Career development Archives - Page 13 of 17

August 4, 2016 By Helen Brown

Outside In: Finding Diversity & Inclusion in Philanthropy in the Midst of National Crises & Augmented Reality

This week I am delighted to feature an article by James Cheng which appeared just this week in NEDRA News, the excellent web publication from the New England Development Research Association. James is an active NEDRA board member, serving as chair of the Social Media Committee, the Website & Technology Committee, and the newly-created Diversity Committee. James’s article made me think about the uncertainties in our current political situations, regardless of where we live. Of the permeability of borders, and what is irreparably damaged or lost when communication and collaboration are cut off. Of what it means to be diverse, by gender, country, ethnicity, orientation, or belief system. And how important it is to make all of our constituents feel included if our organizations are to grow. NEDRA is forming a committee to begin to open the conversation on what this means for philanthropy; I applaud them and encourage you to add your voice to the discussion.

By Jovel (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Tipping Point

As the popularity of the “augmented reality” game Pokémon GO began to spread exponentially like a virus, my snarky comments on friends’ social posts of captured cartoon images increased correspondingly. When a couple of these friends pointed that out to me, I started to contemplate my critical responses. Were they a personal retaliation against what I saw as nostalgia-induced Pollyanna-ish myopia? Or was I perhaps reacting against the apparent surrender of higher reasoning to a tribalistic hive-mind? [Read more…]

June 2, 2016 By Helen Brown

Why Virtual Workers Are a Real Asset

This month we welcome HBG Research Associate Heather Hoke to the blog. Even before she joined HBG, Heather had years of experience with the benefits of being a remote worker. In this week’s post, Heather shares her knowledge and some of the latest research on why virtual workers may make sense for your organization.

Are you looking to hire or retain a superstar fundraising researcher? Consider implementing flexible work arrangements, including work-from-home (WFH) policies. There are benefits to both employers and employees.

Based on what I see on Prspct-L and APRA’s Career Center, many nonprofits are hiring new staff in prospect development. There are some 5,300 colleges and universities and more than 1.5 million nonprofits in the US, and there are about 2,000 APRA members worldwide. As you can see, the potential pool of development researchers to be employed at these institutions is quite small. If you are not looking to hire now, you likely will be in the future. A survey released by CareerBuilder found that more than one in five employees are planning to leave their current place of employment during 2016, a 5% increase since last year. Why not do something that will keep your best employees and expand your hiring pool to include people that live in other states? [Read more…]

May 26, 2016 By Helen Brown

Five tips for getting noticed in a job search

Thinking about a new job? Maybe it’s the advent of summer that makes us think about stretching our legs and trying something new. Since we’re hiring here at HBG, it made me think about the search process – what I hope to see from candidates, and how they can get our attention.

Let’s say that you’ve found an interesting career opportunity. You know that you’re qualified, but how can you stand out above all of the other candidates in the eyes of your potential employer? [Read more…]

March 31, 2016 By Helen Brown

Thank You for helping make change

I know you know this, but you are awesome.

As we say au revoir to another #ResearchPride month, I wanted to let you know that I (and all of the other #ResearchPride bloggers**) deeply appreciate that you have read, supported, and enthusiastically shared this month’s posts through social media and word of mouth. It’s a big deal to us, and we thank you. [Read more…]

March 24, 2016 By Helen Brown

What comes after #ResearchPride

With Prospect Development Pride Month 2016 fully underway, it’s been an entertaining parade of great stories, slices-of-work-life moments, and celebrations of success in the blog articles, LinkedIn posts, and tweets that folks from five countries have shared. (I count the USA, Canada, England, Ireland and Spain so far. Have I missed anyone? How about it, Aussie cousins? Any pride in Scotland? Join the party!)

#ResearchPride is growing! [Read more…]

March 17, 2016 By Helen Brown

The Luck of the Irish

Often in recent years, when I have spoken about the growth of my company, I have pretty much always used one particular word to describe our success. In response to friends remarking on the growth of HBG, I’d always say, “Yes, we’ve been very lucky.” And then I’d knock wood.

(I’m not superstitious, but, hey, it can’t hurt, right?)

Then last October, I was having lunch with my friend Maggie in a you-have-to-go-there kind of bistro in London. She remarked happily on HBG’s growth and success, I replied with my usual reply, knocked on the table, and looked down at my plate to fork the next amazing mouthful. After a couple of seconds, I realized that Maggie had gone quiet. I looked up and saw that she was giving me an interesting look that I hadn’t seen on her face before. [Read more…]

February 11, 2016 By Helen Brown

You are my Valentine

I’m going to let you in on a sweet little secret that only insiders at HBG know. (wait for it)

You probably already know that everyone who works at HBG is a full-time employee, but except for a core group of us who come into HQ every day, most of us work virtually. We have satellite offices in Montana, Louisiana, Iowa, New York, Maryland, Tennessee, South Carolina and Massachusetts.

Unless we’re flat-out-crazy-busy or traveling, every other week we have a staff meeting, even though we’re far apart. It used to be a boring conference call, but now we use a service that allows us to see each others’ faces as we chat, à la Brady Bunch. [Read more…]

January 21, 2016 By Helen Brown

I have no idea what you’re talking about

When I write articles on this blog about topics like last week’s post on the Internet of Things (IoT), I find that, within a couple of days, I start getting Twitter followers by the handful who have the key word or hashtag in their Twitter bio of whatever the topic was.

Some of them I follow back because, well, obviously I’m interested in the topic and they seem to be interested in a lot of things including (in this case) IoT. They might find my mainly fundraising, prospect development, and HNW topics interesting and relevant to their life/work, too. (Or possibly they just like the eye candy photos of my weekend baking adventures). [Read more…]

January 7, 2016 By Helen Brown

An Ideal Researcher

To kick off the New Year, Senior Researcher Rick Snyder shares his knowledge on the one key trait that makes for a great researcher.

Having recently celebrated my 10-year anniversary of working for The Helen Brown Group and 20 years spent in this profession, I’ve had occasion to think a bit more than usual about my career.

I’ve thought about how much has changed in the past two decades, about the sheer number of individuals I’ve researched, some of the quirks and oddities I’ve uncovered in the course of my daily work, etc. I’ve also thought about how I got here, which in my case was a fluke, a chance reading of a job description (in the newspaper classifieds, as odd as that now sounds) that left me wide-eyed and astounded that they’d apparently created a job that uniquely fit my talents and interests. [Read more…]

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