Category Archives: Uncategorized

Your Physical Health: The Hidden Costs of Working from Home | Part 3 of 5

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Have you ever suffered a workplace injury? I have! It was twenty years ago and my arm still has problems when I lay on or put pressure on my left shoulder. I was sitting at a desk at the wrong height and typing non-stop for eight weeks while the other secretary was out with a broken arm.

Safety at work is important in every kind of work environment. It’s easy to “see” the importance when there is machinery or heights, but even when you are on your laptop there is physical danger.

In the first two parts of this series, I talked about the opportunity to adjust how you provide online training and data security in the virtual office as well as being mindful to protect your career aspirations.  

And as I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, COVID-19 could be your great opportunity to mirror your mission through the better treatment of your employees.

Avoiding Danger to Physical Health

Repetitive strain injuries are no joke. Neither is the misery of a workers’ compensation claim for both the injured employee and the employer. When working from home feels temporary, any old table and chair might do. But injury can happen pretty quickly and you might not be aware of the early signs.

This kind of insidious injury is difficult to diagnose and even more difficult to pinpoint the cause – and it can have life-long negative consequences – like the injury I suffered to my shoulder and arm. Getting ahead of injuries and recognizing that an ergonomically sound work environment is important at home and in the office is worth every penny.

Even so, you do not necessarily need to spend large sums of money on the issue. This is where you have the advantage now. Take the time to explore your options to address the issue. Involve your employees in the process. You may be able to develop a process that provides as-needed intervention (less expensive) instead of trying to be one-size-fits-all (more expensive).

For example, you might use learning materials, such as short videos, “cheat sheets,” and quizzes to help employees assess and improve their work environment. In fact, OSHA has e-tools, including checklists, that you can use for free. As a result of this assessment stage, employees could submit equipment purchase requests according to a defined process. Or they could proceed to a next level of evaluation for extra help, such as a specialist consult.

Keeping It Simple

When I decided to become a consultant, one of the primary motivators was the freedom to travel. Since I had already suffered a repetitive strain injury, I knew I needed to be able to work safely from anywhere, too. But how?

After a few trips I realized that I couldn’t count on having the proper combination of chair and table heights. I shopped around for a tray table that I could disassemble and fit into my suitcase. It had to be light weight, too! Once I found the Table-Mate II table, I bought a few of them. At $35 each this was not a hardship.

Because the tray table height is very adjustable, I can work with almost any kind of chair if necessary. Because the tray part drops down easily and the whole table is pretty small, I can fit it into small spaces and easily put it away when I’m done working. For those of you in apartments, you can understand how fabulous this is!

It took me a bit longer to truly go paperless, but as information technology advanced, this got easier. Now that I can take a picture of signed document on my smart phone and send it via email, there’s nothing I can’t do on the road – with my trusty Table-Mate II tray table, that is.

The rest of my physical safety plan is even less expensive:

  • Constantly reminding myself on proper posture.
  • Taking frequent breaks even if that means waving my arms around while waiting for a web page to load.
  • Scheduling phone calls only when I have a quiet room available (even if it is the bathroom).
  • Scheduling 20-min naps after presentations or lots of video meetings (they wear me out).
  • Offering myself an unlimited Starbucks account as an employee perk; Starbucks is everywhere and as the only reliable place where the chair to table height is correct and they don’t mind if I sit there for hours, a little coffee is cheap rent for an on-the-go office!
  • Purchasing a good-looking, highly functional backpack for toting my laptop for hours through airports and cities; over-the-shoulder bags have caused muscle strain.

Make a Plan Stan

I hope it’s obvious from my example how most people’s needs for physical safety can be met with simple adjustments. I also hope my example of continuing to have symptoms from a twenty-year-old injury demonstrates how surprisingly dangerous working at a desk can be.

Maybe your new plan is simply to ask, listen, and act if necessary. Is anyone having any aches or pains from working at home? Are you? Share the diagram from the Mayo Clinic and ask them if their workspaces conform to those guidelines. If they don’t, you can explore simple options to remedy the discrepancies.

Working from home – or working from anywhere – can be a great experience, but it is not without physical danger. Thankfully, many of those danger can usually be addressed without much fuss!

Additional Resources

Your Career: The Hidden Costs of Working from Home | Part 2 of 5

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How is your work from home transition going? Has your organization been able to re-think and re-route some of its processes and procedures to reflect your new reality? As I mentioned in Part 1 of this blog series, COVID-19 could be your great opportunity to mirror your mission through the better treatment of your employees.

In this five-part series, I’m examining some of the hidden costs of working from home. My goal is to give you – an individual, or a manager, or a leader – the opportunity to recognize and begin to address these hidden costs.

As an individual, as a manager, or as a governing board, crisis is your opportunity to get it right. Now is the time to think it through and be the shining role model you always knew your nonprofit could be!

Protect your Career Aspirations!

Another hidden cost of working from home is the damaging effect it can have on one’s career. According to one study, working from home lowered promotion rates by 50% (Stanford University, 2014). You need only listen to #ChatBytes episode 18 for how this issue plays out in the prospect research field.

The Stanford study did not have any data collected to conclude why or how working from home affected promotions. However, the researchers did speculate, based on comments from participants, that some of the negative effect on promotion rates could be attributed to home-based employees being ‘‘out of sight, out of mind.’’ Another theory was that the call center employees working at home in the study whose performance was high were well compensated, and this might make promotion less attractive.

The panel of prospect research professionals interviewed for the #ChatBytes podcast discussed the importance of communication, but also the challenges of being the only work from home employee or one of very few at home. For example, being able to communicate performance and achievements is related to promotion and positive performance reviews in the office, but has additional challenges or changes when communicating remotely. When no-one else is remote, this challenge is magnified.

As many companies and organizations consider a post-pandemic world where people work from home wholly, routinely, or partly, it presents a fantastic opportunity to re-evaluate your communications – as an individual, manager, and organization.

Decisions have to be made about things such as which software to adopt. The larger you are, the more likely there will be some who are unhappy with those choices, but even that doesn’t preclude your ability to consider how to train and use good communication strategies to help each employee achieve her or his potential.

When we choose software or decide on a process, we rarely consider how we humans will actually perform the tasks specific to our roles. For example, good communication practices are rarely taught as a component of software training. But even if you can’t impact practices organization-wide, you can impact yourself and your team.

Following are some examples of how you might communicate in different scenarios, especially if you are working remotely:

  • Before we get started, could we add to the agenda? I’m wondering how folks are doing with the new login fix that got rolled out last week. (Ensure no-one is left behind or is implementing a DIY workaround that’s not secure.)
  • Could I share a great tip I learned about this week? (Helping everyone get better at a new software or process and letting power-users shine.)
  • Would it be okay if I added a #Friday channel to Slack so we can all share what we accomplished this week? (Encourages a level playing field for sharing accomplishments.)
  • Manager: I’m considering implementing a new video-conferencing practice for all staff meetings. Everyone will login to the staff meeting from their computers, even if they are in the office. Thoughts? (Eliminates the side-lining of remote staff in favor of face-to-face staff.)

And you don’t have to make sudden, sweeping changes all at once. Efforts at better communication – anything really – takes practice and tweaking. Making fewer changes as part of annual strategies or goals will likely yield better results. It also reflects the concept that communication goes two ways.

Here again, crisis can help us step back and identify ways to improve. Recently, I experienced the magnification of intent that crisis can bring. It pushed me to focus on some newly acquired listening tactics that did not require meeting face to face.

I needed to reach out to an intermittent client. It was time. But the news was full of protests against racism and I was genuinely worried about saying or not saying the right thing. I read over my “cheat sheet” on listening techniques and picked up the telephone.

Am I ever glad that I took that online course on negotiation through listening!

I worked really hard at being quiet and following her lead in the conversation. Not only did I learn new and important information about her and her needs, but she inspired me with hope on current issues. After I hung up the phone, I wrote down the exact words she used to describe her needs, so that I could avoid assigning my research jargon to her world.

If you want see movement in your career, hearing and understanding your supervisor’s or other advocate’s needs is critical. If you want to have your employee perform up to potential, hearing and understanding your employee is critical. Doing this without access to body language requires new skills.

Communicating effectively with your team remotely is not likely to happen without deliberate effort. Where will you and your team learn these new skills? There is no shortage of great free and fee opportunities to learn. I’ve included a few of my favorites below.

If you have great ideas and tips on how you have grown your remote communication skills, please share by commenting or emailing me so others can benefit from your experience!

Additional Resources

The Hidden Costs of Working from Home | Part 1 of 5

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By now you’ve probably read a lot of articles about working from home. At first it was a temporary, emergency reaction to the pandemic. Four months later, it’s beginning to feel less temporary. And people have adjusted to the most immediate changes. Now is when the hidden costs begin to emerge.

From an individual perspective, you’ve had to carve out a workspace at home, adjust your hours to accommodate children at home, learn to avoid the kitchen, and figure out how to stay focused and prioritize amidst the chaos. Bravo!

But as the adjustment period wanes, the irritating and unarticulated issues arise–haphazardly and intermittently. It was Mark Zuckerberg’s callous remarks about Facebook’s impending work from home pay policy that got me thinking about the subject.

As an individual, as a manager, or as a governing board, crisis is your opportunity to get it right. Crisis is when your sins, inefficiencies, and weaknesses are bare for the world to see. If you relied primarily on in-person events, you are facing a cash flow crisis right now. If you lack equitable pay policies, you may face a moral reckoning with your employees and your donors.

From this context, if you are considering broadening your work from home policy long after the COVID-19 shutdown is over, now is the time to think it through and be the shining role model you always knew your nonprofit could be!

COVID-19 could be your great opportunity to mirror your mission through the better treatment of your employees.

In this five-part series, I’m going to examine some of the hidden costs of working from home. My goal is to give you–an individual or a manager or a leader–the opportunity to recognize and begin to address these hidden costs. And quick! Before the Mark Zuckerbergs of the world cut your pay!

Beware the Dual Dangers to Productivity: Training and Security

Technology and productivity can often be at odds of one another in any environment, but especially at home. At home, the trade-offs in technology choices are often not deliberated or voiced as frequently as in the office environment.

I might work with two monitor screens at the office, but prefer the one laptop screen at home because it means I can change rooms easily in a small space with children. Or I might be stressed and significantly less productive with a laptop and no-one has made it an option to take the office hardware home.

And then there is the reality that some of us adapt to new software and hardware much easier than others. Assuming that everyone will find the right YouTube DIY video for them and quickly learn is begging for a productivity dip!

Shortcuts to learning software are risky. Technology glitches always happen at the worst possible moment!

I get the email notice that there was an attempt on my email account that was blocked. It houses all my work calendars. *GASP* I check that it’s a real issue and then pounce into action, updating passwords. I identify and fix the likely weak link: my browser.

Crisis averted I go about my daily business until…

I’m an hour from home, my 92-year-old friend is in my car and we want to call ahead to be sure we manage our outing safely during COVID-19. But my search app won’t work. And neither will the app for maps. It’s HOT in Florida. Time ticks. Frustration mounts.

I take a deep breath and I realize it’s because my phone is no longer “logged-in” to my primary email account–-because I changed the password.

Managing software takes TIME. I’m not getting any younger, but I am on the receiving end of exponentially more software to learn. If you want people to work from home (or, heck, in the office), how can you better accommodate the learning needs of all ages and types of employees? You have the perfect testing grounds during a crisis.

Unfortunately, it’s also the perfect predatory playground for sinister, unknown forces just waiting to capture your organization’s data for ransom, or worse.

Don’t fool yourself that the risk is low. Digital Guardian examined the data of nearly 200 customers in its Managed Security Program and issued a Data Trends Report that will have you biting your fingernails.

There are plenty of resources and software solutions you can purchase to help secure your organization and its in-office and remote employees, but during shelter-in-place, you are in the perfect training grounds to realize that is not nearly enough.

Yes, of course, you need better passwords, but for example, have you given employees a password manager and created a culture of tip-sharing on how to use it well on all devices? Especially in chaos, something as simple as password protection will break down at the user level. When my dog is going bezerk over the doorbell ringing and I’m creating a new password before I answer the door, rest assured it will not be the best encryption effort.

Another example of how easily security breaks down is actual software use practices.

When I first started using a cloud file storage many years ago, I was so thrilled to be on top of my data security game! Every contractor I hired was given account access so that no client file would ever be stored on a local hard drive–where I could not control its security.

Too many years later, one of my contractors was struggling with the software. I walked through the process with her. That’s when I discovered that all this time she had been accessing through her browser, downloading the files to her laptop and then uploading them to the cloud server. So much for security!

Sometimes these breaches are poor training, but sometimes it’s that the secure process is less efficient for a particular employee, or the hardware they are using does not support the software you want them to use.

When everyone is thrust into a new environment at once, it is the perfect time to uncover these hidden security breaches and create pathways to reduce the issues. Your solution could be better and more varied training. It could be access to IT consults to help employees configure (and use) their devices appropriately and securely. Or it could be as simple as having the conversation and explaining the risk. Behavior might be the biggest security risk–working from home or the office. Better communications go a long way to averting and solving problems, significantly lowering risk.

Summary

Working from home can lower costs for employer and employee, but if the hidden costs are not recognized and addressed, both parties might not realize some of those savings.

Many times, you can use free or existing systems, such as leveraging your internal intranet to create curated learning resources for different types of learners. If you use Slack for messaging, you can create a #SoftwareTips channel to help everyone stay safe and secure.

Like so many things, the solutions don’t have to be expensive. If you take the time out to plan, you can create a remote environment that provides significant autonomy and customization, with lower costs and higher productivity.

Additional Resources

Which comes first? Research or fundraising strategy?

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If you had asked me this question a month ago, I would probably have argued that fundraising strategy usually comes first and data and research support the strategy. Now, in the middle of uncertainty, it’s easier to recognize that it’s not even a valid question.

I was co-presenting a webinar on relationship mapping hosted by Apra Pennsylvania and as my co-presenter, Marianne Pelletier, was walking through the mapping process in Excel, questions were popping up in the chat. How did she know what kind of file to pull? How did she decide which constituent to focus on?

It reminded me how important it is to understand the purpose or the problem we are trying to solve.When we’re learning a tool or technique, we aren’t focused on the problem or scenario. Similarly, in primary school we had to learn the mathematical principles before we could solve word problems.

In real life, research projects start with the problem to solve or the fundraising strategy. Then we explore the data so that we can understand and focus on which data will solve the problem or fuel the fundraising strategy. But mostly this is a loop that gets repeated iteratively.

Let me give you an example

Let’s say Sweet Charity is implementing its donor outreach plan and asks the research department to identify donors who have stable or increasing wealth during the pandemic. Why? Because leadership has created a COVID-19 emergency fund and identified the organization’s new funding priorities and needs to ask the right people for gifts.

Strategy is driving research.

Using industry segmentation, research identifies donors with stable or increasing wealth. And during the presentation, the results are sliced and diced into many different views in response to leadership questions. This is exploratory.

As a result of this exploration, leadership fine-tunes its strategies based on the potential revealed from the research results. One of the discoveries was that the donors with the most potential were the least likely to have email addresses.

Instead of producing a video series as planned, leadership decides that everybody is trying to get online eyeball attention. They will play to their strengths and do a letter campaign for their key priority–children’s education. They have their program participants submit original artwork and craft inspirational messaging.

Research is now driving strategy.

Next research is asked to identify everyone in this smaller donor segment who has children and those who do not. The refinement continues!

Be an active part of the solution

Prospect research professionals are not always asked for their expert opinions on how the data can inform fundraising strategy. Most of us have been told at one time or another that this is, indeed, NOT our role.

And yet the use of data to inform strategy and enhance performance is a very real competitive edge. It’s time for fundraising research professionals to actively engage leadership in exploring the data, acting as translator and co-strategist.

Engaging leadership can be as simple as saying “yes” a lot more often. When leadership asks you to print a report five different times, it’s annoying and feels like there is no method, just madness. But what if you say “yes,” and “by the way, I could use the conference room projector to create these data views in real time as you think through the results.”

Hopefully, if you are involved nonprofit fundraising you can use this time of disruption to think differently.

In the example above, Sweet Charity could have insisted on pursuing its original video strategy and spent money, resources, and time sourcing email addresses. Viewing snail mail as a strength took a shift in perspective brought on by the uncomfortable stress of dwindling funds and rising demand for services.

May disruption work for you, not against you!

Additional Resources

Onboarding and Outsourced Training: A Love Story

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Onboarding and Outsourced Training: A Love Story

As Covid-19 continues to ravage the globe, managers are facing an involuntary move into digital training–a shotgun marriage, as it were. Although it is a somewhat inauspicious beginning, it could still turn into a love story. Outsourced, on-demand training now has better, and more user-friendly platforms. And the learning content has moved from clumsy to engaging.

You Can’t Learn to Drive in a Seminar

Employee training is not the same thing as pursuing a college degree. Employees are more like new automobile drivers:

  • Some things are pretty intuitive and easy to master, such as how to turn the car on or operate the windshield wipers.
  • Other things can be learned through reading, such as what the street signs mean and not to drink and drive.
  • While other things must be learned through practice, such as how hard to press the brake, safe speeds for different turns, and where the passenger edge of the car is relative to the car parked on that side.

You Can Fall in Love at the Car Park

Whether you are a new hire or the hiring manager, teams can have an even better chance at bonding when you are able to leverage outsourced on-demand training, especially for prospect research. Adding a new team member is always additional work. You need to focus on integrating and building rapport.

You can let the outsourced prospect research trainer free your time by helping to build strong skills through independent study and practice.

This works especially well when the training provides opportunities to bridge generalized learning to the specific ways you do things at your organization.

Choose outsourced prospect research training that offers you clear advantages, such as:

  • Comprehensive coverage of the subject material. You shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time tracking down and curating the training on research topics. You have to do enough cobbling things together already when you are onboarding someone new.
  • Clear outline of the material being covered. When you know exactly what’s in the curriculum, you can incorporate prospect research training appropriately with other internal learning, such as human resources, database software, and specific research subscriptions.
  • Student Practice and feedback. Outsourced training can get your new hire on the ground running when there is homework with instructor feedback. This frees up your time for one-on-one or group discussion about applying new skills at your organization.

And Live Happily Ever After

There are many different kinds of training available to the fundraising researcher, but there is nothing quite like the hybrid, on-demand training available at the Prospect Research Institute.

You will find a wide range of support, such as:

  • Comprehensive online courses on subjects like prospect profiles, all with a detailed syllabus and capstone projects to demonstrate competency.
  • Homework options that include using your organization’s prospects and data, as well as suggestions for discussing with team members and reflecting.
  • Instructor feedback, monthly Master Classes and virtual office hours, as well as a Slack community, accommodate different learning needs and preferences.
  • Downloadable materials for team discussion and future reference, because no-one should ever stop learning.

Onboarding a new hire doesn’t have to be painful. High quality remote learning can let you enjoy the new employee “honeymoon” period without the tension of trying to find even more time in your schedule to teach prospect research skills.

Wish you could sneak “behind the scenes” and see for yourself how membership at the Prospect Research Institute could help your new hire? You can!

I do regularly scheduled tours via Zoom where you can ask questions and get answers. Check out the schedule and register: https://member.prospectresearchinstitute.org/pages/events

Can’t wait that long? Email me or watch a video: https://member.prospectresearchinstitute.org/pages/get-started

Real or Perceived? Risk! And what the Zoom to do about it.

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Real or Perceived? Risk! And what the Zoom to do about it.

Sometimes it takes a threat, like the current pandemic, to get people to learn new technology. If you have been one of those people who avoid turning on your camera for video calls or won’t add a new app to your phone, it’s time to embrace digital communications.

Digital communication skills are important because when some parts of communication are absent, notably body language or tone of voice, our perception of the communication will likely err on the negative side.

How can we overcome this barrier? Practice.

My favorite tool is Zoom video meetings, which has a robust free version, and MyFreeConferenceCall.com has free calls and video meetings, too.

Easy Tips to Look Good on Video

Being on video can be awkward at first. It’s one thing to Facetime with your family member and another to present well in a business meeting on Zoom. I use video in all sorts of ways, but I don’t have to spend a lot of time to look good. Following are some tips to keep your cool on video:

  • Camera. Elevate (or lower) the camera on your laptop or desktop so that it is eye level. On laptops the tendency is to be looking down at the camera. Not the most flattering for most of us (ask any self-respecting, selfie-taking teenage girl!).
  • Mobile Phone. If you have to use your phone for video, find a good place to rest at eye level. Otherwise your arm will get tired! I have an inexpensive tripod, but I’ve used shelves, piled up books, and other contrivances.
  • Lighting. A light straight above your head will make you look ghostly or creepy. Save that for Halloween! Too much light in your face and you will be washed out. Light directly behind you, such as a window, will turn you into a silhouette. Ideally, light should come a little off center from you. In Florida I have so much natural light that I have to tilt the blinds. Tweak until you get it right.
  • Background. Bare walls look like you’re in prison. I have this issue when I travel! If possible, have wood paneling or something in the background. Okay, maybe not a plant sticking out of your head… Test with your camera ahead of time to see how your room will appear.
  • Makeup. If you’re someone who wears makeup routinely, just do your usual. I don’t usually wear make-up, but on camera my rosacea makes me look like I have a sunburn! So, I use foundation to even out my color. And it never hurts to put a spot of color on your lips, even if it’s just lip gloss.
  • Clothes. I live in Florida and wear a lot of sundresses and it has taught me to always have a collared shirt or jacket close by! Why? Because bare shoulders are even less appropriate on video, especially when shoulders up is all the camera catches. Wear a proper suit jacket if you would in a face to face, but if it’s business casual, a collared shirt or a blouse with a higher neckline works very well.
  • Your Gaze. When you are in a group meeting, the gaze is less important, but the fewer the people, the more you want to appear as though you are looking at the person, not down or over. I like to position the “box” of the person right under the camera on my laptop. That’s natural. But if that’s not possible and I want to have “eye contact” I gaze at my camera. It feels weird but it works.
  • Emergency Out. If you worry about the kids (streaking) running behind you on video, or the neighbor cursing out the window, just be sure you know how to hit the mute and video toggle buttons so you can do it quickly! This also works well for coughing and eating.

Low-Pressure Practice Opportunities

Advice will only take you so far. Low-pressure practice opportunities are great, too.

Don’t Forget to Be Forgiving

As we experience a surge in people communicating through digital channels, there are bound to be some mistakes – and sometimes they will be yours. Don’t forget to forgive yourself and others when mistakes and misunderstandings happen.

As you stress out over virtual communications, or not, here’s one of my all-time favorite funny videos to help you bust a laugh!

More Resources

Net Worth vs. Capacity: What’s the Difference and Why Should You Care?

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Net Worth vs. Capacity: What’s the Difference and Why Should You Care?

For those of you out there still trying to avoid using the words “net worth,” I’m here to tell you that the war is over – and you lost. There might still be skirmishes left unresolved in out-of-the-way places, but with the entrance to the sector of heavily-funded start-up companies like Windfall, there is no avoiding net worth.

Not only are people using net worth – with success, real or perceived – but Windfall pushes the envelope claiming to offer “precise net worth data, not a score or a range,” which we all know is not possible. I find it difficult to believe that all of the individuals in their database have opened up their private finances to the company to calculate assets minus liabilities.

But it’s great marketing. And that means there is a pain point that is not being relieved by capacity ratings.

Capacity Ratings

Capacity, and more specifically, major gift capacity, saturated the market in tandem with electronic wealth screenings. Typically, it is based on a percentage of found or visible assets and multiplied by 5, representing a 5-year pledge, which was standard at the time. Over time companies have added more nuance to their proprietary scores.

When wealth screenings first emerged, this information felt like manna from heaven! Suddenly hundreds of thousands of records could be rated in the blink of an eye. And then those segments could be evaluated and assigned to development officers. Major gifts became a …movement!

But fundraising professionals, not least the prospect researchers among them, sniffed out the discrepancies and imperfections in the automated capacity rating approach. The screening companies responded with algorithms of increasing accuracy, but between the marketing language that over-promised, the limitations of visible assets, and the increasing efficiencies in major gift programs, consumer pain continues to emerge.

Is that consumer pain assuaged with a net worth number, such as provided by Windfall?

The Prospect That Didn’t Rate

I recently had a client asking for “just a capacity rating” on a few prospects, and super quick before her meeting with the CEO. All you researchers out there know how fraught with peril that request was! But I understood the pressure she was under and I really wanted to help.

And yet, the electronic wealth screening capacity rating was low and this prospect had occupation suggesting there was more. Without time to research I was without a good response, beyond “I think there’s more.”

We agreed that deeper research was what would help this CEO who was keen to know Net Worth – forget about capacity rating. And sure enough, deeper research revealed that the husband had serious monetary potential that was difficult to untangle, let alone value. (Tell me again how Delaware can get away with making it super difficult to identify officers and members of companies?)

But we fit the couple into a wealth tier based on visible assets, an asset allocation model derived from Capgemini data, and, well, our subjective assessment.

Wait for it… Here Comes the Backlash

So, what does Windfall have that I haven’t got? Data! Algorithms! More Data!

I’ve been talking to a few data companies who are looking to fill in gaps in the nonprofit fundraising market. Based on those conversations, the likelihood of a “scandal” involving nonprofits and data feels like an inevitability.

It’s not that it’s “wrong” to use all kinds of new and old data in new ways, but it’s a tough sell to get an organization’s leadership on board with communicating that usage to donors and the public. Policies are dull and boring and no-one cares – until they do. Ask any fundraiser in the U.K., especially at organizations that have been fined for violating GDPR.

As if that’s not a big enough hurdle, the data sources being used by these companies is not known. It’s not that companies are being secretive necessarily, but unlike the traditional wealth screening products, we have not been demanding full disclosure.

I remember the news headline fallout from the early wealth screening days. This new use of data smells like trouble all over again.

Caring is Sharing

Similar to the early days in wealth screenings, using data in new ways isn’t “right” or “wrong,” but it does need to be evaluated and communicated.

Opening up discussion, writing opinion pieces, presenting, and otherwise sharing your experience and knowledge with others, especially through global forums provided by associations like Apra and AFP, is worth the effort and will benefit you and your organization.

Estimating net worth isn’t the bogey man. Lax data policies and poor communication are the openings for trouble!

Additional Resources You Might Like

Somatics, Habits, and Research

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Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay

I’ve been publishing a blog post every month since 2008–that’s a twelve-year habit. And, of course, I’ve had some months where I skipped my blog post, but for the most part I’ve been very consistent. How do I do that?

I was asking myself this question today because I “wasted” two hours groping around online and in my offline library looking for something I could write about today. Some months the ideas pour out of me and the whole process takes an hour. Presto! Not today. Finally, I thought about the various things I had been learning lately and how they relate to each other–and research.

Somatic Learning

I belong to the Association for Talent Development in Tampa, Florida. I wanted to learn more about creating workplace trainings and the group has taught me some great stuff. The last session was about somatic learning. I won’t profess to fully understand it, but essentially it is using an awareness of how your body feels (not emotions, but things like sweating, rapid heartbeat, queasy, etc.) as well as movement to aid in learning.

Somatic learning is intent on providing the learner with the opportunity for internal change.

For example, you can learn a lot of things about public speaking, but how do you learn to stop being terrified of it? That requires internal change.

And internal change can be really difficult to make happen!

The presenter in the somatic learning session asked an audience member to volunteer. The new habit the volunteer wanted to form was to become a confident presenter. She had received a promotion at work that now put her in front of the room as a trainer ands she was VERY UNCOMFORTABLE.

Much like the contested TED Talk by Amy Cuddy on body language, where she suggests that assuming a power pose will engender confidence where it was previously lacking, the volunteer from the audience went through an exercise where she physically moved and became aware of the good and bad feelings in her body. She walked back to her seat in a surprisingly much more confident manner!

Habits

Will that audience volunteer now have a solid new habit of confidently presenting? I suspect it will take a bit more repetition before the new habit solidifies, but she is primed for it. She has learned to connect what her body feels like when she is confidently in front of a group and can reconnect with those feelings with practice.

Today I probably could have cut my two-hour “what do I write” angst time in half if I had remembered habits I had formed in my previous home on the beach. When my initial survey of the information world would fail to yield a topic idea, I used to go for a walk on the beach. I knew the route and it was very effective. I’m in a new neighborhood now, but could have easily adapted the tactic.

The act of walking in nature–be it a beach or a park–gives my mind the space to untangle problems and ideas. It doesn’t work every single time, but it works so often, and is exhilarating when it works, that I’m keen to repeat the effort!

It’s probably because I started my blog with a love of writing firmly in place that the monthly blog habit was easier to keep. Writing makes me feel so good, I don’t even worry too much about whether anyone reads it! So, when I struggle like I did today, I can reconnect with all those good feelings and persist.

Prospect Research and Fundraising

So, what does all this have to with prospect research and fundraising?

Today I interviewed one of the Prospect Research Institute members, Bryan Campbell, for my #ChatBytes podcast (it will publish in Feb 2020). In the interview Bryan recommends a book, Five Minutes for Fundraising, by Martin Leifeld. Bryan shared how important it was for him to understand how a frontline fundraiser performs so that he could improve his own work.

Some organizations have taken it a step further and encourage researchers to attend a donor visit now and again. Imagine how your body would feel if you were at a visit where a donor was being asked to make a gift. Would you feel sweaty with your heart racing as you heard the development officer leading up to the ask?

As the donor started getting excited about the gift opportunity and talked about discussing it with her accountant, how would you feel? Would your heart calm down? Would your stomach muscles relax? Would your whole body feel lighter?

Whether you have the opportunity to tag along on donor visit or not, or if you are the development officer preparing for the visit, you can learn from your body.

Early in my career as a consultant, before I delivered a profile, I would imagine myself getting ready to go to lunch with that donor prospect. My stomach would fill with butterflies and my mouth would dry up a little and then, often, my head would begin to fill with new questions. Suddenly my profile looked different and I usually double-checked something or added another detail.

The prospect research field now encompasses so much more than behind-the-scenes work such as prospect profiles. And for many of us, this can cause a lot of anxiety. Every single day we face changing software programs, changing websites, and so much more.

Maybe you even face the opportunity of a promotion to a leadership position!

Tuning into how your body feels and imagining how it could feel in a new situation can be a powerful tool to create internal change. Somatic learning could take you from feeling insecure about leading a meeting to becoming a confident leader.

If you like this idea or are curious to learn more, I’ve included some resources below.

Additional Resources

Can You Raise Millions Without Prospect Research?

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Image by pasja1000 from Pixabay

“You’ve been raising MILLIONS with no prospect research and no prospect management?” I’ve asked this question incredulously in my head many times during my consulting career. As 2019 draws to a close and I have been reflecting over the work we’ve done at Aspire Research Group, I had an “aha!” moment. I finally have a real understanding about why and how some organizations are so successful at raising money, even when there is no prospect research.

It’s the Relationships

I know, it sounds lame. We hear it all the time. People give to people. Donors have to trust you before they give. And maybe it is no coincidence that some of the most successful organizations Aspire serves are religious-based. Their religious leadership excels at creating deep, loyal, and long-lasting relationships.

One client has a team of development officers scattered around the country, each responsible for major gift fundraising. When the new vice president joined the team, among other things, he introduced some moves management practices and he purchased wealth screening services. Who needs a prospect research professional with all of those millions going on?

But this vice president knew he would have to raise significantly more and do it efficiently, to fund the president’s new vision. Wealth screenings are great, but they only provide very raw data. He needed his best prospects prioritized and he and his team needed to confirm information about them as they entered into a unique short-term giving opportunity.

In other words, the team needed to break through to the next level of major giving at their organization.

Identify and Prioritize | Engage and Ask

There are two categories of activities that most often awaken fundraising leadership to prospect research. First, they need to identify and prioritize prospects. A new and pressing vision or opportunity pushes leadership to dig deeper. There is a desire to identify all good prospects and to prioritize them as best prospects, not just wealthy prospects. Best prospects are ones that can be reached, are likely to give, and can give big.

Second, once there is confidence in the prospect pipeline, the next task is to engage and ask for a gift. Once a client has witnessed the power of research, the discussion is not usually “should we?” Instead it is usually along the lines of “how much information do we need and when?”

Internal and External Relationships

But research alone is never enough to break through to a new level of giving. And that’s why I love working with leaders. A leader hires great people and trusts them to do good work. And when an organization demonstrates great relationship-building with donors, it often follows that the organization has a relationship-building culture embodied in and modeled by its leaders.

It was when I was reviewing and reflecting over our list of active clients that the “aha!” hit me. When there is a culture of relationship-building internally, this is likely to spill over externally to donors – and consultants – too. And this means two things for Aspire: (1) The vice president or director of development is not going to have to fight to get research because leadership is likely to hire people they trust to make those decisions; and (2) using research such as wealth screenings, prospect management, and prospect profiles is going to be much more successful because development officers already know how to build great relationships.

And sure enough, when reviewing our client list, those indicators are there:

  • A longer sales process involving more up-front meetings to talk about needs and services, but a quick turnaround on signing the agreement and starting the work. The development officer is trusted to make a good decision and in turn, is concerned about what kind of relationship s/he can have with us.
  • The development director brings the executive director or vice president on a review call and I hear the supervisor saying things to the development director like: “it’s up to you to decide” or “that’s why I hired you, because you’re the expert.”
  • We screen the active donor base for wealth and a high percentage of donors are highly rated for wealth and philanthropy. When listening to the conversation as the team recognizes some of the top names, it is the same story of relationship-building over and over again as they recount how donors were engaged by leadership.

These smaller development offices with maybe one or a handful of staff have tremendous fundraising opportunities. How? Because they and the organizations they serve build strong relationships.

Aha! It really is about Relationships!

I wanted to share my “aha!” moment because a shift in perspective opens the door for innovation.
Consider the following statements:

  • Yes, you can raise millions and millions of dollars in gifts without prospect research. On the flipside, data and information increase in value if an organization excels at relationship-building.
  • Yes, you can break through to new and higher levels of giving with prospect research. On the flipside, information and data cannot solve a lack of relationship-building skills.

Relationship-building is not something you can read about and then excel at. It is a skill that requires practice. In this month of reflection as we await the New Year, how well are you and your organization doing at relationship-building–internally and externally?

Additional Resources

Every human being needs to learn and practice how to build relationships. I picked these two resources because they are easy to read and adopt and they complement each other. Enjoy!

Should You Clean Up That Mess? The Evolution of Prospect Management.

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Should You Clean Up That Mess? The Evolution of Prospect Management.
Image by klimkin from Pixabay

Many years ago, a small, local organization wanted to identify major and planned gift prospects and put in place a plan to raise more money. It was my first ever prospect management assignment as a consultant and I was so excited. I knew exactly how all the pieces worked together and could craft a plan and create a program manual and everything!

I won’t say the assignment was a failure, but if I did it over today I sure would do it a lot differently!

Although I jumped into the project with very detailed intentions, the end result was not the dotted “i”s and crossed “t”s approach that I had been aiming for. Great new prospects were identified and there was forward movement in building relationships, but it wasn’t as neatly organized as I originally envisioned.

First Mistake: Identification and What is a Major Gift Anyway?

The first error I made was assuming that the organization’s goal was to ask prospects to make pledges that would push the prospect to the edges of his or her gift capacity. Instead, the major gift leaned in to match the major gift opportunity, which in this case was an annual gift of $10,000 or more.

If I had taken the time to explore with them what the gift opportunities were, this would have been obvious!

As a prospect research professional, I had been trained to assume a pledge gift over a number of years, but also to create the gift capacity rating based on that full wealth potential.

What might have happened had I provided them with a target ask amount based on giving history and gift opportunity and omitted the gift capacity entirely?

It feels like I might get struck by prospect research lightning just thinking that, let alone expressing it in public!

But no prudent philanthropist is going to make a gift that would dwarf an organization’s budget, so who cares if that philanthropist is capable of making a HUGE gift? Far better to guide the development officer on what is a reasonable ask amount based on capacity, but tempered by giving history to the organization and available gift opportunities.

It makes me wish I had asked a question along the lines of this:

“If you knew I had given a million dollars to my alma mater last year and a thousand dollars to you last year, and you were meeting with me to ask for a gift, how much would you ask for and for what project or program?”

I would have understood so much more about them and the organization by working through their answer.

Second Mistake: Treating People Like They are Textbooks

The second error I made was trying to create a fully structured prospect management program out of the gate. If I had been writing a textbook on prospect management I might start with a discussion on policy and process, but that is not how human beings start to implement prospect management.

Relationships are messy. They are not carefully organized in neat rows in an Excel spreadsheet.

Instead of trying to start with a full and complete prospect management program I might have offered them some proven major gift start-up tactics:

  • Contact Reports: As Jessica Balsam said in the Research Rocks! Podcast (see link below), a great beginning is to start documenting donor prospect visits and other contacts in the database. How simple and powerful is that? Many organizations have yet to take this first critical step.
  • Database Procedures: And in the case of my first prospect management assignment, entering contact reports and proposals required some database massaging. It was well worth spending more effort on database procedures.
  • Top Prospect List: Another common tactic is to focus on the “Top #, Next #”. In practice that means something along the lines of who are my Top 10 prospects and my Next 20 prospects? Those are manageable prospect numbers a development officer wearing many hats can stay focused on. They are also the prospect names the organization’s leadership can stay focused on.

Third Mistake: Being Too Technical!

As a prospect researcher professional, I lean towards creating a logical system that uses lots of formulas and numbers. But relationships don’t work like that. Especially when you are a development officer trying to run the entire development program, not just a major gifts initiative!

In his book, Flawless Consulting, Peter Block talks about identifying and focusing on a client’s strengths. Looking back all those years I have to wonder if I could have inquired about what was working the best in their fundraising program so far. I might have been able to help them use that success to more easily bridge into their budding major gift efforts.

Making the Most of the Mess

If you are looking to leverage prospect research to help raise more funds through major gifts, I hope you might learn from my early mistakes. Structure and method are wonderful things to bring to fundraising, but only if they are flexible enough to accommodate the messy nature of human relationships.

Ideally, prospect management techniques help development officers stay focused on their best prospects in a way they ordinarily might not, given all of the everyday distractions they face running the office.

If you are someone like me that loves the orderly rows of numbers in an Excel spreadsheet, that’s a great skill to bring to fundraising. Just don’t forget that even when things are quite messy, you can make progress, one prospect management tactic at a time!

Additional Resources