News Archives - Page 4 of 6 - Helen Brown Group

September 29, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Translational research about philanthropy

Fundraising is certainly not a new profession, but the study of it is. As Ben Rymer pointed out in his recent blog post “if money is power, why has philanthropy not been a more popular field of inquiry for social scientists?”

Good question.

Between the jaw-droppingly huge philanthropic initiatives that have been recently announced, the rise of impact investing, venture philanthropy, and the political and social implications this new stratosphere of evolutionary philanthropy brings, we need intelligent commentary and creative centers of study to help translate what all of this means. [Read more…]

August 25, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Brexit, 2 Months Later: The undercover fundraiser (with apologies to Tim Harford)

We’ve been somewhat distracted here in the US with our own looming election, so perhaps we can be forgiven for forgetting that another monumental, electrically charged election nicknamed ‘Brexit’ happened two months ago this week in the United Kingdom. If your nonprofit has constituents in the UK or Europe, this will be much on their minds because it has likely already had a significant impact on their personal finances. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I asked my colleague Marc Whitmore at More Partnership (that’s him in the photo) to give us some insight on what’s happening with Brexit through the philanthropy and fundraising lens. It’s a fascinating read – enjoy! ~Helen

What the hell happened, Britain?

Quite. Well, in May 2015, the UK elected a Government with the manifesto pledge to hold a referendum with a simple question: should the UK remain in or leave the European Union? That referendum took place on 23 June 2016, and 51.9% of those who voted, voted to leave the EU. [Read more…]

August 18, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Politics and philanthropy

“I Voted” – photo by Valerie Hinojosa via Flikr

You may have noticed that there’s a presidential election coming in November*.

What you may not know is that you can find out how much someone has given and to which candidate they have given in any political race. Nonprofiteers, this is important information to know. I’ll tell you why in a second. [Read more…]

July 21, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Brexistential Crisis: Philanthropy After Brexit

As we watch the United Kingdom deal with the aftermath of last month’s vote to leave the European Union, those of us in the philanthropy sector wonder what the loss of EU funding will mean for charities reliant on that funding. I asked Ben Rymer to share his thoughts and research once again here on The Intelligent Edge to help us understand Brexit’s potential impact on philanthropy.

While uncertainty rules the day on Brexit’s effect on philanthropy, four things seem reasonable to expect in the wake of the British public’s vote on June 23rd to leave the European Union.

First, Brexit is likely to be bad news for the British macroeconomy. A weaker sterling (the British pound is so far the worst performing currency in the world in 2016), continuing low productivity (see chart below from the Resolution Foundation) and lower profits (the FTSE 250, consisting of mainly British companies, lost £38bn from June 24th-July 8th) are all notable trends.

There is a risk that Britain (or, in the event of a breakup of the UK, perhaps only England) will become a sort of ‘Greater Guernsey’. [Read more…]

July 14, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Surprises from the new CAF Report on UK Charities

Front Cover – CAF Charity Street II Report 2016

This month, the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) released their report Charity Street II: The value of charity to British households. Over 2,000 households responded to the survey this past February which was aimed at discovering [Read more…]

July 7, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Navigating the Changing Landscapes of Wealth & Philanthropy

This week we’re delighted to welcome HBG Research Associate Rachel Dakarian to the Intelligent Edge. Rachel and Elizabeth Roma will be presenting on July 28th at the APRA International Conference in Nashville, TN. I asked Rachel to give us a glimpse into their topic, and now I can’t wait to see the presentation! Follow Rachel on Twitter at @Rachel_Dakarian.

Bette Davis as Margo Channing in “All About Eve.” Her famous line, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” Painting by Trevor Heath. Source

Just when, exactly, did the “fasten seatbelt” sign turn on? 2016 has been an unexpectedly bumpy ride so far and we should prepare for ongoing turbulence. You might think we data junkies would be harder to spook after acclimating to the never-ending squawk of the 24-hour news cycle, but the constant stream of real-time information provided by social media continues to simultaneously help and hinder our ability to decipher signal from noise. [Read more…]

June 30, 2016 By Helen Brown 3 Comments

Gold nuggets from the Capgemini World Wealth Report 2016

It’s here! The 20^th anniversary Capgemini World Wealth Report is now available to be downloaded and discussed.

As in previous years, the Report’s high-beam focus has been on global high net worth individuals (HNWIs); their distribution geographically as well as the distribution of their assets, the world markets and how performance has affected portfolios in the past year, and what HNWIs need from their investment managers. [Read more…]

June 23, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

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…]

May 19, 2016 By Helen Brown 3 Comments

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…]

April 28, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

The Best Parts of the 2016 Sunday Times Rich List

You know that the Sunday Times Rich List came out this past weekend, right?

The list is a tremendous feat completed annually by Philip Beresford and Robert Watts (who will take over for Beresford later this year). For me it’s like someone showed up at my door handing me keys to a snappy convertible, a box of Lake Champlain chocolates, and a leash with a wee sleepy puppy at the end of it.

Yes, I’m self-aware about my tendency toward hyperbole, but seriously, I’m pretty sure I heard angels weeping on Sunday.

Wonderfully, the ST list of the top 1,000 wealthiest isn’t just one list, it’s actually 28 glorious lists. There’s some overlap, of course, but Beresford and Watts don’t just rehash and reorder the 1,000 – there are many more names to be found in the separate, searchable, lists. [Read more…]