Running a ProspectAI Search

You supply the details you have, ProspectAI searches public sources, and a few minutes later you have a report with a capacity estimate, a count of sources reviewed, and a source link behind every value.

There are two ways to run research: an individual search for one person, and a bulk list for a group. This article covers the individual search, what to put in the form, how long it takes, and where the report lands. For bulk research, see ProspectAI at scale: bulk lists, export, and favorites.

As a rule of thumb, run fewer than about five names as individual searches and start them all at once. For anything larger, build a bulk list.

To run an individual search:

1. Open ProspectAI from the sidebar.
2. Click New Search.
3. Fill in the four required fields: full name, country, state or region, and city.
4. Add whatever optional context you have, since each additional detail improves identity matching.
5. Submit the search.

Every individual search needs all four. There is one search form, and it will not run until each of these is filled in.

Three of the four are location, which is deliberate. Identity resolution decides which of the sources found are genuinely about your donor, and location is the most reliable way to rule sources out. A search for "Sarah Nguyen" with no location attached gives it nothing to narrow on. A search for Sarah Nguyen in Geelong, Victoria, Australia is answerable, because sources that place a Sarah Nguyen in Toronto can be discarded before anything else happens.

When a required field is missing, Dataro tells you before the search starts. It does not run a partial search, and it does not consume a credit.

The check is deliberate, because running a search on incomplete inputs would cost more than being stopped does:

• A search on incomplete inputs still costs a credit
• It still takes two to four minutes to come back
• It produces a report built on weak identity matching, which is the failure mode most likely to put a wrong fact in front of a donor

UK donors do not have states in the US sense. The UK has counties, unitary authorities, and nations, none of which map cleanly onto a field labeled "state."

To run a search on a UK donor:

1. Fill in Country as United Kingdom.
2. In the State or region field, enter the county or region name, e.g. Greater Manchester, West Yorkshire, Fife, or Powys.
3. Fill in City as normal.
4. Submit the search.

The search treats that value as a geographic narrowing signal, and a county name does that job, so using a county rather than a state does not degrade the report. The same approach applies anywhere the local administrative structure does not use states: enter the closest equivalent, whether that is a county, province, region, or canton.

None of these are required. Every one of them improves identity matching:

• LinkedIn URL, the strongest single signal you can provide, because it usually resolves the person outright
• Full address
• Salutation
• Job title
• Employer
• Board memberships
• Spouse or partner
• Credentials
• Affiliations
• Notes

Identity resolution has to decide which of the sources it found are genuinely about your donor. With only a name and a city it is working from two facts, whereas an employer and a board seat give it cross-references it can use to rule sources in and out. Vague inputs produce vague matching, which is where wrong facts come from.

We recommend pasting in a LinkedIn URL whenever your CRM holds one.

You can run searches concurrently. Start one, then start another while the first is still going, then navigate away from the search page entirely, work in Donors or Audiences, and come back later. If you are working through five names before a meeting, you can have all five searches running together rather than waiting for each one in turn.

To run searches in parallel:

1. Open ProspectAI and click New Search.
2. Submit your first individual search.
3. Without waiting, click New Search again and submit the next one.
4. Carry on working elsewhere in Dataro.
5. Open each report when its toast says the report is ready.

The prospect appears in Researched Prospects with a capacity estimate, the number of sources reviewed, and any tags that applied, such as HNWI, board member, or volunteer.

A progress toast appears in the bottom-right corner and stays there until the report is ready. That means you can leave the search page as soon as you have submitted, navigate anywhere else in Dataro, and start another search without losing sight of the first.

Your report does not depend on the toast. Completed searches are saved to Researched Prospects regardless, so if you closed the tab, missed the notification, or came back the next morning, that is where the report will be.

Running several searches at once produces several toasts, which stack up in the corner.

Research assigns tags to each prospect, e.g. HNWI, board member, or volunteer. Those tags are searchable in the Researched Prospects table, so once a prospect has been researched you can find them by what the research established rather than by name.

This is how you work by interest or characteristic. You cannot start a new search from a subject such as "climate" or "biotech." What you can do is research your prospects, then use the tags on the Researched Prospects table to pull out the ones that match what you are working on.

Do I lose a credit if I get the form wrong?

No. Dataro checks the form before you submit, so a missing field is caught before the search runs and before a credit is consumed.

Does a search that returns nothing useful still cost me?

A search that runs consumes a credit whether or not the results are useful. That is the practical argument for filling in the optional fields: two minutes copying an employer and a LinkedIn URL out of your CRM protects both the credit and the report.

What if all I know is a name?

The form will not submit without country, state or region, and city. If you do not know where the person lives, check the CRM record first. A mailing address is usually enough to fill all three.

Can I search for people I have not named yet?

Not as a new search. Every search starts from a named person and their location. To work by interest instead, research your prospects first, then search the Researched Prospects table by tag.

My donor has moved. Which location should I use?

Use where they live now, since that is where current sources will place them. If their giving history and public profile are tied to a previous city, add that city to the notes field so identity resolution has both.

My search seems stuck. What should I check?

Give it the full four minutes before treating it as stuck. The report also lands in Researched Prospects independently of the toast, so if you closed the tab or lost the notification, check there first.

Does a slower search mean a better report?

Not directly. The elapsed time reflects how many sources were found and how much cross-referencing was needed. A well-known prospect with a lot of public coverage can take longer than someone with a thin public footprint, and can still come back with more to review.

Will I get an email when the report is ready?

The notification is in-app, via the toast. If you have stepped away from Dataro entirely, check Researched Prospects when you come back.