Ah, the Request to Update a Profile… Which of the “Three C’s” Do You Use?

As a researcher, part-time or full-time, it takes just a short while of working with a front line fundraising staff/development officer(s) to receive the following kind of request, typically by email. Please note the fictional conversation below. 

[Email to me] Hi Geoff. I am visiting with Wellathee Parsons in two weeks here in town.

It looks like the last research profile completed on her was over a year ago.

Can you update this profile? Be in touch. Warmly, Colleen Ewes, Sr. Development Officer

Hmm. This prospect doesn’t immediately ring a bell. It hasn’t been on mine or my development officer’s radar (that I know of). I look them up in my organization’s development database. Ahh, Ms. Parsons, the partner in the big downtown law firm. I see that Ms. Parsons has minimal involvement with my group. However, she is a long-time corporate real estate attorney. She is rated to have high capacity because of her impressive real estate and compensation amounts. I see that her husband has attended an event with my organization, but that was six years ago. I see that the couple has contributed only a handful of token gifts over the years, $1,500 total. I see the last research profile. It is over 18 months old, and is in the old format. It looks a little stale to me, but does still have all of the key info, at least at first blush.

<Moments of indecision. Ranges of emotion.>

My workload is packed at present. I have barely begun one assignment lately without another request coming through. Colleen already has two other profiles/projects requests out to me. I have barely started those.

What is the best response to Colleen?

Let’s look at three hypothetical responses I might email back. I will call them the “Three C’s” for three distinct choices…

1. Compliance.

Thanks, Colleen, for your request. I will add this profile to my work queue and have for you as soon as possible. I understand you need it before two weeks from now when you visit Ms. Parsons.

2. Contention.

Hi Colleen, I was just beginning the earlier project you gave me last week – on finding 25 best prospects for you in Atlanta for your trip next month – when this new request came through. I am not sure if you understand the time it takes to complete a profile, even an update. It is easily three to four hours to go through the many research areas; then, it must be proofed and finalized. This all takes a lot of time. I’m sorry if I sound upset. I am a bit overwhelmed. I will be happy to have my supervisor contact you if that would be helpful. I will try to get to this work as soon as possible.

3. Collaboration.

Hi Colleen. That’s great that you were able to get a lunch scheduled with Ms. Parsons! After reviewing her information in our database, I see we have tried to meet with her several times, but she has been unable to make an appointment fit her schedule. You finally got to her!

Instead of recreating a profile, I wonder if I could get for you key information you are thinking of for this prospect. Are there specific questions you have about Ms. Parsons, even judging from her past profile? Perhaps you have questions about her wealth capacity, social/community connections, or current public philanthropy? I bet I could confirm these areas looking up a few things in our our subscriber resources. I could do this quickly and email you my results. I’ll of course also save it into our database at her record. I am especially busy in my department at present. Thoughts? Please let me know if this plan sounds okay.

Of course, I can’t tell you which “C” to choose. The best one may not be available to you – for reasons beyond your control. If this is the case, oh well.

But the best practice is for the researcher-development officer relationship to be framed by the word partnership. How might this be defined? Here are two suggestions: A) What can you do to help a development officer be most successful – to truly advance relationship(s) they have with their prospect to the solicitation stage? Is the answer really a profile update? And B) For your sake, in terms of flexibility, what can a development officer do to be flexible to you so that you can provide the greatest net impact for them, and for your organization? In other words, let’s think bigger picture, and bigger reward!

Building a collaborative, mutually satisfying, and tension-free workflow with a front line/development officer is a continual challenge, even for the most seasoned prospect research professional. However, it is no less a vital objective to plan for, even every day. Obviously, this goal requires careful, humble communication. Today’s best research staffers are careful to quietly, professionally under-promise and over-deliver what they can do when presented with a new project. They look for ways to compress a research request to its purest business need for the overall organization, and they communicate it through a collaborative framework.

Geoffrey Little, President, APRA MidSouth
president@apramidsouth.org

Building Relationships with Gift Officers

One of the challenges of prospect research can be stepping back from our quest for information in order to build relationships with the gift officers we serve. These relationships, however, have as much to do with a successful career in research as does knowing where to find the right information. Here are some ideas to help you expand and develop your relationships with gift officers.

• Reach out. Playing offense can help you to stay a step ahead. Find out what your gift officer’s priorities are for the month, quarter, or year. Then think of ways you can help him achieve his goals.
• Ask for clarification. Often a gift officer has something very particular in mind when she asks for research. When appropriate, ask questions to gain a better understanding of what information she wants most. These sorts of clues can help you find better information, narrow your focus, and show you are committed to providing what the gift officer needs. All of this in turn means you provide a better product, and everyone is happier!
• Stay abreast of travel plans and prospect visits. Finding a way to stay tuned in to your gift officer’s plans will help you to be proactive. If he is travelling to another city, you could suggest a list of prospects he might want to call. If he has a meeting with Mr. Smith, you could do a quick search to see if there has been any news on Mr. Smith recently.
• Share relevant news stories or articles. Finding news on prospects is extremely helpful to gift officers – knowing the good, the bad, and the ugly helps them to plan strategies for cultivation and solicitation. Even if a gift officer has already seen an article, she will be impressed that you picked up on the connection.
• Choose your communication method wisely. Email seems to rule our world, especially for those of us who are constantly searching for information online. Picking up the phone can be useful when a complex question needs answering or when it is time for negotiating. Always seek out opportunities for occasional face-to-face contact, too. Finding a balance of these three communication methods will help to keep communication flowing.

These are a few ways to help build relationships with gift officers. What works for you? Leave a comment below.

Caroline Rossini, Treasurer, APRA MidSouth
treasurer@apramidsouth.org

Rich Lists

The following link shows a compilation of various rich lists. It looks like it will be particularly useful for international research. The U.S. lists are at the bottom.

http://www.helenbrowngroup.com/services/the-rich-list/

NY Times Survey of Highest-Paid CEOs

Recently, The New York Times published its annual survey of the 100 highest-paid CEOs in America in an article entitled “In Executive Pay, a Rich Game of Thrones.” The article discusses the compensation packages of the top CEOs and illustrates overall executive compensation trends at the most successful U.S. companies.

(Here’s the NYT article: http://tinyurl.com/6q7j8db)

Equilar, the company who supplies the compensation data for NYT’s surveys each year, took it a step further and wrote a follow-up analysis of the NYT’s study. (Link to Equilar’s response: http://tinyurl.com/7lbldxh)

A few of their key findings:

• CEOs from Consumer Goods companies make up the largest share of the list, while Utilities make up the smallest group.
• Technology CEOs received the most equity, with 90 percent of compensation received in options or stock/units. On the other hand, Industrial companies paid out 53 percent of compensation in cash.
• Among all CEOs on the list, 50 percent of all value was given through time- and performance-based stock awards.

Among many other points, the NYT’s article makes the bold statement that business is back to usual following the 2009 recession. CEOs are back to taking large base salaries and even more in terms of stock awards. Seven-figures is the new six-figures.

Surviving the Swirl of Prospect Research

Swirl.

Sometimes my mind as a Prospect Researcher is in a constant state of swirl. How about you?
When I first joined WKU I came on working part-time in prospect research and part-time in stewardship. It was a good job combo so I could get my feet wet in the world of university fundraising.

Then the Prospect Researcher moved to a position as a Development Officer and I was given the opportunity to move into her spot full-time. I jumped at the chance. And inherited the swirl.
We were in the middle of the silent phase of our current campaign. It was time for a new wealth screening of the database. We were upgrading Advance (then known as BSR) from windows-based to the new Advance Web. We needed to find those major gift prospects. How do we manage and track the prospects – old and new? And…...well, you get the picture.

Yep, talk about a mind swirl. Exciting, interesting, but definitely whirling and swirling to get a hold of it all as I learned to do this thing called “Prospect Research.”

That’s when something great happened in the life of this Prospect Researcher. A group of Prospect Researchers in the middle Tennessee area decided that it was time to go small. APRA National is a great organization – great information, great networking, great opportunities – but a bit overwhelming for a 1 ½ person shop like mine to know where to go for help. And I was not just saying “help” meekly I was yelling it from the rooftops – HELP! (No panic involved –well maybe a little…)

This start-up group of Prospect Researchers based mainly out of Vanderbilt University, realized that the Midsouth (i.e. Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Kentucky) needed a networking group to connect Prospect Researchers of all sizes and organizations on a more regional level. A group closer together would make it easier to reach each other, to share information, ideas, and opportunities. And much more.

Can you hear me say “Hallelujah?” I almost ran from Bowling Green to Nashville to join (not really, but it sounds good, right?) In the few years since its formation, I have spent many hours with the APRA MidSouth group. They have shared time, ideas, information, themselves. Honestly, for me and our small shop, it has been a life (and mind swirl) saver.

Looking on the other side of WKU’s A New Century of Spirit Campaign (we finish as of June 30, 2012) I am in the mode of assessing how we made it through, what to change and what to do as we prepare for the next campaign (and that includes the help of a new Director of Prospect Research who just joined us).

One thing I know for sure, that no matter how much mind swirling all this review and reloading brings, my friends at APRA MidSouth have helped prepare me for what comes next. Thanks, guys. Thanks for helping me get through the swirls. And I’m here to help you get through yours.

Theresa Clark, Board Advisor, Western Kentucky University
at.large@apramidsouth.org

Tommy Lee Jones as a Development Officer

There’s a scene in The Fugitive that reminds me of being a prospect researcher. Federal Marshal Samuel Gerard, played by Tommy Lee Jones, takes charge of the hunt for escaped prisoner Dr. Richard Kimball, played by Harrison Ford, with this memorable speech*:



*“Alright, listen up, people. Our fugitive has been on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is 4 miles-per-hour. That gives us a radius of six miles. What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints will go up at fifteen miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him.”

Really?!? That’s 113 square miles! That’s the land area of the entire city of Las Vegas! Not only that, but the search area grows exponentially by the hour!

The above scene is great for dramatic effect. In fact, it helped Jones win an Oscar. I get his point. Tommy Lee’s character wants to get into the mindset of the fugitive and wants to be as thorough as possible. But practically speaking, he’s asking for a lot. To relate it back to prospect research, sometimes development officers ask for more than they need. They ask for everything.

When development officers ask for everything you can find on a prospect, what do they really want? I think they really want context. They want the confidence of knowing that you have been thorough. But in the effort to follow up on every tiny detail of a person’s wealth and philanthropy, the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty fast. Determining what development officers need vs. what you can provide in the allotted time is one of the most important and challenging aspects of being a prospect researcher.

Given unlimited time, a seasoned researcher could find tons of information. But researchers don’t have the luxury of unlimited time. Therefore, we have to be strategic. We must forge and maintain relationships with our development officers so that our work is an ongoing conversation. We must do the basics exceptionally well. We must be thorough, but thorough within the time constraints we manage day to day. You may not have searched every henhouse and doghouse in the area, but establishing the critical overlap between gift capacity and inclination will get you most of the way there.

Go get ‘em.

Mitch Roberson, Communications Director, APRA MidSouth
communications@apramidsouth.org

APRA MidSouth Seminar -- Prospect Research 101

APRA MidSouth is happy to announce the first of three half-day seminars on Prospect Research 101. The first event will take place in Nashville, Tennessee, on Friday, April 20, 2012, at Room in the Inn (705 Drexel Street, Nashville, Tennessee 37203) from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon. The event is free for APRA MidSouth members and $20 for non-members.

Topics for discussion include how to establish gift capacity, what prospect research means for your organization, and how to use free resources to conduct top-notch research. We will announce the details of upcoming events in Louisville, Kentucky, and Memphis, Tennessee soon.

To register for the event, click here or contact Geoff Little at president@apramidsouth.org or 615-322-3851. To become an APRA MidSouth member, click here.  We look forward to meeting not-for-profit professionals from across the region and learning together!

Transylvania University Job Opening

Please see our Job Board for information about a prospect research position at Transylvania University.

Guest Post: Excel Tip of the Week: Pivot Tables

Knowing how to use Microsoft Excel is important when it comes to analyzing research data.  It's even better if you know about pivot tables.  Please check out this illuminating blog post on pivot tables by friend-of-APRA MidSouth, Doug Midkiff.  Thanks, Doug!  You can see more of Doug’s excellent Excel tips here.

University of Tennessee Job Openings

Please see our Job Board to learn about two prospect research positions at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.