Rethinking Fundraising Strategy: How Data-Driven Outreach Can Help You Diversify and Scale

Chapter Leadership Brief 7.11.25

by Jennifer Mignarri
Customer Success Manager, RelPro

In today’s fundraising environment, stability feels increasingly elusive. Nonprofits are grappling with shrinking government support, rising operational costs, and a growing dependence on a small circle of individual donors. As economic headwinds persist, savvy development professionals are facing a critical question: How can we future-proof our fundraising strategy?

The answer may lie in a shift from relying solely on traditional channels to diversifying your funding base, especially by unlocking the potential of corporate partnerships. In 2024, corporations accounted for $44.4 billion in charitable giving, a 9.1% increase over the previous year. Additionally, a recent survey indicated 68% of companies are interested in evaluating new nonprofit partnerships. While there is an opportunity, and the idea is appealing, the execution can feel out of reach. That’s where a more strategic, data-driven approach comes in.

Beyond Wealth Screening: A Broader Lens on Fundraising Intelligence

Most fundraising teams are equipped with tools that help screen individual wealth and giving capacity. These platforms are useful, but have limited application in cultivating relationships outside your existing donor circle, especially in the corporate space.

The reality is that identifying new corporate donors or sponsors requires a different kind of intelligence. It’s not just about who has money. It’s about alignment, access, and intent.

This is where a comprehensive business intelligence platform can elevate your strategy.

Leveraging the right technology, a nonprofit can efficiently identify prospective corporate partners:

• Uncover companies ready to expand their giving by searching across industries and geographies for companies actively researching philanthropy with intent signals.
• Find the right contacts inside those organizations to reach decision-makers in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), marketing, HR, or leadership roles—complete with emails, phone numbers, and relationship indicators.
• Analyze company-level giving behavior and social responsibility themes to prioritize outreach based on the potential for shared values.
• Leverage your existing network—board members, donors, or corporate partners—to discover hidden connections and facilitate warm introductions.

Corporate Philanthropy: The Overlooked Growth Opportunity

Corporate support isn’t just about sponsorship logos on event signage. Today’s most successful nonprofit-corporate partnerships are rooted in shared impact. Whether it’s employee engagement programs, cause marketing, or CSR-aligned grantmaking, companies are seeking partners that match their values and can tell compelling impact stories.

However, many nonprofit teams lack visibility into which companies are actively pursuing philanthropic initiatives. Intent data signals the topics companies are searching for, such as community investment, ESG, or nonprofit collaboration. These indicators can help fundraisers prioritize outreach and invest time where there’s real potential.

From Cold Calls to Warm Connections

Once you’ve identified your potential corporate partners, you still need be able to identify and reach decision-makers. Getting in front of the right person at the right time is a consistent challenge for fundraisers. Generic corporate directories and outdated contact lists slow progress and waste effort without even delivering any additional information necessary to make a genuine connection.

A relationship intelligence solution such as RelPro can support nonprofits by:

• Providing up-to-date contact information for key decision-makers.
• Mapping executives’ affiliations and board memberships, which may include prior engagement with nonprofits.
• Highlighting shared connections—including within your own board, staff, or donor base.

This relationship intelligence transforms your outreach from cold to strategic, boosting both your confidence and your conversion rate.

Building a Modern Fundraising Prospecting Strategy

To stay resilient in the face of economic and philanthropic uncertainty, nonprofits need to treat corporate prospecting like a sales funnel: measurable, strategic, and proactive. Here's how to get started:

1. Define your ideal partner profile. Consider mission alignment, company size, philanthropic themes, and employee engagement goals.
2. Start in your backyard. Identify your ideal partner companies in your local area using a radius search to build directly within your community.
3. Map your existing network. Use tools to visualize connections between your board or donors and target companies.
4. Layer in contact intelligence. Prioritize outreach based on decision-maker roles, giving history categories, and recent engagement signals.
5. Track, measure, and refine. Monitor which segments yield the best responses and adjust your strategy accordingly

Platforms like RelPro don’t just provide you with data; they empower your team to think like fundraisers and act like business developers.

Fundraising Leaders as Strategic Connectors

The future of nonprofit growth belongs to teams that know how to build ecosystems of support, not just donor lists. That means developing a fundraising model that goes beyond asking and into aligning, finding the companies, leaders, and communities that believe in your mission and want to invest in your success.

By leveraging tools that connect the dots between corporate intelligence, relationship data, and philanthropic alignment, fundraisers can act not only as askers but as connectors, strategists, and advocates for long-term impact.

Summary

In today’s uncertain fundraising climate, nonprofits are challenged by dwindling government support and reliance on a narrow donor base. To build resilience, many are turning to corporate partnerships as a source of diversified funding. However, identifying and engaging corporate donors requires moving beyond traditional wealth screening to adopt data-driven strategies that highlight alignment, access, and intent. By leveraging business intelligence, fundraisers can spot companies signaling philanthropic interest, identify key decision-makers, and uncover warm connections through existing networks. This approach reframes fundraising as strategic relationship-building—rooted in shared values and measurable engagement—positioning development professionals as connectors and ecosystem builders rather than just askers.

RelPro is here to power this shift. Whether you’re exploring new corporate channels or looking to deepen current partnerships, we provide the data, connections, and insights to make your outreach more intentional and more effective.

If your fundraising team is ready to expand your reach and rethink what’s possible, the first step is smarter prospecting.

Jennifer Mignarri is a Customer Success Manager at RelPro, bringing experience in Sales, Marketing, and Relationship Management.

Prior to joining RelPro, Jennifer worked as a Salesforce Recruitment Consultant where she specialized in business development, and sourcing quality candidates for clients across several industries. Jennifer also consulted clients on best practices relating to Salesforce implementations and integrations. Prior to Jennifer working within the recruitment industry, she was involved in the marketing and production of large scale global conferences during her time working for Quality Event Management.

Jennifer received a Bachelor of the Arts in Communication Studies from the University of Rhode Island.