I don’t exactly live off the grid.  Many, many philanthropic organization know exactly where I live, many of which I support.  So there is residential and giving information on me out there.  Still, I come up as Unable to Rate in DonorScape and other wealth screening software.  Mostly this is because of where I am in my life.  I don’t own property, and though I have a fantastic position with GG+A that allows me to work with all of you, I’m not senior leadership.  So the asset sources don’t uncover any new data on liquid assets, and I’m not yet giving at a high enough level to rate as a significant leadership giver in organizations’ annual reports.  Still, my consistent giving history to some organizations makes me a prime target for future leadership giving.  I’m one, if I do say so myself, to cultivate.

I’m not alone.  Many files we screen through DonorScape have upwards of 50% of the file Unable to Rate at the Exact and Exact Near level for similar reasons.  But my fellow Unable to Raters and I are still valuable potential donors who could, with the right prodding and communication, give a stretch gift in time.

How to get a better, more accurate rating for what I’m worth?  For that we need to look at the other body of bulk mail I receive – catalogues, frequent buyer/flier information, and coupons.  They know my demographic.  The market research that informs these mailings has figured out what my neighbors and I tend to buy and eat and drive and wear.  They know to show me things I could buy if I saved up just a little bit.

GG+A offers two a la carte products to help you get to know all of your prospects better and to reduce the Unable to Rate population.  The first product is a basic demographic append that adds estimated ranges of household income, wealth, and property values to records.  The append reduces the percentage of Unable to Rate in an account from about half to less than 5% at the Exact and ExactNear levels.  The second product offers more advanced household specific information on what that unit buys, watches, reads, etc. to help you tailor your communications to them specifically.  Contact your DonorScape consultant for more information.

Unable to Rate doesn’t mean not worth cultivating.  It just means that we need to dig harder to figure out how to approach these folks and at what level.