Helen Brown Group

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Planting a tree

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…]

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Is Your Nonprofit Ready for GDPR?

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…]

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‘Tis the Pre-Season

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…]

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The Secret to Great Event Briefings

This week’s article is brought to you by HBG Senior Researcher, Jennifer Turner, who has a lot of experience (probably more than she thought she’d ever have!) writing event briefings. Lucky for us, she’s happy to share some great tips here. ~Helen

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…]

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POISEd for Success

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! ~Helen

Fundraising 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…]

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Who do you stand with?

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…]

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Innovation: Measuring fundraiser portfolio strength

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!

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The rush of the rush

There’s nothing quite like that feeling when your favorite frontline fundraiser calls you to say, “I got a meeting with the president and the prospective donor you identified!…” Boom!!

…or the feeling when they finish the sentence with “…and it’s TOMORROW!” Uh, boom.

You can just feel that rolling wave of adrenaline right now, can’t you? It’s awesome and terrifying at the same time. How on earth are you ever going to get them the information they need in time? [Read more…]

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The Cavalry

As Americans, we’re acculturated to believe – deep down in our cell structure – that no matter how dire the situation, the cavalry will always come at the last minute to save the day.

The cavalry can be a heroine, a hero, a bunch of dusty dudes on horses, or a squad of geeky introverts, but you only have to look at every movie ever made in Hollywood to know that when help is needed, it will come. [Read more…]

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11 ways you can be ready for 2017

As hard as it is to believe, 2017 will be here in two weeks and three days, folks. There will be much you won’t have any control over in the year ahead, but there are lots of things you can do to help yourself, and your organization, be prepared for the challenges of 2017.

Protect Yourself Online

If you haven’t already, let this be the year that you finally subscribe to a password-generating software program. PC Magazine has compiled their list and side-by-side comparison of the Best Password Managers of 2017. They’re not expensive. Just do it. Also, check that your virus protection and anti-spyware software are auto-running. If you don’t have those two things, buy them. [Read more…]

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