How to find a Corporate Philanthropy Decision Maker

Identification of a corporate prospect involves more than just finding a company who shares values with your organization. There are likely many companies who fit that bill. 

Instead, it’s about connecting like minded people (a fundraiser and a philanthropy officer) to achieve a common goal. What role then can prospect research play in helping a fundraiser form that relationship? Where do you direct the attention of a fundraiser when they want to do outreach to a corporation? And how do you know you directed them to the appropriate person?

Of course the first place to start is the CEO. If there is a connection to the CEO, now is the time to leverage that. Even if that’s not the case, top executives and other key decision makers can be just as useful. But what if your organization doesn’t have that connection and it's unclear who the company’s philanthropic decision maker is; what do you do?  

Most companies follow a general theme in job titles. Chief Sustainability Advisor, Foundation Officer, Community Manager. Search LinkedIn, Google, the company website to find the person whose job title matches with a philanthropic decision maker. That guess might not be the best match but, there is now a  direction to go in and from there it may uncover more relevant information that will help down the road.

Now that you have identified that person, what if their contact information is not listed? Take advantage of resources like Hunter.io or other searchable databases of company emails. If that fails, find other emails on the corporate website in search of email naming conventions. If other emails follow a Firstinitial.lastname@companyname.com layout, then your best bet might be to go with that. 

Finding an appropriate contact person for philanthropic relationships at a company can be tricky. Use all available information to inform the situation. Take context clues from identifiable patterns in publicly available information. Most importantly, communicate with fundraisers about potential blind spots, but make clear that uncertainty is not an excuse for inactivity.