September's post is from Tania Drummond, Director, Prospect Research at NC State University, Raleigh, NC.

Most prospect research professionals probably describe their work to others something along the lines of this statement, which is part of the information presented about the prospect research office at my institution:

Prospect research professionals conduct research on people, companies and foundations. They collect, evaluate, analyze, organize and disseminate publicly available information in a way that maximizes its usefulness in making decisions for development operations.

Prospect Researchers have always been responsible for analyzing data in order to put it to practical use in fundraising efforts. One type of analysis might include sifting through large volumes of information, understanding what the data may be telling us and determining which pieces of information should be included in a report and which should not.  Another type of analysis might be applying the results of a predictive giving model to suggest potential new gift prospects for discovery pools or to inform development officer travel. But whatever the variety of projects on which prospect research professionals are asked to work, much – if not most - of our value lies in our ability to analyze data.

The availability of data to development personnel, free and purchased, and how easily we can get that data has changed tremendously in the last decade or so. It’s far more common now for nonprofit organizations to be able to purchase wealth screening data and predictive giving models from a wide choice of vendors. People who don’t do the work we do, however, often don’t understand that getting all this available data and using such tools as screening and modeling, while helpful and valuable, aren’t turn-key solutions to informing development strategy. The data gleaned from such projects as screening and modeling can’t be implemented and used effectively without having someone analyze that data in conjunction with the organization’s internal data, in context, and make sense of how it all can be used together and applied to the project or problem at hand. It’s the prospect research professionals who do this analysis, and who make sure that the organization is getting the highest return on the investments made into purchased data and data services.

I think those of us in prospect research should look for every opportunity to showcase and highlight that which is unique about the work we do and to display, in all the ways that we can, our ability to objectively analyze and evaluate information to come to an informed decision or judgment. We can do this not just in the prospect research work that we do, but also in the choices we make in our office operations, our budget proposals, and our project and staffing plans. Our critical thinking and problem solving abilities should be on display in everything we do, and we should always be able to answer the question of “why” – why we made that choice, why we made that decision, why we suggested that strategy. In doing so, perhaps we’ll better the odds that we’ll never have to answer the question, “why is prospect research important?”