Who were/are/will be the most giving donors for our organization?” are three of the most pressing questions of increasing urgency and importance needing response, especially given current political and economic maelstroms. To answer these and many other philanthropy-related questions within our respective organizations, we must address two large areas both separately and concurrently: data and prospect development. For this introductory session, we will go over the foundational principles about data and about the prospect development process. We will then learn what/how/why data are key at each stage for prospect development to give credence to “computational philanthropy.” Finally, we will take an inventory of the necessary computer science, data science, and AI tools and skills required within and beyond advancement operations towards sound computational philanthropy practices.