Fundraising

Your next major donors are not on a bought list. They are one introduction away, inside relationships your board, your staff and your current donors already have. Meerkat shows who in your network knows the prospect you want to reach, how they know each other, and who can make the introduction. A cold appeal becomes a warm ask through someone the prospect trusts.

WHAT YOU GET ON DAY ONE

Your organization mapped from its name alone. Nothing to send us to start.

625M people in the graph

1.85B connections, each backed by a dated record

5 kinds of connection: worked together, same board, recommended by name, same street, same household

15–25% of prospects take a warm introduction, against about 2% who reply to a cold email

The gift officer who can ask a board member for the right introduction wins the next major donor. Meerkat makes that the default, not the privilege of the best-connected shop.

Mary Shea, PhD · Co-Founder & CGO · former Forrester Principal Analyst

CONTENTS

What's inside.

A short read on what changes when your donor file becomes a network. Written for development directors, major gift officers, and the teams who carry the campaign.

01 The Reality · Cold appeals do not work. The warm path is hidden. 03

02 How We Know · Five kinds of connection. Every path shows its evidence. 04

03 The Ah-Ha · The next major donor is already in your network. 05

04 Where You Use It · Answers inside Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and your CRM. 06

05 Get Started · See your organization mapped before you commit. 07

Relationships are the most powerful force in business and in life. The intelligence to understand them has always been there, scattered and out of reach. Meerkat brings it together, so every organization can see the relationships it already has and put them to work.

Ralph Schonenbach · Founder & CEO, Meerkat

The Reality: Cold appeals do not work. The warm path does.

Every development team knows it. Bought prospect lists go cold. Mass appeals get ignored. The major donors in your community are already connected to the supporters you serve, but the path to a warm introduction is hidden, so the same email goes to everyone.

Your CRM holds the donors you already have. What it does not show is who they know. The board member two seats from your top prospect. The former colleague now running a family foundation. The neighbor who already gives to a peer organization.

Those relationships exist today. Nothing in your stack shows them, ranks them, or tells you who to ask.

The bought list

Purchased prospect lists target by ZIP code and a net-worth guess. They reach strangers with no reason to give, and miss the prospect who would take the meeting because a trustee asked.

The hidden network

The supporters most able to give are connected to the donors you already serve, through old colleagues, shared boards, and the same neighborhood. Without a map, those paths stay hidden.

The vague ask

"Who else do you know who might give?" gets a polite shrug. A board member wants to help but cannot recall, on the spot, the right person to introduce. The specific, named ask is the one that converts.

The relationships that grow a cause are already in your file, hidden from every tool. Meerkat shows them, and turns the cold appeal into a warm introduction.

Ralph Schonenbach · Founder & CEO, Meerkat

How We Know: Five kinds of connection. Every path shows its evidence.

Every connection Meerkat shows comes from a dated record, so you can see why two people know each other before you ask for the introduction. Paths are ranked by strength, strongest first.

WORKED TOGETHER

Both at Deloitte, 2014 to 2018 Twenty years of dated employment history, matched to the person across name and role changes. The former colleague now running a corporate giving program or a family foundation.

SAME BOARD

Same board since 2019 Corporate boards, advisory councils and foundation boards, with dates. The shared board seat that turns a cold prospect into a warm ask from a trustee.

RECOMMENDED BY NAME

Written recommendation on file Public profile recommendations, where one person has vouched for another by name. The strongest signal that an introduction will be welcome.

SAME STREET

Same street in Winnetka, eight years Licensed deed and assessor records in the United States. The neighbor who already supports a peer organization and can connect you to a prospect.

SAME HOUSEHOLD

Same home address Adults who currently share an address, from household and address records. Adults only, current residence. Meerkat does not map family structure.

CAPACITY CONTEXT

Qualify before you ask. SEC filings and a property-based capacity model show which prospects can make a major gift. Property values only, never account balances. Public records and licensed data. Nothing scraped, nothing pooled. Nobody else offers careers, boards, deeds and households together.

The Ah-Ha: The next major donor is already in your network.

The same week of outreach, run two ways. The difference is between emailing strangers and asking a trustee to introduce you to someone who already trusts them.

The warm introduction · from a cold appeal to a trustee's introduction

THE REALITY

You buy a prospect list for your region and send the appeal. Response is near zero. The people who do open already give elsewhere and have no reason to trust you. A week of the team's time produces a handful of small gifts.

WITH MEERKAT

Meerkat shows that your best board member served on a hospital foundation board with three principals who match your ideal donor profile, and two have never given to you. You ask for one introduction over coffee. It lands a first meeting the same week.

→ One warm introduction that opens a relationship, instead of a week of cold appeals.

The specific ask · the names your board could not recall

THE REALITY

You ask your board "who else do you know who might support us?" They want to help. They name one or two people, or nobody, because no one can search their own network on demand.

WITH MEERKAT

You walk into the board meeting with three specific, qualified names from each trustee's own network and how the trustee knows each one. The ask becomes "could you introduce me to her." The introduction lands the same week.

→ Specific, named introductions your board can actually make, instead of a vague referral ask.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

2% reply to a cold email

15–25% take a warm introduction

1 ask, to the right trustee, for a named introduction

Where You Use It: Answers where you already work.

Meerkat is not another platform for your team to learn. Ask who can introduce you in Claude, ChatGPT or Gemini, or see it alongside your CRM. No new app to open.

BEFORE MEERKAT

WITH MEERKAT

Prospect lists are bought by ZIP code → Prospects found inside your supporters' networks

"Who else do you know?" gets a shrug → Specific, qualified names from each board member's network

Cold appeals to strangers who never give → Warm introductions through a mutual relationship

Referrals depend on what a trustee remembers → Every connection mapped, with how they know each other

Center-of-influence relationships live in people's heads → Every center-of-influence path, ranked by strength

AI assistants see one record at a time → Ask Claude who can introduce you, and get the path back

AI ASSISTANTS

Claude · ChatGPT · Gemini

CRM

Salesforce · HubSpot

YOUR OWN DATA

Add your donor file at no cost. It stays in your organization's own workspace. The development director asks Claude which board members can introduce the organization to the three prospects it most wants to reach. The answer comes back in a sentence, with the path and the reason, not a research project.

Get Started: Start with your organization. Then add your donors.

The fastest way to see what Meerkat does is to start with the relationships your organization already has. We map your staff and board from your organization's name alone, before you send us anything.

STEP 01

We map your organization.

From its name alone: your staff and board, their careers, boards and neighborhoods, and the people they can reach. No data from you, no NDA.

STEP 02

Add your donor file.

When you are ready, load your donors. Names and contact details are enough. We do not need gift amounts, account numbers, or anything sensitive. Imports are free.

STEP 03

Ask for the introduction.

See the prospects already one introduction away and exactly which board member or donor to ask. Walk into your next meeting with three specific names. → One workspace per organization. Nothing you load is visible to anyone else.

→ Public records and licensed data. Nothing scraped, nothing pooled. → Any individual can ask to be removed, and stays removed on every refresh. → Plans for individual gift officers, development teams and whole organizations.

FROM NAMES TO NETWORKS

Every donor is a network. Now ask for the introduction.

Tell us about your organization. We will show you the prospects already one introduction away.

info@trymeerkat.ai · trymeerkat.ai