If you know what type of consultant relationship you want before you hire, you will be better able to evaluate the skills, approach, and personality of the consultant. Better evaluation means you will be much more likely to achieve your desired outcomes. Never underestimate the human element! Here are three fundamental relationship types to consider:
#1 – Restaurant Menu: Just Do It For Me! Imagine it is a Friday night. You are tired after a long work-week and decide to take the family out to dinner at a local restaurant. You order pecan-crusted grouper on a bed of spinach and just as you are about to sip your glass of wine the chef appears at your side. He asks you, “Do you know how to get the pecans to stay encrusted? No? Do not worry! Come back to the kitchen in five minutes and I will show you.” Ummm. Not exactly what you had in mind. In fact, it would be irritating and awkward.
If you need a problem solved and you do not have the staff or resources to tackle it, you want a consultant to come in and do it for you. This consulting relationship is not unreasonable and can be a great way to get your organization moving forward.
As an example, you may need your donor database analyzed to determine best prospects for major gift and/or annual appeals. You know that there are consultants who can examine your database and make effective recommendations. You receive the ratings imported into your database and review the suggested prospect segments or groupings with the consultant. Then it is up to you to “eat” your “meal” – you need to engage and ask your donor prospects for gifts.
#2 – Cooking Class: Teach Me How To Do It Myself! Now let’s imagine it is a Saturday morning and you arrive with your coffee in hand, ready for your cooking class. As you enter the classroom you discover the morning meal completely prepped and ready to go into the oven. You wonder, “How am I going to get my egg mixture fluffy like that next week when my in-laws are visiting?” And then, “Why did I pay for this class if I don’t learn how to make the dishes on my own?”
If you need to solve a problem that requires you to implement the solution on a regular basis, you want a consultant to walk you through how it works, using her expertise to shorten the time between learning and using your new skills. This kind of consulting builds your organization’s internal capacity by teaching staff valuable new skills.
As an example, you may be preparing for a campaign and want to be able to qualify major gift prospects as needed. The consultant trains your staff member how to do the research herself and creates a worksheet so that she can methodically establish a capacity rating and inclination rating to be entered in the donor database. Now the staff member can “cook” the “meal” with the same great results every time – she can prioritize new prospects quickly and effectively.
#3- Catering Instruction: Do It For Me and…Coach Me on Implementing! Continuing with our food analogy, imagine you are hosting a big dinner party – your first ever! You hire a catering company. They arrive with all of the different courses cooked and ready. You and your spouse are given a list of all the foods and when they need to be served. But the best part is that they dress all the tables with linens and leave you with a server. She makes sure everything happens on time, prompting and reminding you along the way. Her expertise ensures all goes smoothly. Your party is a smashing hit!
Experienced fundraisers and managers know that having a consultant who can deliver a finished package and continue to coach on effective implementation can be the perfect solution. This kind of consulting gets the initiative up and running quickly, building the skills of the entire team along the way.
As an example, you need to transition from haphazardly securing major gifts to a major gifts program. The consultant analyzes your donor database, imports the ratings and works with you to develop a complete moves management system – rating, moves and reporting. Then she coaches you through the first year, tweaking the system and making suggestions to keep you on track. Your team has the “food cooked” and can efficiently “serve” it – your team has prospect management tools and they are methodically moving major gift prospects toward gifts.
Be aware of the kind of relationship you need and want to reach your goals. Then communicate that clearly as you interview a prospective consultant. It is the first step toward hiring the right person for you and your organization – someone you like and trust with the skills to get you to your destination.
Aspire Research Group has worked in all three types of relationships with clients, depending upon the problem to be solved. Do you have a prospect research problem and aren’t sure how to solve it? We would be happy to discuss it with you. Call 727 231 0516 or email jen at AspireResearchGroup.com.
As a professional fundraiser, prospect researcher and donor, this news tactic hits a raw nerve. Yes, data and privacy issues should be reaching a crescendo as the online activities of great masses of people are creating a less-than-regulated world of data collection and sale across the U.S. and around the globe. But why pick on not-for-profit organizations especially?
Donor trust is the backbone of not-for-profit organizations. Without community support an organization is derailed and its mission discounted. This means that when an organization abuses donor or public trust, it is a very juicy news story indeed. But what kind of data transactions are really going on behind closed doors and what can donors do to ensure their favorite organizations are behaving appropriately?
Online activity in social media, shopping, gaming, reading and so many other activities has reached a critical scale. The numbers of participants are so big that meaningful information can be extracted from our behavior as it is tracked online and offline. For-profit companies are beginning to make exceptional use of this opportunity, as one might imagine. In 2011, The Economist magazine suggested how Europe’s Tesco appears to be using its retail sales information from loyalty cards to inform its recent auto insurance underwriting.
But not-for-profit organizations are not selling you a widget and are not involved in helping you get insurance. Not-for-profit organizations are attempting to achieve a mission of value to fulfill needs in your local or global community. They are data-mining to more efficiently raise money and that should translate into lower costs and higher dollars in gifts. Overwhelming, donors tell organizations that they want less money spent on “costs”; they want organizations to be efficient, just like the for-profit world.
What do we like about our favorite for-profits? They deliver good product, they treat us well (if not great), and we trust them. Same goes for not-for-profits. Except that trust takes on a much deeper meaning. Not-for-profits help those most vulnerable in the world and therefore they must be beyond reproach. Added to that is that I am GIVING them my hard-earned dollars!
Most data-mining efforts in the not-for-profit world attempt to prioritize donors and prospects so that those “most likely to be interested” and those “most able to make a gift” are approached for all of the different activities of the organization. This ranges from mail appeals, event invitations, online and offline content development, and, yes, major gift prospect initiatives.
Data-mining fails the donor (and the organization) in two primary situations:
When the information is wrong – common names and other circumstances foil the best systems and the most skilled researchers
When the fundraising program is not operating effectively
The donor needs to pay the most attention to item #2. As a donor or prospective donor, if you ever feel disrespected, insulted or otherwise uncomfortable you have to ask yourself: Is this the way in which the entire organization operates? The two premier associations for fundraisers and prospect researchers provide guidelines for the ethical treatment of donors and all the information wrapped around them. You can check them out here: AFP and APRA.
If you trust the board of directors, adore the program staff and witness the terrific results of the organization, why would you be worried about their data-mining practices? Most likely it would never cross your mind — until you pick up The New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. And a professional fundraising office, like the one at your favorite not-for-profit, would be more than happy to discuss its data-mining, data collection and data privacy practices with you.
I would rather the news focus on for-profit companies and their secretive and very profitable data-mining practices, but if they are going to pick on not-for-profits — well, let’s use this as an opportunity to have some great discussions with our favorite not-for-profits and our favorite donors. Transparency in the not-for-profit world is the best weapon to secure and defend donor trust!
If you have a story about how you have used privacy concerns to have a reassuring conversation with your not-for-profit or your donor, please share! Those are the kinds of stories I wish the newspapers would include in their articles – even if they only drop them in at the end. We want fair representation!
You know you need a prospect research consultant when…
Your donor profiles don’t tell you anything you didn’t know.
You know a prospect screening will boost your giving, but choosing a vendor and ensuring the results actually translate to gift strategies has you too nervous to buy.
You know why prospect research is critical to your goals, but convincing your leadership requires an outsider.
You understand various prospect research tools and methods, but don’t have the time or skills to put those tools in place at your organization.
Aspire Research Group is *passionate* about professional prospect research. Why? Because we are fundraisers! Call 727 231 0516 and ask for Jen or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com. We love to talk prospect research!
Big institutions have been using prospect research long before the internet turned the field upside down. Those institutions still lead the way in things like database analysis, multi-channel direct appeals, multi-million dollar gifts and multi-billion dollar campaigns. Big is nice, but if you’re not that big, how can you be sure prospect research will work for your organization?
Here are ten things you should know as you evaluate what type of prospect research will work for you.
(1) In-person research is a must
As a front-line fundraiser talking directly with donors, you are responsible for some of the most important prospect research your organization can do! You are the one who gets to ask donor prospects questions about why they give, what they love about your organization, what is going on in their family and so many other crucial questions.
Example: A donor prospect can look great on paper, until you visit and discover that the child has special needs, aging parents have run out of money for care and the wife has just cut her career back to care for family.
(2) Google really is good
Google and other search engines are an incredible source of information. Learning how to use search engines effectively has become a life skill. As a front-line fundraiser, you should be able to quickly find some basic information on your donor prospect. However, you will short change yourself and your organization if you do not get professional prospect research before asking for a major gift of $10,000 or more.
Example: A fundraiser had been engaging a donor for years and he was now on the board of trustees. When they were planning a campaign, she asked for an in-depth profile to help decide the size and type of leadership gift he might be capable of. Research discovered significant commercial real estate investments unrelated to the prospect’s primary business. The fundraiser was able to ask another board member who had made complex real estate gifts, to help cultivate and solicit.
(3) Peer Review has pros…and cons
Peer review – asking a select group of volunteers to review and rate prospects – can help you uncover personal information about prospects that formal research does not find, including great insights into a prospect’s personality. But we’ve all known prospects who impress people as wealthy when really they carry a lot of debt or still rely on money from their wealthy families. Peer review is one piece in the prospect puzzle, not the whole picture.
(4) Information is always as good as the source
One of the first rules of research is to scrutinize the source of information. Some sources are more reliable than others. It is important to ask your vendor and keep yourself educated on the sources being used in prospect research.
Example: A Google search on your prospect’s name might reveal a bio saying she serves on a local hospital’s board, but does she? Checking the hospital’s website and/or IRS tax form 990 is a better source. Or you could just ask her…(see #1)
(5) Prioritizing is not an exact science
Your organization has done a stellar job of managing its annual appeals and building its database. Now you have to figure out who among the 5,000+ records should receive event invites, specific appeals, or be asked for a major gift. You don’t want to start with the letter “A” and go from there. But recognize that prospect screenings and data mining efforts are not perfect.
Example: Sweet Charity was methodically working through its best-rated prospects from a recent wealth screening when a donor not on their list expressed an interest in a naming opportunity. It turned out that the donor held a middle-class job, but had a large trust fund as an inheritance. He had been well-stewarded by Sweet Charity for five years and when he read about the campaign in the newsletter he wanted to honor his parents.
(6) Donor Giving is Confidential
Every fundraiser is aware that a donor’s gift to your organization is confidential. We know to ask permission before sharing donor names and stories. Keep this in mind as you review results from database screenings and prospect profiles. Prospect research can only find gifts that have been disclosed to the public by the nonprofit or the donor.
(7) Private Companies are Private
Entrepreneurs are a very philanthropic group and usually own and operate one or more private companies. Private means that the shares or ownership of the company are not available to the public for purchase. It also means that the company does not have to share information, such as sales or profits. Really. Sometimes they do share, but most often we have to guess. It also means we don’t know how much of the company they own or what they sold their company for – unless they tell someone. And sometimes they do tell.
(8) Maybe you can find out stockholdings
Unlike private companies, public companies trade their shares with the public. So you might think that if someone owns shares of a public company we could find out, right? Wrong! Maybe we can find out. Stock ownership is reported only if the person is an insider: top executive, director, or owns 10% or more of the company stock. There are exceptions, but not too many.
(9) You get what you pay for
Many organizations want cheap research. Why should you pay a lot of money for research if you are not sure you will even get the gift? Because, when done well, you raise more money. If you know how to use a prospect screening effectively, every area of your fundraising could have improved results. Really, really. And if you hire a professional prospect researcher (i.e., researcher-fundraiser), you will get donor profiles that provide the kind of wealth and giving insights you need to maximize major gifts. Freelancers often don’t have the experience or the paid resources to give you what you need. How committed are you to using the information? Pay accordingly.
(10) Partnering with Prospect Research raises money!
So you invest in serious prospect research, but it still feels generic and not so helpful. Make sure that partnering is part of the purchase. Prospect research is most effective when research can answer a clearly defined question. That means discussing the project before work begins, during and after. Prospect researchers are fundraisers too and we want to raise money – get a “Yes!” – just as much as you do! So let’s talk.
Can you trust prospect research? Absolutely! When you buy quality and use it skillfully, prospect research can make your fundraising efforts SHINE. Are you looking for prospect research solutions for your organization? Contact Aspire Research Group at 727 202 3405 and ask for Jen Filla or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com or visit us at www.AspireResearchGroup.com.
Did you know that a prospect research consultant isn’t successful unless you, the front-line fundraisers, are successful? Shocking, but true! If I provide you with irrelevant data, or too much data, then you are less prepared and less strategic in your fundraising. You won’t raise as much money for your mission. I won’t get re-hired. And you won’t tell your friends good things about me.
I was reading an article in an excellent research magazine, Connections, published by the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement. The provocative suggestion was that prospect researchers must move from “pushers to partners”. I never felt like I was an information pusher. But I have had front-line fundraisers tell me about their disappointing experiences with “pushers”.
When I founded Aspire Research Group, my goal was to bring professional prospect research to all sizes of organizations. We have been reaching that goal! And whenever I work with a client there is always some level of back and forth communication going on.
Whether it’s donor profiles, data mining, or prospect tracking, I need to understand who you are and what you want to achieve before I can provide you with information solutions that get you to your destination.
When you work with a prospect research consultant, be sure to make time for questions on both sides and for feedback after the work is delivered. If you do this, your consultant will be able to provide continually better services to you.
Consider the donor prospect profile as an example. You need more than house values and occupational titles. You need to understand what makes your prospect tick, why she has made gifts, and how her assets translate into wealth and possible gift opportunities. You need more than data – you need the information that will inform your fundraising.
Want to hear some shocking success stories? Want to find out how to improve your fundraising strategy with prospect research? Call Jen Filla at 727 231 0516 or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com.
So you want to implement a moves management system to ensure you are focusing on your best major gift prospects. Or you have a system, but you want to make it better. Good for you!
Moves Management is a Workout!
First, recognize that a moves management system is not a magical system where elves enter all your data and print reports whilst you sleep. Using a moves management system to track donor prospects is like getting physically fit – you have to workout! It requires you to:
Enter information on each donor prospect record – at least:
Periodically review your progress and start over at #1
Regular, internal prospect review meetings (at least monthly)
Assess Your Needs and Resources
Sometimes when you first start exercising, you find that you are so, so tired and wonder if getting fit will ever give you more energy and finely-toned muscles. It will! But you have to slog through the first bit of work. That said, you can’t swim across the English Channel tomorrow if today you are struggling to swim across the pool. Assess your needs and resources:
Are you starting from scratch or have you already been tracking prospects somewhere?
Tweaking a system is often easier than starting new
Will gift officers be tasked with entering tracking info plus their prospect actions, or is there another staff member available?
Assigning some data entry to other staff, especially on newly identified prospects, keeps down the grumbling and frees up your gift officers to go and get those major gifts – no excuses!
Do you have many solicitors, or just a few?
When the office is small, it’s best to keep things as simple as possible
Is this for ongoing major gifts or a campaign?
While similar, a campaign may warrant a higher degree of tracking
You Will be Tweaking
As you choose a combination of database fields and database reports (or maybe Excel lists and calendars if you are very small) together with your regular prospect reviews, you *should* find yourself tweaking the moves management system. For example, you might realize you are re-visiting disqualified prospects and decide to change your prospect stage like this:
First Method
Second Method
Identified
Cultivation
Solicitation
Stewardship
Identified
Qualified
Cultivation
Solicitation
Stewardship
Disqualified
This is a natural progression in your use of your system. Or maybe you find that it takes forever to enter the information in various fields around your donor database record and decide to limit your tracking to a few key pieces all in one easy-to-enter place in the database. Or maybe you find that monthly meetings are not enough and weekly meetings would keep everyone where they need to be with their prospect list.
Ask any fitness freak – taking the time to understand the best times and types of exercise for yourself makes all the difference in achieving your goals. Taking the time to get your system customized to your fundraising culture and constituents will make all the difference in whether you achieve your major gift goals. Not everyone has washboard abs and not every nonprofit has an efficient, high-performing major gifts program!
Give Yourself a Generous Year
Give yourself at least a year from your first effort to get the system really working smoothly. If it’s not working after a year, take a hard look at whether you (a) really need a system or (2) have put the right kind of effort into it. If you are a one-person shop cultivating ten people across the year, you can keep a lot of that in your head and your calendar. If you have multiple solicitors and/or need to boost your total prospect numbers (those under identification, cultivation and stewardship), you won’t be effective without a system.
Consider Getting a Coach
Olympic athletes wouldn’t dream of training and competing without a coach. Even the most dedicated athletes find themselves tired and frustrated, unable to “see” what is holding them back. A coach can keep your spirits up, redirect your efforts to keep you performing, and, step-by-step, help you reach ever higher goals.
If you are determined to reach your major gift goals, but find yourself unable to wrap your hands around moves management or even identifying good prospects to track, contact Aspire Research Group. We specializing in helping fundraisers reach their goals, guiding you comfortably every step of the way. Call (727) 231-0516 or email jen at aspireresearchgroup.com.
For more blog posts on moves management, click here: Moves Management
The majority of nonprofit organizations in the country do not have dedicated prospect research staff. So how can you still leverage prospect research to raise more money?
The biggest hurdle is recognizing that prospect research can be accomplished by everyone in your organization. Here are three shortcuts any fundraiser can implement to begin using prospect research techniques to boost giving:
(1) Identify people with linkage, ability and inclination
Everyone in your organization can identify people who are connected in some way to you, appear to have some money to give away and, if not outright passionate about your mission, are likely to be philanthropic. Have a team meeting and educate everyone in your organization about what a good prospect looks and sounds like. Arm them with the kinds of easy conversational questions that will help qualify a good donor prospect. Then listen when they tell you about people and share the outcome with them.
(2) Get to know the people closest to your organization
From the gift entry clerk who starts her call to a donor with “thank you” before asking her question, to the janitor who gives people directions on the campus, to the president who meets with local companies – everyone in your organization has a chance to treat your constituents as the friends and family they are. As the fundraiser, you need to ask staff about people frequently and listen and record what they say.
(3) Decide on a tracking system and stick to it!
Working with the people in your office who understand your database best (which could also be the vendor), decide what you want to keep track of and the best way to do it. Then make sure everyone entering data does it the same way so you can pull accurate reports. For more ideas, read Three Simple Steps to a Prospect Management System.
At first it may seem like a lot of work to involve other staff members in identifying and cultivating your constituents, but once you learn to balance all of the chance meetings you have with staff with a few added formal encounters, you might find that you will gather more face-to-face intelligence with donor prospects than you ever could have accomplished on your own.
It takes time to implement anything new, but with all this information being gathered you will soon be in the enviable position of prioritizing well-informed prospect lists!
Still need help identifying prospects? Are you lost in your database full of donor records? Need deep research before a solicitation? Call Aspire Research Group at (727) 231-0516. We can help.
In just two decades there have been huge shifts in how women and men earn and give away their money. As responsible financial stewards, fundraisers need to be sure that their efforts reflect the needs of women as well as men. This post analyzes and highlights information primarily from a new study of high net worth women from The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Heck, I might just convince you to make it easy for women to give to you by creating a women-only giving group!
I say that in *just* two decades there have been huge shifts, because twenty years is a relatively short period of time. From the time I started working in 1988 until now a tsunami of changes have transformed how women are treated at university and at work. My first boss, who had porn tapes delivered to the office and carried around a loaded gun, would be considered an anachronism today – and a dangerous one! And that was only twenty-three years ago.
Because such dramatic change has occurred in such a short amount of time, many of us fundraisers may still be clinging to outdated myths about women’s giving potential. These myths could cost your organization, but worse, they could cost the people who rely upon your organization to serve them.
*Women are Earning More Money* You probably know this, but remember that women did not enter the workforce in significant numbers until about forty years ago in the 1970s. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2011), women were 40% of the labor force in the 1970s and are now at about 60%. But how do those numbers translate into earning power?
The Pew Research Center published a study in 2010 that may surprise you. It demonstrated that the percentage of working women earning more than their working husbands has grown from 8% to 26% in the past two decades. A quarter of working women in a two income household are the primary breadwinner. Nice. And that is in the face of the fact that, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2010), women earn about 80% of what men earn.
But the real eye-popping news is that in nearly 90% of high net worth individuals surveyed in a study by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (2011), women are either the sole decision-maker or at least an equal partner in charitable decision-making. In non-research language that translates to: women decide how to give away the household dollars. How’s that for a myth-buster? Ignore women at your peril!
*Women are (Finally) Leveraging Networks* When I was in Prague in 2009 I was invited to a lunch by another business woman. What I found was a long-standing network of women who encourage and help build each other’s success in what can still be a hostile environment for women. These women were the movers and shakers, creating new institutions and fantastic business success. It was women helping women. I have not found this kind of tight-knit camaraderie here in the U.S. But I know it exists as can be attested to by the rise of women’s giving networks.
What I find so interesting about their choice to use The Tiffany Circle of the American Red Cross is that this giving network was created by the American Red Cross. In the past I have read numerous articles about women creating their own giving circles, but clearly some nonprofits have seen the “dollars written on the wall” and proactively created environments where women can thrive in philanthropy. Yes, you can do this too!
*What do Women in Giving Networks Expect Most?* Before we go into what The Center on Philanthropy found out when questioning these high net worth networked givers (try saying that quickly!), I feel it is very important to note that in their 2010 study they discovered that 60.2% of women and 55.7% of men gave for general operating support. Really, really. In fact, only 15.9% of men and 10.8% of women were likely to donate for capital, construction or equipment. So it’s safe to say that at least HALF of high net worth donors will give general operating dollars. That’s HUGE! Living up to their expectations now takes on a whole new level of importance, doesn’t it?
The Center on Philanthropy found gender differences in these top indicators of donor expectations:
W=women M=men WIN=women in a network
Honor request for use of gift: W-80.4% M-68.4% WIN-89.3%
Send thank you note: W-60.4% M-52.1% WIN-66.1%
Communicate the impact of the gift: W-45.3 M-26.4% WIN-55.6%
Provide ongoing communication: W-45.1% M-34.5% WIN-49.6
Notice that men differ dramatically in two of these expectations (underlined for emphasis) and that women in a network have higher expectations for these items across the board. If you are going to create a woman’s giving network at your nonprofit, these are key items to take note of as you plan how to communicate with your new group.
*What Motivates Women in Giving Networks to Give* We know from the Center on Philanthropy’s 2010 study that the more high net worth donors volunteered, the more they gave. However, personal experiences with an organization are more important to women. In the world of statistics this number is a big one: 90.8% of The Tiffany Circle women reported that they volunteered.
The study doesn’t attempt to find causes for this behavior, but it is reassuring to hear that women are more likely to have confidence in the ability of nonprofits to solve domestic or global problems (50.4% of women vs. 33.8% of men).
The Center on Philanthropy found gender differences in these top indicators of donor motivations:
W=women M=men WIN=women in a network
Moved at how gift can make a difference*: W-81.7% M-70.9% WIN-86.9%
Can give back to the community: W-78.2% M-63.3% WIN-87%
When a nonprofit is efficient in its use of donations: W-80.5% M-69.2% WIN-86%
Volunteer at an organization: W-65.7 M-49.8% WIN-73.1%
(*This was THE top motivator for men and women. Yes, we all know this, but validation from a study feels good too.)
Here we notice that men differ dramatically in one of these expectations (underlined for emphasis) and that again women in a network are more motivated by these items across the board. If you are going to create a woman’s giving network at your nonprofit, all of the above motivators should be emphasized.
Remember to bury those entrenched donor myths! Yes, these donors are motivated when you demonstrate efficient use of funds. And YES, they will give to general operating too. This study says at least half will. Make a strong case for general operating and they will give.
*Why do Women in Giving Networks STOP Giving?* The top reason for women and men to stop giving is because they were solicited too frequently or were asked for an inappropriate amount. The big news? It’s not as important to women as it is to men. Only 49.3% of women cite this reason, but 61.2% of men do.
This is where I get to emphasize how important it is to methodically approach your annual fund appeals and test to discover the right message and the right number of appeals. And if you are going to ask one of your close donor friends to step up and make a stretch gift, it is only respectful to get an in-depth, researched donor profile. Nearly half of your women donors and more than half of your male donors are offended when you don’t care enough to do your homework before asking for a gift.
*Summing it All Up* More women are working, more of these women are earning more, and women are organizing together to give. The big myth busters?
A quarter of working women in a two income household are the primary breadwinner.
Women are either the sole or equal decision maker on how to give away household dollars.
At least HALF of high net worth donors (female and male) will give general operating dollars.
Key takeaways from the Center on Philanthropy study:
Honoring your donor’s request for use of a gift is important for women and men, but much more important for women.
Women and men are most likely to be moved by how a gift can make a difference, but it is more important for women.
Volunteering and other personal experiences of a nonprofit are more important to women than men.
Nearly half of your women donors and more than half of your male donors are offended when you don’t care enough to do your homework before asking for a gift. Asking for an inappropriate size gift could cost you a donor.
Women are steadily becoming a financial force to be reckoned with and even more than men they like to be strategic and collaborative in their giving. Providing women with a way to organize their giving to you that recognizes their needs and preferences will help your organization gain access to this growing population of high net worth individuals. Don’t the people you serve deserve this?
*About Aspire Research Group* Aspire Research Group was founded so that every development office could have the benefits of professional prospect research. We analyze donor databases to help fundraisers understand their donors better, create systems to help them reach major gift and campaign goals, and provide comprehensive profiles to empower fundraisers to qualify and ask donors for the “right” gift. We use our direct fundraising experience to craft research solutions that answer the questions that lead to more and higher gifts, guiding fundraisers comfortably every step of the way. Contact us for more information or visit us at www.AspireResearchGroup.com
*About the Study* The 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy and the Impact of Women’s Giving Networks was written and researched by The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. It can be accessed online here:
http://tinyurl.com/HNWwomen
Compensation structures for highly paid executives in public companies are often a tangle of legalese, difficult to parse. The Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) requires that all public companies detail the compensation of their highest paid executives, but that doesn’t mean that what the companies report is straightforward. In recent years, many companies have gone from giving executives large sums of money each year, regardless of company performance, to trying to create a compensation structure that depends significantly upon the actual performance of the executive and the success of the company.
One example of this is the compensation package that Meg Whitman received when she joined Hewlett Packard in September 2011 as Chief Executive Officer. The former CEO of EBAY, Meg Whitman ran an unsuccessful campaign for California Governor in 2010. She was brought on as CEO at HP after a year on their board.
Ms. Whitman will receive $1 a year in salary. According to the Wall Street Journal, the $1-a-year CEO isn’t uncommon at tech companies. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page and Sergey Brin at Google and Apple CEO Steve Jobs have also worked for $1 a year.
However, one dollar is just the beginning of her potential compensation. She will also receive an annual bonus of at least $2.4 million with the possibility of increasing that bonus up to $6 million depending on the cash flow performance of the company.
The biggest percent of her compensation package involves stock options. Stock options have been around quite a while as an executive incentive tool. Options require the executive to purchase the stock with her own money at a predetermined “exercise price”. The options are only valuable if the market value of the stock she purchases is greater than her exercise price. If the market value of the stock has gone down from the exercise price, she earns nothing or could lose money by choosing to exercise the option.
Ms. Whitman received an option to purchase 1.9 million shares of HP. The exercise price will be equal to the market value of the shares on the date she received the options. The options will vest over an eight-year period; however, they will only be considered fully vested if HP’s share price rises by 40 percent or more. In September when she took the job, that number of shares was worth $45.2 million.
100,000 of those shares will vest on each of the first three anniversaries of her hire date if she stays with the company. 800,000 shares will vest after the first year, IF HP’s share price has risen 20 percent and stayed that high for at least 20 days. The final 800,000 shares will vest on the second anniversary of her hire, IF HP’s share price has risen 40 percent for more than 20 days. If she succeeds in raising HP’s share price 40 percent in the next eight years, she would make profit of $17 million.
This type of compensation package reflects companies’ desire in recent times to compensate executives based on what they can do for the company, not just because she is friends with the directors on her board. Ideally, this should save the company money in the short term and encourage high performance from the executive in question.
Hewlett Packard also included an incentive for Ms. Whitman to stay with the company for the long haul, making her severance benefit payment 1.5 times the sum of her annual base salary, or $1.50 plus the average of her bonuses paid in the last three years. If she left before the first year was out, she would receive less than $2 in compensation. That would certainly make me want to stay!
This book is going to be handy for every single front-line development officer, from the solo fundraiser in a one-person shop to the VP for Advancement overseeing a large university research department.
We’re going to highlight the successful partnerships, the innovative ground-breakers and the hair-tearing learning experiences, and our findings just may surprise you.
If you’ve ever wondered…
…then this book is for you!
We’re interviewing fundraisers and researchers to gain lots of perspectives, and the book will be chock-full of case studies and examples. We still have some space, so if you’d like to be featured for your great front-line/research collaborations, let us know!
If you know what type of consultant relationship you want before you hire, you will be better able to evaluate the skills, approach, and personality of the consultant. Better evaluation means you will be much more likely to achieve your desired outcomes. Never underestimate the human element! Here are three fundamental relationship types to consider:
