Prospect development professionals know the importance of conducting due diligence research for prospective donors. After all, if you’re accepting significant donations to endow a scholarship or name a building after someone, you want to ensure their reputation is in line with your organization’s values.

But what about due diligence research for non-donors? With a limited amount of time, talent and energy, where do you start?

Getting Started

Whether you have requests twice a year or twice a week, it’s important to establish a procedure for non-donors. Consider the following:   

• Establish guidelines for who should be reviewed and when. It’s easy to think you should review everyone involved or who attends an event, but that may not always be the case. Make sure you have buy in from everyone involved.
• Make clear to leadership that this review does not replace a criminal background check and should not replace established background check procedures. The purpose is only for reputational management.
  • Commit to reviewing only the most visible and consequential individuals, such as:
  • Honorary degree recipients
  • Hall of fame or award honorees
  • High level committee members (board members and trustees)
  • Individuals involved in campaigns
  • Individuals featured in print materials, newsletters or media campaigns
  • Social media features
• Consider when due diligence may become a hindrance. It shouldn’t keep you from posting timely items on social media or going about every day interactions.

Setting up Procedures

It’s tempting to jump right in and start reviewing, but it’s important for everyone involved to agree on what or who should be involved in the review process.

• Set reasonable expectations on what can be found without a criminal background check. Even the best subscription services are limited to publicly available information. A comprehensive review requires a person to provide confidential information such as their social security number. If leadership wants certain positions or awards to have a comprehensive review, use the procedures document to list the circumstances in which a person would need to agree to a criminal background check.
• Establish several levels of review. Does the person being given an honorary degree need the same level of review as the person being given an alumni feature on social media? Having these conversations up front will save you a lot of time and unnecessary work.
• Agree on the general items that constitute a red flag for your organization. If you are a mission driven organization, what would clash with your values?
  • Make use of resources you may currently have access to:
  • LexisNexis as a starting point for civil or criminal issues
  • iWave/WealthEngine, etc. for potential mission conflicts
  • Google, with specific words such as scandal and arrest
  • Review of state criminal docket review
  • Registered sex offender list for the state where the person and potentially their spouse are residing
• Outline levels of review based on their interaction with your organization and level of publicity. A new campaign chair will have a different level of review versus someone who is serving on an internal advisory board.
• Establish timelines that give enough time to conduct research and handle any potential issues. If a red flag is located for a person currently involved with your organization, it will take time to go through the proper channels and come up with a plan to address concerns.
• Confidentiality is key. If reviewing a list of people, it’s important to hold the entire list until a concern is resolved. If you approve everyone but one person on a list while the organization tries to find a resolution, it will be clear who had an issue before it’s resolved.
• Commit to revisiting and revising the procedure at least once a year. As much as you’d like it to cover everything, you will learn things as you begin putting it into practice.

Remember to stay flexible when putting together procedures and allow them to grow and change if needed. They won’t guarantee that you find everything, but they should allow you to find enough information for leadership to make informed decisions.

Bethany Andorfer Morley
Assistant Director of Prospect Developtment, West Chester University Foundation

Bethany Andorfer Morley works at West Chester University Foundation as the assistant director of prospect development. Bethany enjoys working collaboratively with fundraisers and development professionals. Her 15+ year career working with non profits includes 10 years as a frontline fundraiser. She has experience working in higher education, health and human services, and arts and culture.