Using research

Research answers the question a small shop rarely has time for: what is happening at the foundations and funders you depend on.

What it covers

Ongoing research on your institutional funders. Grant cycles and deadlines, changes in leadership, shifts in stated priorities. Each finding carries its source and how confident it is, so you can check it before acting.

This is the work a large development shop has a person doing. For a shop of one, knowing that a funder’s deadline moved is worth more than most of what crosses your desk.

Individuals are handled differently

Research on individual prospects is a separate feature, and it is off until an admin turns it on.

Only public sources

Research reads publicly available information. Published grant guidelines, news, annual reports, professional profiles, public filings.

It does not buy wealth data, and Relae does not broker or sell donor records.

What research does not decide

Research tells you what is knowable about someone from public sources. It does not decide anything.

Nothing here sets a capacity rating or an ask amount on its own. A research finding is an input to your judgment. A donor’s own giving remains the strongest evidence about them, which is why capacity is a floor read from what they have already given, raised by research and never lowered by it.

Checking a finding before you use it

Each finding shows its source. Follow it before acting on anything that would change how you approach someone.

Public sources go stale. A board listing can be three years old, a “director at” can be a former role.

What to do with what you find

A deadline moved. Put it in your calendar.
New leadership at a funder. Check whether your existing relationship was with the person or the institution.
A priority shift. Read your last application against the new language before reapplying.
A connection you did not know about. Add it to the relationship graph.