Tag Archives: fundraising

5 Steps to Fundraising Research Ethics

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You wouldn’t slap your donor prospect in the face would you? Of course not!

Donor Trust: Don't Lose It!

Maintaining donor trust relies upon building professional and respectful relationships between your organization and the world. Without trust there would be no giving. Without giving, charitable missions would be unfulfilled. It’s that simple.

It’s also surprisingly easy to slip down the slippery ethical slope. And a donor could feel slapped in the face by some of the information you record. Why not use your personal email to request information? Does it really matter if you use those software subscriptions to look-up your annoying neighbor?

Here are 5 steps to keep you on the ethical track:

(1)  Always identify yourself
Whenever you are making requests for information you need to identify yourself. State your name, your role, and your organization. Like this: “Hello, my name is Jennifer Filla and I’m president of Aspire Research Group. I’d like to confirm the owner of a parcel of land in your county.” If this makes you uncomfortable, you probably shouldn’t be inquiring!

(2) Information recorded must deepen the donor prospect relationship
The whole point of researching donor prospects is to bring the organization and prospect closer together to further the mission – usually through a gift. So if the information found will not bring the two closer, don’t include it.That said, there are exceptions…

(3)  Discuss sensitive information verbally before documenting
When information about an arrest in the prospect’s family or some other sensitive information comes to light, it can be difficult to decide whether it is relevant to the relationship. Especially with naming rights, there is the possibility of a conflict of interest. Talking it over with leadership or the person building the donor relationship helps you confirm before documenting something embarrassing.

(4) Information must be exactly accurate
Be careful to use primary sources and to avoid using value-laden terms. For example, if a blog post says good or bad things about your prospect that you can not confirm elsewhere, don’t include it because it is an undocumented opinion. If a website claims it is a “leading” supplier or the “largest in the country”, either find the source to prove it or remove those words. If Wikipedia says it’s true, click through the footnotes at the bottom to read the original sources and be sure.

(5)  Treat researched information as confidential as donations
Just because you found all of this information in the public domain doesn’t mean it isn’t confidential in the form you have created. We don’t want our donors to feel creepy about the data we collect about them! That will not build trust. We want them to feel professionally handled, flattered and protected by us and our organizations.

Aspire Research Group is a member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), a member of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and endorses the Code of Ethical Principles and Standards of both organizations.

If you would like to learn more, why not watch the fun 7-minute video on ethics and prospect research below?

Mission Brilliant Podcasts

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Karen Eber Davis is a consultant on a mission to ensure fully resourced, creative and effective nonprofit organizations. On her website she features some free resources including her Mission Brilliant Podcasts. These podcasts are interviews with experts on topics such as events, tax, auctions, using video …and even prospect research.

Check out her podcasts and I bet you’ll find something relevant to your organization!

Will Your Donors Talk to You?

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Your donors sound so good!

Lately I have been reading many a headline about how donors ask and respond to good stories told by nonprofits. In the video interview with Táňa Hlavatá of Nadace Via she tells a story about the Mayor of a small village in the Czech Republic who asks for a grant to beautify space in the village. Through the project residents are engaged and community spirit is ignited. It’s a quick story but shines a bright light on the work of Nadace Via.

But what about the stories of the donors who make nonprofit work possible? Planned giving and major gift initiatives know that spotlighting donor stories encourages others to give. In my blog post, 3 Steps to Major Gift Mojo, I talk about listening to your donors as a catalyst to reinvigorate your major gift initiative.

But there is another benefit to talking to your donors. When it is done methodically, you can learn a great deal about why donors give to your organization and how to strategically reach more donors based on that information. But let me tell you a story…

While I was visiting Prague this August and September I began asking local Rotary Club members and others how they felt about giving to local nonprofits. Almost every person I spoke to could tell a story about a charity in the early 1990’s that was corrupt and stole donor money. They would only give to a charity with people involved who they knew and trusted, or to an international charity with a strong reputation.

There is no electronic screening, no purchasing of lists that could have gleaned this critical information about Prague donors. It was only by asking them, talking with them, and listening to their stories that this information came to light. How to grow the donor base? I would begin with existing donors and leverage their peer networks to grow awareness and trust. For major gifts I would research affluent social networks connected to board members.Methodically listening to your donors, perhaps through surveys or random calls in each donor segment, is valuable prospect research that will allow you to intelligently grow your donor base – whether you are focused on major gifts or all gifts.

Do you need to breathe new life into your major gift efforts? Have you been asking the same donors to stretch year after year? Contact Aspire Research Group! We can help you understand your donors better and lay a clear path on which you can methodically move more donor prospects toward gifts. Call us today at 727-231-0516 or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com.

Facial Recognition Software & Donors

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Does facial recognition software violate our privacy? What if we want to use it on donor prospects? The Economist wrote an article, Anonymous No More, in its 7/30/11 issue. It describes how facial recognition software has improved to the point that in the best scenarios you can feed a picture into it and discover personal information on one-third of individuals. Now, obviously, that means that two-thirds remain “anonymous”, but it does demonstrate that picture-based research is viable and will improve.

As it stands now, I start with personal information (name and address or occupation) and find my way to a matching photo. In the not-to-distant future I can imagine subscribing to software that allows me to take fundraising event photos and identify the people in them – perhaps even automatically screening them for wealth.

Now try to guess who has developed a facial recognition search engine? You guessed it! Google. But they have decided not to release it. Why? Because of the sensitivity around the subject of… [drum roll]… privacy! Now try to guess who isn’t afraid to use facial recognition. Facebook. U.S. Government. Prospect researchers? Hmmm.

Is there privacy left to care about?

It is very clear that the media likes to wheeze on about privacy (even in light of the recent Murdoch news scandals) and equally clear that most of humanity really does not care about privacy. We are happy to trade our personal information for discounts, convenience and even fun. Or are we? Mostly we are okay giving away personal information when we are asked and get something we value in return. It’s when we get duped, fooled, or humiliated that our hair stands on end. And I am grateful to the journalists who report on those abuses.

When does privacy really matter?

If your donors feel that their privacy has been compromised by you they will stop giving. Worse, they might start saying bad things about your organization and get others to stop giving. Privacy matters.

Having a donor privacy policy will go a long way toward helping your organization communicate its actions with donors, but it is not enough to keep you out of trouble. Common sense, empathy and good recordkeeping are required.

For example, just because you found your donor’s unlisted telephone number on her voter’s registration record doesn’t mean she won’t be offended when your president calls her asking for a visit. Was it found in the public domain – yes. Was it in the donor record as a contact number – yes. Did the donor feel her privacy was violated – YES! There are no shortcuts to establishing meaningful relationships.

Facial recognition software is most likely going to do “quiet” tasks like match faces from our organization Facebook pages or constituent forums with photos in our donor database to create deeper relationship maps. That’s not nearly as scintillating as using event photos to identify wealthy prospects, is it? But it is more efficient and respectful.

More info on ethics and privacy:

Aspire Research Group’s Ethics Video
Letter to Board Members on Privacy and Prospect Research
APRA Statement of Ethics
AFP Code of Ethical Principles and Standards

3 Steps to Major Gift Mojo!

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

Not infrequently fundraisers want to talk to me about finding major gift prospects who are outside of the donor database. Often they have been asking the same group of donors and need to expand their reach.

Too frequently I find out that they have not screened or mined their own donor database for good prospects! Screenings come with a price tag that can be hefty for some and getting management to invest often requires some educated persuasion.

Consider the following plan for jump-starting your fundraising confidence and creating results you can demonstrate to management.

Phase One

  • Pull a list of your top lifetime donors and start calling and visiting to thank them
    • They will be mucho flattered because many will not be wealthy and the lifetime giving will be a significant number. They all make great planned giving prospects
  • Pull a list of your one or two-year lapsed donors by lifetime giving and largest gift
    • Schedule visits with any excuse: wanted to recognize your lifetime contributions with a chatke; wanted you to meet our new CEO; wanted to thank you and tell you about new initiatives you made possible.
  • Consider asking your gift entry/database administrator to make some thank you calls to top-end annual fund donors
    • Pick a list of people similar to your employee to make it easy to relate
    • Already too busy? Make one phone call a day
    • Success in a new task is invigorating! Expect your employee grow

Phase Two

Do not just pull lists…

Pick a concrete time-period – say three months – and blitz call and visit. Every. Single. Day. Especially if you haven’t done much visiting in the past! You will have friendly, feel-good visits that will build your confidence and reward your donors with the stewardship they so deserve. Any excuse for calling will do, but sincerely thanking, recognizing and telling them what their gifts have accomplished is numero uno.

Phase Three

After the designated time period, stop and evaluate. This is important. You will be amazed what your donors tell you and you will be better able to strategize your future efforts. This is where you begin rating which prospects are likely to make major gifts and you will now know how to better recognize them in your database. Check out the Aspire Research Group paper on creating a moves management system.

Looking for customized help with your donor lists? Contact Aspire Research Group today!

Work smarter, not harder. Because you’ll have your major gift mojo of course!

Millionaires use Social Media

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In a Wall Street Journal blog post, Robert Frank reports that “According to a survey of millionaires from Fidelity Investments, 85% of respondents use text-messaging, smartphone applications and social media.  One third use social media professionally, with 28% using LinkedIn.”

Are Millionaires Talking to You?
Over the past couple of years I have been hearing prospect researchers talk about mining Facebook and alumni forums for phone numbers and emails. More recently I’ve been hearing that gift officers are communicating with their major gift prospects on LinkedIn, Facebook and, yes, even Twitter.

Sometimes it is obvious that the donor prospect is oblivious to how public these forums are or can be. But mostly I am hearing that the donor prospect initiates the contact through social media.

For Donors, Philanthropy is Personal, not Professional
If 85% of respondents are using social media, but only 33% of them use it “professionally”, it makes me speculate that donor prospects view their giving as “personal” not “professional” activities. Kind of obvious, huh?

So why should we care if millionaires are using social media? Well, for fundraising it’s a no-brainer. Our organizations need to be engaging and involving donors in social media as another cultivation tool in the toolbox. But what about prospect identification and qualification?

Social Media for Identification and Qualification
The murky issues of privacy and trust begin to swirl when we talk about mining data from social media – especially with privacy conscious millionaires! But I also think that using social media in fundraising serves to highlight how prospect researchers and fundraisers work best when working together. Here’s how:

(1) If a gift officer is invited to friend a donor prospect over a private network, it is the same as visiting the prospect in her/his home. You get to view the photographs on the mantel – so to speak – such as pages liked, friends, photos, videos and of course, posts. But that information can only be known and used by a researcher if it is communicated (yes, I’m talking about notes in the database as well as verbal conversations)

(2) A prospect researcher shouldn’t ignore relevant public information, even when it is left open on a social media network. Conversations with the gift officer might be necessary and wise before saving personal information gleaned from Twitter, blogs, Facebook etc., but key insights into giving motivations can be found and should be communicated. We never, ever want to record embarrassing things on a donor prospect record, but ignoring social media is not acceptable either.

More on Privacy and Prospect Research
If you want to learn more about privacy and prospect research, check out the video below by Aspire Research Group that puts a little fun into the subject. For comprehensively researched prospect profiles, click here.

How to get from $250k to $40m

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You *want* to read this story about how the Wishard Foundation took a donor prospect from “If you’re coming to ask for money, I don’t even want to meet with you” to a $40 million naming gift. And when you’re done come back to this post and I’ll tell you what the prospect researchers were doing behind the scenes!

Where’s the Researcher?
Okay, if you look at the Wishard Foundation Staff page you won’t see a prospect researcher listed, but with that many gift officers and a manager of development services you’d at least expect a gift entry person, so let’s just speculate that there is someone with at least partial responsibility for research.

Getting the Edge with Donor Profiling
The president comes back from meeting a multi-millionaire who tells him to come back with a fundraising proposal and to make it “bold”. I betcha President Vargo was HOT for every scrap of information that could be found on Mr. and Mrs. Eskanazi. In my imagination I can see that prospect researcher sweating it out hour after hour, posting questions on PRSPCT-L, calling her APRA colleagues for tips and finally, hopefully, being a part of the conversation with the president about how much to ask for.

Identification – The First Step
But we all know prospect research happened MUCH earlier in the process, right? Somehow Mr. and Mrs. Eskanazi were identified and qualified for a $250,000 first gift. President Vargo’s amazing feat was to establish high affinity in one meeting. Granted, there was luck involved (they were looking for a legacy opportunity), but Vargo was ready. Mr. and Mrs. Eskanazi were identified and Vargo told a really powerful story. Pair that up with luck and presto! The Wishard Foundation received a $40 million gift. That is success!

Do you want a Professional Prospect Researcher?
If you don’t have a prospect researcher in-house, do not lament! Aspire Research Group can help you from identification all the way through to the ultimate solicitation. Check out our rating, profile and consulting services. Unfortunately, our magic wand is out for repair so we can’t manage the luck part right now, but we’re working on it.

Prospect Research Has Always been Mainstream

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When asked by Blackbaud’s NonprofitTrends blog, Jay Frost tells it straight: prospect research has always been mainstream. And it feels so good to hear someone else saying it! Every time you find a quick company bio or a phone number on your prospect you are performing prospect research.

But Jay doesn’t stop there:

The danger in not making the distinction between the type of cursory review most offices do and the kind of work performed by a professional prospect research unit is that they miss opportunities, ask for too little and, because they are spending time looking things up rather than seeing donors, they ask less often than they could. All of these things put organizations without professional level prospect research at a significant short and long term fundraising disadvantage. [emphasis added]

So what does that mean to you as a fundraiser? You have to research stuff on your own because otherwise it wouldn’t happen, right? But Jay is not advocating all or nothing. I like to use the plumber analogy.

I am a do-it-yourselfer and I am not afraid to plunge a clogged drain or change the washer on a faucet. But if I told you that I was an expert plumber because I could plunge a drain or change a washer you would definitely have to stifle a giggle. And if I attempted to repair a leaking supply pipe I could end up wasting hours of time and end up in a pool of water.

So learn some basic search techniques and find what you need for that first donor prospect visit. But as cultivation deepens and you involve leadership or begin approaching the solicitation, don’t skimp on professional prospect research. If you need help identifying prospects for your campaign, don’t wait until you are struggling to reach your goal. Use professional prospect research before you risk thousands, perhaps millions, in gifts.

Aspire Research Group sells a fabulous how-to tool, Search Tips for Fundraisers, that has been helping fundraisers use their time effectively. At Aspire Research Group we recognize the fundraiser’s reality and craft solutions that empower you to effectively close on your major gifts. Check us out sometime at www.AspireResearchGroup.com.

How to Find Giving History

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A great way to qualify a prospect and gain insight on a donor is to learn about the person’s giving history with other organizations. This demonstrates philanthropic inclination and aids in determining how much to ask for. But where do you find this lucrative information?

The Vendors
There are vendors who crawl through the web and/or scan and index printed donor recognition reports (NOZA, DonorSearch, iWave, WealthEngine). You type in the name and maybe some other criteria, and the software lists all the gifts found that match that name as a donor.

Do it Yourself
You can do the same thing using search engines, but it can be a bit hairy if your prospect has a very common name. And you won’t find old listings that have been removed from the internet. Using Google, click on the Advanced Search link found somewhere near the search box. This gives you a form to complete. Fill in the blanks under Find web pages that have… as needed. Try different combinations of the prospect name, including maiden and nicknames. But the real magic happens under the Need More Tools? options.

Search within a site or domain
You have a few ways to play with the Search within a site or domain option. You can choose just “.edu” or “.org” or you might choose the domain of an organization you know your prospect has an affinity with such as “afpsuncoast.org”. Once you start to fool around with these options you will find what you want much more quickly.

What if I don’t find any giving?
Just because a vendor or your own searches do not turn up any record of giving does NOT mean your prospect does not make gifts. Many organizations never publish the names of their donors. Does your organization publish donor lists? If you do not find any giving, and even if you do, you have a few options still available to you to determine philanthropic inclination.

  1. Does the person volunteer, serve as board member or is involved in some other way with charitable organizations? (Don’t forget church membership here.) People who are involved are more likely to give.
  2. Does the person attend lots of charity benefits and events? Sometimes an area has a culture of charity events and donors are not really asked for other gifts.
  3. Check for Federal Election Campaign Contributions (www.opensecrets.org) because these donations are correlated positively with charitable giving.
  4. If you know where she went to school, search that domain for your prospect’s name. Many schools publish every alumni donor, regardless of gift size.

Should I Do it Myself?
If you are a fundraiser, using these tools can give you a quick information edge as you qualify and cultivate your donor prospects. But you will find that if you get carried away trying to do all your own donor research two things are likely to happen:

  1. You will spend less time cultivating, asking and stewarding your gifts, which results in fewer gifts; and
  2. You will be much more likely to ask for smaller gifts than you might if you were better informed about your prospect.

Do I think you should know some basic prospect research techniques? You betcha! It’s a life skill these days. Just make sure you spend most of your time with your donors, not behind your computer screen.
(Re-printed from the July 2011 e-news: Information Seeking)

What is Really Blocking your Success?

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Carla Harris

So many fundraisers work for organizations that do not value fundraising. Are you in one of them? Do you go to work, have your hands tied, get thrown into a padlocked trunk, tossed into a pool and then told to go raise millions? If this sounds like your fundraising experience, here is a hot tip from Carla Harris that might just help you begin to turn the situation around.

Why Fundraising?
There are many reasons why fundraising gets discounted. One situation might be that the dollars raised are a small percentage of overall revenue. Healthcare is an obvious example of this. If the organization’s balance sheet is the CEO’s number one indicator of success, fundraising as a source of revenue could be way down at the bottom, so why invest much in it?

We all know the answer to that question – mission! Fundraising makes our organization’s mission achievable by adding and expanding services to the community for which there is no other source of revenue. For example, the needs of cancer patients and their families dramatically increase as the disease progresses, which coincides with a decline in their ability to meet those needs emotionally, spiritually and financially. No insurance or government payment covers that!

Carla Harris was a keynote speaker at the 2011 Planet Philanthropy conference put on by the AFP Florida Caucus. A Wall Street banker, she overcame confidence squashing early in her career and has had tremendous success on many levels. She is a banker, gospel singer, mentor and volunteer.

When You are Not in the Room
One of the many fine points she made during her presentation and in her book, Expect to Win: Proven Strategies for Success from a Wall Street Vet, was that most of the decisions made about your career happen when you are not in the room. So true, right? Think how decisions are made about promotions, pay raises, and new hires. I bet that most decisions on fundraising budgets, staff size, office space and more are made when you, the development staff, are not in the room.

Three Adjectives
She advocates deciding on three adjectives that you wish other people used to describe you when you were not in the room. Once you have your adjectives start using them! Use those specific words in your own speech. You need to eat, breathe and sleep like those adjectives. Doing this trains others (and hey, maybe even yourself) to see you like those adjectives – because you *are* those adjectives.

Why not do the same thing for your fundraising department? The adjectives should be based on the skills required to fundraise with excellence. However, if fundraising is not being valued in your organization, first find out what *is* being valued and why. Listen for the words your own CEO uses frequently to define her and the organization’s success. Then you can use those words and demonstrated actions to begin positioning fundraising as the successful, revenue-generating, mission-achieving engine that it is!