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September 24, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

4 Mid-COVID tasks that get you ahead

Hi there, and welcome back to the Intelligent Edge: mid-COVID edition.

While we’re hopeful that at least one of those 50-odd vaccines in development will work – and that it really will be ready early in 2021 – that’s still half a year away.

So, now’s a good time to take realistic stock of where we’re at, see what we can do to make the most of right now, and plan as best we can to make things easier for ourselves next spring and mitigate future disruption.

From prospect development and operations perspectives, what might that mean?

Top prospect checkup

Well, first, we’re all keenly aware that the pandemic has impacted businesses – so many businesses – in a negative way. Now is a really good time to do a quick scan of your top 25-50 prospects (for large organizations, that would mean the top 25-50 in each major gift officer’s portfolio).

  • How has their financial situation changed, if at all? Recalculate ratings accordingly.
  • Is your donor in a fairly stable (or growing) industry right now? Can you code that for pulling reports?
  • Have they made any recent large gifts, either to your nonprofit or to another?
  • Do they have a donor advised fund? If so, it is noted/coded in your database?
  • Check the obituaries to see if there has been a recent death in their family (which, I know. It’s just unbelievably sad that we need to do this, but it’s important).

End-user check-in

It’s not just our donors and their companies that have been impacted. We have been, too, of course. Everybody’s needs have changed. No matter what your position, now is a good time to check in with your supervisor and other end users to be sure that the reports and information and work you’ve been producing is still helping drive things forward for them.

  • Do they need less information because concentrating on large reports is tough right now?
  • Do they need the information bulleted, or in prose, or in an audio memo, because it’s easier for them to absorb?
  • Do they need different information? Is something else about their prospects more important than it used to be?

We’re not in the same-old same-old anymore. We’ve all changed, and our needs have all changed. Check in to see how you can meet the new needs that exist.

 Data hygiene checkup

If you’re having  trouble concentrating, now is a really good time to do mindless data hygiene tasks. You know, the ones you’ve been putting off. Crank up the music and get them done.

For example: Currently in your database in the company field for 38(0)(00) of your constituents, I can say with some certainty that there are a nearly-equal number of permutations of the same company name. Goldman Sachs. Goldman Sachs Group. THE Goldman Sachs Group. Goldman. GS. GSG. Goldman Sacks.

If you fix those now when a fairly auto-pilot task is just the ticket, in the future when you want to pull a report to answer the prospecting question “hey, just how many constituents do we have that work at Goldman Sachs?” you won’t get that sinking “UGH! I have to put in 38(0)(00) different queries!” feeling.

Also, if you haven’t looked at your data entry policies (or written them at all), now is a good time to do that, so that you avoid those messy name permutations (and any other data inconsistencies) in the future.

Ethics, Due Diligence, and The Law

Was your organization affected by the Blackbaud breach? Did it catch your team flat-footed when you tried to figure out how – or if – you needed to respond or send a notification to your constituency?

Did you write down the policies and procedures you learned through that process? Do you now have someone in your organization who is responsible for managing the process and/or response when something similar happens again? If not yet, do that now.

(If you’re not a Blackbaud client, have you gotten in touch with your database vendor to find out what precautions they’re taking to avoid placing you in the same situation?)

The first lawsuits that sprang up in the Blackbaud data hijacking situation were aimed solely at the company. However it was announced this week that a new lawsuit, Cohen v. Blackbaud Inc,. also names Harvard University, Bank Street College of Education, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum as defendants. (More information here$ and here).

There are probably more lawsuits to come. As prospect research professionals, we can help our fundraising teams stay on top of the news as it comes out.

We also tend to be the ones who are on the front lines of ethics, due diligence, and conforming with the laws that pertain to information-gathering and fundraising. These aren’t the most gripping topics, but they are important.

Can you discuss with leadership and opportunities for your team to gather for lunch-and-learns around ethics and data security? What does your team need to know to be prepared for a data breach, or to be sure you’re compliant with laws and ethics requirements?

What are you working on?

So those are just a few ideas for (actually really important) things you can do right now to stay ahead of the game and be prepared for the next few months. What are you doing right now to be prepared? Share it in the comments and bring your ideas to others!


If you want to hear more about ethics, due diligence, the law, prospect development, and how you can start those discussions in your nonprofit, join me at the APRA-MN virtual conference on October 20!

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Due Diligence, Fundraising Ethics, Research Department Success, Strategic planning Tagged With: strategic planning

August 6, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Credit where credit is appreciated

On occasion, a prospective client will ask “How much money has your company helped your clients raise?”

That’s a tricky question, because the truly honest answer is, “I don’t know.”

Some clients hire us simply to provide profiles and we don’t usually hear what happens after the fact.

If we’re working with clients on a dedicated basis – meaning that one of our team works with them side-by-side over a period of months or years – it’s a lot easier. We can trace the donations of the people we’ve identified for them and come up with a figure. Or, as happens more frequently, the fundraiser we’re working with calls to celebrate the donation – and that’s like the sun beaming through after a full week of rain. Pure joy.

We also do prospecting projects, of course, by hand and through our Data Insight team. But again, we rarely hear the long-term results of those projects 18-24 months down the road (the usual time from identification through cultivation to gift).

We would love to hear, of course, but as is the way of things, our clients are focused forward, not back.

And also, (going back to the original question), when you work in prospect development you’re entirely at the mercy of the action and skill of the fundraiser, dean, executive director, volunteer, etc., to convert that prospect to a donor. You could identify the Gates Foundation for a world-class malaria and TB charity with a connection to a program manager, but if the fundraiser doesn’t act on the prospect, that research work had zero impact.

Of course, prospect development often does have a huge impact, and there are lots of ways we can measure it, including…

  • Number of new prospects identified
  • Number of prospects identified who went on to make a gift (and why? what did they have in common?)
  • Estimated capacity of newly-identified prospects
  • Number of reports completed
  • Number of prospects rated and assigned

…and more. But those ways are presented in statistics, produced at our desk, provided monthly or annually in a report. Not the most super-exciting reading for the recipient, nor is the report something that generally causes the reader to call the research manager to exclaim their praises. But, you know, those stats can be kind of a big deal.

What we need, especially now, are examples of ways to communicate and celebrate the impact of prospect development.

Many times staffers will hear exciting news about a big gift in office kitchens or hallways before the monthly announcement at the all-staff or major gifts meeting. But with a pandemic going on and all of us working remotely, those moments of shared joy aren’t happening. We’re cut off from colleagues, physically isolated, and working in a vacuum. It’s hard for those moments of celebration to happen. Which means it’s even harder for staff to stay motivated and feel part of the big picture.

So especially now, when those gifts happen, how can leaders share them? How can fundraisers help prospect development folks feel valued? How can PD managers keep their teams motivated? We need to find every way we can. And honestly, the endorphins that flow with sharing that kind of joy is good for all of us, sharer and recipient alike.

How does your team creatively share celebrations now? How do you as a manager make sure that your team stays inspired – and credited – for their part in making those moments of success happen?

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Research Department Success, Strategic planning Tagged With: appreciation, prospect development, prospect research, stewardship

July 30, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Silver linings

So here we are, week nine hundred and twenty-whatever, working from home, wearing a mask when we’re out, socially distancing, all that good stuff. We’re w-a-a-y past the novelty and deep into the “Seriously I cannot binge-watch yet another series” portion of this Pandemic-a-thon. And that’s if we’re lucky.

[PSA: Now is the time when it’s really easy to break down and do something that honestly doesn’t seem like it would be that risky but three months ago would have freaked you out. Don’t. You’ve made it this far and we’re all counting on you to keep being a strong link in this virtual chain. Also you’re awesome and cherished].

But, yeah, this is still 17 kinds of awful. I’ve been trying to keep a gratitude list to stay positive, and I wanted to share with you some positive things I noted that wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for this pandemic.

For one thing, no one is saying “It’s impossible for prospect development folks to work from home!” anymore. There is an element of “be careful what you wish for” here, but if you’re one of the millions who’ve discovered that working from home really is a wish come true, well, there’s good thing #1 to come out of this.

Another good thing happened a couple of weeks ago. My university held a virtual stewardship event for donors to the student COVID emergency relief fund, and one of the speakers said “of course, we’d ideally be all together now so we could thank you in person.” Since my university is across an ocean, the likelihood of my being there in person would be approximately nil, but because the event had to be virtual, there I was, one happy square among many on several pages in a Zoom room. How many great opportunities will nonprofits be able to take advantage of to engage with distanced constituents (who want to be more engaged) because we’re separated?

And speaking of the benefits of virtual gatherings, here’s another good thing: All of the free and low-cost webinars this spring were great, right? Especially in the beginning when we were trying to figure out how permanent or temporary this was all going to be. But if you’re like me, right about now you’re longing to be part of a real discussion again with other prospect development folks. Conversation. Back and forth, not just being talked at.

We’re not alone. Coffee talks are springing up everywhere. Last week Apra-MN had a great coffee hour conversation featuring Janna Lee and Mark DeFilippis on the topic of the legality of using FEC data in prospect research. Lori Lawson (who helped write the guidelines on this for APRA) was able to chime in from her home in Florida. Bonus!

Next month Apra-MN will host another interactive kaffeeklatsch on the topic of New York real estate, and they’re also doing evening happy hours just for conversation. Apra-Carolinas and Apra-PA are also hosting social gatherings…maybe your chapter is doing something, too? If not, volunteer to lead one yourself! It’s great that distance doesn’t have to be a factor – we can share a beverage and talk to peers everywhere! (oh, and hey: chapter membership chairs? Members don’t need to be in your geographic area anymore! Just saying.)

What other good things are happening because of this very bad thing that you can think of?

Filed Under: News, Research Department Success Tagged With: APRA-MN, community, good news, prospect development, prospect research

March 26, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Hiring and onboarding new remote employees

When I first started The Helen Brown Group, I met every candidate in person even though they were going to be working remotely. It wasn’t until 2014 that we took the leap of hiring someone without meeting them until after they’d been hired.

Once you get over the initial fear, it’s pretty liberating. I thought I’d share the details of our hiring process in case it’s helpful to you as you start hiring staff who will be working remotely. It’s worked well for us so far, and we’re always re-tooling it based on feedback that we encourage our new employees to share once they’re settled in and have some perspective.

I hope that you find this (admittedly almost TMI) detailed description of our process useful – you’re welcome to borrow any of it that may be relevant to your situation.

Our hiring process

We advertise exclusively on the Apra and NEDRA job boards. After the applications come in, the search committee ranks all of the applicants against each other in the cohort based on years and variety of experience. We require a cover letter so we get an immediate idea of their ability to synthesize and communicate information clearly as well as highlight what they think are the most important points. This is also the first test to see if candidates truly have attention to detail and follow instructions – no cover letter, no consideration.

Because we’re virtual, geography doesn’t matter. We can have access to talent anywhere in the US. This is such a bonus!

We look for people with a variety of nonprofit and skill types in their background. Someone who has worked in two or more nonprofit types will float higher than someone with only university development experience, for example. Another positive is someone who has volunteered for Apra or their local chapter – we like to see commitment to the profession and a philanthropic spirit, as well as an instinct toward leadership and nonprofit experience.

On the minus side, people who stay in two or more positions less than a year would rank lower. Someone might make a mistake and not fit into one job (or have a terrible boss) and leave in under a year, but two or more short runs starts looking like a negative pattern.

As a firm whose clients expect (and deserve) experienced consultants, we can’t consider anyone with fewer than two years of experience, but your requirements may differ.

Speaking generally, I think this is going to be a difficult time for new people coming into the field because it’s much harder to mentor and teach people without experience who are working remotely. If you decide to hire someone with little or no previous experience, factor in more time than you normally would for training and mentoring.

Meanwhile, back to our process…

Once we have the top 7-10, we set up one-hour phone interviews over a period of a week. Our interview questions are not designed to test prospect research knowledge and skills. That’s different, eh?

We don’t do a video interview. Why? Because 99 percent of the conversations they’ll have with clients will be on the phone – we need to see how they work in that medium. Your needs may be entirely different – if your new employee needs to be comfortable using video conferencing, now would be a good time to use that medium.

For us, we also hope that using first contact on the phone contributes to the lessening or elimination of bias. We may have no idea what they look like or what their physical abilities are, but we’ll learn plenty about how they will react in certain situations, how flexible they are to change, and what sort of team members they will be.

We ask questions to see how knowledgeable they are about the nonprofit landscape and to learn where they stand on the integrity and ethical spectrum. We also work to get a sense of how well they collaborate with people they can’t see, and what their customer service skills are. We throw a few curveballs at them to see how quickly they think on their feet.

These questions may be ones that we’d ask anyway even if our staffers were on-site, but I think they take on even more importance when the person will be working remotely.

Round 3

From there, the top candidates will be told the salary range and asked if they’d like to continue based on that knowledge. The next part is pretty grueling, so it’s not fair for them to continue if the salary won’t fit their needs.

Some might argue that it’s unfair not to tell people up front what the salary is, and I can see their point. But I personally believe that all interview experience is valuable. Perhaps more importantly, there have been a few cases where a candidate is great but they haven’t been the right fit for HBG so I’ve referred them on to a trusted recruiter or a colleague who is hiring at a place where I know they would be a good fit. Sometimes they know that I’ve done this and sometimes they don’t, but if they hadn’t interviewed with us they wouldn’t have gotten that help.

For this round, the remaining candidates will be asked to complete a full profile on the same person within a timed period. All are given access to the same information, resources, and template. It is not a straightforward test, and some of the most important information can only be gotten by thinking creatively, paying attention to small clues, pulling loose threads, and asking questions.

It always takes longer than people think (if they do it right), but the deadline is firm. This is why we don’t ask prospect research knowledge questions during the interview portion – we know that we’re going to see their skill, ingenuity, and discipline in action.

When the candidates submit their finished profiles, a member of our team takes off all identifying information before the hiring committee sees them so that we’re judging the profiles blind. Did they follow the clues? We’ve got our fingers crossed and we literally cheer when we see that someone found what we’re looking for!

Round 4

Finally, we’ll ask each of the top profile-creators for a follow up call to discuss their work, section by section. We want to see how they react to constructive criticism. Are they more interested in defending their work than learning new sources or methods? How would they react if a client asked them the same questions? Where are their strengths? Where would they need remedial training? Are they being honest?

Round 5

Then come the reference calls, which are kind of tricky. You already know that a candidate is only going to list people who are predisposed to give them a good reference, so you have to ask questions that get at what you need to know. Can the reference give a specific example of when the candidate did something innovative? What did the candidate do to prove to the reference that they had attention to detail? How, specifically, have they gone above and beyond to support that reference or their organization?

All things being equal between two candidates, if one person’s references provides answers that are vague or if they can’t provide specific examples, I’ll always choose the candidate whose references can.

And finally, the offer letter. Which is really just the beginning, of course.

So that’s our hiring process. It’s long and a lot of work for all involved, but managing virtual staff is different than on-site colleagues. You’re not going to immediately see if someone is struggling like you would if they were down the hall, so the more work you do now to be aware of what the new person’s strengths and weaknesses are, the better.

Onboarding

When you onboard a virtual employee you have to make sure each person involved in the process operates from a checklist so you don’t forget any of the elements. If you forget to explain benefits or office protocols in the first few days, it’s really hard to do that work remedially.

Each member of the HBG team is involved in our onboarding process. We take welcoming and mentoring new employees seriously, and I think it’s part of the reason why people settle in fairly quickly and successfully.

Up until now, we have had each new employee come to our office in Watertown for a two-day in-person orientation. All of their Massachusetts-based colleagues would have come to HQ to meet them, and over the two days each one would spend an hour to walk them through a different piece of HBG fundamentals: Dropbox, Zoho, Zoom, 1Password, guiding principles, logging, timesheets, resources, etc.

This training and mentoring continues after they go back home, and over the next two weeks they will have had at least an hour with every one of their teammates either in person, on a Zoom web conference, or on the phone.

New employees at HBG are required to read and sign the employee handbook, which goes into detail on everything from archives to vacations, and they must sign an ethics and confidentiality pledge, too.

HBG’s operations manager checks their paperwork, explains benefits, gets them signed up for payroll, and hands them their brand-new laptop onto which she has pre-loaded all the necessary tools. For the immediate future, she’ll have to ship them their new laptop, too.

In addition to their supervisor who works closely with the new employee in their first few weeks, they’ll also be assigned a buddy who will check in on them regularly to help them navigate internal processes and feel welcome and connected.

The first three months are a critical time, especially for people who have never worked virtually before. Have patience and accept that you may need to explain things more than once. Here are ways we manage staff and workflow on an ongoing basis:

Everyday management and communication

Once someone is hired, they have (at least) a weekly call with their immediate supervisor and a monthly call with the director of research. They fill out a timesheet weekly, and are required to log all of their completed work. Some supervisors ask new employees to use a tool like Toggl so they can quickly get a sense of where a new employee is succeeding or struggling.

For the first three months, every piece of work a new employee completes is read, edited, and returned to them by their supervisor. After that, work is spot-checked regularly for quality and consistency (even for employees who have been here for years).

As I’ve mentioned a few times here on the blog, we use Zoom to communicate as a group and individually. This includes two all-staff video calls a month as well as ongoing discussions about resources, tips, articles, and general water cooler talk in a group chat room. The third Tuesday of every month we have our “3T” meeting where we have a presentation by a vendor on their product or upgrade, or we discuss a continuing education topic presented by a team member or guest.

We also keep a repository on our shared drive of articles, how-tos, reports, presentations, and other learning materials that anyone can upload and share with colleagues.

All of this is important to keep new teammates engaged, learning, and collaborating with others. It also provides insight to their managers so we’re sure that each new employee is getting settled in as best as they can.

Building community and strengthening communication early on is really important, especially when you’re working mostly by instant message or email. Unlike in an office when you can see that someone is having a bad day and cut them some slack, or get to know their style of humor and how they joke around, virtual communication doesn’t allow for that, so you have to work extra hard to find ways to build community and have people get to know each other before miscommunications happen.

So that’s our process of hiring and onboarding new virtual employees! I hope it’s been helpful and given you some ideas that you can use, and I’d be really happy to have you share in the comments anything you do (or your organization does) to hire and onboard virtual employees.

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Career development, Research Department Success Tagged With: hiring, human resources, onboarding

March 5, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Life in fundraising’s fast lane

A couple of times every week my other half and I are on a particular section of highway in rush hour that is backed up for 7-10 miles. I am always grateful that there are the two of us, but most especially those times because we slip into the HOV lane and speed past the bumper-to-bumper madness to get to work on time.

As I was thinking about what I wanted to say to kick off Research Pride month this week, it occurred to me that prospect research, prospect management, and fundraising data science are a nonprofit’s HOV lane. Its warp drive, if you will. A nonprofit can certainly fundraise without fundraising intelligence, but it’s a bumper-to-bumper slog.

In fact, academic research undertaken at the University of Kent by Nicola Williams, MA, showed that 100 percent of fundraisers surveyed felt that research is necessary to helping them understand a prospect’s capacity to give. Eighty-six percent felt it was necessary to prioritize prospects, and 80 percent for understanding a prospect’s affinity with their organization.

84% of fundraisers said that prospect research helps them raise more money.

Those of us in research, prospect management, and data science have always known it in our bones, but finally the academic research (and most importantly) the opinions of our colleagues – frontline fundraisers – bears out the truth of our impact.

This #ResearchPride month, whether you’re a frontline fundraiser or prospect development professional, please tell your impact stories in staff meetings, on social media, at professional conferences, or wherever you gather.

If you’re a frontline fundraiser, how has fundraising intelligence made an impact on your work, on your campaign, on your fundraising totals? If you’re a prospect development professional, celebrate those prospects you found that turned into major donors or share the impact of your new or renovated prospect management system.

There are still fundraisers at nonprofits struggling in the slow lane, and some of them don’t even know that prospect development exists. Get the word out about your great work, and share your pride!

#ResearchPride

#PDPride

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Career development, Non-profit trends, Research Department Success Tagged With: #prospectresearch, #ResearchPride

January 23, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Creating Your Due Diligence Policy

I’m working with one of my very favorite people right now to help her craft a new due diligence policy for her nonprofit. A lot of executive directors and chief fundraising officers are understandably antsy in the wake of the Jeffrey Epstein and Sackler scandals, and my client wants to avoid future issues (to the highest degree possible) and create a protocol for her nonprofit to follow, as well as a checklist of sources for her research team to use. It’s been an interesting and fun exercise posing questions, doing our own research, and helping her figure out the right strategy for them.

Some of the questions that have come up in this process that I thought you might be interested in are:

  • What are the trigger points that indicate due diligence research must happen? Is it a gift/solicitation level? Involvement level?
  • What specific resources are available, and which will we use to do this research?
  • What should our budget be?
  • Will we outsource this work? Do some in-house and outsource some?
  • What are other research shops doing?
  • What priority will due diligence research have compared to other forms of research?
  • What format should our due diligence research be presented in? Should there be an executive summary? Color-coded or numbered warning levels?
  • Based on our organization type, are there some donors from whom we will never accept money based on their primary source of income? (alcohol, tobacco, pornography or firearms, for example)
  • Should we create a review committee that meets monthly (or more often?) to review the due diligence research and make determinations about cultivation or gift solicitations that can go forward (or not)?
  • Who has ultimate veto power if the due diligence indicates issues with a prospect but the fundraiser wants to go forward?

Gathering information

Together, my client and I are amassing a list of useful resources. Some of them are guidelines or overviews that others have created, such as the (UK) Charity Commission’s “Guidance on carrying out due diligence checks on donors, beneficiaries and local partners” and the (UK) National Audit Office’s “Due diligence processes for potential donations” The latter publication is more geared toward art museums but it has valuable information for any nonprofit.

We’re also putting together a list of resources that can be used as a research checklist each time due diligence research is done. Using a research checklist is always a great way to stay organized, but for due diligence research it’s particularly important so you can be sure you’ve quite literally ticked off all the boxes.

Its format hasn’t yet been determined, but at the moment we’re leaning toward a spreadsheet so that any information found by the researcher can be captured directly on the form.

Are there guides to follow?

Our UK prospect research colleagues have been doing due diligence research for quite a bit longer than we have here in the States and we have a lot to learn from them, even if the specific resources we use might be slightly different. It’s pretty easy to just swap out their resource of 192.com for portions of our version of Lexis Nexis when you figure out what they’re using 192 for. In other cases, the resources will be the same, for example Interpol’s ‘most wanted’ database called “Red Notices.”

As you decide to create your own due diligence research policy and create your checklist, you will be happy to know that some organizations have published theirs online.

Amongst the several available online, the University of Edinburgh has published “Procedures for the Due Diligence Review of Donations” as a helpful example. Also online are policies from the London School of Economics as well as the Universities of East Anglia, Leicester, Kent, and more, so you have plenty of great guides (and some checklists) to choose from if you want to do a search to find others.

If you’ve found others, or if you have published one of your own, please let all of us know in the comments!

Filed Under: Due Diligence, Research Department Success Tagged With: due diligence, prospect research

October 17, 2019 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Welcoming your new employee

You’re the Manager and it’s Day 1 of your new employee’s tenure. You’ve been short staffed for several weeks and your new employee starts this morning. You need them to hit the ground running.

You’re the New Employee and it’s Day 1 of your tenure: You need to find some pens and other supplies, the restroom, and a fridge to store the lunch you brought. Your brand-new computer is still in the box on your desk. Someone else in the department grabbed the chair that was meant for you so now you’ve got the hand-me-down chair that is elevationally and/or directionally challenged.

Manager, Day 2: You’re waiting impatiently for the new employee to answer your email about the rush-job assignment you sent late yesterday.

New Employee, Day 2: You’re still waiting for IT to come and set up the computer. You just learned in passing that you need an email address to put in an IT work order. But you have to attend a benefits seminar before HR will provide you with an email address. The next benefits session is next week.

Does some version of this sound familiar?

The first week of work is usually stressful for everyone involved, but it doesn’t have to be that way. It’s a lot of work to hire a new employee, but the work doesn’t end when they sign the offer letter. That’s actually when the important stuff begins.

What you can do to make new employees feel welcome and be productive from Day 1

Create a training schedule / orientation calendar for the new hire and be sure a copy of it is on their desk when they start. You may want to consider emailing them a copy before they start so they are prepared in advance.

Create email accounts and buy subscriptions for all fee-based accounts as soon as you know they’ve accepted. The larger the organization, the more time this can take, so get going on that right away.

Buy, set up, and test all computer hardware before your new hire walks in the door. Set up their work area with pens/pencils, stapler, tape, phone, etc.

Assign a willing and cheerful colleague to be a buddy throughout their first couple of weeks. Their job will be to show the new hire where all of the conveniences are and to be a resource on how things are (really) done.

As a team, welcome your new hire on a personal level, whether it’s a card everyone signs, a bunch of tulips, or a hand-made sign. A small, kind gesture can be a big deal and it sets a tone immediately about the kind of team (or boss) you are.

Arrange for a group lunch on the new employee’s first day. If your team is large, break it up into two or more manageable gatherings so the person can actually get to know their new colleagues. Be sure to set up lunches or coffees with people outside of their primary group with whom they’ll be working most frequently.

Provide the new person with a here’s-how-we-get-things-done manual. It doesn’t need to be extensive, but if there are expectations that ‘everyone’ knows and abides by, you’ll want the new person to be aware of them right away. Be sure to include an org chart!

Arrange for training on your organization’s donor database(s) and anything else the new person will be using daily – and do it as soon as you can.

What did I miss? What advice do you have to help managers welcome new employees? What has helped you get acclimated to a new job?

Filed Under: Career development, Research Department Success Tagged With: new employee, onboarding, welcome

June 27, 2019 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Bringing a little joy

Joy, photo by Beth Scupham

My washing machine sings to me. Well, not to me specifically, it would sing anyway, but I happen to be the one in my household that hears its little uber-cheery “Hey, I’m finished!” song most often.

I wouldn’t say that doing laundry is my favorite thing in the world to do, but this washing machine actually makes me look forward to doing what I used to consider a chore specifically because it brings me a little joy at the end of its cycle. I actually do laundry more frequently as a result.

And that’s kind of nuts, right? Nothing’s changed; I still have to schlep the laundry down to the basement, fill the washer, hit all the same sort of buttons…but that song makes it different somehow. Where there was a jarring three-second buzzer, I now have an 8-second melody to reward me. But we can all use a little extra bit of joy in our lives, right?

We have the equivalent things in our work-lives. Things that aren’t horrible, we just don’t enjoy doing them very much. And like dirty laundry, they can pile up if we don’t get to them regularly. Contact reports. Monthly reports. Budget-crafting. Performance evaluations. Database entry. Bleh.

What do you (or others in your shop) do to give chores a song at the end? Share your tips here in the comments for all of us to learn from. I for one would love to hear how you create joy.

Filed Under: Career development, Research Department Success

March 28, 2019 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

So you say you want a revolution, well, here goes….

Our month-long #ResearchPride focus on prospect management closes today with advice from one of the mountaintop gurus on the topic, Lisa Howley. It would be impossible to overstate Lisa’s expertise and generosity in sharing her knowledge over the years, and I’m delighted that she agreed to close out the month for us here on the Intelligent Edge to talk about creating a roadmap for solid prospect management success. ~Helen


We all want to change the world. Or at least our prospect management (PM) systems. It’s a common refrain by prospect management practitioners and gift officers alike. Walk down the hallway in any development office and you may hear someone scream in frustration ‘the system is broken!’

It can be daunting to be tasked with fixing a broken prospect management system. Sure, staff have been sharing their woes, and you have been compiling issues. But where to start? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Relationship management, Research Department Success Tagged With: #ResearchPride, Lisa Howley, prospect development, prospect management, relationship management

March 14, 2019 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Prospect Management – Starting From Scratch

This week I’m delighted to share with you an article written by prospect management expert, Janna Holm. I was introduced to Janna at an Apra conference by Lisa Howley (more from Lisa later this month!), and Janna’s enthusiasm for our field and, specifically, her delight at building strong and dynamic prospect management systems simply won me over. I’m so pleased that Janna agreed to lay out the foundations for us in today’s blog post so you’ll get to meet her, too, if you haven’t already. ~Helen


Air Traffic Controlman Third Class (ACC) Wendy Parrett list a new aircraft arrival from her local control position in the air traffic control tower at Naval Air Station North Island. Photo by PH2 Eric A. ClementResearch Pride Month is such a special time to me—our friends and colleagues around the world come together to celebrate accomplishments and where our industry is headed. Our field has undergone some incredible transitions over the years. In my last job, I went digging for office supplies and stumbled upon a filing cabinet in an old storage closet, only to find it full of index cards holding tidbits of information and asset data on our alumni. This was their “research system” through the 1980s.

I’ve used databases built in the 1990s where cell phone and email fields were hidden away under “miscellaneous info” as they weren’t common enough to have a home yet. Now, in 2019, our conferences are full of discussions about machine learning and artificial intelligence. It’s amazing to think about how far we’ve come.

One of the biggest transitions over the years has been to incorporate prospect management into shops that historically focused on prospect research. I’ve seen and worked at organizations where prospect management was fully established and ingrained in the culture, and others where prospect management was still nascent or didn’t exist. But over the years, this has grown to become a vital part of a major gift shop. So how does it begin?

When to Begin:

Any organization with multiple staff involved in fundraising should start thinking about a prospect management system. An airport with only one flight per day may not need an air traffic controller, but the more planes you add, the more vital coordination becomes. The same is true for prospect management—when more staff and donors are involved, it becomes increasingly important to have a prospect management system in place.

To build out a strong prospect management system, you need to think not only about your constituent relationship management database (CRM), but also the policy around how you work and the procedures that delineate who does what and how that work is done.

Incorporating Prospect Management in your CRM:

Going back to our air traffic controller example, they need to know which planes are taking off and landing, at what times, and in which direction. They need to know their runways, and wind speeds, and who’s ready versus who’s running behind schedule. In order to ensure prospect management is coordinated, it helps to know some data as well.

No matter which CRM you’re using, there should be some ability to begin tracking prospect management or moves management. Most prospect management systems begin by tracking the following elements:

  • Who oversees the relationship with this prospect?

This could be labeled as a Gift Officer, Relationship Manager, or any number of titles, but it’s helpful to note which person is in charge of the relationship and responsible for coordinating outreach to the prospect.

  • Where is this prospect in their relationship to our organization?

Different organizations use different stages (see the 4-, 5-, 6-, or 7-stages of a gift solicitation), but you’ll want to know who is at each step of whichever cycle you choose.

  • What have we asked this prospect for previously, and how did it go?

You may refer to these as Asks, Solicitations, Opportunities, Proposals or myriad other names, but this would be a place to track what size gift you solicited, what program or project it would fund, when you asked for it, and what the outcome was.

  • What have we done with this prospect?

Tracking your actions or contacts with a prospect ensures you’re capturing their history. Did they attend an event? Did you send them a holiday card? What did you talk about in your last face-to-face visit? Some organizations will track every single “touch” that happens with a prospect, while others focus on more “substantive” actions that move the prospect along through the stages of their relationship to the organization.

As your organization grows in size and complexity, you may want to begin to track other things like additional staff involvement (secondary relationship managers, volunteers, leadership involvement), details about the prospect’s capacity and affinity, the short- and long-term strategy for a prospect, your metrics for fundraising staff, or more in-depth information about proposals or activities.

Creating a Prospect Management Policy:

Once you have those ideas for what you want to track, there are still some vital things to consider. Your system needs to have a policy behind it and procedures in place so your colleagues know how to use it.

Your policy document should cover questions that may arise as your colleagues adopt this new system. Those will look different based on your organization, and you can find some good examples online. It may include topics like:

  • How do prospects get assigned to a staffer?
  • When should prospects be added or removed from a portfolio?
  • How are staff expected to share information about a prospect?
  • What information are they expected to track in the CRM?
  • Who enters that data?
  • What happens if there’s a conflict about assignment, solicitation, etc.?
  • What information can and cannot get entered into the record (due to HIPAA, GDPR, FERPA, or ethical concerns)?
  • What happens when a staffer leaves your organization?

An aspect that should be incorporated into every prospect management system is a glossary to specify what each data element means—what counts as a “visit”? How are you defining “qualification”? It’s hard to stay coordinated if you don’t speak the same language, so make sure colleagues agree on how terms or data fields are defined at your organization.

Up and Running

Once a prospect management system has been crafted and implemented, it will still go through tweaks. Maybe a policy needs to change, or you’re adding some planned giving staff and need to think about their assignments differently, or you realize you need to add a new stage. Building a strong system that colleagues understand and use, and regularly adapting it are key elements of moving prospect management forward.

Our industry is dynamic and we’re progressing faster every year. Our systems should be built to track our history, but also to allow for evolution, so that in 10, 20, or 30 years, we can see a prospect’s journey from stage to stage and gift to gift (and so in 10, 20, or 30 years, we have a data set to use for all that machine learning!).

So, as we near the halfway point of Research Pride Month, I hope you all take a look at your prospect management system. If you’ve had one for years, does it need any edits or changes? If you’re just getting started, what can you do this month to move it forward a bit? Celebrate what you’ve done, and where our industry has been. Let’s keep adapting, growing, and improving!


Janna Holm is Director of Prospect Development at The Trust for Public Land. Currently a board member of Apra Minnesota and a longtime volunteer and speaker for Apra International, Janna is past president of Apra Maryland. She tweets great stuff here.

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Relationship management, Research Department Success, Strategic planning Tagged With: #ResearchPride, Janna Holm, prospect management, Prospect Research Pride Month, prospet research, relationship management, Research Pride

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David’s career in prospect research began in 2009, as a graduate research assistant at the Shippensburg University Foundation. In 2011, He became a development researcher for the University of Virginia. In 2015, David became assistant director of prospect research at the University of Baltimore, serving for 3 years. Recently, he was the director of development for Trees Forever. David Joined the Helen Brown Group as a research assistant in January 2020. He earned a B.A. in Theater at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a M.A. in Applied History at Shippensburg University. David is a member of APRA and APRA Great Plains.

Kenny has worked in development since 1999 and has been involved in prospect research since 2002.

Prior to joining The Helen Brown Group, he was the director of donor and prospect research at the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. Kenny is a member of APRA and NEDRA.

Tara first began her career in development in 2002 supporting the Major Gifts department at Simmons College, and ultimately went on to serve as Assistant Director of Prospect Research. Since that time, she has also worked as a Senior Research Analyst at MIT, as Associate Director of Prospect Management and Research at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and as Director of Development Research at Combined Jewish Philanthropies (CJP).

Tara originally joined the Helen Brown Group team in 2007 and served as a Research Associate and ShareTraining coordinator until 2008 – she rejoined the company as a Senior Researcher in 2013 and was promoted to her current role in 2018.

She has been an active volunteer with NEDRA for many years and served on the board of directors from 2010-2016. During her time on the NEDRA board, she served in many different roles, including terms as Vice President, Secretary, Chair of the Website and Technology Committee, Chair of the Volunteer Committee, and as Chair and Editor of NEDRA News. She is currently a member of the NEDRA Bootcamp faculty. In addition, Tara has also been involved as a volunteer with Apra, serving stints on the Membership Committee, Chapters Committee, and Bylaws Task Force.

Angie began her career in development in 1999 at Virginia Tech in Corporate and Foundation Relations and later in prospect research at the University of Connecticut Foundation.

A graduate of the University of Tennessee at Martin, her experience includes grants management at the University of South Carolina, program evaluation for South Carolina Research Authority and human resources analysis for Nissan North America.

She returned to development in 2007 and worked in various prospect research positions at Vanderbilt University, including Associate Director. She was named Director for Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s research office in 2015, and joined The Helen Brown Group in 2016.

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Josh began his career in development as the Phonathon Coordinator at Keene State College. He then worked at non-profit consulting firm Schultz & Williams in Philadelphia.

He started his research career at the University of Pennsylvania as a Research Assistant in 2005. He then moved over to the Wharton School of Business, where he became the Associate Director, Research and Prospect Management. Josh joined the Helen Brown Group in 2016.

Josh is also a Colorado licensed Realtor and graduate of Lehigh University.

In March 2017, Kristina joined the Helen Brown Group as a Research Associate. Before joining HBG, she was the Research Manager at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn and an Associate Manager of Prospect Research at City Harvest, a food rescue organization. Kristina started her non-profit career as a legal assistant at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2004.  She is a member of Apra and Apra Greater New York. She was Apra Greater New York’s Director of Programming from June 2014 to May 2016. Kristina graduated from The University of Chicago and the Bard Graduate Center.

Grace began her career in development in 2001 as Executive Assistant to the Chief Development Officer with Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), a Harvard Medical School-affiliated academic medical center.

In 2003, she became a prospect researcher for the BWH principal and major gifts team and spent the next 11 years in various research positions with BWH, culminating as Assistant Director of Prospect Research. She has been affiliated with The Helen Brown Group since January 2014.

Heather began her career in 2002 as a prospect research coordinator for the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation and then moved to Carroll College in 2004.

In 2005, Heather began working on her own as a freelancer and eventually started her own consulting firm, Willis Research Services, in 2007. She joined The Helen Brown Group in 2012.

Heather is a member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement and the Montana Nonprofit Association.

Jennifer began her career in development at her alma mater, Wheaton College, where she was an administrative assistant for the major gifts department.

She joined The Helen Brown Group in March 2008. She earned a master’s degree in library science from the Southern Connecticut State University in May 2009. Jennifer is a member of APRA and NEDRA.

Rick has been a member of the Helen Brown Group team since 2005. Prior to joining HBG, Rick was director of research at St. Paul’s School in Concord, New Hampshire. Rick has worked in development since 1996, both in prospect research and major gifts fund raising. His experience includes the University of Vermont, Phillips Exeter Academy and St. Paul’s School.

Rick is past president of NEDRA and is a member of and frequent volunteer for APRA.

Josh began his career in development as the Phonathon Coordinator at Keene State College. He then worked at non-profit consulting firm Schultz & Williams in Philadelphia.

He started his research career at the University of Pennsylvania as a Research Assistant in 2005. He then moved over to the Wharton School of Business, where he became the Associate Director, Research and Prospect Management. Josh joined the Helen Brown Group in 2016.

Josh is also a Colorado licensed Realtor and graduate of Lehigh University.

Mandi has worked in prospect research and management since 2006. She began her development career as a research analyst in development research at City of Hope, an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center in Los Angeles. From there, she became the manager of prospect development at Huntington Memorial Hospital, a community hospital in Pasadena, CA. Most recently, she was the associate director of prospect research and management at Occidental College, a private liberal arts college in LA.

Mandi has a BA degree in print journalism from Southern Methodist University and a master’s degree of library and information science from UCLA.

She joined the Helen Brown Group in May 2019.

Kelly began her career in development in 2008 as an administrative assistant in Major Gifts at Wheaton College.

In 2010, she became a research analyst at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in the Division of Development & Jimmy Fund as part of the prospect identification team. Kelly joined The Helen Brown Group in 2013.

She is a member of APRA and NEDRA.

Jayme began her career in development in 2008 at the Rutgers University Foundation, where she spent the next seven years, first in prospect management and then prospect research. She spent several years at Monmouth University as their senior prospect research analyst, working with the fundraising staff, university president, and top leadership. She has worked as both a volunteer and consultant for non-profits in the areas of research and writing.

She earned a bachelor of arts degree from Drew University and a master of communication and information sciences from Rutgers University. She is a member of APRA.

Jayme joined The Helen Brown Group in April 2019.

Julie has managed finances for The Helen Brown Group since its founding.

In her spare time, she is an editor for the PBS series Masterpiece at WGBH. Julie was nominated twice for an Emmy award for her work on the PBS show Zoom.

Heather began her career in development in 2001 as a prospect researcher for National Wildlife Federation (NWF). She was with NWF for more than thirteen years, including nearly five years as director of research and analytics. Heather is a former secretary of the board of directors of APRA-Metro DC.

She joined The Helen Brown Group in October 2014.

David began his career in development at The Gunnery school in northwest Connecticut in 2011, where he worked in database management and prospect research. Subsequently, he joined the College of Saint Rose as a development research analyst before leading Albany Medical Center Foundation’s prospect research efforts as Associate Director of Prospect Research. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Sociology from Siena College and is a member of APRA and CASE.

Michele began her career in development in 2012 when she joined the UC Berkeley corporate and foundation relations team as a development analyst. She spent a year and a half at Cal before returning to UC Davis as a prospect analyst. She was with the prospect management and relations team at UC Davis for almost three years prior to joining the research and relationship management team at George Washington University as a Senior Prospect Analyst in 2016.

Michele received her BA in creative writing from Florida State University and her MA in higher education leadership from CSU Sacramento. She currently resides in Northern Virginia, is a member of Apra International, and serves as the social media chair for Apra Metro DC. Michele joined The Helen Brown Group in July 2018.

Angie has worked in development since 2002, partnering with a wide range of nonprofit institutions. She began her professional career at Vanderbilt University in research and prospect development.

She has also worked with a number of community nonprofits in front-line fundraising, grant-writing, and event management. Angie holds an MPA in Nonprofit Management from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and a BS in Journalism from Middle Tennessee State University. She resides in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a member of AFP Nashville and APRA MidSouth, where she has been active on the executive team.

She joined The Helen Brown Group in October 2015.

Maureen has been a part of the non-profit world since 1991. She started out in annual giving at Harvard Law School and continued her career as director of annual/special gifts at UC Santa Cruz.

In 1999 she made the switch from front-line fundraising to serve as director of prospect research/management at Bentley University and in 2001 began her role as administrator for the North American Foundation for the University of Manchester. She became part of the HBG team in September of 2011.

Helen has been a development professional since 1987. Her previous experience includes The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Albert Einstein Institution, Boston College, the Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University.

Currently she works with a variety of clients to establish, benchmark and re-align research departments; identify major gift prospects; and train researchers and other fundraisers through on-site and web-based training services.Helen is a former member of the board of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and is past president of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA). In 2006 she received the NEDRA Ann Castle Award for service to the prospect research community.

Helen is Special Advisor on Fundraising to the North American Foundation for the University of Manchester and is a member of the board of directors of Factary Ltd. (Bristol, UK). She is a member of NEDRA, APRA, the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP), Women In Development, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) and Researchers in Fundraising (UK).

Helen is a frequent speaker and has led seminars for a number of professional associations, including Action Planning, AFP, APRA, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), NEDRA, RIF, the Planned Giving Council of Central Massachusetts, the Georgia Center on Nonprofits, the International Fundraising Congress and Resource Alliance.

Helen is also co-author (with Jen Filla) of the book, Prospect Research for Fundraisers (Wiley & Sons, 2013).