Key takeaways:
- 90% of nonprofit revenue often comes from just 10% of donors. It’s worthwhile to identify and cultivate major gifts.
- Wealth screening based on assets alone is no longer sufficient to address evolving fundraising challenges.
- Relationship intelligence helps turn cold outreach into warm introductions through network visibility and board connections.
- In-depth HNW/UHNW profiles reveal donor motivations, philanthropic history, and alignment with organizational missions.
- Board and executive data surface hidden influence, providing new pathways to strategic engagement and trust-based giving.
The numbers behind the pressure
Fundraising leaders know the stakes are high, and the latest numbers underscore just how urgent the challenge has become. Research by Giving USA unveils eye-opening facts that we’ll explore below. In 2024, total U.S. charitable giving reached $592.5 billion. Compared to the previous year, this is an increase of 6.3% in current dollars and 3.3% after inflation. For the first time in three years, giving actually outpaced inflation.
The gains show resilience in philanthropy and put a spotlight on where fundraisers need to focus. It’s important to identify the right donors and match them with the right opportunities.
- Individuals contributed $392.45 billion.
- Foundations gave $109.81 billion.
- Corporations contributed $44.4 billion.
One striking trend is the concentration of wealth in the hands of very large donors. In 2024, mega-gifts came to a total of $11.72 billion, representing about 3% of all individual giving. These outsized contributions reveal how much a small group of ultra-wealthy individuals influences overall fundraising outcomes. According to AFP Global, 90% of a nonprofit’s revenue often comes from just 10% of its donors. This reminds us of the importance of identifying, qualifying, and cultivating major donors.
At the same time, giving to specific sectors continues to shift. In education, there was an increase of 13.2% to $88.32 billion. Health and human services rose 5%. Even as top-line numbers grow, the underlying donor base remains fragile.
Together, these numbers paint a clear picture: fundraising growth depends not only on broadening the base, but on finding and engaging the right high-value donors. With limited staff and resources, organizations need tools that deliver deeper insights, faster prioritization, and more efficient strategies for connecting with donors who can make a transformational impact.
Pain points facing fundraising teams
Fundraising teams face mounting pressures from multiple directions. They are expected to grow revenue with limited staff and constrained resources, often needing to do more with less. Quick wins and efficiencies matter, but identifying and qualifying high-value donors is difficult without the right tools. Traditional wealth screening often falls short, offering partial snapshots without the deeper insights and faster prioritization that busy teams need.
Many nonprofits still rely heavily on board relationships to open doors, but without clear visibility into who knows whom, engagement can stall. Without strategic intelligence on influencers and networks, fundraising efforts risk being inefficient, missing opportunities for transformational gifts.
We know these challenges firsthand from working closely with leaders across nonprofits, higher education, and healthcare organizations. Teams span fundraising strategy, donor prospect research, and board engagement, across levels from executive leadership to individual contributors.
Despite differences in roles and organizational scope, the pain points remain consistent: limited time, limited visibility, and increasing expectations.
What is wealth screening and why it matters
Wealth screening is a strategic process: a way to understand an individual’s financial capacity, relevant interests, and networks of influence.
At its core, it means uncovering which prospects are most likely to contribute meaningfully—so that development teams can prioritize outreach, deepen relationships, and allocate resources more efficiently.
For nonprofits, education, and healthcare organizations, wealth screening helps with:
- Identifying top prospective donors from existing databases.
- Uncovering new HNW (High Net Worth) and UHNW (Ultra High Net Worth) individuals who align with mission and values.
- Informing major gift strategies through deeper knowledge of a donor’s capacity, interests, and affiliations.
- Personalizing outreach so messages resonate based on what they care about.
The gap between traditional screening and what’s now possible
A lot of wealth screening tools focus on financial metrics: real estate, investment holdings, known philanthropic history. These are useful. But they leave gaps. Without context about relationships, leadership roles, and verified behavioral signals, nonprofits often work with incomplete portraits of giving potential.
Key limitations of many traditional approaches:
- Limited verification, leading to outdated or inaccurate data.
- Sparse relational context—who do prospects know? Who can introduce them?
- Lack of real-time or near-real-time updates. Wealth and influence shift; screening must keep up.
What modern wealth screening tools should deliver
When researching wealth screening tools, look for solutions that provide:
- Human-verified, in-depth profiles of HNW and UHNW individuals
- Global coverage and intelligence
- Relationship intelligence and network insights
- Board and executive data
- Profile enrichment and segmentation tools
- Up-to-date data at all times
Let’s go deeper into the three differentiators that truly redefine how wealth screening can empower nonprofits.
Relationship intelligence: turning cold prospects into warm introductions
One of the biggest causes of missed opportunities in fundraising is relying on cold outreach. Sending an email or letter to a wealthy individual rarely produces meaningful engagement, because philanthropy is built on trust. This is where relationship intelligence becomes transformative.
Relationship intelligence maps how individuals are connected—professionally, socially, and philanthropically. For fundraisers, this means understanding not just a prospect’s wealth but who in your network already knows them.
Why it matters
- Trust accelerates giving: Donors are far more likely to respond to organizations introduced by people they know.
- Board engagement becomes strategic: Many boards want to help open doors, but without clear visibility into their networks, engagement is ad hoc. Relationship intelligence shows exactly where those connections exist.
- Influence spreads across networks: One well-placed introduction can lead to entire new circles of donors.
Example in practice
Imagine a Major Gifts Officer at a university preparing to meet a high-capacity alumnus. Relationship intelligence could reveal that two current trustees previously served on a corporate board with this individual. Instead of approaching cold, the officer can work with trustees to secure a warm introduction, instantly increasing the likelihood of meaningful dialogue.
This shifts the focus from “who has money” to “who has money and trust within our network.” This approach is far more powerful.
In-depth HNW and UHNW profiles: understanding capacity and motivation
Not all wealth is equal when it comes to philanthropy. Two individuals with similar net worth may behave very differently: one may be highly philanthropic, the other less engaged.
This distinction is critical at a time when just 3% of individual giving ($11.72 billion in 2024 as noted earlier) came from mega-gifts made by a small group of ultra-wealthy donors. While those gifts are transformational, relying too heavily on them is risky.
In-depth profiles help fundraising teams uncover the broader pool of high-capacity donors who may not yet be giving at their potential.
What the profiles include
- Financial indicators: net worth, liquidity, holdings, and transactions
- Career history: executive roles, entrepreneurial ventures, and professional achievements
- Philanthropy: past giving patterns, nonprofit board memberships, foundations they manage, or causes they’ve supported
- Personal context: lifestyle interests, family connections, and geographic ties
Why context matters
- Better qualification: Focus on prospects with both capacity and demonstrated affinity.
- Tailored outreach: A donor with a history in healthcare giving will respond differently to a medical research appeal than to a capital campaign.
- Risk mitigation: Verification helps avoid reputational risks by ensuring alignment with organizational values.
Example in practice
Consider a university advancement team. By using in-depth profiles, they discover that a modest alumnus has quietly become a UHNW entrepreneur with a strong record of supporting STEM initiatives. Instead of sending a generic alumni appeal, the team designs a targeted proposal to fund a new engineering scholarship, directly matching the donor’s interest with institutional need.
These insights transform wealth screening from raw data into donor stories, enabling fundraisers to build relationships that feel personal and authentic.
Board and executive data: a goldmine in sight
Nonprofits often underestimate the power of board and executive data. Leadership roles are more than titles. They reveal influence, priorities, and networks that can directly shape fundraising outcomes.
Board and executive data helps identify where those high-impact donors are hiding and how they’re connected to your mission.
What it includes
- Corporate board service: Signals leadership, financial capacity, and cross-sector influence.
- Nonprofit board affiliations: Indicates existing philanthropic interest and governance experience.
- Advisory or honorary roles: Shows softer influence, often tied to passion areas.
Why it matters
- Board alignment: Serving on the board of a healthcare foundation signals active philanthropic engagement.
- Shared affiliations: A shared board experience with one of your trustees creates a natural introduction path.
- Influence mapping: Executive networks often extend to peers, colleagues, and co-investors, multiplying opportunity.
Example in practice
A healthcare nonprofit identifies a prospect who serves on the board of a pharmaceutical company and a local arts nonprofit. This dual board presence suggests both capacity and broad philanthropic interest. By highlighting how their hospital’s research bridges healthcare and community benefit, fundraisers can craft a compelling, cross-interest proposal.
In many cases, board and executive data surfaces prospects who would never appear on a simple wealth screen, but whose influence and affiliations make them highly likely to engage.
Case study: Scouting America
| Challenges & Goals | Approach | Outcomes |
| Focused on principal gift donors capable of transformational giving | Used wealth intelligence to enrich financial data with philanthropy, career, and board roles | Improved targeting of principal gift prospects |
| Needed proposals aligned to both capacity and interest level | Leveraged relationship intelligence to map prospect connections to their board and alumni network | More efficient outreach with fewer cold leads |
| Wanted to move beyond relying on “hunches” to making data-driven decisions | Better alignment of ask sizes to donor capacity and interests |
Case study: Mercy Ships UK
| Challenges & Goals | Approach | Outcomes |
| Large donor database with limited staff resources for research | Used wealth screening to research donors deeply, uncovering career, asset, board, and network details | Identified nearly 300 hidden UHNW/VHNW donors |
| Many donors made modest recurring gifts, masking true capacity | Enabled on-the-spot research in meetings, providing richer profiles in real time | Found small recurring donors with net worths exceeding £85 million |
| Needed a scalable way to uncover hidden UHNW/VHNW donors | Reclassified mid-tier donors to optimize pipeline efficiency | |
| Increased qualification speed and accuracy without a dedicated researcher |
Positioning your organization for fundraising success
The organizations that thrive in such a competitive philanthropic environment will be those that move beyond traditional wealth screening.
By adopting tools that combine wealth data with relationship intelligence, nonprofits, universities, and healthcare institutions will be able to achieve the following.
- Identify truly aligned prospects rather than relying solely on financial snapshots
- Engage through trusted networks by leveraging relationship maps and shared connections
- Personalize outreach based on verified insights into values, causes, and affiliations
The case studies shared above show that significant major donor potential is often hidden in plain sight, such as among loyal small donors or alumni. Having the right tools to unearth that potential can make a big difference.
On the way to more funding, more impact
Wealth screening remains a foundational tool for nonprofits, education, and healthcare fundraising. But the pressures on teams, from limited resources to the need to show quick wins, mean that traditional tools aren’t enough. Relying solely on static wealth data can waste time, overlook hidden potential, and leave board engagement underpowered.
By moving beyond basic screening to embrace verified, enriched profiles, relationship and leadership insights, and network intelligence, organizations can overcome these pain points.
With these tools, you gain the efficiency to do more with less, the clarity to prioritize high-value donors quickly, and the visibility to activate board and influencer networks more strategically. With the right intelligence, fundraising grows revenue and lasting impact.
Our experts are here to help you reach your fundraising goals. Connect with the team when it’s convenient for you.