Philanthropy
Research &
Due Diligence
A specialized research and advisory service for family offices, wealth managers, financial advisors, and estate attorneys who want to add real value to their clients' philanthropic decisions.
Book a Discovery Call"Your clients expect you to help them think through their giving the same way you help them think through their investments. We make that possible."
What This Service Does for Your Practice
The most forward-thinking family offices and advisory firms already understand that philanthropic guidance is a relationship deepener. Institutions like Fidelity Charitable have built entire research programs and strategist teams specifically to serve their most generous donors -- recognizing that without this support, even well-intentioned donors feel unmoored in their giving.
Independent advisors and boutique family offices rarely have access to that kind of infrastructure. We provide it.
Differentiation
Philanthropic research is still a white space for most advisory relationships. Offering it sets you apart in a crowded market.
Deeper Client Relationships
Philanthropic conversations open doors to values, family dynamics, and legacy planning that transactional conversations rarely reach. Clients who feel understood at this level stay longer and refer more.
Risk Mitigation
A client who makes a major gift to an organization that later collapses due to mismanagement reflects on everyone in the room. Independent due diligence protects your client -- and you.
Next-Gen Engagement
Younger family members are often the most passionate about giving. Including them in a research-driven philanthropic process is one of the most effective tools for intergenerational wealth transition.
Generosity Without Strategy Leads to Disappointment
Your high-net-worth clients are generous. They write checks, establish donor-advised funds, and respond to causes that move them. But gifts that don't produce the outcomes donors hoped for -- relationships with organizations that lack the capacity to steward major contributions -- create a quiet erosion of confidence in philanthropy itself.
Clients increasingly expect their advisors, attorneys, and wealth managers to help them think through their giving the same way they help them think through their investments. Philanthropy is no longer a sidebar conversation. For many HNW families, it is central to their legacy, their values, and their relationship with the next generation.
The Gap
Most advisors don't have the time, tools, or nonprofit sector fluency to provide meaningful philanthropic guidance. That gap between client expectation and advisory reality is significant -- and it is an opportunity.
The Risk
Sophisticated philanthropic guidance means more than pointing a donor toward a charity. It means evaluating organizational capacity, assessing financial health, and measuring whether grants produce real impact.
The Solution
Our Philanthropic Research and Due Diligence service provides the research infrastructure that lets you deliver a more complete, differentiated client experience -- without building the capability in-house.
Built for Advisors Who Serve Philanthropic Clients
This service is designed for professionals whose clients are making significant charitable decisions and who want to offer more than a tax vehicle -- they want a giving strategy backed by real research.
Family Offices
Seeking to add philanthropic advisory capacity without hiring full-time staff. Your clients expect this level of service. We make it possible to deliver it.
Wealth Managers & Financial Advisors
Differentiate through values-aligned client service and open doors to deeper conversations about legacy, family, and long-term goals.
Lawyers & Estate Attorneys
Advising clients on charitable vehicles, bequests, and legacy structures who want independent research to inform those decisions.
Accountants & Tax Advisors
Helping clients optimize charitable giving strategies with substantive research that goes beyond the tax mechanics into real philanthropic impact.
Investment-Grade Analysis Applied to the Philanthropic Portfolio
We conduct independent, qualitative and quantitative research on nonprofit organizations and charitable cause areas on behalf of your clients. Depending on client need, we develop any of the following deliverables.
Deep-dive profiles of specific nonprofits examining leadership stability, financial health, program effectiveness, board governance, fundraising sustainability, and alignment with donor intent. We look at what the organization says it does -- and whether the evidence supports it.
Curated overviews of a specific issue area -- education equity, affordable housing, global health, and more -- mapping the landscape of organizations working in that space, identifying leaders and emerging players, and surfacing gaps where donor dollars can create disproportionate impact.
Targeted lists of vetted organizations aligned with a client's giving priorities, geographic focus, or population of interest. Useful for clients who want to give strategically but don't know where to start.
For clients considering a major gift or multi-year commitment, we assess whether the receiving organization has the operational capacity to absorb and deploy a significant contribution effectively. This is where our Raise Ready work gives us a unique lens: we understand from the inside what nonprofit capacity looks like, and what it doesn't.
For multi-generational families navigating different values and priorities, we provide facilitation support and research to help establish a shared philanthropic mission that engages every generation in the room.
Not every client need requires a full briefing. We also provide fast-turnaround answers to specific donor questions, curated resource packages, and introductions to nonprofit experts working in a given field.
The Raise Ready Connection
Our work on the donor side is grounded in deep operational knowledge of the nonprofit sector. Through Raise Ready: Fundraising Action Bootcamp for Nonprofits, we work directly with organizations building the capacity to attract, manage, and sustain major gifts.
That inside knowledge makes our due diligence work sharper and more practical than research produced by generalists. We are not simply reading IRS Form 990s. We are reading organizations.
We understand what a well-run nonprofit looks like from the inside -- leadership, systems, fundraising infrastructure, and governance
We know how organizations think about funder relationships -- and where the gaps in sustainability planning typically appear
We can assess grant readiness with a practitioner's eye, not just a data analyst's spreadsheet
Our network spans nonprofits, foundations, and philanthropic professionals across the US and internationally
A Behind-the-Scenes Research Partner
You maintain the client relationship. We provide the intellectual horsepower. Engagements are scoped by project with clear deliverables and timelines. All research is confidential, unbranded for your use, or co-branded as preferred.
Project Basis
One-time engagements
Scoped by deliverable with a fixed timeline and clear output
Ideal for a specific client need: a major gift decision, a new cause area, or a family giving conversation
No long-term commitment required
Ongoing Retainer
Standing research resource
Reserved capacity for your firm across multiple clients and needs
Faster turnaround and deeper familiarity with your client base and priorities
Best for advisory firms making philanthropic guidance a standing service offering
Co-Branded
White-label or joint delivery
Research delivered under your firm's brand or as a co-branded resource
Option to present jointly to clients as a philanthropic advisory team
Strengthens your positioning without requiring in-house expertise
Ready to Offer Your Clients
Smarter Philanthropy?
If your clients are asking deeper questions about their giving -- or if you want to start those conversations -- let's talk. No sales pitch. Just an honest conversation about fit.
Book a Free 30-Minute Call Randy Shawn Fisher | CustomerDiscoveryPros.com | Somerset, NJ | +1 609 865 5219
