The short version
A solo researcher who wants iWave Starter plus the Engage AI assistant is looking at $5,045 a year at Kindsight's own published starting prices, spread across two capped meters, with political giving deliberately excluded from the scores. DonorGraph Solo is $1,296 a year billed annually — $0.72 a complete screening — with the cited AI brief inside every one of them, a single meter, federal and state campaign finance itemized as evidence, and a link to the primary record behind each field. Kindsight's iWave is a mature, well-reviewed platform with a deep verified-gift archive, a published list of its 44 data sources and a user-tunable matching dial. The table below is fact for fact.
Side by side
| Question a buyer asks | iWave (Kindsight) | DonorGraph |
|---|---|---|
| Published entry price | Starter from $4,500/yr, 1 user, up to 1,500 subscription screens + 750 live profiles. kindsight.io/pricing, fetched 2026-09-06 | Solo $129/mo, or $1,296/yr billed annually: 150 complete screenings per month (1,800 a year), 1 seat. |
| Next tier | Professional from $5,800/yr, 3 users, 5,000 screens + 2,500 live profiles. Premium quote-only. | Team $349/mo (600 a month, 3 seats); Org $799/mo (2,500 a month, 10 seats); Enterprise $1,799/mo (10,000 a month, API). |
| Cost per screening | $4,500 ÷ 1,500 subscription screens = $3.00 each at the published floor (750 live profiles included), before Engage AI. | $0.72 Solo, $0.49 Team, $0.27 Org, $0.15 Enterprise, on annual billing. |
| AI included? | Engage AI writing tool is a separate subscription: $545, $1,095 or $3,295 per year by seat count. | Cited AI brief included in every screening on every plan. |
| Usage meters | Two currencies: subscription screens and live profiles, each capped. | One meter: complete screenings, included per plan rather than billed per record. Overage $0.45–$1.10 each depending on plan. |
| Political giving (federal + state) | Holds FEC data but excludes political giving from its scoring, a stated compliance decision. | FEC plus all 50 state campaign-finance sources, itemized (date, committee, amount, self-reported employer) and counted as evidence. |
| When the evidence is thin | The Confidence-of-Match dial decides how much gets attached to the person; a rating is returned either way. | The field says no evidence found. DonorGraph will not emit a number the records do not support. |
| Entity resolution | Confidence-of-Match dial (1–10), tuned by the user. | Resolved against IRS BMF/990, FEC and property records; each match shows its supporting record. |
| Fixing a wrong record | Reviewers report no quick way to correct stale or wrong data. | One-click correction on any field; the correction persists for your organization. |
| Gift history | VeriGift archive, 228M+ verified gifts. | IRS 990-PF grants, Form 990 Schedule I, the Million Dollar List and 990 officer data, each cited to the filing. |
| Source transparency | Publishes all 44 datasets by name. | Sources cited per field inside each profile, linked to the filing; method on how we verify. |
| Commitment | Annual subscription, priced per seat. | Month to month at the published price, cancel any time; annual billing saves two months. |
| Trial | Demo request. | 3 complete screenings on your own donors, no card, no call. |
Where DonorGraph is different
One meter, AI included
Two capped currencies create a familiar anxiety: is this prospect worth a live profile, or should I spend a screen? DonorGraph runs one kind of screening, and every one of them is complete: evidence sweep, identity resolution and the AI brief. There is no add-on subscription for the AI. A solo researcher who wants iWave Starter plus Engage AI is looking at $5,045 a year at the published starting prices; DonorGraph Solo is $1,296, and the 150 screenings are a monthly allowance, not an annual one.
Entity resolution is our job, not a dial
iWave's Confidence-of-Match setting is clever, but it converts the hardest problem in screening into a slider the user has to manage. When reviewers describe duplicates in giving history affecting a score, that is the same problem seen from the other side. DonorGraph resolves identity against structured public registries: IRS Business Master File and Form 990 officer lists, FEC filer records, deed records, and shows the supporting record for every match. If the match is ambiguous, the profile says so.
Political giving counts
Kindsight holds FEC data but excludes it from scoring. We think that discards one of the clearest public signals a fundraiser has. DonorGraph itemizes federal and state contributions in every profile and treats them as evidence, alongside property, securities and board service.
Corrections stick
A recurring iWave review theme is that stale or wrong data has no quick fix. In DonorGraph, any field can be corrected in one click, the correction is stored for your organization, and it is applied to future screens.
What you give up
- Verified gift-history depth. VeriGift is a multi-hundred-million-record archive built over many years, and it answers what a prospect gave to other institutions. DonorGraph cites IRS 990-PF grants, Form 990 Schedule I and the Million Dollar List directly, and your own CRM giving history stays your own.
- A published dataset list. Kindsight names all 44 of its datasets on its site, which every vendor should match. DonorGraph cites the source inside the profile instead, field by field, with the filing linked.
- A single-vendor stack. If you are buying Ascend or AdvancementRM at the same time, one vendor is operationally simpler. DonorGraph exports CSV in DonorPerfect, Raiser's Edge NXT, Bloomerang, LGL and Salesforce formats, adds an API on Enterprise, and offers an optional built-in CRM.
- Review volume. iWave has hundreds of public reviews and DonorGraph is new. That is why the trial screens three of your own donors before you pay anything.
Who switches
- Small and mid-size shops paying $4,000 to $12,000 a year for a tool they open a few hundred times a year.
- Researchers tired of deciding whether a prospect is worth a live profile or a subscription screen.
- Anyone who does not want to buy the AI assistant as a second subscription.
- Teams that want the political signal, federal and state, counted as evidence rather than excluded from the score.
- Anyone who has had to defend a capacity number in a meeting and wanted the document behind it.
Cost comparison at three sizes
| Program size | iWave (published 'from' prices) | DonorGraph (published) |
|---|---|---|
| One researcher, AI assistant wanted | Starter $4,500 + Engage Starter $545 = $5,045/yr | Solo $1,296/yr, AI included — 150 screenings a month, $0.72 each |
| Three-person team | Professional from $5,800/yr (+ $1,095 Engage Professional) | Team $3,492/yr, 3 seats, AI included — 600 a month, $0.49 each |
| Ten-person department, up to 2,500 profiles a month | Premium, quote only | Org $7,992/yr, 10 seats — 30,000 a year, $0.27 each |
Kindsight's prices are 'starting at' figures and can rise with seats and volume. The full market table is on what wealth screening actually costs.
Frequently asked questions
Is iWave the same as Kindsight?
Yes. iWave rebranded as Kindsight in February 2024 after merging with UC Innovation; iwave.com now redirects to kindsight.io. iWave survives as the name of Kindsight's prospect-research product, sold next to two CRMs (Ascend and AdvancementRM), a donor portal and an AI writing tool.
How much does iWave cost?
Kindsight publishes 'starting at' prices: iWave Starter from $4,500 per year (1 user, up to 1,500 subscription screens, up to 750 live profiles) and Professional from $5,800 per year (3 users, 5,000 screens, 2,500 live profiles). Premium is quote-only. The Engage AI writing tool is a separate subscription from $545 per year.
What are 'subscription screens' versus 'live profiles'?
Two separate meters. A subscription screen is a bulk match against the database; a live profile is an on-demand, fully built profile on one person. Both are capped per plan, so a researcher has to decide which currency to spend on each prospect.
Does iWave include political donations?
iWave carries FEC data as a source but deliberately excludes political giving from its scoring, a compliance decision. Political records appear in the profile without influencing the capacity or propensity rating.
What is the Confidence-of-Match dial?
A 1–10 setting the user tunes to control how aggressively iWave matches records to a person. A low setting pulls in more records including wrong-person matches; a high setting drops them but can lose true matches. It puts entity resolution in the user's hands.
Which is cheaper for a solo researcher?
DonorGraph Solo is $1,296 per year billed annually, or $129 month to month, and includes 150 complete screenings per month — 1,800 a year, about $0.72 each, with the cited AI brief in every one. iWave Starter is from $4,500 per year, before the optional $545 Engage AI tool. If you run thousands of bulk screens a year, compare on the calculator at donorgraph.com/wealth-screening-pricing.html.
- Kindsight pricing page (kindsight.io/pricing), fetched 2026-09-06: iWave Starter from $4,500, Professional from $5,800, Premium contact; Engage from $545 / $1,095 / $3,295 per year.
- Kindsight rebrand from iWave announced February 2024; iwave.com redirects to kindsight.io.
- Kindsight publishes its data-source list (44 datasets) and documents the Confidence-of-Match setting in product materials.
- Kindsight's treatment of FEC data (present as a source, excluded from scoring) per its published data and compliance materials.
- Reviewer statements on duplicates and corrections are paraphrased from public software-review sites; they are individual opinions, not measurements.
- DonorGraph pricing: donorgraph.com/pricing.html and /api/v8/pricing/plans.