Young Learners Need Librarians, not just Google is an article published in Forbes on Monday, March 22, 2010. A parallel article could have been titled – Small Development Shops Need Prospect Researchers, not just Google. Author, Mike Moran, repeatedly mentions children’s inability to discern credible sources and their inability to find the most relevant material amidst the overwhelming heap of irrelevant material. Yet many nonprofits continue to believe that they can type a donor prospect’s name in Google and find everything they need.

The reality is that prospect research was always more complex, even before the internet. When searching was done in the library it was still important to know which sources to use and how to summarize prospect information for use by a gift officer. Finding prospect information is as complex as ever.

There are many sites purporting to “mine” the web for you, and sometimes they do a decent job of digging through the massive content on the internet. Dangerously, people often assume that because the website located the information, the information is both correct and belongs to the prospect. In fact mismatches and errors abound and are endlessly repeated.

A prospect researcher verifies information from primary sources wherever possible, alerts nonprofits when information is at risk for error, and includes self-disclosed or hearsay information (think Twitter, Facebook etc) only as appropriate, identifying the sources clearly. The two most important things a prospect researcher does for you is (1) ensure that standard biographical, occupational, wealth and giving history information is not overlooked, and (2) sift through and summarize the information ethically. A really good researcher can also alert you to possible gift strategies.

Researching your prospect requires specialized technique that goes way beyond Google. That’s why Aspire Research Group is so proud to offer small and mid-size organizations professional prospect research, without breaking the budget.