My work computer is my home computer is my work computer. But even if your work computer and your home computer aren’t the same one, maybe you use Facebook at work? Or you might order something online at lunch? Possibly you do a little work every once in a while over the weekend or during an evening? [Read more…]
The Future of Search
Driverless cars aren’t ubiquitous yet, but according to a study by McKinsey & Co., in fifteen years we’ll be seeing them everywhere.
Both McKinsey and marketing expert Mark Schaefer say that driverless cars will herald a golden age of an increasing amount of content.
Because we won’t be bothered by avoiding crazy drivers on the roads, each of us will gain 50 minutes a day of time we can spend Facebooking, watching movies, or consuming books, magazines or other online content. [Read more…]
Boss keys: The best apps, extensions, and add-ons for your browser
I’m switching browsers this week. I do this about once every three years, so that I can get out of a rut I don’t even know I’m in, and try out new ways of working and thinking. It’s a great way to discover new apps to help me be more efficient or that are just plain useful.
To get a head start, I polled the HBG team on their favorite apps, add-ons and extensions in order to shortcut my level-up. I thought you’d find their suggestions helpful too, so here they are, the HBG Top 10! [Read more…]
Prospect Research and the Panama Papers
It used to be that it wasn’t all that often that a bombshell like the Panama Papers dropped during your professional lifetime. The practice of accidentally or purposefully sharing sensitive, confidential, or downright incendiary information is becoming lots more commonplace lately.
Meanwhile, there are people and companies and governments struggling worldwide with questions of how to maintain the privacy of individuals’ personal data, and just who should have access to it. There’s the desire by some to be erased entirely from the internet (sorry, but good luck with that). Cross-border information-sharing agreements, like Safe Harbor and its next-gen, the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, hold little consumer confidence. [Read more…]
Stumbling Toward Success
Great pieces of information can come our way from any number of sources, often when we’re least expecting it. In this week’s article, HBG Senior Researcher Tara McMullen shares some great advice on how to spot clues that can lead you down a path of discovery.
The inventor Charles Kettering, who held more than 180 patents and was responsible for major revolutionary advances in the automotive industry, was clearly no stranger to the field of research and its challenges. As a fundraising researcher, I often take his words to heart. In our field, we sometimes spend hours scouring resources, seeking to find as much information as we can on a prospective donor –those useful bits and bytes that we need to obtain useful insight. What has their career looked like? Who are the members of their family? Where do they live? And, ultimately, do they have a passion for philanthropy, and the financial resources to generously support this passion? [Read more…]
How much is that unicorn in the window?
This month we welcome HBG’s Angie Stapleton who has become quite the expert on tech startups. Angie navigates us through the terminology around startups, shows how and why unicorns fly so high, and gives us insight into what their value might mean for fundraising.
When I was a little girl, unicorns were everything. I mean, if you didn’t have a Lisa Frank unicorn lunch box, hello, you may as well just go back home. Today, a new kind of unicorn reigns king… tech start-ups.
In recent years, tech firms with valuations of $1 billion have become all the rage, the Silicon Valley darlings, the UNICORNS of the investment world. In fact, investors have even come up with a new name for tech firms whose values rise above $10 billion… DECAcorns. I’m guessing this is because “unicorn” just didn’t encompass enough magic and whimsy. [Read more…]
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…]
The one thing every research profile must do
It doesn’t matter how in-depth a research profile is. It may have the 4 key elements of every strategic profile should have. But if it doesn’t do one critical thing, you might as well not have spent the time creating it.
The one thing every research profile must do is
Answer the Question
When a fundraiser has a research request, what they are really bringing you is a question. And the question depends on who’s asking. [Read more…]
Let’s Co-op erate!
This week we welcome HBG team member Kelly Labrecque who has become something of an expert on New York real estate. In this article, Kelly shares insider information and some great tips for researching hard-to-find information about co-op apartments – and apartment owners.
Researching the New York City property assets of our top prospects is no easy feat. Primarily, the difficulty is rooted in one simple fact – more than two-thirds of the residential real estate market in New York City is made up of cooperative apartments, or “co-ops”.
Since co-ops are not subject to the same laws and reporting requirements as condominiums and townhouses, it can be difficult (or even impossible) to confirm a given apartment’s ownership or sale price. For this reason, understanding what makes co-ops different and knowing where to find information is key.
What is a “co-op”?
A cooperative apartment building is owned by a corporation and governed by a board of directors. Famous Manhattan co-op buildings include 740 Park Avenue, 1040 Fifth Avenue, The Beresford, and The San Remo (just to name a few). [Read more…]
Hidden Treasure
Last week I had the pleasure of a long layover at Heathrow, so I wandered around trying on Barbour coats, admiring Chanel scarves, and disappointing bored shop assistants in the luxury shopping mall that masquerades as an airport terminal.
As I widened my circuit I passed one of the gates and noticed some neatly-arranged business-y magazines that didn’t look familiar under a COMPLIMENTARY! sign. My gimlet eye spied a cross-armed CEO standing proudly on the cover of one, and the words “Jockey Club” on the cover of another.
Well, well, what have we here? I thought, and sidled over. Picked up one, then the other, and dropped into the nearest seat to have a leaf-through. [Read more…]
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