Donor Research Info
Why do we do donor research:
The most efficient and effective way to raise money for a campaign is by soliciting prospective donors personally and ask them for their help. This research helps you identify the golden top 20% of your targets, how to appeal to them, and how much to ask them to donate.
Good Lists are everywhere:
Secure your prospect lists and names from allied groups, previous candidates and current elected officials that agree to share or rent their list to you. Look for donors to alumni associations you are associated with and other organizations with whom you have a relationship.
What donor research is not:
It is illegal to go to websites, such as the FEC’s, for the purpose of obtaining donor names and downloading other candidate’s lists. In the context of donor research, these sites should only be used to research prospect lists that you already have.
What to research:
The following checklist is a guide to the areas we want researched and the websites you can use to find out this information. If no info can be found, such as a phone number or they don’t have a giving history, please be sure to note that on the call sheet so it is clear that has been researched.
• Both a work and home phone number so that we can call the person during the day or in the evening,
• Their occupation and employer so that we know what kind of business they are in,
• Their address to mail letters or invitations to
• Their past donations to other political campaigns so that we can gauge their donation level and know what other candidates they support,
• Some type of background information such as a bio from their business website, organizations or charities they are involved with, or past political issues or post they may have held, and
• Spouse information, if you have the name of a person’s spouse, please do complete donor research for them as well.
Rarely will we find all of this information, but the more info we do have, the easier it is for the campaign to make a connection to the donor and earn their support.
Donor History and Giving Capacity
There are several to choose from, find the one you are most comfortable with and start your research.
Don’t forget to search your state’s or locality’s filings as well, especially for local races. The most efficient and effective way to raise money for a campaign is by soliciting prospective donors personally and ask them for their help.
This research helps you identify the golden top 20% of your targets, how to appeal to them, and how much to ask them to donate.
Write giving history as follows: amount candidate year ($500 Clinton’08). If they have extensive giving history just pick the largest gifts and those candidates/organizations similar to candidate. If they have no history write: “NGH” No Giving History.
Note: Do not write a sum of a person’s donations to a single candidate or PAC, please list the amount of each individual contribution so that we are able to determine an appropriate initial ask and overall giving capacity.
Tip: If a donor only strictly donates to a party or cause not similar to the candidate, make note of that and no further research is needed.
Contact Info
Search for a home and work phone number and a mailing address. These sites should all have the same data, and there are plenty more like these that you can use. Just pick your favorite:
If someone is an attorney, always check this resource. You can look up their work info from this site. This site often has a fax number and an email address. Sometimes it will have some professional information such as where they went to law school. Always record what type of law they practice if available.
Always do a Google search. Enter the person’s name or their business name into Google to see if there are any newspaper articles about them or if they are on a website. This will often help you find out if they are active with an issue or organization. Hint: For especially common names, enter their name (or business) as follows “First Last” in quotations, this will isolate the search to only incidents occurring exactly in that order.
Other good websites for biographies, companies, and general info: