From Search to Profile: Using Perplexity Pro for Defensible Prospect Research

For three years, I ran a one-person prospect research shop at the Cleveland Museum of Art, where every research hour mattered and every claim had to be defensible. Today, I’m building a prospect research function at Cleveland State University, creating new processes and systems to support seven gift officers and a VP of Advancement. Across both roles, one lesson stands out: prospect researchers don’t need more AI tools—they need better research workflows. 

This session demonstrates how Perplexity AI Pro can be used as a citation-first research engine to produce faster, verifiable prospect research without sacrificing accuracy or professional judgment. Rather than focusing on AI hype, this presentation walks through a practical, repeatable workflow that separates search, verification, and synthesis - significantly reducing hallucinations and rework.

Attendees will learn how to structure Perplexity Pro for prospect research, apply simple verification standards (confirmed vs. unverified), and translate results into a clean, CRM-ready prospect profile that gift officers can act on. The session emphasizes accessible and ethical AI use, making it especially relevant for solo researchers and small shops operating without enterprise budgets or technical support.

Participants will leave with a budget-friendly research framework, reusable research prompts, and clear guardrails for responsible AI use that can be implemented immediately—using only a nominal monthly subscription ($5 - $17) and existing professional judgment.

Presenter: Ryan Clement

Prospect Research Director at Cleveland State University

Keeping Your Ducks in a Row… and Your Geese, Too: Practical Prospect Management Strategies

Prospect management works best when it’s both structured and flexible. In this session, we’ll talk through practical approaches to managing prospect portfolios, proposal strategy, metrics, and data integrity—while acknowledging the realities and pressures faced by frontline fundraisers. The goal isn’t perfection; it’s clarity, alignment, and momentum. Attendees will leave with ideas they can apply immediately to keep prospects moving forward and teams working together more effectively.

Presenter: Elise Martin

Associate Director, Prospect Development at Miami University

Elise has over 10 years of experience in advancement fundraising and prospect management within higher education. She currently works in prospect management, where she partners closely with development officers to support portfolio strategy, proposal tracking, and metric reporting. Elise holds an MBA from Miami University’s Farmer School of Business and brings a practical, collaborative approach to prospect management—focused on helping teams stay organized, aligned, and effective.

Neurodiversity in Research: Designing Workflows for All Kinds of Thinkers

Prospect research is a cognitively demanding field—requiring focus, pattern recognition, and adaptability. These are often strengths of neurodivergent professionals, yet traditional workflows and expectations can unintentionally create barriers.

Led by a neurodivergent researcher with nearly two decades of nonprofit experience, this session explores how to design inclusive, flexible research environments where all kinds of thinkers can thrive. We’ll examine common challenges—like time blindness, sensory overload, and communication mismatches—and offer practical strategies for building workflows that support diverse cognitive styles.

Whether you identify as neurodivergent, manage a team, or want to foster a more inclusive research culture, this session offers tools, language, and a fresh perspective on what it means to do research well.

Presenter: Jessica May

Development Analyst at Mid-Ohio Foodbank

Jessica May, MPA (she/her), is a neurodivergent prospect researcher with 19 years of experience across the nonprofit sector, including foodbanking, small business resources, adult learning, and adaptive training design. She brings a unique blend of lived experience and professional expertise in workflow design, accessibility, and inclusive team culture.

Age of the Builders
There are increasing reports of companies where 100% of the code is being written by AI agents — and yet the engineers remain. Why? Because taste, vision, and the ability to know what's worth building still can't be automated. The tools have changed. The role of the human hasn't disappeared — it's been elevated. But that elevation demands a shift. In this session, Michael Pawlus will make the case that we've entered the "Age of the Builders" — an era where the wall between a great idea and a working solution has crumbled, and the people best positioned to walk through that opening aren't necessarily coders. They're the domain experts who understand the problems worth solving. The prospect researchers who know which questions to ask. The fundraisers who understand what moves the needle.

You'll see how AI agents are already transforming prospect development work, learn how non-technical professionals are building specialized tools that solve real problems in their departments, and walk away with a framework for rethinking how you add value in a world where execution is increasingly handled by machines. The future of work isn't about competing with AI — it's about learning to lead it. Whether you're an analyst, a frontline fundraiser, or a research professional, this session will challenge how you think about the work you do and inspire you to start building.

Presenter: Michael Pawlus
Data Scientist at The Ohio State University

Michael Pawlus is a Data Scientist in External Affairs at The Ohio State University, where he leads AI implementation and infrastructure for fundraising operations. With a career path that spans public relations, librarianship, teaching English in South Korea, and prospect research, Michael brings an uncommon breadth of perspective to the intersection of data science and advancement. He has spent over a decade applying machine learning, NLP, and predictive modeling to fundraising — first in R, now increasingly in Python and Databricks — and is currently focused on building AI agent workflows, governance frameworks, and tools that put the power of AI directly into the hands of non-technical colleagues. Michael has presented at APRA International, DRIVE, and regional conferences, and was featured as an expert in fundraising analytics in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Michael is also the author of the book Hands-On Deep Learning with R.