Tag Archives: hootsuite

Curious About Canada? A Primer for Prospect Researchers Who Don’t Own Hockey Sticks

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Guest post by Preeti Gill

On this April morning, it’s -5 Celsius and the snow is blowing lightly.

I saunter in to my local Timmies, order a double double and a honey crueller, drop a few loonies on the counter and sit down for a while. It is tax time and I need to netfile before the CRA deadline. I look up from my keyboard and there’s Tony, the local hockey sensation, carrying his pet beaver on his shoulder…

Eh?

Oh, Canada, where donughts (not donuts), yoga pants and timed tweets were perfected. The land where conservative fiscal policy helped our big five banks cushion Canadians (somewhat) from the economic downtown of 2007/08.

I find that where we’re from makes us exotic, especially for other Prospect Research professionals who are always on the lookout for new resources.  When Jen and I brainstormed around blog ideas, she seemed intrigued by my Canadianness.

“How far is Ottawa from Toronto?” she asked this Vancouverite who is ill-equipped to comment on any Ontario-related matters.

What I can offer is a quick primer on today’s Canada for Prospect Researchers outside my homeland, strong and free.  Here you’ll find some interesting “Timbits” about what’s new and where to access information about your friendly Canuck prospects and donors.

We are accomplished

Our Government hands out accolades to everyday and high-profile brave and successful Canadians.

Our peers also honour each other.

We are diverse

Immigration is primarily driving population growth. Environics intelligence notes that in our major urban centres, Toronto and Vancouver, nearly half of the population identify as members of a visible minority group. So the minorities are fast becoming the majority.

Canadian Immigrant magazine profiles successful new Canadians in business and other areas.

We are rich

  • Well, they are (not me) –> Canadian Business Rich 100 2014 [List]
  • The left-leaning Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives studied the wealth gap in Canada and discovered that the wealthiest 86 Canadians could purchase an entire province today. [News release]
  • How much did Canada’s top 100 CEOs get paid last year? The Globe & Mail is due to update this list with 2013 figures soon. [List]

We give back in a big way

  • The late Doc Seaman left $117 million from his estate to the Calgary Foundation last year. It’s the largest ever gift to a Canadian community foundation.  (Did I mention we’re getting older, as well?)
  • The Slaight family gave $50 million to a consortium of five hospitals in Toronto.
  • An impressive 13.3 million Canadians volunteer 2.1 billion hours, according to Volunteer Canada.
  • KCI provides an addictive scroll of recent Canadian giving by individuals, corporations and foundations.
  • Blackbaud’s new Giving Index provides a monthly snapshot of our generosity. (Things are looking up.)

We are social

…but slightly more conservative in our approach to shameless self-promotion!

  • There are 8 million+ LinkedIn users, as of 2013. [Infographic]
  • Twitter opened a Canadian branch in Toronto primarily to drive advertising and sales.
  • Planning timed tweets? You may be using HootSuite which was born in Vancouver and is rapidly expanding, thanks to securing $165 million in financing.
  • Can’t get enough of Canada? Consider attending the upcoming APRA-Canada conference in Toronto this fall. This is a highly-anticipated and well-organized biennial conference with a focus on Canadian-based research resources, issues and trends.

About Preeti Gill

Preeti-2Preeti Gill is passionate about all things prospect research, pipeline management and charity capacity-building. She works at Canada’s largest community foundation in Vancouver and blogs at Sole Searcher [preetigillyvr.blogspot.ca]. With true patriot love, she welcomes social contact here and there:

7 Resources That Keep My Fundraising Loaded!

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Keeping my skills current and keeping up with the field of fundraising and prospect research is critical to my role as a prospect research consultant. Slowly I have been shaping my favorite reading list, trying to get it to represent what I need to know most – because I don’t have the time to browse aimlessly!

I run a small, virtual business and that means, like many of you, my head is piled high with hats! I manage to juggle all the hats pretty evenly, catching each one and passing it along … until something new gets thrown into the mix. Then I start playing catch-up. One hat falls down and I let it stay there until I can get used to the new hat in the mix. Once I adjust to the new rhythm I can grab the lost hat and keep going. In this case, I dropped my blog writing while I adjusted to some new skill building.

Now that I am back on track and blog writing is in the mix, I thought it might make a lot of sense to share with you my favorite sources for prospect-research-biased fundraising news and clues. Since readers are of a mixed variety, I’ve kept the really technical research reading out of the mix. I hope you will chime in and comment in whatever platform you find this article. What am I missing? I’m always looking for the best, must-have reading favorites!

1-Chronicle of Philanthropy

Not having been in a traditional “office” for years, I had neglected to subscribe. As soon as I did, I realized once again the Chronicle’s charms. First, they send me paper. Love that. So I can catch up on the weekends or over lunch on the balcony. The Chronicle prints a great mix of information and I get good clues about changes and trends. The October 18th edition, especially the articles on the Missouri Arts center and The Y, really had me thinking about fattening the middle $1,000 to $5,000 donor pool and how that translates into approaching the data.

2-AFP’s Advancing Philanthropy and APRA’s Connections

These are my two all-time favorite associations and I love, love, yes love, their magazines. Okay, so AFP is moving digital and APRA is already there. I have a printer. And paper. Every issue of these magazines goes beyond the how-to and gives me something real that changes my thinking or expands my ideas.

3-Advancing the Nonprofit Sector

This blog is written by a number of different fundraising consultants. I like it because it reminds me that the fundraising world is bigger than prospect research and it helps me stay in tune with the practical needs front-line fundraisers face daily. I like that it covers local Florida topics too.

4-CoolData

Kevin MacDonald does an amazing job of making me want to read his blog. Not only is he having a conversation with me, but he uses lots of pictures and graphics to demonstrate what he is talking about. Okay, so it’s pretty technical stuff. But it is the kind of conversation that every fundraiser needs at least a cursory understanding of. The power of data analytics is as earth-moving as the power unleashed when our donor index cards turned into relational databases or the horse was replaced by the tractor. It is the kind of conversation that is deciding our future. And if I’m going to participate, or just eavesdrop, I’d prefer to do it with Kevin. And his cool guest bloggers like Peter Wylie too.

5-The Agitator

No, it’s not a washing machine cycle! This is another blog where I get practical, but a little more in-your-face, fundraising cents. What I really like is that it talks intelligently about direct response fundraising, which might just be the black sheep of the fundraising family. Yes, everyone loves major gifts, but getting broad support is more than money. It’s the community giving credibility to your mission and how you are performing. And if you do it well, it means you treat all of your donors well. That’s special in my book. Which brings us back to that great article in The Chronicle of Philanthropy about the Missouri Arts Center…

6-Well Planned Web

I have followed a lot of different marketing and social media and other technology blogs, but this one has been the most relevant to me. It’s not too technical. I get a good feel for a topic. It makes me feel smart and current instead of dumb and behind the curve. Most of us have to operate in a constantly evolving online world. At some point we all wind up being impacted by or responsible for at least a piece of our organization’s online face. The Well Planned Web will make you feel good about it.

7-Hootsuite

When data analytics guru, Audrey Geoffrey at the University of Florida Foundation first showed me this website at an APRA-FL board retreat I thought it looked like the most confusing, most complicated website that I would never use. I just couldn’t understand why I would want to keep track of things that way. Now I am a convert. I love being able to customize the way I view and participate in social media. I can narrow my focus to the topics and people who provide me with exactly the content I need to see.

I hope you found a gem among my 7 favorite resources, but I really hope you will share yours too!