How can I source great major gift prospects but include more types of people? Especially if I don’t have authority to do anything but research and certainly not make systemic change at my organization?
Continue reading Mixing DEI and Major Gift Prospecting
My Aspire Research Group team member, Elisa Shoenberger, is fascinated by the topic of cryptocurrency and philanthropy. I like to say that she has “gone all Alice in Wonderland” on the subject – falling down rabbit holes and getting curiouser and curiouser.
She has written more than 70 pages of a book – Volatile Opportunity: A Guide to Cryptocurrency and Fundraising to publish in August — and will be presenting on topic at the Apra Prospect Development conference that starts on August 28, 2023, in Indianapolis.
Continue reading Going all ‘Alice’ on Crypto – and Excellence
In Florida, summer starts in May. By June the pool has turned into a bath. By July the pool has become a hot tub! Whether I’m sitting by the pool or in and out of the pool, I like to take advantage of the summer heat to explore and re-think all the research things. And that means reading, watching, and getting training.
Because I really can sit outside under the shade of the umbrella and watch a training video, or read a book while floating in the pool, or focus on thinking through a problem while swimming laps. New thoughts are sparked when I physically re-locate away from my office.
So, instead of the traditional summer reading list, I’m suggesting a summer research adventure list!
Continue reading Dog Days of Summer ResearchFinance Industry Series Part 5 of 5
How you, the prospect research professional, write up your prospect profile affects the eventual solicitation – especially when it comes to complex prospects in the financial field. Do you find that difficult to believe? Or are you nodding your head right now and feeling validated? And if you are a development officer, isn’t it incredibly helpful when you don’t need a dictionary and Wikipedia to understand what’s in the profile? Of course it is!
I get it. As a fundraising research professional you want to be accurate. You prefer having a source to cite and a formula to generate a value. But researching people and professions has never been as simple as working through a checklist – and never will be.
Continue reading Can you really turn words into bigger gifts? Yes!Finance Industry Series Part 4 of 5
It can be tough to keep billions quiet. So why is it that although we in prospect research identify people that seem to be likely billionaires, we find them absent from the prominent Forbes listing?
And while I have been focused on the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index feels more aligned with us in prospect research – it’s conservatively calculated and the write-up for each individual is presented carefully and quite thoroughly.
Continue reading Affinity first or ‘Why is my prospect not on the Forbes list?’Finance Industry Series Part 3 of 5
Did you read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s coverage of the Top 50 Philanthropists this year? If you did, you would find that there are a lot of new names on the list – such as the retired clarinetist who was a closeted investor – to the tune of a $100 million gift!
Continue reading The Simple Way to Spot Million-Dollar Donors in Your DatabaseFinance Industry Series Part 2 of 5
What do hedge funds, private equity, and venture capital have in common? Quite a bit, actually. Today we will look at five things they share.
Continue reading Alternative Investments: Sophistication RequiredFinance Industry Series Part 1 of 5
For most of 2023 I plan to focus my blogging on the finance and investment industry. I wonder, is it the mystique of ruthless brainiacs in suits poring over financial charts and reaping millions, even billions that is so captivating? Once committed, I plucked the businesses that the Aspire team gets tripped up on the most in valuing for capacity, and felt as satisfied as taking a big bite of a street corner Philly pretzel.
Continue reading Top of the Wealth List: Finance and Investments?
As the zeroes on mega gifts grow as fast as ants on fallen candy, the methods, and vehicles for giving continue to diversify. First, it was the trusty (pun intended) family foundation. Now there is the handy and potentially anonymous donor-advised fund. Along the way, the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative LLC in 2015 brought worldwide attention to the LLC structure, which was also the choice du jour for Jeff Bezos and his Bezos Earth Fund LLC in 2021.
Continue reading Image Conscious Philanthropists
If you’re reading this blog, I suspect you are probably a researcher or really like data and research. But imagine you are vice president at a nonprofit. You took the job because you are an awesome major gift fundraiser, you know how to lead a team, and you love the mission. But inevitably, you arrive and have to overcome a million big and small hurdles, mostly with data and process.
Continue reading Making Magic with Pivot Tables