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Along with most of the modern world, I, too, took it upon myself to create a New Year’s Resolution for 2012. OK – so I am also somewhat of an overachiever, so I actually have two. First, decluttering my house, in bite size chunks, became one of my missions for 2012. So much so I found a calendar with daily (except for Sundays) decluttering projects to guide me, encourage me, and hold me accountable. [Note: I found the calendar via Pinterest.] My first HUGE project (I did say bite size, but…) was weeding the pantry. First step was to assess what exactly was in the pantry – best way to do this? Remove all items from said pantry. This was the scene in my kitchen:

It only made sense to throw away expired items in the process of removing all items from the pantry. So, this had me thinking about how stale research (and/or prospects) can become when such has been “hidden” in a nonprofit’s pantry (um, I mean, database) for too long. Is it possible to declutter your prospect management and research operations and, in effect, declutter your organization’s mission? I pondered this as I desperately searched for an expiration date on this gem:

The Bee's Knees

This is a most excellent peanut butter and one of my son’s favorites. But alas, the date was a bit worn off! I think I could see a 2012, or was it 2011? Was that a sign to expel this PB from my pantry? I consult with a number of nonprofit organizations, including providing prospect research services, and I will identify major gift prospects for them, which of course results in a discussion regarding approach. There are times when the bee’s knees (i.e., a prospective donor) simply will not exactly mesh up with the mission of a certain nonprofit. Typically, this has to do with timing. Some nonprofits (and yes, I’ve seen this in higher ed institutions too) will feel the need to adjust their funding priorities in order to meet the interests of certain prospective donors. I’ve seen these organizations expend significant staff time and energy (MONEY) to create a program which may appeal to these prospects, only to not receive the major gift they had anticipated. I do believe through decluttering your prospect management and research operations one can do an amazing service to the overall organization, including cleaning out the organization’s programs. I offer to you the following insight and tips:

• Report, report, report. Depending upon the volume of research and fundraising intelligence you and your colleagues provide, run a report from your database (or wherever you are keeping track of the info you distribute – you do that, right?) of all research distributed for prospects for which no significant contact by a frontline fundraiser has been made within 6 months of distribution.
• Segment, segment, segment. From this report, review the tags or other descriptors for each prospect. Separate prospects into program, strategy, behaviors. Then further segment based upon assigned fundraiser. What patterns do you see? Is your frontline fundraiser colleague’s portfolio too full to take advantage of the information you’ve distributed? How can you reassign in consultation with your colleague? If you don’t have a plan for this, check out the best practices for prospect development over at the AASP website. [Note: you must be a member to access finalized best practices documentation, or if you are a member of APRA, you can view documentation there too.]
• Better vs. best by date. During my pantry project, I came across one item which had a BETTER BY date as opposed to a BEST BY date. Really? Could one really assign such? I believe we, as a group of professional researchers, are really good at documenting when certain information was compiled, but have we also recommended by when such research is still “good”? Is there a point in time at which a prospect becomes no longer approachable, given the information uncovered? And, would such a “best by” date ensure the research is utilized in a timely fashion?
• Teachable moment. Once my pantry (yes, it’s now MY pantry…) was organized, my whole family could clearly see what was, and what wasn’t, in the pantry. Once you go through a decluttering project, your organization should be able to clearly see what types of prospects are not being seen in a timely manner. You’ll be able to identify a strategy for change. You will have a teachable moment, not only for your prospect management, data management, and research colleagues, but also for your frontline fundraisers. [NOTE: As an aside, I suggest viewing this type of press as a teachable  moment as well.]
• Report, report, report. I know – I’m repeating myself. In this case, repeat the above steps but with a different approach. Which prospects were seen within 6 months of distribution of the research? What are the patterns? Do you see any correlation regarding incoming gifts from these prospects and the distribution of the research? How can you build on this success?
• BONUS. Does the addition of external data inform the patterns you see? [For instance, public company insiders vs. private company owners.]

How often you declutter is up to you and your pending assignments and tasks. When I worked for the FSU Foundation, we called this “Spring Cleaning” and so it was usually Springtime. There is extraordinary value in this type of clean up, and I do urge you to find the time to do this. If you have the luxury of having a prospect research department, assign these tasks as time allows (but with a due date, please).

Oh, and here is a look at my finished project, which my lovely tween daughter said, “Mom, this will never last.” I guess there is always next year!

Pantry Sanity!

What are your tips for decluttering your mission? Please feel free to share in the comments section!

Like a lot of you, I subscribe to numerous listservs serving the nonprofit space. Advance-L, PRSPCT-L (and yes, every time I type that, I do sing it –in my head – to the tune of that Aretha classic), CFRNET, FUNDSVCS – the list goes on and on. And of course with Twitter, I have created my own listserv of sorts – following (including Twitter lists others have created) other Tweeps with similar interests to my own.

One aspect of listservs which intrigues me is the title contained in the posting – not the subject title, but the poster’s job title. This morning, someone posted with a question regarding database conversion and whether or not anyone had a calendar of events or a checklist of tasks they had found to be helpful in the process.  This person’s title? Director of Mission Advancement & Donor Stewardship. I absolutely LOVE the insertion of the word mission before the word advancement. David and I (along with numerous colleagues who we also are fortunate to call friends) have long said if you work at a nonprofit or any fundraising organization, you are a FUNDRAISER. Period. End of story. Your job at said organization is always to advance the mission of your organization. Now, I do understand, not everyone can have the title of “fundraiser” – would get a bit confusing internally in terms of management. We have always distinguished between frontline fundraiser vs. “behind the scenes” fundraiser. However, I do believe this title – Director of Mission Advancement – is onto something. Typically, the title would have been something like “Director of Advancement Relations” or “Director of Advancement Services.” Relations and services – nothing against these words – have the connotation of internal tasks. Perhaps even translated into function: Director of Making Sure Gift Acknowledgement Letters Go Out the Door Correctly and IT Plays Well With Others and Research Finds the Right Prospects to Meet Our Dollar Goal and the Gala Event Caterer Does Not Serve Mr/Ms/Miss/Dr Benefactor Red Meat. When someone has the title of “fundraiser” there is no guess work externally or internally. That’s pretty straight forward. The way in which Director of Mission Advancement and Donor Stewardship clearly articulates the focus of this person’s job is exactly where it should be – the organization’s mission AND its donors.

Mission Advancement – I believe this should be universal within a nonprofit. Each position plays a specific instrumental part in advancing the mission of the organization. As a manager of prospect research, this was my mantra, “How does what I am being asked to do contribute toward advancing the mission of my organization?”

How does your role contribute to mission advancement? Does every task you undertake work towards your contribution to this goal?

PS There is still time to sign up for our webinar! Give yourself the gift of learning additional techniques to advance your mission!

A list of companies most likely to go IPO came across my Facebook wall the other day, and this list was created by Goldman Sachs.

Now, most of you will say, “Well, so what, it’s another list.” But something caught my eye in this piece, as the companies listed are STARTUPS:

“So why hold a conference for early stage companies if you’re an IPO underwriter? Well, the event basically functions as an extremely foresighted form of lead generation. According to multiple people I spoke to, these are the 30 or so startups Goldman has designated as potential IPO candidates. And it wants to make a relationship as early on as possible, in case some of them actually do and need Goldman’s services in the process.”

Oddly enough, nonprofits might be able to learn a thing or two from GS…

What are your organization’s steps to identify who, amongst your constituents, members, and prospects, are most likely to go MGO (major gift offering)? Has your organization developed that type of analysis internally, and, if so, how are you watching your list (checking it twice…) (sorry, I couldn’t resist)? And does your organization see the value in starting the relationship as early as possible?

If your organization has not started this type of identification and subsequent watch list, what is holding you back?

If you’ve ever attended one of our conference presentations focused on “Where’s the Money Now?”, you may recall my mentioning the WSJ’s Next Big Thing, and how I believe every nonprofit, especially with a prospect research department, could create their own internal scoring and ranking of certain prospects, using the WSJ methodology, easily. Check it out here for some inspiration to create your own score and then don’t forget to make your most likely to go MGO list…check it twice…

It warmed my heart (and it was extremely cold here this a.m., in FLORIDA, so I needed that warmth) to hear a piece on NPR regarding math degrees and BIG DATA. Reportedly, mathematicians can make sense of this data for businesses. No doubt this is true, and “intense curiosity to understand what’s behind the data is a common trait amongst such mathematicians.” I would argue people with BIG LOVE of research (like us – that is, a love of prospect research and data mining) all have this trait as well, with or without math degrees. How many nonprofits and higher ed foundations look for (and hire) mathematicians? Perhaps you should share this NPR story with your HR department, to adjust the requirements for certain development positions. Hey, I’m not suggesting you stop hiring those of us with library science, information studies, history, and/or English degrees. Read on and see why math majors should be included, too.

McKinsey released their results of a study earlier this year about the impact of big data across many different industry sectors. Among their findings, a retailer using Big Data to the full could increase its operating margin by more than 60%. Another – “access to data is critical – companies will increasingly need to integrate information from multiple data sources, often from third parties, and the incentives have to be in place to enable this.” I know, you might be saying, “Lori, we are not a retailer” (I could argue that point, but that’s another discussion) OR “Lori, we are not a company” (and I could also discuss that point too…). So, instead, take a look at Big Data for the Common Good. Or take a looksee at Geoff Livingston’s piece on Big Data.

OK, you’ve waded this far in. Now let’s define big data. Well, go ahead – use Bing or Google. I’ll wait…

One piece about which I think everyone can agree: to handle Big Data, your organization, in addition to the appropriate personnel, needs a scalable solution. Business Intelligence (aka fundraising intelligence) will rely upon your organization’s ability to handle the explosion of data that has already happened not to mention the data being created right now as you are reading this. All you have to do is take a look at the conferences across the globe regarding Big Data. Take a look at the speaker lineup – notice the company names. What pattern do you see? You’ll recall David mentioned in an earlier post about unstructured data. Big Data solutions should be able to take into account the unfielded data all organizations (whether nonprofit or for-profit) capture. Think about those free text fields in trip reports. Think about those prospect profiles and thumbnail sketches.

If I still worked within a higher ed foundation, I would find my way – fast – to the math department. Your prospect research department, if your nonprofit is fortunate enough to have one, could learn a thing or Fk, k > 2: O(1/e2 m1-2/k).