There’s a lot to love about fundraising intelligence (aka prospect development), which, for those of you who are new to the term, is comprised of prospect research, prospect management, due diligence, and fundraising data science.
In research, each profile we build is a love letter, of sorts, to the donor prospect we’re writing about. We gather the information carefully. Ethically. Lawfully.
We are curious and diligent. We pull every loose thread. [Read more…]
There’s a desire in fundraising and prospect development for innovation, but when our heads are down in the trenches, it’s hard to take time out to plan, strategize, or just daydream about what’s possible.
But last week I attended a fundraising gathering that was truly remarkable. The event itself was innovative, and the activities and presentations were designed to spark and broadcast creative ideas. It created collaborative opportunities and built community. It’s been a week and I’m still thinking about it. [Read more…]
Last week I talked about the admirable foresight that transplanted American Lawrence Johnston had in planting a cedar tree in his English garden that he knew he would never see grow to its full glory. As I mentioned, I think of Johnston often when I am planning ahead for what’s to come here at HBG. [Read more…]
Back in July of 1907, an American named Lawrence Johnston bought an English manor house for his mother, Gertrude. Built in the 1600s, the house and its surrounding 287 acres of mostly farmland were a suitable place for Johnston to try out an experiment.
Over the next seven years (before he went off to serve and return from the Great War), Johnson and a small team of staff created something new at Hidcote Manor: a master outline for a garden containing a variety of rooms and vistas that would showcase the flowers, bushes, trees, and shrubs there, as well as the topography of the land. [Read more…]
The new EU data protection law, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force on May 25th and it brings with it an entirely new set of rules that nonprofits world-wide – not just in the European Union – will have to abide by. I’m not seeing a lot of discussion about it here in the US fundraising community* and that concerns me. [Read more…]
Blue and Red Flower Bed, photo by Petr Kratochvil
Giving Tuesday marks the opening of the Giving Season, that time of year when generous donors help plant the bulbs for change, and nonprofits nurture and grow them.
I’ve been planting bulbs of my own this past week (daffodils and crocuses; also testing out if lavender seeds actually work), and that activity gave me loads of time to think about how a little preparation now makes a world of difference in a period of time that’s not all that far ahead.
In the fundraising intelligence world, we can do that, too. Here at HBG, we’re talking with clients now about how they can be prepared for next year.
What is your team doing to be sure you’re filling the pipeline with new prospects who are interested in your cause? [Read more…]
We have officially entered the fall season. School vacation is over. Our donors have returned home from their summer residences. And we are all settling back into the “normal” routine.
For many organizations, this means the start of event season. Perhaps you work in higher education and have an upcoming event for new parents, as well as Homecoming weekend. Or maybe your organization just wants to get in a few events during the fall months before the holidays start monopolizing everyone’s calendar. [Read more…]
This week HBG team member Angie Herrington shares some great tips to make sure you don’t lose track of an under-the-radar, future group of supporters to your nonprofit. She’s not totally convinced that she’s got the perfect acronym yet, but IMO she’s on the right track! ~HelenFundraising is no different than any other profession with our acronyms and jargon. Some are expedient (DO, MGO, 990, CRM, ‘soft credit’) and some make me think too hard and wonder if we’re making it up (LYBUNT, SYBUNT, and CRUT).
Some of our legacy terms can also be polarizing. Ever dropped the word “suspect” on PRSPCT-L over the past 20 years? If you’re feeling sassy, try that one and let me know how it works out for you. [Read more…]
Due diligence research is a key part of prospect research in the UK and Europe. All of the prospect researchers at nonprofits that I know there – and not just the ones who work at human-rights or cause-related orgs, but researchers at universities, membership, animal rights, arts organizations, consultants – every kind of organization – they all include due diligence as part of their work. It’s just as important as finding wealth indicators or career history or interest in their organization’s cause.
They’re considering these questions: Do we want our organization to be associated with this person? Or this company? Or this trust/foundation? [Read more…]
This week I’m very excited to share with you a podcast I recorded earlier this week with Mark Dumich and Ling Sun of the University of Notre Dame. Their department is doing innovative work to help strengthen and create parity amongst their fundraisers’ portfolios.
In our podcast, Mark and Ling shared with me the questions they were trying to answer, their step by step actions, and some unexpected (but welcome!) outcomes. Mark explains their plan:
The Portfolio Strengths Model was developed at the University of Notre Dame to better understand both the strength of a prospect and the quality of a portfolio. As fundraisers expressed concern about the giving potential of their prospects, we decided to score various attributes of those individuals to get a better assessment of their value. It moved the conversation away from how a development officer feels, and back to objective data points that we can all agree on.
It’s very easy to evaluate a fundraiser on the number of dollars he or she brings in to the organization, and it’s important, too. Unfortunately, that metric has some significant shortcomings when you consider that not all portfolios have the same potential. So how can we more accurately measure a fundraiser’s performance? When we viewed production relative to the strength of a portfolio, it highlighted a lot of incredible work that had been achieved at all levels of philanthropy within our organization.”
We’re especially fortunate that, not only did they speak with me for 30 minutes, they also generously provided a step-by-step worksheet of their project, so you can do it, too!
The podcast is below, and the worksheet is in our free member area. Warm thanks to Mark and Ling for sharing this with us!