I am often asked – both by potential clients and other researchers – about my “go-to resources” for international prospect research. The assumption is that there must be a shortlist of subscription databases that I use for all of my client projects.
That makes sense. After all, there are a handful of databases and other tools that streamline the research process here in the United States. For organizations with sufficient prospect research budgets, these resources can be incredibly helpful.
But is there such a thing as a go-to database for international prospect research? After doing this work for more than 20 years, I don’t think so.
Data availability, collection methods, public access policies, and language variations make it impossible for one subscription database – or even two or three – to cover the vast number of countries around the world. That doesn’t mean it is impossible to find data on international prospects, however.
Often, the data I need for international prospect research can be found in databases that can be accessed for free or on a short-term subscription basis (per download, day, week, or month). The trick is to find these resources.
To that end, I think international prospect research starts with a mental shift. Instead of asking what go-to resources I could use, I start my international prospect research projects by asking a set of go-to questions:
- Who collects the data I need (and why)?
- Is that collected data shared with the public?
- If so, is it in a format that I can access electronically?
- If not, what substitute data sources could I use to construct an accurate picture of a prospect’s wealth and philanthropic capacity?
No matter where a prospect lives, these questions will help me quickly identify where I can find the data I need for the research project at hand. By asking these questions, I often find the full scope of resources that might provide the data I need, whether freely accessible or available for a fee.
Which one(s) should I choose? That question will be the topic of my next blog post.
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