Chris Davis on the Researchers in Fundraising Handbook

One way to think about the handbook is as a comprehensive, up to date, and relevant guide to the diverse range of skills and knowledge required for successful, professional, and ethical prospect research in the UK, and internationally. 

Another way to think about it is as a helpful and supportive colleague who is always available to share their experience and expertise with you to help you get the job done and enable you to continue your professional development.

The handbook idea was originally developed by former Researchers in Fundraising Chair Ben Rymer. Back in August 2019, Ben saw that there was both a need and an opportunity to bring together a central repository of knowledge for prospect researchers that also builds on and improves existing knowledge. In early 2020, Ally Lee-Dudley joined the team as project manager and the process of creating the handbook began in earnest.

The contents of the Handbook span a range of topics that can be grouped into three broad domains; ethics, data skills and technical skills, and career. Some topics focus more on those in the early stages of their career, such as the ‘New researchers guide’, whilst others are for those looking for insight into more technical aspects of the role such as ‘Gift capacity and wealth estimation’. 

At the moment there are 9 chapters published. A further 6 chapters are currently work in progress and each of these will be published as and when it is ready. This serialisation approach ensures the valuable information contained in each chapter reaches its audience as quickly as possible. 26 chapters are planned in total for the handbook and we will continue to start up new chapters regularly and in line with volunteer availability as well as keep existing chapters refreshed and up to date. 

You can view the full list of chapters on the handbook's website.

The project is a unique collaboration by an international team of 90+ volunteers to create content that informs, educates and guides their peers. All the content has been sourced and co-written by teams of volunteers working together using remote collaboration tools and drawing on both their individual and organisational knowledge and experience of being in the prospect research role. Some of our volunteers are new to prospect research, some have many years of experience, and some are mid-career. The diversity of our team reflects that of our readers and this helps us keep our content focused and relevant.

We’ve also sought to create opportunities for volunteers from outside prospect research to get involved where their areas of expertise offer the prospect research community opportunities to innovate and improve.

The handbook is designed to be of practical use for anyone who conducts prospect research as part of their role, who manages prospect researchers or leads prospect research teams, or who interacts with prospect research within their role. As such, we certainly hope it will be of value for those in front-line fundraising roles as well as specialist prospect researchers.

As well as providing practical guidance for those doing prospect research in their day to day role, the handbook also aims to be a useful explainer of concepts and practices within the discipline, and we hope it will help ‘demystify’ prospect research for those working outside the specialism.

Content within the handbook ranges from foundation level through to advanced, so no prior prospect research experience or knowledge is required to benefit from using the handbook. 

The handbook includes chapters dedicated specifically to due diligence policy and practice, which we hope will be useful for organisations looking to address questions around ethical fundraising and reputational risk. 

We know that researchers play an essential role in ensuring organisations have up to date intelligence on their donors and prospects, and we hope that the handbook as a whole will support researchers in continuing to do this. The 'Data skills & technical skills domain' of the handbook is especially focused on giving researchers the skills to gather in-depth and actionable insights, cost-effectively. 

In some respects prospect research does vary significantly between the UK and other countries; factors like access to publicly available information, reliability of online sources, data protection laws, and differing cultural norms around philanthropy all play a part in this. We address these differences throughout the handbook, but especially within the chapter on strategic international prospecting, which is soon to be made available.

However, there are also many aspects of the prospect research role which share common features regardless of geography, such as effective pipeline management, communicating research impactfully, and working with fundraisers. We strongly feel that the handbook is relevant to an international audience, and we have already had great feedback from users on the other side of the world. 

There is a range of volunteer roles involved with the handbook including creating content, helping with editing, and taking on a chapter coordination role. There is also an opportunity to get involved in supporting the handbook as a whole through one of the handbook committee member roles. You can find out all about these different opportunities through the website or get in touch with us for a chat.

 The handbook is available online as an e-publication which means that as well as being accessible and user-friendly, it can be offered at the affordable price of just £150. For questions about the handbook please email us.