Fundraising Research and Consulting

What Fundraising Research and Consulting does

Fundraising Research & Consulting (FR&C) is a privately held Australian prospect research firm founded in 2003 and headquartered in Weston Creek, ACT, operating across Australia and New Zealand. The company is the only specialist prospect research firm in Australia, supporting major gift fundraising through structured analysis of lawful public domain information relating to individuals, companies, and grant-making foundations. As of 2023, the business is owned and directed by Molly Masiello following the retirement of founder Charlotte Grimshaw. FR&C has supported more than 700 organisations spanning universities, hospitals, independent schools, arts organisations, welfare agencies, environmental groups, and human rights organisations.

The company's core technology rests on two proprietary databases. Wealthscan™ is a wealth-screening service that matches client donor, alumni, and supporter records against a database of nearly 50,000 prominent and wealthy Australians, with a typical match rate of approximately 1%. Giftsearch is a subscription-accessible database of more than 1.5 million publicly reported donations to over 900 organisations, representing more than $16 billion in disclosed giving across Australia and New Zealand. Complementing these data products are fee-for-service offerings: in-depth prospect profiling of individuals, foundations, and companies; new prospect and board candidate identification; due diligence and reputational risk reviews for significant gifts or naming opportunities; prospect rating against linkage, interest, and financial capacity; and in-house prospect research training. Research is conducted by a small team of four (including a director, a data administrator/researcher, and a freelance researcher) operating from the ACT headquarters and remote locations in Newcastle and the NSW south coast, in compliance with Australian and New Zealand privacy legislation and with a 20+ year record of zero data breaches.

FR&C's revenue model combines recurring subscriptions (Giftsearch database access; Wealthscan screening, typically annual and scaled to database size) with professional services engagements priced on a custom quote basis (profiling, due diligence, prospect rating, new names research, training). The company is sales-led, engaging directly with fundraising and development teams at nonprofits via its website, thought-leadership blog, free resources (including a published top-donors list of 400+ individuals who have given over $1M, and the book "Understanding Major Donors: A Guide to Prospect Research for Australian Fundraisers"), and a strategic partnership with grants-management provider Strategic Grants. Pricing is not publicly disclosed and is tailored to engagement scope.

Name

Fundraising Research and Consulting

Legal name

FR&C Pty Ltd

Website

https://fundraisingresearch.com.au

Company type

Private

Founded year

2003

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

FR&C is Australia's only specialist prospect research firm, providing wealth screening, prospect profiling, due diligence, and a proprietary philanthropy database (Giftsearch, 1.5M+ donations) to more than 700 universities, hospitals, schools, and nonprofits across Australia and New Zealand.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Weston Creek

HQ country

Australia

HQ region

Oceania

Offices3 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Wealthscan Screening Services: Fee-for-service wealth screening of charity and alumni databases to identify wealthy, philanthropic, and well-connected individuals. Pricing varies based on database size and screening scope.
2. Giftsearch Subscription Database: Subscription-based searchable database of Australian and New Zealand donations. Subscription service designed to help fundraisers and researchers find fast, reliable information on Australian donations.
3. Prospect Profiling Services: Fee-for-service profiling of individuals, foundations, and companies. Includes structured analysis of publicly available information relating to prospects' business history, philanthropy, networks and interests.
4. Due Diligence Reports: Assessment of reputational considerations associated with significant gifts or naming opportunities.
5. Prospect Rating and Prioritisation: Assessment of linkage, interest and financial capacity using lawful public information, enabling organisations to allocate resources strategically.
6. Prospect Research Training: In-house training in Australian prospect research, tailored to specific campaigns or needs.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

FR&C provides specialist prospect research services to the not-for-profit sector across Australia and New Zealand. Its offerings include wealth screening (Wealthscan), access to a proprietary gift-search database (Giftsearch), donor profiling, prospect rating, new names identification, due diligence, and prospect research training. The firm helps charities, universities, hospitals, schools, and arts organisations identify, qualify, and cultivate major gift donors.

Product overview

FR&C is a specialist prospect research firm offering a suite of complementary services for major gift fundraising. The core offerings include Wealthscan (database screening to identify wealthy, philanthropic individuals), Giftsearch (a searchable subscription database of public philanthropy records), profiling services (detailed prospect analysis), prospect rating (capacity and interest assessment), new names identification, and prospect research training. These services work together to enable fundraising teams to conduct informed, proportionate and responsible engagement with prospective donors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Wealthscan: Screening service used by universities, hospitals, schools and not-for-profits across Australia and New Zealand. Analyses publicly available information to help identify potential major gift capacity within donor, alumni, volunteer and supporter communities.
• Giftsearch

Products and services

• Wealthscan

Quantifiable outcome

• More than 700 organisations supported across Australia and New Zealand
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments8 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• Strategic GrantscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStrategic partnership with Grants, which provides grant strategies to build nonprofit capacity for grant applications. Strategic Grants supports nonprofits of all sizes in Australia & New Zealand with GEM Portal and GEM Local grants management systems, grants calendars, education and training, and grant and tender writing services. Both organisations share the common purpose of building capacity of the nonprofit sector.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Blackbaud: Largest global provider of nonprofit software including Raiser's Edge NXT CRM, wealth screening, and prospect research tooling. Comparable as a broad incumbent offering overlapping capability (wealth and prospect insights) embedded in a wider nonprofit tech stack that FR&C clients also use.
• Salesforce / Nonprofit Cloud: Major nonprofit CRM and fundraising platform provider via the Salesforce ecosystem (NPSP / Nonprofit Cloud). Adjacent incumbent to FR&C because major nonprofit clients increasingly expect donor intelligence to be integrated into CRM systems, where Salesforce competes with FR&C's standalone intelligence layer.
• Bonterra: US-based nonprofit technology suite including CRM, giving intelligence, and prospect research (formerly Network for Good, Salsa, etc.). Comparable as a broad incumbent with embedded prospect research capabilities that compete for the same fundraising team wallet.

Direct peers

• DonorSearch: US-based wealth screening and prospect research provider for nonprofit fundraising teams. Directly comparable because it offers database screening, donor prospect identification, and analytics on high-capacity donors - the exact solution FR&C delivers with Wealthscan, but at much larger US scale.
• WealthEngine: Wealth profiling and predictive analytics for nonprofits, focused on wealth screening and prospect scoring. Closely comparable to FR&C's prospect rating and Wealthscan offerings; a like-for-like competitor in the prospect research data category.
• ResearchPoint: International prospect research firm providing bespoke donor research, due diligence, and capacity ratings for nonprofit clients globally. Directly comparable because it operates in the same professional-services prospect research category with similar product set: profiling, due diligence, and ratings.
• iWave: Global leader in prospect research and wealth screening for nonprofits, founded in Canada. Directly comparable to FR&C because it offers database screening of wealthy donors, prospect research analytics, and subscription data products targeting university, hospital, and nonprofit fundraisers - the same buyer profile and use cases.

Emerging players

• Dataro: Australian nonprofit data analytics platform focused on giving propensity, churn modeling, and donor scoring using machine learning. Comparable because it serves the same Australian nonprofit fundraising buyer with predictive donor intelligence, although the product is more analytics/ML-led versus FR&C's curated dataset and bespoke research model.

Others

• Apra (Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement): The international professional body for prospect research and advancement research professionals. Comparable because FR&C's Molly Masiello is an inaugural board member of Apra Australia, and Apra sets industry standards and policy (including AI guidance) directly relevant to FR&C's service line.

Regional players

• Strategic Grants: Australian grants consultancy providing grant strategy and grants management systems (GEM Portal) to nonprofits. Comparable to FR&C because it operates in the same ANZ nonprofit capacity-building space and is a formal FR&C strategic partner, sharing client audiences.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Fundraising Research and Consulting