audience to connect, invest, buy or donate.

WealthEngine is an active participant in Pledge 1%, regularly giving back to the community it serves through time, product and donations. Based in Bethesda, Maryland, the company has sales offices throughout the US and a wealth research and analytics team in India. Learn more at http://www.wealthengine.com.

###