“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…]
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…]
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…]
Despite the title of this popular article, we love wealth screenings here at HBG. What we don’t love is when all that time, work, and money spent on a wealth screening go to waste. My colleagues Maureen, Tara, Heather W. and I were talking about this one day, and we were brainstorming so many great ideas that I asked them if we could capture them in a podcast for you. [Read more…]
As you probably remember from my previous article on this topic, it’s a myth that high net worth people don’t use social media. Studies show that the adoption rate in that demographic is growing every day, too.
That’s great for those of us in fundraising, because new sources like these help us to (as Chris Carnie recently discussed in a terrific podcast with Ben Rymer) craft a donor-centered relationship for each individual donor – because we can (and should) treat them as individuals. [Read more…]
It’s that rich time of year when you make a large pot of something hot to drink, grab a cookie or three, and settle down to read about the wealthy. The really really wealthy.
Out now are the Forbes Billionaires list (with a record 290 newcomers), and the 2015 Knight Frank Wealth Report, providing a global perspective on ultra high net worth individuals (UHNWIs) and the variety of ways they hold assets.
If the collective wealth of these 172,850 UHNWIs – clocking in at nearly $21 trillion – was the fuel moving a private jet, the sonic boom would be so stratospheric that the astronauts in the international space station would be able to hear it. According to the K F report, an average of 15 people joined the ranks of the ultra-wealthy every day last year. But even that group doesn’t have money like some have money. K F say:
“Moving up the wealth brackets, nearly 1,180 people became centa-millionaires in 2014, taking the world’s total population of those worth over $100m to 38,280.” [Read more…]
This month, I’m delighted that HBG Senior Researcher Elizabeth Roma shares her insights on Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI) and their potential to affect transformational change in the world through philanthropy. Elizabeth and Kenny Tavares have been studying the infrastructure and impact of HNW Family Offices, and she will present a session on the topic in June at the Mid-Atlantic Researchers Conference in Baltimore. I hope you’ll be able to join her there!
Do you want to hear something that will blow your mind?
In 2010 there were 388 billionaires whose combined wealth was equal to the combined wealth of the poorest 50% of the world’s population.
Amazing, right? But that’s nothing.
In 2014 there were 80 people whose combined wealth equaled that of the poorest 50%. According to a report from Oxfam, the wealth of those 80 people has doubled since 2009. If these trends continue, Oxfam predicts that the richest 1% will have more wealth than the remaining 99% by 2016 (yes, that’s next year).
Things are changing, and not necessarily for the better (at least not for those of us in the 99%). But does this have to be all bad news? [Read more…]
If you’re like most mid-to-large sized charitable or educational organization, you have a growing number of prospects and donors that live outside your home country.
Researching international prospects can be overwhelming, especially if you have a number of constituents and very little information. It’s fairly easy to hit up against a brick wall. What’s the most efficient way to get a window on your very best prospects overseas?
While not perfect, a wealth screening [Read more…]
Prospect identification is a bi-polar experience for many prospect researchers and analytics professionals: it’s both pure joy and deep-seated frustration. Not all of the time, but mostly.
On the one hand, it’s creative. It’s super fun. (And at work, yet!)
Prospecting sure beats the heck out of doing profiles. Not because profiles aren’t interesting in and of themselves, but because prospect ID projects come from *your* heart. You dream them up, you make them happen. Sure, the project may be in response to a request, but how you fulfill it uses your own chosen palette to create the masterpiece.
But then, on the other hand, you pass off the list of names and what do you hear back? Crickets. [Read more…]
One of the scariest things we know as fundraisers is that donor attrition is at stratospheric levels.
Studies by the renowned philanthropy scholar-evangelist Adrian Sargent have shown that (on average) charities lose 50 percent of their cash income from brand-new donors between their first and second gift, and up to 30 percent after that. (Read Dr. Sargeant’s outstanding article in Nonprofit Quarterly here). [Read more…]
