Category Archives: Discussion

Are you headed for handcuffs?

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Latour “LT” Lafferty

What would you want to know about ethics from a white collar crime lawyer? I had the privilege of hearing Latour “LT” Lafferty who practices with Fowler White Boggs, give me an inside look at the downward slide away from integrity and some practical advice on how to avoid it, when he presented at the June 21, 2011 luncheon for Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Suncoast chapter.

Most interesting was Lafferty’s perspective of the white collar criminal. He suggested that these are not bad people. In fact they are just like us and the people we work with. What has happened is that their unethical behavior has built up like a snowball rolling downhill in a snow storm.

The example that Lafferty gave us was simple. Say that a person submits travel or business expenses that fall slightly outside the parameters, and he is not corrected. Perhaps he is even informally rewarded. Maybe “everyone” in the organization pads expenses. He continues to submit expenses that are farther and farther out of bounds until – bam! – he is investigated for his fraud and labeled a criminal.

How do we counter this behavior? Lafferty tells us that according to John Maxwell who wrote the book, A Winning Environment, we can:

  • Hire people of good character
  • Train them
  • Inspire them with good leadership

Lafferty encouraged us to evaluate our organization’s culture and to lead in ethical behavior. He tells us that if we don’t expect, demand and reward ethical behavior, we are at risk of destroying our donor’s trust and our organization’s ability to thrive and achieve its mission. Yikes! I won’t name names, but we all know the organizations that have made the news headlines. The risk is real.

So what does that mean for the prospect researcher? While more and more researchers are finding their way to the management table many of us may feel we have little influence. I am a member of the PRSPCT-L community and the ethics issues raised online are very real and are likely to be just the tip of the iceberg. I believe anyone of any position in life can model ethics. Here’s how:

Care about ethics: Care that the donor prospects you research are treated with respect and dignity –by you!

Educate yourself: Maybe your organization won’t or can’t send to you APRA’s sensational conference, but you can participate in the list-serv discussions and read about issues of privacy and data generally –it’s everywhere! (Even Aspire Research Group has a fun 7-min. video on ethics)

Lead: Yes, I’m talking to you. All of us can lead. Open your mouth when talk of data and research arises. We can tell stories and introduce empathy with comments such as, “I read about that, but I didn’t put it in the profile because I would be so upset if someone treated me that way”.

We won’t always be heard. We won’t always be able to change the culture of our organizations. We will always be able to plant our ethical seeds and nurture them in ourselves and others. I can live with that. How about you?

Summer Reading from Helen Brown

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It might not be “light” reading, but I still think you should go poolside with the suggestions from Helen Brown in her recent blog post Summer Reading: Wealth and Philanthropy.

All of the reports she mentions give great insight into donor motivations and capacity. But I can hear you moaning now: “I want to RELAX at the pool!”

All I can say to that is that I do my best philanthropy reading poolside. Sure beats being in my office. Get a blue or colored pen and circle the most important bits as you go along. When you are back at your computer, cut and paste the important bits into one document.

I went so far as to create a table with characteristics (inherited wealth, real estate wealth, etc.) in one column and the quote in the other. That way I have a quick reference guide when I’m doing my donor research profiles. Yes, it’s a little go-getter geeky, but it saves me a lot of time…

Happy reading!

Tips and Trends from Bob Carter

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I am on an airplane trolling through the little notebook that I take everywhere and found my notes from Bob Carter’s talk at the APRA Florida conference. I’m realizing just how much of what he told us is showing up in the stories of the people I have been researching lately. I have to wonder if others of you are seeing these up close and personal too.

Bob Carter of previous Ketchum fame, has his own shop now, Of Philanthropy, and it is a fitting name for what he has to say. He is an engaging speaker with a global outlook. Best of all, he makes good practical sense.

The Best Solution
Carter mentioned that philanthropists are trending towards being married to the solution instead of the institution. I’ve heard this spoken of as a generational trend as well and it’s probably both, but I have written up a few donor profiles recently that demonstrate this emphatically. While the largest gifts go to the charity the donor is closest to and trusts the most to achieve the mission, giving is not guaranteed and is quickly shared with innovating organizations. Are you communicating your effectiveness at  implementing the solution?

Direct Involvement
Many speakers, not just Carter, have been talking about donors being more involved for a while now, but it has only been recently that I have seen it firsthand as so intrinsic to some donors’ giving. I heard Carla Harris speak at the AFP Florida Caucus’ Planet Philanthropy conference and she donates the proceeds of all of her gospel albums. Her occupation is Wall Street banker!

And more than usual I have been writing up donor profiles demonstrating this kind of it’s-a-way-of-life giving. I am also seeing more and more donors who don’t just give, they serve in four or five or even more volunteer capacities at the same organization!

Leveraging
Carter told the APRA Florida researchers that for every major gift there is no excuse for not getting three or four more from that donor’s network. Nothing new there, but it gave me a good kick-in-the-butt about priming my clients with possibilities when I send them a profile in preparation for solicitation. Depending on the client and the relationship I can do more than name-drop in my profiles, I can be part of the ongoing conversation and strategy.

Jennifer Kehoe of the University of Central Florida shared a great story at the APRA Florida conference about how her research department was able to add value to a major gift donor’s cultivation *throughout* and without which a gift would have been unlikely. Prospect researchers are fundraisers too – we want the big “YES” just as much as the fundraiser!

Collaborating
How do you get in with the philanthropic in-crowd in your community? Carter suggests a collaboration. The donors want it and I have watched one of my clients use a collaborative project to successfully promote the organization’s commitment and excellence to the in-crowd of philanthropists in her community. Leveraging the collaboration, donor research and excellent cultivation, she has brought her organization’s fundraising from barely there to million dollar gifts.

Provocative Ideas
But maybe the comment I liked most was when Carter talked about an organization that invited its best donors to a fundraising training. I am no longer surprised when board members show up for my Introduction to Prospect Research trainings. When board members and major donors become educated about fundraising it only makes them more effective givers. I have to wonder what other unusual cultivation activities fundraisers have begun using!

What have you been doing and seeing lately?

Cooking up Planned Giving with Julia Child

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by Kate Rapoport.

I met Julia Child when I was a senior at Smith College. It was the first annual Julia Child Day at Smith, an event designed to honor Ms. Child and the revolution she had brought to the way Americans think about food. Julia Child was a Smithie herself, having graduated in 1934 with a degree in history. Even in her old age, she was a force to be reckoned with, her strong voice carrying as she talked to her many admirers. She had had an affection for Smith in the many years after graduation and had decided in her later years to include the college in her planned giving.

In Nonprofit Essentials: Major Gifts, Julia Ingraham Walker outlines the different types of planned gifts. These include gifts of marketable securities, donated art or other real property, charitable lead trusts which provide a stream of income over a period of years to the non-profit and then revert back to the donor at the end of the agreed upon time, and real estate that is gifted to the non-profit which the non-profit then sells.

Ms. Child chose the planned giving option of donating her house to Smith College. In 1990, she entered into an agreement with Smith, formally donating her house to the college, but keeping the right to live in it for her lifetime. She had lived in her home since 1956 and had filmed one of her famous cooking shows in the kitchen. The kitchen itself Child left to the Smithsonian, giving Smith the right to sell the house after her death.

In 2002, Ms. Child decided to move back to California, her childhood home. She accelerated her gift, giving her home in Massachusetts to Smith while she was still living. The proceeds of the sale of her home supported the construction of Smith’s Campus Center. Ms. Child died on August 12, 2004. An etching on a window of the Campus Center Café honors her generosity to Smith. Of the many ways to honor a donor, I think that that was a fitting tribute to Julia Child, who is rumored to have cooked for her friends and classmates while at Smith. There has also been a Julia Child Day every fall since 2003, continuing to honor the impact she made on Smith and the world.

The choice that Ms. Child made to give Smith College her house allowed her to make a significant gift to an institution that she strongly believed in supporting, while allowing her to live in her home until she made the choice to go home to California. That is the beauty of a planned gift. It gives a donor the chance to support a non-profit organization with a major gift, while still allowing her to use her resources during her lifetime.

Selling Anonymous Donor Info – for or against?

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Today the U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether or not to uphold Vermont’s law against selling prescription info to data mining companies. It’s a privacy issue with parallels to nonprofit fundraising – or is it? SCOTUSblog has a wonderfully readable account of the case.

In Vermont, when drug stores fill a doctor’s prescription they are required to record the doctor’s name and address, the name, dosage and quantity of the drug, the date and place where the prescription was filled, and the patient’s age and gender — but not patient name and address. Drug stores are required to keep this digital information and they make money selling it to data mining companies who sell it to the pharmaceutical industry who use it for marketing drugs. But the information is also available to insurance companies, medical research institutions, and law enforcement authorities. Vermont law keeps the information from the data mining companies, but not others.

So once again we have personal data, which many in the public perceive as being ill-used or over-used by huge corporations like big pharma, but which is also being used for important public benefits like disease tracking, clinical trials and law enforcement. Can we say no to one user and not another? Do we give up the benefits to keep the info completely private?

Although this case might seem far removed from the world of not-for-profit fundraising, it isn’t. Blackbaud is a huge corporation with the dominant market share of donor database software – Raiser’s Edge. And they are moving their customers online, which means Blackbaud holds the keys to your donor data. They conduct lots of useful fundraising industry research including their Index of Charitable Giving. Where do they get the info?

“Each month, we draw actual giving statistics from the databases of thousands of participating organizations using a variety of fundraising systems to determine how much revenue was raised in the prior month.”

I’m not sure if that means that they use their clients’ data with permission or whether they collect data from clients and non-clients. Does it matter? Nonprofits are providing their donor information to Blackbaud for research – but stripped of identifying information. Is it restricted to freely available research studies or do they also use it for commercial purposes? Does that matter?

In March of 2010 I wrote about Google’s use of “data dust”. I suggested we should be able to use our own “donor dust” to help create a better experience for our donors. But it makes me uncomfortable to think of the possibility of Blackbaud sweeping up our collective donor dust and then reselling it for profit or using it for their own marketing.

The question shares many similarities with  the prescription drug case in Vermont. There will be good and meaningful uses for following fundraising trends gleaned from a corporation’s clients’ donor data, but is it legal and is it ethical?

Research 101 Workshop in Tampa

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Want to know where to look for information online? Do you wonder if you are asking for the largest gift amount appropriate? Maybe you want to understand how prospect research fits into fundraising and how to leverage it to maximize your fundraising?

APRA Florida has teamed up with the Nonprofit Leadership Center of Tampa Bay to answer your questions with a Prospect Research 101 course the morning on the first day of the APRA Florida annual conference on May 19, 2011. Click here for more info about Research 101 and click here for more info about the conference.

I am so excited to be presenting the Research 101 Workshop with my friend and colleague, Debbie Menoher, Director of Research for the University of Florida Foundation. During her tenure, UF completed an $850 million dollar capital campaign, and UF is currently in a $1.5 billion dollar campaign.  She is also one of the founding members of the APRA Florida chapter!

The conference and workshop will be held at The Children’s Board in downtown Tampa. Workshop cost is $59 and conference is $125 for two days. The theme this year is The New Philanthropists: Prospecting in the 21st Century.   

I will be presenting at the workshop and attending the conference. If you are in Florida, I hope you will too!

Florida Prospect Research Conference

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This year the APRA Florida conference will be in my hometown – Tampa! Click here for more info on the conference. Registration is now open! And none too soon as the conference is May 19 and 20, 2011. Our theme is: The New Philanthropists – Prospecting in the 21st Century.

The Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) does an incredible job of keeping us prospect researchers well educated and it thrills me to have an active chapter here in Florida. This year I am serving as the chapter president and it has been a privilege to get chest deep in association waters. 

So I know it’s true when I say that our conference committee is going to bring you excellent speakers and fantastic networking and problem-solving opportunities. If you are in Florida, I sure hope to see you in Tampa in May!

Are You a Leaky *Nonprofit* Corporation?

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I’m often a little behind reading my subscription to the Economist, but I keep chugging along because they have so many brainy articles on things that often relate well to nonprofits and fundraising. Their article in February on The Leaky Corporation is no exception.

If you are awake then you are likely to have heard something about WikiLeaks in the past few months. Most recently WikiLeaks is threatening to leak documents from a bank that will expose wide-spread corrupt practices. As the bankers are sweating, the Economist discussed the myriad of options out there to protect data. But ultimately the suggestion was to decide what information is most critically private and focus on protecting it.

And what is more critically private than your donors’ personal information and giving history? Universities and hospitals have regulated layers of must-have data security, but thousands of nonprofit organizations do not. And more and more donor databases are hosted online. Even so, I would argue that the threats are more mundane than hackers. It is the accidental leak that poses perhaps the greatest threat to nonprofit organizations.

What hits the news harder than a laptop stolen that contained database or spreadsheet files full of names, addresses, social security numbers and other private info? But how about the university professor who posts a spreadsheet on a public server he thinks is private? Or the staff member who emails sensitive information to the wrong email address?

In my research I have found nonprofits who posted their confidential board list – the one with cell phone numbers, spouse names and more – on their website or attached to their public IRS Form 990. Out of pity and horror I emailed one webmaster suggesting they remove the file. I did not use the private information in my prospect profile.

There are thousands of examples of accidental errors, but what can you do to prevent them? Educate! Educating your staff and volunteers and then routinely reminding them goes a long way. Open discussion about something as simple as deleting old spreadsheet exports from your servers could avert disaster.

Consider purchasing a secure, online space for board members to view important documents instead of email and discuss the safety of any documents they download.

Establish one day a year devoted to security education and data storage clean-up so that everyone is talking, cleaning up old files, and reassigning files to safer storage space – online or offline.

Whatever you do, I hope you will seriously get thinking about your data security. Every time you hire a new employee, engage a new board member, or buy a new piece of software you face a certain degree of risk.

Aspire Research Group is committed to ethical fundraising and prospect research. Why not check out our fun, 7-minute video on ethics in prospect research? Click here.

About Those Millennial Donors

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By Kate Rapoport, Aspire Research Group, Prospect Research Trainee

Researchers and historians have given a name to the generation born after 1981, the Millennial generation. The first generation to come of age in the new millennium, this group has become the focus of a great deal of research. How does the Millennial generation think, shop, live, give? A great deal of early work on this generation assumed that the most important thing about the age group was their experience with and immersion in all sorts of technology and social media. However, further research is bringing to light a truth that shouldn’t be so shocking. Despite all the technology the Millennial generation is surrounded with, interpersonal relationships and face-to-face meetings are still crucial to the decisions that this group makes.

A point that 2010 Achieve and Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates’ study, Millennial Donors: A Study of Millennial Giving and Engagement Habits found is that while giving via mobile/text and social networks is an up and coming way of soliciting gifts, 91% of Millennial donors are at least somewhat likely to respond to a face-to-face request, but only 8% are likely to respond to an email request. The personal touch and a specific project are still the best way to reach the Millennial generation.

So where does this information leave professionals at non-profit organizations? Research into Millennials’ habits gives us some suggestions about ways to focus an ask. In 2008, The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University for Campbell’s & Company conducted a study called Generational Differences in Charitable Giving and in Motivations for Giving. One finding from this study stands out: the Millennial generation gives their money when they feel that it will help make the world a better place. They care less about what influence they will have on an organization and more about making a difference.

This finding is supported by the 2010 Millennial Donors study, referenced above, which found that over 55% of Millennial donors are likely or highly likely to respond to being asked to give more to a specific project, while the same 55% are unlikely to give to a general, non-specific request. These studies indicate that when approaching a Millennial donor, one needs to have a specific project that the donor would be interested in. If what you need are unrestricted operating funds, make the request sound like a project – limited time-frame, measurable objectives and a dollar goal.

If you want to identify Millennial donors for a targeted campaign, contact us at Aspire Research Group and we can help you add ages to your donor records. And be sure to check out our expert Resource Partners too!

You can reach us at (800) 494-4132 or (727) 231-0516 in Florida, or jen at aspireresearchgroup.com.

When in Rome… speak Italian!

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During Jay Goulart’s presentation he told us “language is key!” And then he told us that we could say it like Martin Luther King Jr. – I have a DREAM – or we could say it like a professional – I have a list of measurable objectives. Which language do you speak?

This entertaining presentation was to the AFP Suncoast chapter on February 15, 2011 and Jay is Director of Advancement at the Academy at the Lakes. He has definitely presented to groups before and even has a website to prove it: www.jaygoulart.com.

Jay said something else that really made an impression on me. He painted a picture. Imagine yourself going to the dealership to buy a car. In order to get your car you have to purchase the tires, engine and body – all from separate people at the same dealership. What a hot mess that would be!

Now imagine yourself wanting to give to an organization, but in order to become a donor you have to give to annual fund, holiday drive, and capital campaign – all separately. We need to build jointed, holistic relationships with our donors. It’s okay if they have to first talk to sales and then financing and then delivery, but let’s make them smooth and understandable transitions.

Jay said lots of other stuff too, but, hey, not everything sticks – even when it’s only thirty minutes or less. If you’re reading this Jay, I’d be curious what you felt was the most important message in your presentation and whether I mentioned it.

Thanks for the great presentation Jay! And I hope you folks in the Tampa Bay area will be sure to join me at the next AFP Suncoast chapter meeting on March 15, 2011.