Tag Archives: prospect research

Seriously? Would a consultant work with You?

4Fundraisers, Discussion, , ,

It’s a tough job to hire a consultant, but have you ever considered how hard it is for consultants to find the right clients? Have you ever stopped to consider if you would make a good client? Maybe it’s a question worth pondering before you spend your hard-fundraised money!

Obviously a consultant is searching for clients who have budget dollars and a need that fits her skillset, and clients are searching for consultants who have great skills and fees within reach. But assuming those two conditions are met, following are five questions I ask when evaluating a potential client and the reverse questions you might ask as you evaluate a consultant.

(1)  Is the client prospect likely to be successful with my help?

I frequently work with major gift programs. The client needs to have fundraisers capable of cultivating and soliciting donors successfully. And those fundraisers need to operate under leadership that provides the setting and the tools for creating a compelling case for support. All the research in the world can’t overcome those two critical elements.

Reverse:  Is the consultant trying to sell me more than I can handle or less than I need? When the project is completed, will I be raising more money than before?

(2)  Does the client prospect have a plan, or are they constantly in crisis mode?

Prospect research provides information, insight and process. When someone is unable to decide on a course of action, changes direction frequently, or has “urgent” requests that are then cancelled, it is often because there is no real overall fundraising plan or strategy for achieving goals. I’m happy to make a sprint when needed, but only when it moves everyone forward, not in a circle.

Reverse:  Does the consultant clearly paint a beginning, middle and end to the project? Does she identify meaningful milestones along the journey?

(3)  How easy is it to communicate with the client prospect?

Every organization is different and I lost my mind-reading talent years ago. If someone is unwilling to take the time have a conversation, I know that there is a good chance I will not meet (unknown) expectations and I probably won’t be able to develop the kind of deeper relationship I enjoy with my best clients. We don’t have to be dearest friends, but I want the opportunity to make my clients very successful. That requires a return phone call.

Reverse:  Does the consultant do a good job of rephrasing my needs accurately and explaining the process without being too detailed? Does the consultant return my phone calls and emails promptly?

(4)  Is the client prospect ready and willing to commit to the project?

Most of my projects require the client to put time, effort and resources into it. From something as simple as setting up a remote login to the database, to planning, evaluating and testing new systems and procedures – all require the client’s time and energy.

Reverse: Has the consultant explained what will be required of me to make the project successful? How will my efforts affect the timing and outcomes of the project?

(5)  Does the client prospect trust me enough to tell me what’s really wrong?

I have been approached by potential clients who want to talk about prospect research, but when we have the conversation, will only describe a perfectly working scenario or will focus on a small problem and refuse to discuss the problem that is impacting dollars raised. Being able to have candid conversations is critical to success. Sometimes trust takes time, and sometimes it never happens.

Reverse: How well does the consultant discuss a solution with me even when it makes me uncomfortable or requires a difficult transition?


When you step back and look at the whole picture, the consultant-client dance is not all that different from most relationships. There needs to be some chemistry – you have to like each other. And you want to agree on fundamental values and philosophies and avoid unproductive drama. Make a list of your basic criteria (such as, must return phone calls promptly) and then have some conversations.

Other Articles You Might Like

5 Ways You Know You Need a Research Consultant

3 Consultant Relationship Types That Succeed. Which One for You?

The Shocking Truth about Prospect Research Consultants!

About the Author

Jen Filla is president of Aspire Research Group LLC where she works with organizations worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, or frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals.

Who are "Asian-Americans"?

Focused Fundraising, , , , , , ,

According to the Economist article, “Racial classification: All together now” published in December of 2012, the two big surprises in 2012 were that Asian-Americans outnumbered Latinos in immigrating to the U.S. and that 71% of Asian-Americans voted for President Obama in the last election – roughly equivalent to Latinos.

Fundraising organizations in the U.S. have become very interested cultivating Asian-Americans. But who are they? The largest subgroup are Chinese-Americans, but they represent just 23% of Asian Americans. As a group, Asian-Americans are wealthier and better educated than other groups including whites. But the differences run deep including different religions and very different languages.

According to the Economist, only 19% of Asian-Americans use the term to describe themselves. Not too surprisingly, many second-generation Asian-Americans (median age of 17 years) are okay with the term and less concerned about their heritage. What is surprising and a bit revealing is that in some cases, Asian-Americans can unite as a much larger group and demand attention and power in civic life.

If you are considering different fundraising strategies that involve pursuing specific ethnic groups like Asian-Americans, this is a reminder that some of the names we assign to ethnic groups are purely inventions that may not resonate with those individuals. When considering donor motivations, passions and priorities, targeting such a diverse group as Asian-Americans is not likely to be effective. You will need to get more specific. Doing the research on your donors’ communities to discover how they interact within them is critical to creating and executing a strategy that focuses on a specific group.

Prospect research is always important, but when you are looking to reach out to new ethnic groups with ties to their home countries, prospect research takes on a different flavor. We need to discover more than what we can learn about a specific individual. We need to learn how the donor prospect fits into the local community and how cultural differences affect philanthropy.

Got Software. Got Research?

Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , , , ,

Many fundraisers know they need research on donors and prospects, but what is the best way to get it? Should you buy a software subscription? Are there any other options? Let’s answer those questions with a story.

A Software Tale
November has most of us thinking about Thanksgiving and other holidays around the corner. But many accountants are thinking about closing out the books and the approaching tax season. Imagine for a minute that you overhear two guests talking at one of the numerous holiday parties you find yourself attending. Bob Business Owner tells Ann Accountant all about how complicated his finances are for the past year now that his small business is growing and expresses some concern about how it will impact his taxes.

“What are you going to do to make sure your tax filings best reflect those changes?” Ann Accountant asks.

“Oh, I splurged and purchased the latest version of TurboTax this year,” says Bob.

Ann looks genuinely confused. “How does that help you make decisions?”

Important Outcomes
TurboTax is great software, but when your finances are complex a software package is not going to help you make key decisions about your tax filings. When the outcomes are truly important, software doesn’t usually make the grade. Software can’t think, strategize or get creative about its approach.

There are many wonderful software options that meet prospect research needs. I have my own favorite subscriptions and purchases. Software speeds up the time it takes me to research individuals by grouping important resources together. Software makes data analysis possible, and fast.

But software does not recognize that what seems like a random company incorporated by your prospect is likely to be a family limited partnership with at least $10 million in invested assets. Software does not recognize that you were not able to mail your usual spring appeal two years ago and that is why giving frequency went down.

What About You – The Fundraiser?
So how do you know when to buy software? Or when you need a person who has expertise? Or some combination? Whenever you have a fundraising goal or objective, ask any potential vendor or consultant whether their solution will get you where you want to go. The answers may surprise you. But let’s illustrate it with another story.

An organization wants to launch its first campaign. They have campaign counsel to coach them through, but they need to prioritize their database and get detailed information on their best prospects. This campaign is very important to the future of their organization and they have a tight budget. The CEO is a visionary and she knows that spending a little more in the right places can have transformative results. She hires a prospect research consultant who makes sure they get as much out of their database screening as possible.

The consultant works closely with the fundraising team, including campaign counsel, to segment their best prospects and code them in the database to work in tandem with their relationship management system. Through this process the team recognizes that they need to restructure their approach based on the giving potential found. Instead of struggling near the end of the campaign, the team knows exactly when to change gears and re-focus their energy on a different prospect segment. It works!

At this point you might be saying to yourself:

“That’s all well and good, Jen, but how do I pick a good prospect research consultant? I’ve heard of organizations who have suffered with bad advice and bad information. I don’t want to be one of them!”

Choosing a prospect research consultant – any consultant really – can be confusing and risky. Take the time to communicate clearly what you want to accomplish. Is the consultant listening? Or doing all of the talking? Did you check references? Look for posts in the future on how to choose and manage a consultant.

Other Articles You Might Like

5 Ways You know You Need a Research Consultant

Mistakes That Nonprofit Organizations Make Hiring Consultants – Karen Eber Davis

3 Consultant Relationship Types that Succeed. Which One for You?

The Shocking Truth About Prospect Research Consultants

About Aspire Research Group LLC

Headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, Aspire Research Group was founded so that every development office could have the benefits of professional prospect research. Known for our creativity and clear communications, we work with organizations who are worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, and frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals. Do you need to close more major gifts?

www.AspireResearchGroup.com 727 231 0516

The Future of Donors in Your Data

Discussion, , , , , , ,

From Pushing information to Partnering to Creating Conversations, prospect research has come a long way to uncover donors in your data.

Before the internet and before relational databases, the world had a different perspective on information. Gathering information, analyzing it and producing a thoughtful presentation that pulled all of the pieces together looked like books, white papers and other time-consuming and laborious efforts. Post internet and relational databases, it can still look like that. But now those books and white papers have a whole lot of other company in the form of shorter and/or more precise groupings of information, and often leave us, the users, to draw our own conclusions.

Pushing Information

Before the world went digital, prospect research required visits to the library, combing through paper files and interviewing people in the organization. After this manual collection, the information was compiled into a profile. You might have gotten suggestions on how to cultivate and what gift to ask for from the prospect, and you might not have. Browsing newspapers and magazines for who’s who in the community was dominated by the front-line fundraisers.

Now, the internet supplies us with extraordinary access to information in our town, state, country and in the world. With some prospects, the challenge is not finding information, but whittling down the information to what is most relevant and useful for fundraising. Relational databases give us the ability to store multiple levels of connecting information, such as all gifts made to a fund over a period of time or one individual’s gifts to a fund over a period of time. We can ask questions that our database can answer quickly and easily. Because of this, prospect researchers have moved out of the library and onto the computer.

Becoming Strategic Partners

For many researchers, we have stopped pushing information and have begun partnering with our front-line fundraisers. We don’t create the same prospect profile for every request. We customize our research to answer the most common and most pressing questions. More and more we are being brought to places like the campaign planning table, where we present information about our donors to assist leadership in making decisions. Questions answered might include, “Do we have enough prospects with the capacity and affinity to make the leadership gifts we need to launch the campaign?” or “How many of our annual fund donors made their usual operating gift plus a gift to a special project when asked?”

Prospect research has been providing reactive research such as profiles and proactive research such as filling prospect pipelines and maintaining relationship management systems. In many organizations, especially higher education and large hospitals, prospect research has become a strategic partner on the fundraising team. Prospect research ensures that front-line fundraisers have the prospects to visit and the information intelligence to solicit the largest and most appropriate gift.

The Explosion of Big Data

When you combine the storage and retrieval advances of relational databases with the internet, especially social platforms, you have an explosion of information – most often referred to as “big data”. Most people are aware of the results of harnessing the power of this much data, but few understand how it works and are capable of applying it to new situations. Results look like Amazon.com offering you suggestions on what others purchased with that book you were browsing or other popular titles in that section. It also looks like Google’s Flu Trends that helps specific hospitals predict patient volume during the flu season.

Creating Conversations With Data Analytics

The future of prospect research is already here. Right now, organizations across the country are using new tools to answer complex questions and track complex trends. These new tools are visual and manage multiple file formats with the same ease with which Superman leaps tall buildings in a single bound. Your database might be clunky and difficult to get information out of, but as long as the data is consistent, these new tools make analysis and reporting pretty simple. Often using an online “community” setting, prospect researchers create projects and share them with other fundraising staff. In some cases, with a little training, those front-line fundraisers and other staff can tweak the results on their own.

For example, using intuitive drag-and-drop technology, a prospect researcher can view information from the donor database from multiple perspectives. Let’s say the business school wants to send invitations to exclusive events around the country to raise funds for a new program. Our researcher might start with a quest to find business school alumni, within a certain graduating year span, who were members of a particular school club. She uploads that file to the project area. Next, she calls the business school fundraiser. On the call, the researcher and fundraiser discuss the project they can both view live on their desktops. They begin to “play” with the uploaded list.

  • Can you show me who made gifts at $1,000+?
  • Now who lives within 50 miles of the first location?
  • Hmmm. Too small.
  • Okay. What do the people who live within 50 miles look like? Wait! We limited the graduation years. Can we include all graduation years?
  • Another file is uploaded to the project space with much broader information this time.
  • What do the people who live within 50 miles look like? Gift size, graduation year, club participation, frequency of giving and whether they are assigned to a gift officer.
  • The researcher creates a bar chart of giving frequency because she thinks there might be a pattern.
  • Wow! It looks like club participants are frequent givers. What if we look at all frequent givers whose past 5-year total is over $5,000?
  • The researcher clicks on the bar in the bar chart of most frequent givers and “pulls” it out. She then applies a filter for past 5-year total giving.
  • Okay. That’s still too many. How many live within 50 miles?
  • The researcher clicks on the new list and applies another filter.
  • But I can’t invite anyone who is already assigned to a major gift solicitor.
  • Another filter is applied.
  • That’s a good number of people!
  • The researcher saves that “report” so the fundraiser can pull it for the mailing and RSVP list. The unique constituent number is attached so that the invitation mailing and other activities can be recorded in the donor database.
  • After the event, a new file is pulled into the project space so that the effort can be evaluated using the same techniques.

This was a simple example, but notice how the researcher was beginning to create conversations around the data? She could recognize certain trends and demonstrate them visually to the front-line fundraiser.

Do You Have Enough Data for Analytics?

If you think that you don’t have enough “big data” for projects like this, I suggest you think it over. Most organizations collect more data than they view or use in any meaningful way. We have Facebook friends, Twitter followers and email campaigns. We have the data, but it’s like the junk drawer in your kitchen. It’s all a jumble and finding anything specific takes too much time. For example, lots of organizations of all sizes are still struggling with email campaigns. New email donors receive snail mail instead of email, or nothing at all. Especially for emerging organizations, all of these separate fundraising and stewardship/marketing efforts are often collecting data separately and they may or may not be able to access that data in any meaningful way.

But if we could throw our jumble of data files into a “project”… we might learn thing like we have (a) donors who (b) like us on Facebook, (c) click on our videos more than other posts and (d) make higher online gifts than other online donors. That would be useful information, right? You might then want to learn which video topics generate a better response than other video topics. If you had no idea this was going on, you would continue to randomly post videos on whatever content, and maybe even platform, that felt good at the moment. Combining donor data with Facebook data yielded new insights that could change behavior leading to higher giving with less effort.

Is Analytics Really Out of Reach?

Even if you feel that these “sophisticated” techniques are out of your reach, either because of staff skill level or cost, I urge you to take a larger look at your fundraising program – just to be sure. Many of us lament that leadership does not see the value in investing in fundraising staff or donor acquisition. We wish they could go beyond counting existing dollars to see the magic of investing in a staff member who raises far more funds than her salary. I am inviting you to step out of your technology “counting” and see the magic of streamlining your fundraising efforts through the efficient use of data.

I’m not suggesting that you jump into “big data” collection and analysis – unless you really see value there. I’m suggesting that you consider how a combination of outsourcing and internal skill-building could lead to consistently improved results. What if you could…

  • Put in place a routine appeal evaluation (snail mail, email, or social media) that showed you in numbers, and visually, how you performed this time and compared to other efforts.
  • Know how much you could spend on donor acquisition and still make a great return on your investment based on knowledge of existing donors?
  • Tightly track the behaviors that lead to consistent major gifts – whether that’s multi-year pledges to special projects or high-end yearly gifts?

And those examples don’t even touch social media, website performance or whether your stewardship program actually leads to loyal, increased giving.

You are Never Too Small, Too New, Too Anything, for Good Strategy

When you hire a prospect researcher, as a consultant or staff member, you can hire and train a strategic thinker who will help you streamline your fundraising, raising more money with lower costs. Prospect research has something of benefit for all organizations. Whether or not you join it, prospect research’s path in fundraising continues to move forward into new territory, leaving behind it a clear and certain trail of fundraising success!

Other Posts You Might Like

Millionaires Use Social Media

The Multi-Channel Fundraising Game

Facial Recognition Software and Donors

About Aspire Research Group LLC

Headquartered in Tampa Bay, Florida, Aspire Research Group was founded so that every development office could have the benefits of professional prospect research. Known for our creativity and clear communications, we work with organizations who are worried about finding their next big donor, concerned about what size gift to ask for, and frustrated that they aren’t meeting their major gift goals. Do you need to close more major gifts?

www.AspireResearchGroup.com 727 231 0516

7 Resources That Keep My Fundraising Loaded!

Careers, Research in Fundraising, , , , , , , , , ,

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!

So really…When do you use a prospect profile?

4Fundraisers, Major Gift Teams, , , ,

Many of my clients have never used prospect research before. Many of them have used it. All of them have questions about what they need in a profile and how they can use it. If they have these questions, I figure lots of fundraisers out there might be wondering the same thing.

We know we use prospect profiles to inform cultivation and solicitation – to help us ask for the largest appropriate gift. In addition to sometimes finding surprising and new information about a prospect, profiles often confirm and validate the fundraiser’s assessment of the prospect, providing even more confidence in preparing for the ask.

Using Profile Levels

I like to leave it up to the fundraiser to decide just how much information she needs. You know yourself and your prospect the best. But I do like to give different levels of profiles to choose from:

Identification Profile – A brief profile to confirm the ability to give and look at giving history and community involvement. A major gift capacity rating is provided. This is for when you don’t know anything about the prospect or need to confirm wealth and inclination before spending your time.

Solicitation Profile – A long profile that searches for everything relevant to making an ask for a major gift. In addition to capacity ratings, this profile includes an executive summary to help you with strategy. As the name implies, this profile helps you prepare for a major gift solicitation.

The Customized Approach

These are the two most popular profiles among Aspire Research Group clients, but they are used in many ways and sometimes customized:

  • One client in a campaign preferred Solicitation profiles first on her prospects, with an update as she neared the actual ask. She knew her campaign volunteers had great connections and wanted a head start on her strategy. It worked.
  • Another client had budget restraints, but really needed more than the Identification profile. We came up with a custom profile that addressed her specific need-to-know items, but remained within her budget.
  • A consultant client needed a profile more basic than Identification, as a way of prioritizing donors for small organizations. We did it.

The Pitfalls to Avoid

It all sounds so easy, doesn’t it? Warning! There are some common mistakes that fundraisers make when requesting profiles:

  • Asking for profiles as a way of showing activity, when really you are just too afraid to call on the prospects
  • Asking for a profile when you have no way of connecting with the person and no idea if the person has any interest in your organization (e.g., the local version of pursuing Oprah Winfrey)
  • Requesting a standard profile when what you really need are specific questions answered

An Unbeatable Team!

The most experienced and successful fundraisers do something differently when it comes to prospect profiles. They communicate regularly with the prospect researcher!

  • When you talk to the researcher about your donor prospect and what information you need to move forward, she can give you a much better profile.
  • When you review the profile with the researcher to help you match your personal knowledge with the “paper” knowledge, you gain a much deeper and more colorful picture of your prospect.
  • And when you share the results of your visits with the researcher you create an unbeatable team!

Do you have an unbeatable team?

If you are considering using prospect profiles as part of your major gifts strategy, call Aspire Research Group to learn more about how we can help you reach your fundraising goals with research: 727 202 3405 or visit www.AspireResearchGroup.com

Other Articles You Might Like

Dating Donors, Data Mining & Donor Profiles -oh my!
Score a touchdown with prospect profiles
Is Prospect Research Too Expensive?

Prospect Profile Samples

Identification Profile (PDF download)
Solicitation Profile (PDF download)

Top Tips for Everyone: Power Searching with Google

Profiles, Prospect Research, , ,
Kate Rapoport, Research Associate

In July I attended an online class Google offered called “Power Searching with Google.” The class reminded me of a bunch of tricks to Google searching, and taught me some new ones as well.  Here are a few that I think will be useful for prospect researchers.

Patent searching

If the prospect that you are researching has been involved in research and you want to gather information on what patents she may hold, Google can help with that. On the left hand panel in the search page, under the word “Shopping” click on the word “More”.  The list will expand and you will see “Patents”. Now you can search for your prospect’s name and Google will find patents that contain that name.

Site and Filetype Operators

These operators allow you to narrow your search significantly. The site operator confines your search to one website or domain. For example:

“Jazzy Jay Jefferson” Site:Stanford.edu

…would produce only results that included Jazzy Jay Jefferson on the Stanford.edu website.

“Jazzy Jay Jefferson” Site:.edu

…would find every instance of Jazzy Jay Jefferson on every website that ended in “.edu”.

The filetype operator confines your search to a type of file. For example:

“Jazzy Jay Jefferson” Filetype:pdf

…would produce only results that include Jazzy Jay Jefferson and are PDF documents. (Think: online donor recognition reports!)

Date Range Limiting

If your prospect created a great deal of news in 2008 because of a controversy that you already have sufficient information about and you are now only interested in search results that give you information about your prospect from 2009 to the present, Google offers date range limiting. On the left hand panel of the search page at the bottom is the option “Show search tools.” Once clicked on, the first option is for date range. I can search SlideShare founder “Rashmi Sinha”, click “Show search tools”, select “Custom range”, enter 2009 to 2012, and receive search results from that time frame only.

Search Translated Foreign Pages

If your prospect is an immigrant from or has an interest in a company from another country, you can try to find more information by using the Translated Foreign Pages search function. Type in your search keywords, go to the left hand panel, select “Show Search Tools”, and then select “Translated Foreign Pages”. This will bring up searches for your prospect in available translated pages. You can customize the languages you wish to look through at the top of the search page once you have made the search request.

Conversions

This one is clearly not just for prospect researchers. I can never remember the correct ways to convert feet into meters, for example. Google has a really neat tool that does that for you. Enter “16 feet in meters” into the search box and it immediately gives you the answer (4.8768, just in case you were curious). You can use Google to convert any measurement as long as you use the formula “Number units in units.”

I hope you found these top tips informative, or at least a helpful refresher!

About the Author, Kate Rapoport:

Kate graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Women’s Studies. She began her career in non-profit administration, became a mother and now, at Aspire Research Group LLC, applies her intelligence and curiosity to preparing prospect profiles that tell the stories that lead to major gifts.

Power Searching with Google Course: A Review

Prospect Research, , , ,
Kate Rapoport, Research Associate

In July, Google invited the public to take a free course entitled “Power Searching with Google.” Google offers many easy ways to find information that the general public doesn’t know about. This course offered anyone the opportunity to learn about the advanced tools Google provides to help search the internet.

As a prospect researcher, I’m always looking for new ways to find things. Also, I was curious to see how Google was going to present the information and how accessible it would be. I signed up for the course and over two weeks completed the six classes and the review exams.

The classes were very easy to follow. The lessons were recorded as video lectures given by a Senior Research Scientist at Google, Daniel Russell. The videos were never longer than ten minutes, and many of them were only five minutes. After each video I completed an exercise to demonstrate that I had learned the material. Usually five short videos made up one class.

Structuring the classes as a series of short videos made it much easier to grasp each concept quickly, but didn’t allow my attention to wander the way a longer video lecture might have done. Also, each class session had an overarching theme, such as interpreting results, advanced techniques and finding facts faster. I found Mr. Russell to be an engaging lecturer, which kept me from wandering away, which I have been known to do in other online lecture classes.

I recommend that other researchers take this course if it is offered again. Although I already knew at least fifty percent of the material, the course clarified things and introduced new ideas on how to perform searches. In a later blog post, I’ll talk about the most useful search skills that the class taught.

About the Author, Kate Rapoport:

Kate graduated from Smith College with a B.A. in Women’s Studies. She began her career in non-profit administration, became a mother and now, at Aspire Research Group LLC, applies her intelligence and curiosity to preparing prospect profiles that tell the stories that lead to major gifts.

So you have a prospect researcher on staff. Now what?

Discussion, Focused Fundraising, , , ,
Data is only as good as the people who use it!

You know that managing and using your donor data is becoming increasingly important to fundraising success and now you have a person designated to perform prospect research tasks for you. Congratulations!

Do you have any idea what your prospect researcher should be doing?

I have three suggestions that will put you and your researcher on a productive path in no time!

1 – Budget for Serious Training
Prospect research is a broad skill set that requires training and practice over time. It involves so much more than putting a prospect name into a search engine or software subscription. It is about using data to drive fundraising strategies. That means understanding fundraising *and* how to research. And that means training. Seriously consider sending new and experienced researchers to the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA)’s national conference. Get a grant or a scholarship. Just do it. Even if she sleeps through half of it you should notice significant productivity gains when she returns – it’s that good!

Also, it should not be overlooked that prospect research can be a painful hot button if your board and staff are not well educated on how it works. Your researcher needs to understand how to perform her job ethically and responsibly and be able to communicate that to others.

2 – Ask Really Good Questions
As a front-line fundraiser you should know what is in your overall fundraising plan and what your goals are for the year. Based on that knowledge you need to begin asking your researcher really good questions. Such as…

We are going to add planned giving prospects to our major gift pools. How many of our donors have a lifetime giving of more than $$, and have given more than once a year for the past 2-5 years? And of those, how many live in a geographic area where we can visit without significant expense?

Hopefully, it is obvious how asking good questions related to your goals could open up productive conversations with your researcher. Now she can say things like…

I noticed a cluster of matching zip codes so I reviewed the names. Did you know that one of our trustees lives in a community with 10 percent of the people on the list you asked for?

Now I bet you are asking, “I thought researchers did prospect profiles?” We do that too. Proactive research identifies opportunities through data. Reactive research, like prospect profiles, gives you the information edge to maximize giving.

3 – Include Researchers in Fundraising Discussions
A trained researcher who is engaged in the conversation around using data is a marvelous asset to your team. So be sure to include her in your fundraising discussions. Musing over a capital campaign? She could have a LOT to add about who is in your database and best practices and trends in research used by similar organizations.

But I’m not just talking about formal meetings or discussions. After your meeting with a donor, mention new information or strategy you are thinking about. Was the ask amount on target with the wealth information found? Debriefing your researcher means she can learn and grow, providing you with more and better information next time.

Prospect Research Adds Value – So Value Your Researcher

It is virtuous circle – the better trained and engaged your researcher is, the better able she is to help you raise more money. And thankfully, researchers are often independent learners. If you can communicate your fundraising objectives and where you think research could provide support, your researcher can probably figure out and communicate to you the best practices in the field.

These conversations might pull you and your researcher out of your comfort zones for a while, but your efforts will be well rewarded by more dollars raised for your mission. And heck, you’ll probably have more fun at work too!

Jen Filla founded Aspire Research Group so that every development office could have the benefits of professional prospect research. Known for her creativity and clear communications, she uses her direct fundraising experience to craft research solutions for organizations across the country that answer the questions that lead to more and higher gifts, guiding fundraisers comfortably every step of the way.

Other Posts You Might Like

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Fundraisers and the Family Limited Partnership

Focused Fundraising, Major Gift Teams, , , , , , ,

On July 6, 2012, The New York Times ran an article talking about the family limited partnership and how more families are looking at this wealth planning vehicle now that the tax break allowing up to $5.12 million to pass to heirs tax-free is set to expire at the end of 2012. What’s it to you, a front-line fundraiser or research fundraiser?

For me it was an “Aha!” …another indicator screaming “high net worth possibilities here!”  So when you see a prospect with a family limited partnership (e.g., Filla Family LP), you want to take a second look.

How do high net worth individuals use family limited partnerships to manage their wealth?

Whether it is a married couple or includes extended family members, a limited partnership allows family members to pool assets, typically for a business purpose, and these assets are now discounted because the assets are less liquid – that means a lower tax rate. The New York Times suggested that a 25 percent discount was usually acceptable to the IRS.

According to the CPA Journal (July, 1999), there are three main advantages:

  • The general partner of the limited partnership can retain control and direction of the assets;
  • It aids in business succession planning; and
  • The assets can be passed between generations at the lowest permissible cost in estate and gift taxes

Consider your highly philanthropic entrepreneurs. Mr. and Mrs. Prospect start what becomes a very profitable business. They have four children, two are involved in the business and two are not. By placing the business interests into a family limited partnership, the couple can maintain control over the business while planning for succession and transfer of assets to their children – all this at a reduced tax rate.

The New York Times article also suggested that some families might use a family limited partnership to pool assets to reach the higher investment requirements that hedge fund and private equity managers require.

It so happened that just after I read The New York Times article, I was researching a donor prospect who was a very successful entrepreneur. He created family limited partnership each time there was a substantial financial change in his life – selling a company or realizing value to a patented medical invention. The New York Times article suggested that $2 million was a very low investment. Based on this I estimated that the combined value of his three family limited partnerships might be $15 million to $30 million or more. He and his wife were the only partners.

Do you have a donor prospect story that involves a family limited partnership? Do you have more to add about how high net worth families might be using this investment vehicle? I hope you will share!

Feel free to comment or email Jen at aspire research group.com

Other Links You Might Like:

6 Family Limited Partnership Developments In 2011 (Forbes blog post-FLP stories)

Investopedia Definition of Family Limited Partnership-FLP (webpage)

Capacity and Ask Amount – Magic Numbers! (blog post)