Capacity tells you who could give. It doesn’t tell you who’s actually ready to. For a mature institution managing a massive prospect pool, that gap is where a lot of outreach goes to waste.
Who
The Rutgers University Foundation has worked since 1973 to advance Rutgers University by building engagement and philanthropy in support of its mission.
The Challenge
As a mature institution, the foundation felt a real fiduciary responsibility to be as efficient and effective as possible with its research and outreach. Standard wealth screening told the team who had the means and general interest to give, but it couldn’t tell them who was actually motivated to give right now. Without that distinction, the team risked spreading its attention across prospects who looked promising on paper but weren’t truly ready to engage.
Why EverTrue
The foundation brought in DonorSearch Ai by EverTrue to go beyond standard wealth screening and prospect research, adding modeling capabilities built to surface not just capacity and interest, but motivation. What made it work was combining Rutgers’ own individual engagement data with DonorSearch’s broader data footprint in a single tool, giving the team the best of both.
“The particular strength of DonorSearch Ai is that it allowed us to connect the individual engagement data that we had with the broader DonorSearch footprint of data and information, unifying those two sources through one tool. We’re able to get the best of both worlds.” — Rutgers University Foundation
The Results
The foundation now has a way to measure whether its prospecting is actually working. By comparing DonorSearch Ai scores with what happened in the 12 months that followed, Rutgers found that individuals who scored highly on the model, with few exceptions, went on to make gifts.
That gave the team more than a score. It gave them a way to focus outreach on the people most likely to respond, improving their chances of turning prospecting into actual gifts.
“The modeling really does help us, to use a sports analogy, improve our batting average in terms of our outreach to the world. I think the end result is a score, a model, and an outcome that is more powerful and more effective.” — Rutgers University Foundation
Beyond the model itself, the foundation has valued having a team willing to sit down and walk through what’s actually driving the score and why, backed by expertise across higher ed, healthcare, and the broader nonprofit clients DonorSearch works with. As Rutgers put it, it’s a powerful, cost-effective, full-service solution that fits their needs.
That’s what turning data into action looks like: not just knowing who could give, but having a better way to identify who’s ready to.