CASE has just published the third edition of its guide to Advancement Services. The title of this edition is "Advancement Services: Enhancing Fundraising Success." The book was a labor of love for over 2 years by 25 of advancement services professionals, led and edited by the esteemed John … [Read more...]
Discussion of Donor Data Retention
A few months ago I wrote a post on the topic of whether nonprofits should delete old donor records. The same topic came up recently on the APRA's listserve, PRSPCT-L. The original question: My organization is working on a data retention policy and wondering if others have insights to share. There … [Read more...]
Tales of faux donors scamming charities
The following is a compilation of online discussions of faux donors trying to scam colleges, schools, and nonprofits. In most cases it’s not clear what the scammers are trying to achieve. Maybe they’re just practical jokes. These tales were provided by Barbara Esteve at Cedar Crest College, … [Read more...]
Using Prospect Research to Raise $1 Million
Margaret King, President of the InfoRich Group, has published an article on how prospect research yielded $1 million in foundation funding for one of her clients. She discusses the strategy behind the research, the tools she used, how the list was narrowed to a group of top prospects, and the … [Read more...]
New listing of big gifts
Jay Frost of ContactReporter.com (formerly of WealthID) has started a new blog that will track large individual gifts to all types of charities in the US and abroad: www.BigGifts.wordpress.com … [Read more...]
Guessing the Gender of a Name
Ever wonder how to tell the gender of an unfamiliar first name? The PRSPCT-L listserve (for prospect researchers) had a discussion of resources for figuring this out and members provided the following suggestions: http://www.wikihow.com/Find-the-Gender-of-a-Name … [Read more...]
Relationship mapping software reviews
After reading several listserve discussions of the use of relationship mapping tools for prospect research, the WellStar Foundation's David Broussard decided to get serious about the subject. The result is a website called Relationship Map Reviews. The site describes relationship mapping as a … [Read more...]
How Charities Use Screening Tools to Find Donors
According to a study commissioned by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, large charities are much more likely than small ones to use wealth screening services. Approximately 1,300 fundraisers answered a survey asking whether they use screening services to identify prospective donors or likely upgrade … [Read more...]