Wealth screening for nonprofits: 5 tools you need

Before you make "the ask,” you need to know how much your supporters can realistically give. But how can you determine what’s affordable and likely for each individual donor? That’s where wealth screening tools come in.

The right wealth screening tool can help you identify high-value donors and filter your list based on financial capability, allowing you to create personalized outreach based on each donor’s ability to give.

Below, we dive into what wealth screening is, why it matters, and the best paid and free wealth screening tools that integrate seamlessly with Givebutter.

What is wealth screening?

Wealth screening is the practice of tailoring your outreach strategy to your donors’ respective income levels. By understanding your supporters’ assets, you can more accurately assess their capacity to give—and maximize your fundraising efforts.

Benefits of donor wealth screening

Wealth screening is commonly used to identify major gift donors within your audience (after all, the 50 largest donors in the U.S. gave a whopping $16.2B to charity in 2024). And some of these donors give huge sums—including a donation of $500M from a single donor.

But finding high-net-worth individuals isn’t the only benefit wealth screening offers. In fact, the average American household donates $3,296 annually, and the average online donation ranges from $79 to $118—amounts that are affordable across many income brackets and can significantly impact your fundraising efforts.

Translation: Wealth screening isn’t just about uncovering major donors. It's about customizing your messaging strategy to match a potential donor’s income level, increasing your chances of securing a gift.

5 must-have wealth screening tools for nonprofits

Nonprofit wealth screening software helps you capture data related to supporters’ assets, income brackets, business affiliations, and total net worth. We've rounded up five must-have tools to streamline your wealth screening process.

1. DonorSearch 🔍

Nonprofit organizations of all sizes leverage DonorSearch to estimate giving capacity, and thankfully, Givebutter offers a native integration with DonorSearch, one of the most trusted platforms available. 

With DonorSearch, you can access rich prospect research data and store it directly within your customer relationship management (CRM) system. The platform brings together a donor’s past giving history, actionable insights, and other wealth indicators in one place—so you can tailor your ask amount to the individual. Plus, wealth data for all prospective donors is stored directly in your Givebutter contact profiles.

Donor Search is easy to use and provides SO much useful data about major donors and prospects. We did a wealth overlay last summer that has already helped us better target our major donors—and we have increased our revenue by almost 10%! — Megan L., DonorSearch user

More to explore

See how Givebutter and DonorSearch wealth screening can take your fundraising to new heights →

2. Givebutter’s nonprofit CRM 📊

Once you’ve gathered wealth data from DonorSearch, you need a centralized place to store it—this is where Givebutter’s built-in donation management software comes in.

Building authentic connections through your CRM can drive success, fuel support and collaboration, and build loyalty. — Mallory Erickson, CEO at Mallory Erickson Coaching

If you plan to make wealth screening a key component of your fundraising strategy, you need a CRM platform. It allows you to keep a database of all current and potential donors in one place. Plus, it provides an in-depth profile of each supporter, allowing you to view past donations and communications with each individual.

Givebutter’s tools make it easy to build contact profiles, implement activity tracking (like past donations!), and record custom data like income level, net worth, real estate ownership, or other wealth markers.

I think whether you're a small org like us or a larger org, the capabilities are there for you, and you should STRONGLY consider this. We looked at much larger CRM/donation platform companies that charged a lot more, and I am so happy we went with Givebutter. —  Emily G., Givebutter user

3. Donor segments 👯

With your wealth data organized in your CRM, the next step is to cultivate an effective outreach strategy.

Custom segments allow you to divide your database based on specific donor information—like geographic location, past donor history, demographics, or in this case, wealth indicators. By segmenting your list based on supporters’ respective assets, you can personalize your messaging for each group, getting you one step closer to your fundraising goal.

For example: 

• For individuals earning around $50K annually, you might send out a quick text blast that reads: “Donate $20 today!”
• For households earning $100K-$250K, you could ask for a gift in the $100-$500 range.
• For major donors, you might make an ask in the four-to-five-figures range—especially for special initiatives, such as a capital campaign.

It is easy to use, and has given us the ability to communicate more frequently with our donors and allows us to easily segment and target messages based on past response. —  Cindy S., Givebutter user

4. Double the Donation 💰💰

Your wealth screening reports often include data points related to supporters’ occupations. And if your screening results show a potential donor owns their own business, you might consider soliciting them for matching gifts.

Matching gifts can be an excellent way to increase corporate gifts to your organization. In these campaigns, a company pledges to match donations up to a certain dollar amount. Shockingly, $4–$7B in matching gift revenue available to nonprofits goes unclaimed each year.

That’s where Double the Donation comes in. Givebutter integrates seamlessly with Double the Donation’s 360MatchPro platform, making it easy to identify match-eligible donors and take action.

From there, you can incorporate gift matching into your larger fundraising strategy—whether you’re launching an SMS campaign, hosting a ticketed event, or embedding a donation form on your website. Pair it with Givebutter's native donation matching software to take your campaigns even further!

Double the Donation helped us easily earn extra money and double our impact. Their customer support is fantastic, both onboarding and ongoing support. We use it every day! —  Michael K., Double the Donation user

Dive deeper

Learn how to set up a matching gift program at your nonprofit →

5. Automated thank you messages 📬

It’s no secret that a small “thank you” can go a long way—and this is especially true for donor retention. First-time donors who receive a thank you within 48 hours of donating are far more likely to give again.

With Givebutter’s automation tools, you can immediately send thank you messages after every online contribution. And these automated receipts are easy to customize with a heartfelt message expressing your gratitude.

When it comes to major gift donors, an automated thank you might not be enough. You can use ThankView to send personalized videos to your donors in these cases. With ThankView’s integration with Givebutter, you can send personalized videos at scale to anyone who contributed to your campaign.

ThankView has made it easier than ever to connect our campus with those alumni, parents, and the greater community. We know that we have a profound impact on our region and state, but now we have a quick visual way to do so. ThankView emails have our highest open rates and engagement. — Virginia B., ThankView user

Launch your wealth screening strategy with Givebutter

Wealth screening empowers your team to craft a data-driven outreach strategy based on a supporter’s net worth. But implementing a wealth screening strategy can be tricky—which is why you need the right tools.

Givebutter is the all-in-one, donor-centric platform that makes it easy to incorporate wealth screening into your fundraising strategy.

With Givebutter, you get integrations like DonorSearch, 360MatchPro, and ThankView to research, engage, and thank new donor prospects. Plus, Givebutter comes with highly-rated fundraising campaign tools, a built-in nonprofit CRM, and nonprofit marketing features to help organize donor data and customize your outreach strategy.

Ready to transform your fundraising strategy? Sign up for Givebutter today to get started.

Free wealth screening tools FAQs

Explore some of the most commonly asked questions about wealth screening, along with our best advice.

What is a wealth screening tool?

A wealth screening tool helps you identify the donors with the highest capacity to give, so you can create a tailored approach to encourage them to make their first donation or continue giving. Wealth screening tools allow you to categorize donors by how likely they are to give and to what degree, based on various wealth indicators. 

What are wealth indicators?

Wealth indicators are factors that wealth screening tools use to score your prospects. These can include stock holdings, business connections, real estate ownership, and past donation history.

What is wealth screening also known as?

You might find some people referring to wealth screening as donor prospect research or simply donor research. However, wealth screening is a more in-depth look, specifically focused on the financial capability of a would-be donor.