Search
The search bar is a Google for donors: describe who you're looking for and get matches in seconds. This article describes what you can search and how to interpret results.
The search bar is a Google for donors: describe who you're looking for and get matches in seconds. This article describes what you can search and how to interpret results.
Use plain English. Behind the scenes, DonorAtlas uses AI models to interpret your search, so don't worry about exact terminology. In this article, we'll introduce what's possible to search and how to interpret your results; but our first advice when things don't work is to rephrase and try again! Search is quick and you're not limited on your number of searches, and results can differ or improve when you try again. And as always, if you need assistance, don't hesitate to contact support and we're more than happy to help out!
The search bar is not a black box: after a search completes, you can check exactly how it was interpreted by our AI models by looking for the blue highlighted text:
Each blue highlighted section is a criteria that the search engine is using. If something is missing from your original query, then it's likely our AI models either missed it, or it's not something you can search (see what you can search below).
Because AI is used to interpret your search, the same wording can occasionally be read a little differently each time. This means the same search can yield different blue highlighted text, but it can also mean the same blue highlighted text can yield different results.
Copy URLs for precise results. After your search results are returned, the URL in your browser is your link back to these exact results. You can save this link or share it with a teammate. When you go back to this link, you'll skip our AI model and go right to the same results!
There are two places in the DonorAtlas platform with a search bar:
Click the search bar and start typing. After a couple of characters, a dropdown appears with some instant matches — donors, nonprofits, schools, and companies.
Autocomplete matches names only. Criteria like location or giving history kick in only when you run the full search.
On a full search, you can describe almost anything about a person:
Type a name and you'll get matching profiles, ranked by fit. We'll handle nicknames and capitalization. This might yield lots of results if it's a common name, so combine with other criteria to narrow it down!
The top of every donor's profile contains their Top Issues, which are inferred from their past giving, board service, career, and much more. You can search directly on these issues, but you can also search any other issue and our AI models will find matching donors.
Be targeted and specific. This is where you can use the power of DonorAtlas search to find donors perfect for your organization. Try "donors who care about horse racing" or "donors who care about youth autism".
If you want to rely on evidence of past giving, you can search by organization, type of organization, amount, year, or anything else about gifts.
Search any geography — zip code, city, county, state, political districts, or an informal region.
Prospect based on education or work.
Those are the main criteria, but here are some others
| Search by | Try typing |
|---|---|
| Nonprofit board serviceSits on the board of a specific nonprofit, or of nonprofits of a certain type | |
| VolunteeringVolunteers for a specific nonprofit or cause area. | |
| Political givingAny criteria regarding the type of political office (from President down to School Board), the location (state, district), the political party, the recipient type (candidate, PAC, political committee), and more! | |
| FinancialsNet worth, liquidity, predicted annual capacity, predicted political capacity this cycle. | |
| DemographicsAge and gender. | |
| OccupationCategories like attorney, physician, engineer, teacher, academic, nurse, law enforcement, finance, real estate, corporate executive, lobbyist, pharma, small business, media, and agriculture. | |
| Contact infoOnly donors with an email address or a verified phone number on file. |
The search bar isn't limited to people. Describe a nonprofit — by name, cause, location, or revenue — and you'll get nonprofit results instead:
The search bar is not a black box. Once you see results, you can also see why these specific donors are being surfaced. The blue badges under a name contain direct explanations that tie this donor back to your original query; they may call out specific affiliations, demographics, or anything else related to your search.
You may also seem some words highlighted in yellow in the preview of the bio. These are the terms in the profile that caused the donor to be surfaced in these results: if you searched for cancer research, the results might highlight oncology or leukemia in the donor's biography.
Example: if you search for "Bay Area donors who care about cancer research and sit on nonprofit boards", you might see results and explanations that look like this:
The real power of the DonorAtlas search engine comes from combining criteria. You can stack any combination of location, wealth, giving history, affiliations, demographics, and education — all in one sentence — and get a precise prospect list in a single search. Some examples:
Found a great set of results? Save them to a list so you can come back later, share them with your team, or export them — see Managing lists to learn how to save and work with lists of donors.
Sometimes, you may want to slightly tweak your search or do more structured queries that are difficult to describe in words. This is where the Filters panel helps out! The filters panel is just another way of entering a search into DonorAtlas: there's nothing you can do only in Filters that you can't do in the search bar.
In the next article, we'll dive into the Filters section, how to use it, and what criteria it can control!