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August 13, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Questioning philanthropy

With so many nonprofit organizations needing funding fairly desperately right now, this might not seem like a particularly great time to critique philanthropy and philanthropists. That hasn’t stopped people like Anand Giridharadas, David Callahan, Rob Reich, Ben Soskis, Alan Cantor, the folks at Mother Jones, an anonymous op-ed writer in The American Conservative, and many, many others.

And the critics have a long list of grievance: Foundations have too much power. Foundations don’t give away enough. Billionaires are stingy. Billionaires are stepping up, but not enough. Wealth inequality is distorting philanthropy. It’s imperiling democracy. DAFs are the best thing since sliced bread. DAFs are evil.

It feels like there’s a crescendo of criticism lately. And they’ve got a point – there is so much more need, the inequity gap is an increasingly yawning crevasse, and trillions are locked away in philanthropic vaults, ticking up interest and income for investment offices and institutional sponsors. And there are billionaires who could change the course of poverty/hunger/you-name-it with one check (and some, like MacKenzie Scott, who seem to be actually trying).

As they have for over a generation, medium and large nonprofits are focused laser-like on that top tier of prospects and those prospects’ assets are growing by the second, even during this pandemic. Some because of the pandemic. Sometimes I think that small triangle at the top of the pyramid is going to separate and blast off like the SpaceX Dragon.

A small voice in me wonders if prospect development has played some role in this problem of declining donor numbers. Because of our part in the fixation on that nose-cone.

And, to be fair, it has made practical sense, right? When bank robber Willy Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he said “because that’s where the money is.” Well, yeah.

Have we been myopic?

So yes, we’ve focused on the richest of the rich because they’re the ones with the most money to give away. But is that one (of the potentially many) reasons why our nonprofits have shrinking donor pools? Because we haven’t spent the time to identify and involve the next generation of donors because the low-hanging fruit was just so much easier?

What about the next tier who may not be able to make 7-figure gifts now (or ever), but could make multiple 5 or 6 figure gifts over a lifetime? Have we in PD not done our duty to insist to leadership that those prospects are worth the work so we can ensure that fundraisers working at our organization in 10 years’ time have great portfolios to work with?

Is the scarcity mindset that deeply entrenched in our sector’s collective psyche that nonprofit leadership doesn’t feel it can take the long view to ensure that their nonprofit will be here in 50 or 100 years and needs to go for the quick wins now?

Or, to play devil’s advocate, in this increasingly unequal world is it more expedient (and ethical) for us to have stayed focused on the top of the pyramid to the…maybe not exclusion, exactly, but certainly decreased emphasis on that important second tier? I wish I was sure. That small voice gets louder these days telling me “no”.

Fortunately it’s not an either/or choice. Those critics are airing out the Third Sector’s dirty laundry and it doesn’t smell too rosy. So what we have here is an opportunity for all of us, particularly in prospect development.

So what can we in prospect development do?

We have to start involving people below the Forbes 400 level – now – for all kinds of reasons.

First of all, although their bank accounts are growing at astonishing levels and their numbers are creeping up slowly, ultra-high net worth individuals (UHNWI) are still a tiny subset of the general population. Also they tend to give their support exclusively to large, well-established institutions (the equivalent of the Forbes 400 of the nonprofit world).

Second, I don’t know of too many nonprofits whose constituencies are exclusively over 60, male, and white. All-white boards may have worked in the 1970s, but we all know that style of board should have died out long ago. The fact that the status quo has lasted this long is frankly lazy and embarrassing. Female and BIPOC representation amongst trustees, volunteers, donors, and fundraisers, has to increase and fast in order for nonprofits to stay relevant (and afloat).

And third, donors have an increasing number of giving choices that completely bypass nonprofits and go straight to the recipient. Let me repeat that – donors are bypassing nonprofits entirely (read the embedded-linked article in that last line). Or they give money to nonprofits through vehicles like Facebook, which cuts out the nonprofit/donor relationship. Right now, when people can’t get out to volunteer or to attend events, these options are a way for mid-level donors to make a direct impact. This makes prospect identification, philanthropic-interest research, and engagement all the more difficult for an increasingly important demographic.

And although they may not be 100% correct, the critics care enough about the success of our sector to venture an opinion and point out where we need to fix things.

As a prospect development professional, I can’t fix DAFs, or foundation payouts, or wealth inequality, or the tax code. But there are many things we definitely can do to make our sector – and our own nonprofits – better. And that starts with making the pie bigger.

Elbow-grease prospecting and segmentation are even more critical right now. There are opportunities in every single fundraising database to be found through analytics and wealth screening, peer networks and philanthropy. There are common-sense ways to find new or previously overlooked donors in the communities where we operate and that we serve.

As an industry, we need to figure out how to present newly-identified prospects in such a way that fundraisers will rush to set up a Zoom call. And managers need to find new ways to motivate fundraisers to do that. Great prospects sitting in a portfolio growing cold are the very worst kind of waste. Internally we need to discover ways to communicate excitement and opportunity.

Something that’s been exciting for me is a project we’re working on right now within our Data Insight team: identifying the ways that the research tools we use don’t identify (or appropriately weight) female and BIPOC prospects and building up our own custom appends and methods to counter those deficiencies for our clients.

I’d love to hear your thoughts about any or all of this.

 

Filed Under: Fundraising Ethics, Non-profit trends Tagged With: data insight, inclusiveness, philanthropy, prospect identification, prospect research

April 23, 2020 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Donors that are stepping up right now

While it becomes increasingly easy to believe that the nonprofit sector’s glass is half empty at the present moment, the reality is that people want to help nonprofits, and they are stepping up. If you don’t believe it, I thought I’d share some of the many places you can go to get some really good, heartening news.

At the same time that 80 percent of US nonprofits surveyed were telling the BBB Wise Giving Alliance that they expect revenues will be down in 2020, Fidelity Charitable announced that giving from its donor-advised funds was up 36% this March compared to the same time last year.

Fidelity surveyed its donors who had given at least $1,000 during the second half of March. Over half had no plans to decrease their giving this year, and 25% said that they planned to increase their giving.

Including support just for COVID-19 related giving (which was $160.7 million as of yesterday, and up $20m since last Friday), total giving from Fidelity’s DAF donors so far in 2020 is well over $2 billion. This month Fidelity issued a “COVID-19 Relief Challenge” to its donors to give $200m before #GivingTuesdayNOW on May 5. This is clearly having a positive impact on their giving numbers.

If you haven’t yet read the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s April 9th article by Michael Theis titled “Giving From Donor-Advised Funds Surge as Pandemic Spreads” you should get on that now – it’s a barn-burner full of hope and a call to action. From the article:

 Money is not simply flowing out of the funds. Donors are also contributing to their accounts, even though the slide in the stock market and the tumbling economy might have caused some supporters to pause their giving.

Deanna Spaulding, a spokeswoman at Fidelity Charitable, declined to provide figures for incoming gifts, but she added that the number of new fund accounts opened has also grown since the start of the year.”

And it’s not just Fidelity. DAF sponsors large and small all over the country are reporting the same thing.

Giving from funds at Schwab Charitable were up 21% February 14 – March 31 compared with the same period last year. Schwab “asked the Center for Disaster Philanthropy for a list of organizations responding to the pandemic globally and highlighted them on its website. Those organizations saw a nearly 450 percent increase (emphasis mine) in grant dollars from Schwab account holders.”

Over the past few weeks, the new CEO of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation, the place where tech millionaires and billionaires send their philanthropic dollars to DAF, has been calling donors asking them to spend at least 5% of their invested funds now. And she says they’re seeing donors answering the call.

Even smaller DAF sponsors are seeing a huge uptick. ImpactAssets DAF reported to Barrons that by the end of the second quarter of 2020 investments in its fund will exceed $143 million, more than total investments made in the fund for all of last year. Their DAF donors made more than 1,000 grants totaling $11 million from their DAFs last month, two times the number made in a normal March.

If there was ever a moment for DAF donors to allocate those funds they were saving for a crisis, it’s now, and they seem to be stepping up.

Who else is giving right now? Startups.

Earlier this month, Crunchbase reported that a number of startups had accelerated their philanthropic giving due to the pandemic. Their initial article listing 24 startups grew so fast that they abandoned adding to the article and embedded a running spreadsheet of companies, which is now up to 140. Check out the interactive list to see if there’s a company donating in your area.

Also, private and family foundations, companies, and LLCs

Candid reports on their new popup COVID giving/tracking webpage that total coronavirus giving they’ve counted so far stands right now at nearly $8 billion.

Just like the number of coronavirus cases out there, there is likely lots more giving that just hasn’t been counted yet.

Donors are eager to give and, as we pointed out two weeks ago, there are plenty of companies and industries that are doing really well right now. We may have to adapt or throw out some old ways of doing things and adopt new technologies and strategies, but it appears that as the need for funding has risen, so have the numbers of donors who want to be helpful.

FURTHER READING

Charity is off the charts amid the coronavirus. Is that a sign of America’s strength or weakness? By Laurence Darmiento, LA Times, 4/20/2020

Community Funders Balance Priorities in the Face of Overwhelming Needs, by Paul Karon. Inside Philanthropy, 4/22/2020

Special Report: Covid-19 and the Charitable Sector. Give.org BBB Wise Giving Alliance

Want to see some fascinating stats on email solicitations right now? NextAfter has created a web page chock-full of real-time analysis of 90 nonprofits with lovely charts and graphs showing

  • The types of verticals in the analysis
  • Median monthly visitors for each vertical (the top nonprofit type has 4x the visitors of #2)
  • How has the average number of gifts changed Jan-April this year vs last?
  • How has avg. revenue been affected in recent months? (Spoiler: it mostly hasn’t)
  • How has each vertical changed their volume of messaging in recent months? (these numbers were really interesting).

Filed Under: News, Non-profit trends Tagged With: COVID19, DAFs, Donor advised funds, philanthropy, prospect research

December 27, 2018 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

My favorites from 2018

Hi there and happy almost-New Year!

I did a wrap-up last week on the HBG team’s favorite resources from our prospect research links page, and this week I thought I’d share some of my own personal favorite reads from this year.

This list is the really-worth-it books, articles and white papers I’ve read over the course of 2018. In case you have some down time between now and the new year (or even in the weeks ahead), I thought you might like to queue up the ones that are new to you. I’ve thrown in a couple of personalities I think you might want to follow on social media, too.

As always, if you have suggestions for things that I and others shouldn’t miss, please don’t hesitate to share them in the comments – I love learning about new sources! [Read more…]

Filed Under: Career development, HBG Book Club, Most popular Tagged With: Best of 2018, philanthropy, prospect research

January 4, 2018 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Innovation in Philanthropy

Creativity abounds everywhere in the Third Sector, from service providers in the field, to fundraising offices managing more on a shoestring, to a new breed of funders (and well-established funders, too) thinking up new ways to engage with, spur forward, and support their philanthropic priorities. In this week’s article, HBG Senior Researcher Grace Chandonnet shares some of the interesting and creative ways funders are having an impact in the world today. ~Helen

Lately I’ve been thinking about the innovative ways that young entrepreneurs are actively engaging in philanthropy. As my colleague Elizabeth Roma writes, the philanthropy landscape is ever evolving and innovating and appears to be picking up the pace of change exponentially in recent years in what is being referred to as the New Gilded Age. Elizabeth touches on innovative philanthropic vehicles such as the Emerson Collective and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, as well as B-Corps and impact investing. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Non-profit trends Tagged With: Grace Chandonnet, innovation, philanthropy, prospect research

June 1, 2017 By Helen Brown 4 Comments

Unstructured and very valuable

This week we welcome my colleague, Tara McMullen, to the blog-stage to talk about a type of data that’s particularly tough to wrangle, but totally worth the effort. Here’s Tara on the rewards to be found in digging through unstructured data (and some great places to find it).

Image by Tomas Castelazo, www.tomascastelazo.com / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46457765

In my work, I find myself constantly perusing social pages, local and regional news publications, and text-heavy lists and articles about wealthy and powerful people to try to pull out valuable “soft” information from these sources of unstructured data.

The information found in these sources is often invaluable in providing insight into a prospect’s relationships and connections, non-profit and civic affiliations, family members, neighbors, community groups, hobbies and activities (like golf or boating), and – of particular interest to those of us in the prospect development field – potential philanthropic interests. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Effective searching, Prospect identification, Researching Individuals Tagged With: NY social diary, philanthropy, Tara McMullen, unstructured data, wealth

April 6, 2017 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

The New Gilded Age

The number of gifts of $10 million-plus at universities are at an all-time high, according to a Marts & Lundy study. Beyond lending just their names or faces to events, an increasing number of celebrities are putting in volunteer time and money for the causes they care about. And new forms of giving vehicles like LLCs are emerging to meet donors’ needs for flexibility. Articles about philanthropy are increasingly in the main stream news, describing how giving is changing our society – in fractal patterns. This week I’m delighted to welcome HBG Assistant Research Director Elizabeth Roma to the blog to help share her thoughts and expertise on our new Gilded Age.

Elizabeth Roma

When I started college in the mid-1990s, I had no idea what I wanted to study, but I knew that I liked to read and think. After taking a variety of core liberal arts classes during my freshman year, I concluded that majoring in English would allow me to spend four years doing just that, and I loved (almost) every minute of it.

I still like to read and think (and I bet you do too if you’re reading this blog), and it turns out that I managed to stumble into a job that allows me to do just that—and even get paid for it! (Side note for those soon-to-be liberal arts graduates—and their parents, siblings, grandparents, spouses, etc.: maybe prospect development is the career for you!) [Read more…]

Filed Under: Career development, News, Non-profit trends Tagged With: Elizabeth Roma, Gilded Age, NEDRA, philanthropy, Rachel Dakarian

December 1, 2016 By Helen Brown 3 Comments

Come Together. Right Now.

This week my colleague Grace Chandonnet points us to great research on the benefits of collaboration and shares some of the methods we use (and you can, too) to take advantage of deep knowledge and resources around you.
collaboration

Collaboration ©opensource.com via Flickr CC BY-SA

The events of the recent past have inspired divisiveness and mistrust amongst the citizens of the United States and even the world. For the sake of my own wellbeing, I’ve been trying to focus on the things in my life that make me feel connected to something positive. Fortunately for me, not only am I connected to work that makes a real difference in the world, but I have an amazing group of colleagues who are always ready and willing to collaborate.

COLLABORATION’S MULTIPLE BENEFITS

According to Murali Krishna, HR Service Administrator at IBM, “Collaboration not only equals a happier workforce, it represents an educated one. This is because it naturally inspires a sense of community within an organization, meaning that employees feel almost like they are a part of a family. Additionally, collaboration allows employees to learn from each other and the bosses.” [Read more…]

Filed Under: Campaign Success, Career development, Non-profit trends, Research Department Success Tagged With: current trends, Google Cloud G Suite, Grace Chandonnet, HipChat, Mindtools, Murali Krishna, philanthropy, political fundraising

August 25, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Brexit, 2 Months Later: The undercover fundraiser (with apologies to Tim Harford)

We’ve been somewhat distracted here in the US with our own looming election, so perhaps we can be forgiven for forgetting that another monumental, electrically charged election nicknamed ‘Brexit’ happened two months ago this week in the United Kingdom. If your nonprofit has constituents in the UK or Europe, this will be much on their minds because it has likely already had a significant impact on their personal finances. Now that the dust has settled a bit, I asked my colleague Marc Whitmore at More Partnership (that’s him in the photo) to give us some insight on what’s happening with Brexit through the philanthropy and fundraising lens. It’s a fascinating read – enjoy! ~Helen

Marc Whitmore, More Partnership

What the hell happened, Britain?

Quite. Well, in May 2015, the UK elected a Government with the manifesto pledge to hold a referendum with a simple question: should the UK remain in or leave the European Union? That referendum took place on 23 June 2016, and 51.9% of those who voted, voted to leave the EU. [Read more…]

Filed Under: International prospect research, News, Non-profit trends Tagged With: Brexit, fundraising, impact, Marc Whitmore, More Partnership, philanthropy

August 4, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Outside In: Finding Diversity & Inclusion in Philanthropy in the Midst of National Crises & Augmented Reality

This week I am delighted to feature an article by James Cheng which appeared just this week in NEDRA News, the excellent web publication from the New England Development Research Association. James is an active NEDRA board member, serving as chair of the Social Media Committee, the Website & Technology Committee, and the newly-created Diversity Committee. James’s article made me think about the uncertainties in our current political situations, regardless of where we live. Of the permeability of borders, and what is irreparably damaged or lost when communication and collaboration are cut off. Of what it means to be diverse, by gender, country, ethnicity, orientation, or belief system. And how important it is to make all of our constituents feel included if our organizations are to grow. NEDRA is forming a committee to begin to open the conversation on what this means for philanthropy; I applaud them and encourage you to add your voice to the discussion.

By Jovel (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

        Tipping                                                                       Point

As the popularity of the “augmented reality” game Pokémon GO began to spread exponentially like a virus, my snarky comments on friends’ social posts of captured cartoon images increased correspondingly. When a couple of these friends pointed that out to me, I started to contemplate my critical responses. Were they a personal retaliation against what I saw as nostalgia-induced Pollyanna-ish myopia? Or was I perhaps reacting against the apparent surrender of higher reasoning to a tribalistic hive-mind? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Career development, Non-profit trends Tagged With: diversity, inclusion, James Cheng, NEDRA, New England Development Research Association, nonprofit, philanthropy

July 7, 2016 By Helen Brown Leave a Comment

Navigating the Changing Landscapes of Wealth & Philanthropy

This week we’re delighted to welcome HBG Research Associate Rachel Dakarian to the Intelligent Edge. Rachel and Elizabeth Roma will be presenting on July 28th at the APRA International Conference in Nashville, TN. I asked Rachel to give us a glimpse into their topic, and now I can’t wait to see the presentation! Follow Rachel on Twitter at @Rachel_Dakarian.
Bette Davis

Bette Davis as Margo Channing in “All About Eve.” Her famous line, “Fasten your seat belts. It’s going to be a bumpy night.” Painting by Trevor Heath. Source

Just when, exactly, did the “fasten seatbelt” sign turn on? 2016 has been an unexpectedly bumpy ride so far and we should prepare for ongoing turbulence. You might think we data junkies would be harder to spook after acclimating to the never-ending squawk of the 24-hour news cycle, but the constant stream of real-time information provided by social media continues to simultaneously help and hinder our ability to decipher signal from noise. [Read more…]

Filed Under: News, Non-profit trends, Research Department Success, Social Media Tagged With: Brexit, HNWI, Panama Papers, philanthropy, prospect research, Rachel Dakarian, UHNWI

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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).