In Florida, summer starts in May. By June the pool has turned into a bath. By July the pool has become a hot tub! Whether I’m sitting by the pool or in and out of the pool, I like to take advantage of the summer heat to explore and re-think all the research things. And that means reading, watching, and getting training.

Because I really can sit outside under the shade of the umbrella and watch a training video, or read a book while floating in the pool, or focus on thinking through a problem while swimming laps. New thoughts are sparked when I physically re-locate away from my office.

So, instead of the traditional summer reading list, I’m suggesting a summer research adventure list!

Finance Industry Series Part 5 of 5

How you, the prospect research professional, write up your prospect profile affects the eventual solicitation – especially when it comes to complex prospects in the financial field. Do you find that difficult to believe? Or are you nodding your head right now and feeling validated? And if you are a development officer, isn’t it incredibly helpful when you don’t need a dictionary and Wikipedia to understand what’s in the profile? Of course it is!

I get it. As a fundraising research professional you want to be accurate. You prefer having a source to cite and a formula to generate a value. But researching people and professions has never been as simple as working through a checklist – and never will be.

Finance Industry Series Part 4 of 5

It can be tough to keep billions quiet. So why is it that although we in prospect research identify people that seem to be likely billionaires, we find them absent from the prominent Forbes listing?

And while I have been focused on the Forbes World’s Billionaires List, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index feels more aligned with us in prospect research – it’s conservatively calculated and the write-up for each individual is presented carefully and quite thoroughly.

As the zeroes on mega gifts grow as fast as ants on fallen candy, the methods, and vehicles for giving continue to diversify. First, it was the trusty (pun intended) family foundation. Now there is the handy and potentially anonymous donor-advised fund. Along the way, the Zuckerberg Chan Initiative LLC in 2015 brought worldwide attention to the LLC structure, which was also the choice du jour for Jeff Bezos and his Bezos Earth Fund LLC in 2021.

If you’re reading this blog, I suspect you are probably a researcher or really like data and research. But imagine you are vice president at a nonprofit. You took the job because you are an awesome major gift fundraiser, you know how to lead a team, and you love the mission. But inevitably, you arrive and have to overcome a million big and small hurdles, mostly with data and process.

When I first moved to Greater Tampa Bay, Florida from Greater Philadelphia, the big excitement was spotting dolphins and manatees. It was so cool! After years on the beach, I could tell just by the way the water was moving which marine life was causing it, including dolphins and manatees. Spotting the dolphin fin or hearing a manatee “snort” clinched the identification. In prospect research, I’ve learned to spot the whales – the major gift prospects that are capable of gifts of $10M or even $100M or more.

Do you remember back when there were live luncheons? Or maybe you’re already starting to attend them again. The kind where there is a speaker and everyone is seated to eat their meal while hearing the talk. Often, when you sit down to eat, the table is already set with the salad AND the dessert.