Benefactor Intelligence

Know the 100 donors who shape your future. Know when they need your attention.

Benefactor Intelligence helps you understand the people who matter most and prepare for the conversations that count. Because your most important donors do not stand still. Companies are sold. New roles begin. Foundations make gifts. Families change. When something changes that deserves your attention, you will know.

Your first Brief is free · judge the work on a donor you know

Start with a Brief: a deep, sourced understanding of your donor, including the right ask amount.

Your first Brief is free, on one of your most important donors.

Then scale that intelligence with weekly monitoring of your 100 most important donors, so you know how to move each relationship toward a larger gift.

Every significant claim linked to its source Public sources, responsibly researched Month to month, cancel anytime
Why this matters

Fundraising is not evenly distributed. Neither should your attention be.

89%
of higher education dollars came from just 2% of donors.
CASE VSE Survey, FY2025 (opens in a new tab)
100
donors within your portfolio deserve your closest attention.The Benefactor Intelligence framework
Know them deeply. Know when they need your attention.
See where Benefactor Intelligence fits
01 · Where it fits

Know who matters. Know them. Know when they need your attention.

A wealth screening tool helps you identify who matters. Benefactor Intelligence occupies the space after identification: understanding the person, and staying current as their world changes.

Where you start · Your screening tool
Wealth screen
Know who matters.

iWave, DonorSearch, ResearchPoint, and other screening tools help identify the people with the capacity, affinity, and philanthropic indicators to warrant greater attention.

That gives you the list. Benefactor Intelligence starts there.

Step two · One donor in focus
Donor research
Know them deeply.

Before an important meeting or solicitation, your fundraiser needs more than a capacity rating and CRM notes.

A Brief brings the donor into focus: wealth, business interests, family, philanthropy, relationships, giving, and recent developments. Every significant claim links to its source.

It helps answer:
  • What should I know before I meet them?
  • How much should I ask for?
  • What should we do next?
One donor · 10+ pagesFirst Brief free · then $99 each
Get Your First Brief Free
Step three · Ongoing coverage
Weekly monitoring
Know when they need your attention.

Knowing your donor deeply is only part of the job. You also need to know when their world changes.

We monitor your 100 most important donors every week.

Every Monday morning, you receive one prioritized digest. Not everything we find. Only what deserves your attention.

It helps answer:
  • What changed?
  • Does it affect our strategy?
  • Is there a reason to reach out now?
50 donors · $299/mo100 donors · $399/mo · 4 Briefs a month included
See what we watch

You do not need another database. You need to know when something important changes about someone important to your organization.

02 · Donor research · Know them

Walk into the meeting knowing more, including the right ask amount.

You know the prospect. But do you know them deeply?

Where their wealth comes from. What they care about. How they give. Who influences them. What has changed in their world. And, most importantly, what the evidence suggests you should ask for.

A Brief turns public information into a clear donor strategy. It brings together wealth and capacity, business interests, philanthropic history, foundation activity, family context, relationships, affiliations, political giving, institutional connections, and recent developments.

Then it goes further.

Every Brief includes an ask amount, supported by the available evidence and clearly stated assumptions. Facts stay separate from estimates. Confidence levels are identified. Gaps are called out plainly. Every significant claim links back to its source.

Each Brief closes with what matters most for the fundraiser: what the evidence suggests, what still needs to be learned, what makes the conversation timely, and how to approach the next meeting.

The goal is not to replace what your fundraiser knows. It is to combine public intelligence with relationship intelligence, so your team enters the conversation better prepared.

One donor · $99 · 10+ pages · Usually within 1 hour · Guaranteed within 24 hours. Designed for preparation before an important donor visit, strategy conversation, solicitation, or leadership interaction.

Get Your First Brief Free

Your first Brief is free. See the work first: a Brief on a public-company CEO · a Brief on a founder after a company sale

03 · The offer

Your first Brief is free.

Not a sample. Not an abbreviated trial. The full Brief other organizations pay $99 for, on a donor you choose. Pick a name you know well and see what we find, before you spend anything.

$0
Your first Brief · the full product
$99
Each additional Brief
1 hr
Usual delivery time
24 hrs
Guaranteed delivery
Get Your First Brief Free

Free with a work email; personal-email signups add a card. You pay $0 for your first Brief, limited to one per organization. You buy Briefs one at a time; ordering one does not start a subscription.

04 · Weekly monitoring · Know when they need your attention

Your 100 do not need your attention every week. But every week, you need to know who does.

A Brief helps you understand one important donor. Weekly monitoring tells you when to pay attention to your 100 most important donors.

We monitor those donors and surface the changes that matter.

When something happens, you know what changed, why it matters, and what to do next.

One prioritized digest. Every Monday morning.

The changes that can change your strategy.

Changes in capacity. New interests. New relationships. New responsibilities. New reasons to reach out.

i.
Liquidity events
Company sales, mergers, recapitalizations, funding rounds, and insider transactions that can change a donor's capacity.
ii.
Major philanthropic gifts
Publicly reported gifts, including gifts of stock, that reveal priorities and momentum.
iii.
Foundation activity
Family-foundation assets, grants, leadership, and officer changes tied to a donor household.
iv.
Role and leadership changes
New positions, promotions, retirements, and transitions that reshape a donor's professional life.
v.
Board appointments
Corporate and nonprofit board seats, trusteeships, and foundation roles that reveal durable relationships.
vi.
Family transitions
Obituaries and other publicly reported family changes, handled with care.
vii.
Political and civic giving
Public federal campaign contributions and civic commitments that signal engagement.
viii.
News and recognition
Honors, awards, profiles, and coverage worth acknowledging, including mentions on your own institution's website.

For organization prospects

ix.
Grant activity
New grants, application windows, funding programs, and shifts in organizational priorities.
x.
Leadership changes
New presidents, executive directors, CEOs, department leaders, board chairs, and giving-program officers.
xi.
Form 990 financials
Updated assets, revenue, and grants paid from newly available nonprofit filings.

What arrives Monday morning. Not more information. Better timing.

The digest below is a sample of what your team receives. Each alert names the donor, what changed, why it matters, and the recommended next move, and every material claim links directly to the underlying public source.

The point is not to show how many sources we monitor.

The point is to notice the few changes worth acting on.

What changed. Why it matters. What to do next.

Card at signup · from $299 a month · cancel anytime

Public donor and organization signals only Every alert cited, the next move named Month to month, cancel anytime
05 · Pricing

Start with one donor. Or keep watch on your 100.

A Brief stands on its own: deep preparation on the donor in front of you, and your first is free. Weekly monitoring is the ongoing practice: coverage of the donors who matter most. Both are month to month, transparent, and self-serve.

Start here · One donor · Know them
Donor research
First Brief free · Additional Briefs $99 each
Current, organized research on one of your most important donors, before a visit, strategy session, or solicitation.
  • Your first Brief is free with a work email; personal-email signups add a card. Limited to one per organization. The full product, not a sample
  • One named donor, 10+ pages of organized research
  • Wealth, business interests, family, philanthropy, boards, and recent developments
  • Every significant claim sourced
  • Usually within 1 hour · Guaranteed within 24 hours
  • No subscription. You buy Briefs one at a time, $99 each after your first
Get Your First Brief Free →
Then · Ongoing monitoring · Know when they need your attention
Weekly monitoring
From $299 / month · Month to month · Cancel anytime
Weekly monitoring of your most important donors, distilled into one prioritized Monday digest. Each significant alert names what changed, why it matters, and the recommended next move.
  • Public-source activity reviewed every week: liquidity, roles, boards, giving, family transitions, recognition
  • One prioritized Monday digest. Only what deserves your attention reaches you
  • Recommended next move with each significant alert
  • Month to month. No contract, no procurement required
Start weekly monitoring →

Self-serve with a card, month to month. Prefer institutional procurement? A standard MSA, DPA, and W-9 are ready on request, and subscriptions can be invoiced by purchase order.

06 · Built for advancement

Research you should feel comfortable putting in front of your president.

Benefactor Intelligence was built around the actual work of major gift fundraising: universities, healthcare foundations, independent schools, community foundations, museums, and other organizations where a relatively small number of donor relationships carry enormous importance.

The standard is simple. Relevant enough to affect strategy. Clear enough for a fundraiser to act on. Sourced well enough to defend. Responsible enough to discuss with the donor.

Public sources
Research in the open.
Our research draws from public records, regulatory filings, foundation filings, institutional announcements, reputable news coverage, and other appropriate public sources.
Cited claims
See where it came from.
Material factual claims include sources, so your team can see where the information came from and check it for themselves.
Fact and interpretation
Kept separate, always.
We distinguish what the source establishes from what the information might mean for fundraising strategy, and we say when the evidence is incomplete.
Your data stays yours
Scoped to your organization.
Your donor list is scoped to your organization. It is not sold, shared with other clients, or used to train any model.
No CRM integration
Send only what is necessary.
You share a minimal export you choose. Benefactor Intelligence never requires access to your advancement database or any internal system.
Advancement standards
Professional ethics, by design.
Our research process is designed around the ethical expectations of professional advancement and prospect development, including the APRA and CASE frameworks.
07 · Questions

Questions before you get started.

Everything you need to know about donor research, weekly monitoring, your data, and getting started.

Your first Brief is free with a work email; personal-email signups add a card. The full product, not a sample. Usually delivered within 1 hour. Guaranteed within 24 hours.
Getting Started Five questions
Is the first Brief really free? +

Yes. Your first Brief is free with a work email, limited to one per organization.

It is the full product: the same 10+ page, fully sourced Brief other organizations pay $99 for. We hold nothing back for the paid version.

You choose the donor. You pay $0, and ordering a Brief does not start a subscription. Additional Briefs are $99 each.

Do I need a card for the free Brief? +

Not if you sign up with your work email.

Personal-email signups add a card instead; the card keeps the offer to one per organization, and nothing is charged. Either way you pay $0 for your first Brief, and ordering a Brief does not start a subscription.

What do I get in a Brief? +

One donor, brought into focus.

A Brief covers wealth and capacity indicators, business interests, family context, philanthropic history, foundation activity, board and civic relationships, political giving, institutional connections, and recent developments.

Every significant factual claim links to its source. Facts are separated from estimates and interpretation. Where the evidence is incomplete, we say so.

Each Brief also identifies strategic considerations for your team: what the evidence suggests, what you still need to learn through the relationship, and what deserves attention before the next conversation.

One donor. 10+ pages.

Your first Brief is free with a work email (personal-email signups add a card), limited to one per organization. Additional Briefs are $99 each.

Delivery is guaranteed within 24 hours and usually takes less than 1 hour.

How fast will my Brief arrive? +

Usually within 1 hour. Guaranteed within 24 hours.

Order in the morning and you will usually have the Brief before your afternoon strategy conversation. If the donor meeting is later in the week, the research will be there first.

Does Benefactor Intelligence replace iWave, DonorSearch, ResearchPoint, or our wealth screening? +

No. They solve a different problem.

Wealth screening helps identify who has capacity, philanthropic propensity, and enough potential to deserve greater attention.

Benefactor Intelligence starts after you know who matters.

The Brief helps your fundraiser understand the person behind the rating. Weekly monitoring keeps watching those donors for changes that might affect your strategy or create a reason to engage.

Your screening tells you who deserves attention. Benefactor Intelligence helps you know them better and know when to act.

The Research Three questions
Where does the information come from? +

Benefactor Intelligence researches appropriate public sources and information your organization chooses to provide.

Sources include SEC filings, Form 4 disclosures, IRS Form 990 filings, public foundation records, corporate announcements, institutional websites, reputable news and trade publications, and other appropriate public records.

We do not scrape private platforms, monitor private communications, purchase brokered personal data, or track non-public behavior.

Material factual claims include links to their underlying sources so your team can review the evidence directly.

How do you make sure the research is reliable? +

We separate what the evidence establishes from what the evidence suggests.

Material factual claims are sourced. Estimates and interpretations are identified as such. Confidence levels are used where appropriate. Known gaps are stated rather than filled with assumptions.

If credible sources conflict or the evidence does not support a conclusion, the research says so.

We do not offer certainty where certainty does not exist. We offer intelligence your fundraiser can understand, check, and use with judgment.

How does Benefactor Intelligence approach ethical donor research? +

We designed Benefactor Intelligence around the professional expectations of advancement and prospect development, including principles reflected in APRA and CASE ethical frameworks.

Our standard is straightforward: the information should have a legitimate fundraising purpose, come from an appropriate source, and be something your organization would feel comfortable using in a professional donor relationship.

Benefactor Intelligence supplements relationship knowledge. It does not replace it.

Your fundraiser still provides the judgment, context, and personal understanding no public record provides.

Ready to see the work?

Your first Brief is free with a work email; personal-email signups add a card.
The full product, not a sample. Usually delivered within 1 hour. Guaranteed within 24 hours.

Get Your First Brief Free
Monitoring, Data & Procurement Six questions
What is weekly monitoring, and what arrives every Monday? +

Weekly monitoring covers your most important donors: 50 or 100 names, distilled into one prioritized digest, a Dispatch, every Monday morning.

Each significant alert tells you:

  • What changed.
  • Why it matters to the relationship or fundraising strategy.
  • What your fundraiser should consider doing next.

Alerts might include liquidity events, leadership changes, major gifts, foundation activity, board appointments, family transitions, public civic activity, or other developments worth knowing.

You do not receive a feed of everything we find. You receive the few developments worth your attention.

What if nothing important happens with one of my donors? +

Then you should not hear about them.

Most of your donors will have nothing significant to report during a typical week. The digest is designed to filter out noise rather than manufacture activity.

Your 100 do not need your attention every week. You need to know which ones do.

When something meaningful changes, the Monday digest brings that donor to the top of your attention.

What do you need from us to get started? +

Very little.

For a Brief, you provide the donor's name and enough information to identify the correct person.

For weekly monitoring, you provide the list of donors you want monitored. You may also include limited information such as gift officer assignment, giving history, or existing capacity ratings when helpful.

Benefactor Intelligence does not require access to your CRM, advancement database, email, or other internal systems. We never need student records, patient information, EHR data, or private communications; research beyond what you provide comes from appropriate public sources.

What happens to our donor data? +

Your donor information stays scoped to your organization.

We do not sell your donor list, share it with other clients, pool it across organizations, or use it to train or fine-tune AI models. Benefactor Intelligence does not contact or solicit your donors.

Access is limited to people and systems required to provide the service.

On termination, data is deleted according to our retention terms. Additional privacy and security documentation is available upon request.

What security documentation is available? +

We provide institutional diligence materials on request, including our standard MSA, DPA, W-9, security documentation, and supporting information regarding our technology providers.

Benefactor Intelligence does not currently claim its own SOC 2 attestation. Our primary platform providers maintain established security certifications and controls, and we maintain safeguards including encryption, restricted access, logging, and tenant separation.

How does subscription billing work, and how do I cancel? +

Monitoring is month to month. Cancel anytime, with no annual commitment.

You pay monthly: $299 covers your top 50 donors; $399 covers your top 100 and includes four Briefs each month.

Briefs are separate. You buy them one at a time, $99 each after your free first Brief, no subscription required.

Procurement, privacy, or security questions? support@benefactorintelligence.com

Benefactor Intelligence

Know one of your most important donors better by tomorrow.

Name the donor. We deliver the full Brief: 10+ pages of organized research, every material claim sourced.

Your first Brief is free. Judge the work on a donor you know.

Your first Brief is free.