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January 24, 2019 By Helen Brown

Aaargh! It was Right. There!

You know when you’ve just done a search and you get to the site and your search term is nowhere to be found. Now that’s just confusing. What’s going on??

Or maybe you find a great web page with lots of information and you bookmark it and then go back a day/a week/ a year later and the whole page is just …gone? Soo frustrating!!

Or maybe you didn’t actually bookmark the page because it was so awesome you just knew you’d remember it – buuut now you’ve forgotten the actual name of the resource and/or who published it. (Not that that has ever happened to me.) And you could go trolling through your browser history to find it except like a good do-bee you clear your cache and history once a month. So: poof! Gone!

Yeah.

Well, never fear. There’s an app for that.

More than one, actually. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Google+, Internet Archive, Perma.cc, permalinks, URLs, Wayback Machine

August 24, 2017 By Helen Brown

Google Search, just for you

According to many tech writers, the future of search is looking very much like a verbal interaction between searcher and search engine. Alphabet wants you to have the same relationship with Google that over 8 million people already have with Amazon Echo’s “Alexa” every day.

ComScore estimates that by 2020 (which is only two and a half years away, my friend) over 50% of all searches will be screenless. Which is very Star Trek and cool and cutting edge and all that.

Smart people in the marketing world are already thinking about what happens for them when Google search (as we know it) goes away.

We professional researchers need to be thinking the same way. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching, News Tagged With: effective searching, Google+, prospect research

December 8, 2016 By Helen Brown

You got played. I got played. We all got played.

library-bec-not-ev-on-internet-trueBuzzFeed reports that, on Facebook, the top 20 click-bait-y fake news stories generated more engagement than the top 20 real news stories did in the past three months.

That’s okay if you know that what you’re looking at is fake and you’re just clicking or sharing something to get a good eye roll workout. But a new study by Stanford University says that the “digital natives” amongst us – kids from middle school through college – can’t tell the difference between sponsored content and real news.

And regarding their habits on social media, the Wall Street Journal reported that “[m]any students judged the credibility of newsy tweets based on how much detail they contained or whether a large photo was attached, rather than on the source.”

Think about that – credibility is judged on whether or not there’s a pretty picture.

That’s really worrying, especially because it’s not just kids that are making that mis-judgment. The Pew Research Center reports that 66% of Facebook users get their news there, and overall nearly 40% of us get our news online now.

Facebook is just a social networking site. It’s not a news site…right?

It’s inappropriate for anyone to like an article about someone getting shot. In the case of the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO, research shows that stories on his death went into a cone of silence on Facebook, partly because it was inappropriate to ‘Like’ (for which read: share) and harder still (for non-trolls) to comment on. So when it comes to what gets shared more, the algorithms favor the Pope endorsing Donald Trump over what’s happening in Ferguson or Flint because of Likes.

It makes sense logically. But if 66% of people on Facebook (and let’s face it, Facebook’s market penetration is colossal) – if 66% of Facebook users are getting their news there, it’s well on its way to becoming a media company. A news distributor. Far and away from simply a social networking site. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Career development, Effective searching, News, Research Department Success Tagged With: Center for Public Integrity, Facebook, fake news, Google+, ICIJ, Propublica, prospect research, Snopes

June 23, 2016 By Helen Brown

The Future of Search

Honda driverless car

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…]

Filed Under: Effective searching, News Tagged With: Amit Singhal, Beshad Behzadi, Eric Enge, Google+, John Giannandrea, Marcus Tandler, Mark Schaefer, McKinsey & Co, Search Engine Land, The Future of Search, web search

December 18, 2014 By Helen Brown

Social media and high net worth individuals

Dark Eyed JuncoAlthough more people are piling into an ever-growing array of social media outlets every day, it’s still fairly rare to see a Klout score or Twitter summary on a prospect research profile. Maybe it’s because we major gifts specialists assume that it’s only Xers and Millennials using these platforms, and they’re not yet ready to make large gifts.

But according to Ledbury Research, which studies the habits and demographics of high net wealth individuals (HNWI) in the United Kingdom, at least 75% of HNWI use social media regularly.

The largest group actively uses LinkedIn (47%), which makes sense since so many are businesspeople, but Facebook (42%), Google+ (17%) and Twitter (13%) are also used regularly. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching, Most popular, Social Media Tagged With: Facebook, Forrester Research, Google Plus, Google+, high net wealth individuals, high net worth individuals, HNWI, Klout, Ledbury Research, LinkedIn, prospect research, sm, Social Media, Twitter

July 3, 2014 By Helen Brown

The Field Guide to Efficient Searching

Let’s just dive right in, shall we? Here are my top five tips for efficient web searching.

Tip #1: Use Quotation Marks

Bing Council on Foreign Relations

If you want to get the best results for an exact name or phrase, always put your search string in quotes. This works really well for names, for example, of a person or an organization.

Searching on Bing for Council on Foreign Relations got me 18,700,000 hits. Searching for “Council on Foreign Relations” narrowed down the hit count to a mere two million.

This might not matter when you’re searching for something like the COFR, but what if you’re looking for a name? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Bing, effective searching, efficient searching, Google+, prospect research, web searching

June 26, 2014 By Helen Brown

Web search overview: Three Key Things Everyone Needs to Know

farm gate

Web searching can be a lot like hiking. Sometimes it’s a pristine path along the coast with stunning views over the channel, other times it’s a bracken-laden jungle where you can’t even see your feet. I’ve been on both kinds of paths, and I much prefer the former. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Bing, Google search tips, Google+, Information Week, InfoWeek, Online Searcher, prospect research, SearchEngineLand, SearchEngineWatch, startme, Yahoo, Yahoo Maktoob

October 25, 2013 By Helen Brown

Google Alerts: what’s going on

Google Alerts

Several people have asked me lately about the demise of Google Alerts so here’s a little background for you as well as links to selected resources for more information and better results.

In case you’ve never used Google Alerts, here’s what they are: Google has a page where you can set an alert on a search string to automatically run the search and have results sent to you on a schedule of your choosing. Until recently, this notification could come by email OR via a very handy direct pipeline called an RSS feed to a free Google Reader account.

THE BEGINNING OF THE PROBLEM

Unfortunately, and to a great deal of hue and cry, this past July Google pulled the plug on Google Reader and on the ability for users to receive Google Alerts via an RSS feed. Alerts could only be received via email.

Coupled with all of this was evidence that Google Alerts were not working as well as they had been in the past. Noted search engine expert Danny Sullivan reported that his alerts were significantly reduced and he wondered (as many others did) if this signaled the demise of Google Alerts as well.

However, in September of this year it was reported by a few who noticed that Google Alerts were again available via RSS feed – not that Google made a splashy big deal of it. Quite the contrary.

SO WHAT’S THE DEAL?  

We really don’t know if Google Alerts are going away, or if they are going to remain but be unsupported, or if they will eventually be phased out like Reader. It certainly appears to experts that alerts are not being supported by Google now as they were in the past. Notifications are now available again as RSS feeds, but that is small consolation if the information you receive is sparse compared to the amount of information that is truly available within the search engine’s database.

ARE THERE ALTERNATIVES?

We certainly haven’t stopped using Google Alerts here at HBG, but we are using alternatives, both free and fee-based. Two of them are Lexis Nexis and Mention, but there are many for you to choose from. My feeling is: even if Google Alerts give good results, there’s no harm in being sure you’re getting the full scope of what’s available within your budget.

Are you using Google Alerts or an alternative (or both?). Do you have recommendations?

 

Reading list: (articles in order of appearance in post)

Warren, Christina – Mashable: Are Google Alerts Dying? 22 March 2013

Sullivan, Danny – Search Engine Land: Dear Google Alerts: Why Aren’t You Working?  15 February 2013

Protalinski, Emil – The Next Web: Google Alerts regains RSS delivery option it lost after Google Reader’s demise.  11 September 2013

Dembak, Yoav – VB Social: 7 Apps to Help You Replace Google Alerts. 13 May 2013

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Google+, prospect research, prospect research tools

March 14, 2013 By Helen Brown

Google: offer fee-based option for professional researchers!

 

As a professional researcher, I’m now officially and utterly fed up with Google. This week’s announcement that they are eliminating Google Reader sent me over the edge. From being a quality resource that researchers could trust, my team and I now have to operate so many workarounds to get the information we need that using it has become a chore.  But we can’t stop using it – it’s terrible but it’s the best there is.

To eliminate filtering, we need to use Verbatim.  They’re taking away iGoogle and Reader, and so we have to find alternatives. Personalized search means we need to empty our cache and clear cookies daily to avoid skewing our results.

Google’s emerging raison d’etre is clear: to be an ad-supported social search network. One that appeals to the 99% of the population who don’t care that what they see has most of the information filtered out. Information that’s sitting there in the vast Google cloud – and potentially useful – but eliminated, based on a person’s previous search history.

In fact, information personalization is exactly what most people want. And you’ve got to give the people what they want. But for me and others in my profession, Google has become the reality television of search, appealing to the most common denominator. With this latest announcement about Reader, like Fonzie on the television show Happy Days, Google has jumped the shark.

But I have a solution.

I want to give Google money. I want them to charge me to gain access to everything in the Google universe. Unfiltered. No ads. Just information. All of it – from Google Anguilla to Google Virgin Islands and all of the other country-specific databases in between.

I want them to let me pay for the ability to do advanced searches. Proximity searches. Date searches. Location searches. Boolean searches.

I want Google to do a deal with deep web sources like Lexis Nexis, Bloomberg, Factiva, Reed Elsevier, Bureau van Dijk, Dow Jones, and Highbeam. And federal, state, local and provincial governments worldwide. Also publishing houses, nonprofits, think tanks, trade associations and anyone else that has data of value that they want to share.

Google could become a true information hub for the future; they’ve got the brains, the money and the clout to do it. Think of it – research and information availability could go from so-last-century to the computer on board the USS Enterprise. Google Drive meets Warp Drive.

I want this for all of us professional researchers, Google. The ones who made you the number one search engine back in the day and who helped you become the behemoth you are now.

Give the people what they want.

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Google+, iGoogle, prospect research, Reader, research

January 15, 2012 By Helen Brown

New Google = New Coke

Let me tell you a short story:  Back in the 1980s there was a pseudo war, and it was a big deal at the time.  Named the Cola Wars, it was a knock-down, drag-out to decide which of the two mega brands of cola was better, Coke or Pepsi.  Both felt that neither could survive while the other lived, and you, the consumer, had to choose.  Which did you like better?  Side-by-side blind taste tests were done in supermarkets, on beaches, Main Streets and college campuses.  It was the Duke-Carolina and the Yankees-Red Sox of marketing wars rolled into one.  It was huge.

Then Coca-Cola, in a moment no consumer could figure out (and no company should ignore), decided they would ditch their cash cow and make a whole different product.  “Old Coke” was gone overnight.  “New Coke”  was the Coke to beat Pepsi, and it was no contest:  nobody liked it.

It was awful.  New Coke tasted terrible and there were practically riots in the streets.  People started hoarding “old” Coke when they could find it.  If you weren’t around then (and I suspect most of the Google decision-makers weren’t) I know it’s hard to believe that consumers actually rose up and made such a stink that a mega company completely reversed course about something, but they did.  In a matter of a few months, New Coke was gone and “Coke Classic” was resuscitated.

So now we’ve got the New Google and for professional searchers it tastes about as good as New Coke.  Here’s the vanilla article from Lance Ulanoff at Mashable, announcing its birth:  Google Merges Search and Google+ into Social Media Juggernaut.  He says:

“Now we know Google’s master-plan for integrating Google+ ever more deeply into the Google ecosystem: Pour the whole thing into Google search. Starting today, Google+ members, and to a lesser extent others who are signed into Google, will be able to search against both the broader web and their own Google+ social graph. That’s right; Google+ circles, photos, posts and more will be integrated into search in ways other social platforms can only dream about.”

Short version: when you type a search into Google, what you’re going to get for your first results are everything you or your friends have ever written or shared publicly on Google Plus on anything related to the item you’ve just searched.

If you’re on your mobile device looking for a restaurant in San Francisco, you’re treated to a gold mine of your friends’ and acquaintances’ recommendations.  Nice!

If you’re a professional 9-5 researcher like me using Google it’s another layer of non-relevant stuff to wade through before you get to what you need.  We’re not “social” searchers, we use these tools to provide reliable answers to others.  Relevant search is our job.  And Google has always had the largest database of legitimate, relevant resources that professional researchers need and use every day.

THE EXPERTS WEIGH IN

Here’s a professional searcher’s take on it:  Danny Sullivan at Search Engine Land wrote an article in response to the flaws (and potential legal issues) he saw called Real-Life Examples of How Google’s ‘Search Plus’ Pushes Google Plus Over Relevancy.

Sullivan argues that besides making relevant search results harder to find for professional  searchers, the potential trouble on Google’s horizon is legal: if they highlight information (mainly) from their own properties – including Google+ and YouTube they could be charged with abusing their power as a monopoly.  Also, there’s that teeny little issue of privacy – what if something you thought you were posting privately to Google+ got shared without your permission publicly and then emerged as an answer to a search query?

FIXING WHAT’S NOW BROKEN

I’ve seen peoples’ comments saying “what’s the big deal, you can turn Search Plus off!” and yes you can, and here’s how.

And you can also turn Verbatim on, which forces Google to allow you to use your exact search terms instead of Google trying to correct them for you (in case you didn’t really mean what you meant).  Here’s how:  Do a search, go to the search options sidebar, click “show more search tools,” select “Verbatim” and Google will keep your search string like you wanted it to be.

And you can turn filtering off, too, so that your world on Google doesn’t keep getting narrower and narrower.  And yes, it does.  You don’t even know what you don’t know, but you will if you read this and watch Eli Pariser’s jaw-dropping TED Talk.

But all these turning offs and turning ons are a total hassle.  Just to do one search in Google the way I used to just last year, I have to turn off two things and turn one on.  Every. Single. Time.  This is progress?

I’ve read other comments saying, “Google’s free and they can do whatever they want to with their product.”  And that’s true, they can.  I’d argue that Google is “free,” but whatever.  We can vote with our feet.  And Bing’s the next logical choice for database size.

Mat Honan at Gizmodo has this to say: Google just made Bing the Best Search Engine.

Trouble is, Microsoft has always run hot and cold on search.  They kindasorta want to compete with Google, but Bing’s not their core business and it’s never going to be.  There’s no Coke vs. Pepsi thing going on here.  It’s Coke vs. Shasta.  Google’s still got the largest database lurking inside all that growing social stuff, and Bing just doesn’t.  It’s big, but it’s not Google big.

So will Google create two products – one for professional searchers and one for social searchers?  Or, in the words of the immortal SNL writers, is it just to be “No Coke! Pepsi!” for us?

Update:  More on this from Wired magazine’s Tim Carmody: Dirty Little Secrets: The Trouble With Social Search.

Filed Under: Effective searching Tagged With: Bing, Carolina, Coca-Cola, Danny Sullivan, Duke, Eli Pariser, Gizmodo, Google+, Lance Ulanoff, Mashable, Mat Honan, Pepsi, Search Engine Land, search engines, TED, Tim Carmody, UNC, Wired

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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).