http://www.fundraisingresearch.info en-gb fundraisingresearch.info 2011-8-10T00:00:00Z fundraisingresearch.info http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#95796 Companies House online is an invaluable resource for company and director information. After all all limited companies in England Wales Northern Ireland and Scotland must register with Companies House by law. But it comes at a price. Not much of a price quite frankly at only 1634 per month for basic information with other documents costing between 1631 and 1634 to download and given that this gives you access to 260 million documents going back more than 15 years it strikes me as very reasonable. Especially when compared to the thousands you may pay for certain other databases of companies and directors. OK these others may have more bells and whistles but still for basic information checking CHO is very good value. But there are now a number of websites offering company and director information for free and in a format that includes some of the bells and whistles of the more expensive databases. Not many bells and whistles admittedly but given that they are free who can complain... 2011-8-10 16:28:39 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#95237 Ive been looking for a decent way to map prospects and donors for ooh 11 or 12 years now. Ive tried various methods from Excel spreadsheets to sophisticated purpose built software such as the now defunct Donor Gateway. In November 2008 I blogged about the importance of relationship mapping. Why is it important Well I really do believe it is the future of prospect research part of the future anyway and clearly I am not alone in thinking this as IntellectSpace producers of MarketVisual have recently launched a new mapping product for specifically for prospect identification. ProspectVisual allows you to upload your contacts and then produces a list of hottest prospects from amongst the 30 million contacts on IntellectSpaces database. To see how it works you can click on the demo on the website but I would forward it to 2m 20s to avoid the opening marketing guff complete with cheesy shots of Stepfordwife types happily networking with each other. There is also a H... 2011-6-1 12:53:25 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#94119 If you have a spare 9 minutes watch this fascinating film by Eli Pariser about how the various filters on Google Facebook and others strongly influence the websites that we find and prevent us from seeing much of the rest of the internet thus creating a filter bubble in which we unknowlingly sit. It is an eyeopener. Hat tip PRSPCTL. 2011-5-17 11:25:35 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#91289 The Centre for Investigative Journalism are hosting a free talk about how to find and access information held on a variety of social networking sites. Using only open legal and free methods from Friends Reunited to Facebook and Twitter you will lean how to use social networking sites as an investigative tool.So if you want to know how a professional investigative journalist does it the talk is on Wednesday 11 May at 6.30 to 8pm at City University in London. Further details on the CIJ website. 2011-4-8 09:40:45 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#90074 Time will tell whether Icorrect Sir David Tangs universal website for corrections to lies misinformation and misrepresentations will prove to be anything more than a flash in the pan for those with a sensitive ego but it could become a useful source of information for researchers. Cherie Blair certainly seems to like it... 2011-3-24 14:30:24 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#88920 Just a quick note to apologise to those of you who have emailed me in the last few weeks and not had a reply Ive been having email problems which are hopefully now resolved.If you email me now I promise to reply within a day or two if not the same day. So let the orgy of emailing begin 2011-3-10 14:59:55 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#88252 A recent ish report from New Philanthropy Capital and Global Partnership presents the results of a philanthropy survey sent to over 600 family offices in the UK between March and May 2010. Family Offices are private companies that manage the investments and affairs of wealthy families. As such the results offer a rare insight into the philanthropic nature of some of the UKs wealthiest families. The report is not very long and its key findings are Families are significantly more motivated by giving back to the community and addressing needs than public recognition or social expectations. Most of the families were satisfied with their recent giving experience but unfavourable aspects include tortuous administration and the fear of being actively pursued by charities. A large majority involve the younger generation in their giving85 of respondents with children under 21 either discuss or actively involve their children. More than 90 of families are planning either all or some of th... 2011-3-2 10:48:54 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#78703 Just a quick post to remind you all that there are still places available on the Researchers in Fundraising Annual Conference for more details follow this link. The increase in price 16355 for nonmembers of the IoF has raised a little comment and perhaps a few grumbles but for anyone who thinks this price is excessive or needs to justify the cost to their linemanager or head of department consider the following prices for comparable oneday conferences Raising Funds from the Rich a significant 163147. CASE Prospect Research Conference a weighty 163335 or 163235 for members and that was the 2008 price. Third Sectors 2008 conference Identify amp Cultivate Major Donors a whopping 163410 and that was the early booking rate. So you can see that the RiF conference at 16355 is actually very good value indeed and unlike two of the conferences listed above is aimed specifically at prospect researchers. Coolio. 2010-10-25 11:32:14 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#74515 Sorry to harp on again about reading around the subject OK Im not sorry really but I have found yet another good example of the importance of looking outside the usual fundraising and research resources to further your prospect research skills and understanding. This time it is the Centre for Investigative Journalism and their annual Summer School. Every year the cij runs an investigative journalism summer school where investigative journalists and anyone interested in advancing their investigative skills such as prospect researchers can learn the tricks of the trade from the leading practitioners and trainers in the field. Cor blimey One of the sessions Understanding Companies House is now available as an online video. Companies House is of course an essential resource for the prospect researcher and the speaker Robert Miller of the Daily Telegraph gives an informed introduction and overview of the sorts of information that you can find on the online version Companies H... 2010-9-2 16:36:10 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#73903 I was just reading the latest email update from SOFII the excellent and thoughtprovoking Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration and a thought struck me I know even though its Friday I thought do we need a Showcase of Research Innovation and Inspiration I guess my thinking was prompted by my post last week on Lauren Schaefer who blogged about how she used Facebook and one or two other resources to uncover more details about a prospect. I dont think that there is anything in what Lauren did that is particularly innovative but I do think that her post was quite inspirational. She showed how a series of comparatively simple steps can add up to a pretty powerful piece of research which enabled her to uncover some potentially very valuable information about the prospect. So this has got me thinking would it be possible to create a Showcase of Research Innovation and Inspiration I must admit that certain difficulties immediately suggest themselves. For one thing... 2010-8-27 15:26:39 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#73509 A week or so ago I wrote about research in behavioural psychology that showed that when faced with complex information people often make decisions based upon unrelated and irrational factors such as the appearance of the person showing them the information. As the authors of the study put it The field of cognitive psychology teaches us that when faced with more information than it can or chooses to handle the mind tends to simplify the decision process by relying on simple rules or heuristics. I warned fundraisers against trying to dazzle their prospects with too much information as this might cause the prospect to ignore that information and make a judgement about whether or not to support their charity based upon the fundraisers appearance amongst other irrelevant things which may count against the fundraiser it may not of course but who wants to take the chance. Anyhoo you can imagine my delight when I read the following from Beth Breezes recent study How donors c... 2010-8-23 10:46:49 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#73196 Theres a nice little blog post here about how Lauren Schaefer a Development Intern at a private nonprofit foundation in the US used Facebook to research a prospect Hat tip Jay Frost on PRSPCTL. What is just as interesting to my mind are some of the comments below the post. Some people are not happy about what they see as a blatant invasion of privacy. If this was still the sort of blog to use a few choice fourletter words Id have something to say in reply to them. Well I do anyway so here we go... Listen up crybabies if you dont want other people to be able to find out who you know what you talk about and how you live your life then heres a tip dont put all that information on a publicly available website. Dozy. Ooh feels good to have a nice rant again even just a minirant. 2010-8-19 10:04:34 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#72948 This weeks WOTW is Jen Fillas Information Seeking blog and the accompanying website of her Aspire Research Group. As well as the informative and lively blog she has a page of freebies which includes information sheets on data screening and creating a rating system for your prospects and also a number of presentations on PowerPoint. Its funny but only last week I was wondering if there were any other prospect research blogs out there as compared to fundraising blogs they appear to be pretty thin on the ground and then I find one Cool. If anyone knows of any other prospect research related blogs please let me know Thanks. 2010-8-16 10:29:54 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#72776 Way back in March 2007 I blogged that Im a great believer in looking outside the usual major donor amp prospect research circles for ideas resources etc. that may help further my knowledge amp skills in research. This is what they called at school reading around the subject. I.e. rather than just read the standard textbooks specifically for that subject topic etc. by experts in that field one should read other books on related subjects by those not necessarily working in that field or on that topic. In this way so the belief went you could pick up on useful information related to your own subject that you would otherwise have missed. I used the example of the great polevaulter Sergei Bubka. I remember reading about his training methods. Rather than just practise the vaulting and sprinting he ran cycled swam weight trained in fact pretty much every type of exercise that one can think of. He trained around his subject as it were. So with this in mind let us take a step WAAAA... 2010-8-13 15:50:26 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#72026 In my experience most people and that includes fundraisers do not really have much of a clue when it comes to addressing nobs and toffs. Or the various other people academics armed forces politicians with unusual titles. Given that it is the researchers job to make sure that you have the correct name for your prospect it is also your job to ensure that you have their correct title. Thank goodness then for Debretts extensive list of Forms of Address providing as they say a comprehensive guide to addressing members of the Royal Family and people with titles as well as members of the Church of England police and Armed Forces the academic legal and medical professions and politicians and diplomats. One proviso though do adhere to the prospects own preferred style if they have expressed a preference. If Lady Muck wished to be known as Mrs Elizabeth Muck then as a matter of courtesy that is how you should address her. But do make sure you make a note on her record that she IS Lady Muc... 2010-8-3 16:22:10 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#70932 This weeks website of the week or should that be website of the last six months is Jay Frosts Fundraising Sherpa. For those that dont know Jay is a professional fundraiser researcher author consultant and ubertweeter of some 25 years experience the fundraising that is not the tweeting which he brings to his recently launched blog Fundraising Sherpa. Theres currently an excellent post about data screening a must read for anyone thinking of getting their data screened I think and several other posts of interest to the professional researcher. Hat tip to RIF Chair Sacha Tremain for recommending the site on her LinkedIn page. 2010-7-21 12:14:47 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#61450 A quick post to apologise for all the broken links according to my link counter there are some 70 broken links throughout the site I have been meaning to go through the site page by page and completely update all the links info etc. but unfortuantely or fortunately I should really say a couple of obstacles have got in the way as you can see below So updating the site may take a little longer than I anticipated. In the meantime do feel free to email me with any researchrelated websites resources products etc. which are not on the site and I shall add them thanks Freddie and Emily 2010-3-26 09:43:58 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#55496 Kevin MacDonells CoolData Blog is a data oriented blog by a prospect researcher particularly interested in promoting the use of data mining and predictive modeling in fundraising. Ooh scarey...well slightly. As Kevin admits he is very much a nonexpert as regards techie stuff his training was in journalism not statistics and so it is all very readable and fairly easy to understand. My favourite post is the one about Googles motion charts. He recently sent me a demo hed created and it is wonderous indeed Ive yet to actually create my own but I blame Christmas for that. Happy New Year Oh and in other news I have resigned as Chairman of Researchers in Fundraising to concentrate on other matters not least the imminent arrival of twins. So in a month or twos time my posts to this blog will become even more infrequent than they are already The new RiF Chair is Sacha Tremain of the National Trust and I wish her all the best in what is one of the most rewarding interesting and fun role... 2010-1-5 09:11:23 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#53232 The complete Financial Times archive is soon to be available online. According to the blurb The complete searchable facsimile run of the worlds most authoritative daily business newspaper is coming online. Every item ever printed in the paper from 1888 to 2006 can be searched and browsed article by article and page by page. It goes on to state that Every individual article advertisement and market listing is included and shown individually and in the context of the full page and issue of the day. Cor blimey To quote Darth Vader Impressive. Most impressive. Although obviously he wasnt talking about the FT archive...but he could have been 2009-11-23 15:34:53 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#52799 Does this website remind you of another one Hmmm... 2009-11-18 10:24:35 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#52304 The latest Coutts Million Pound Donors Report compiled by Coutts amp Co in association with the Centre for Philanthropy at the University of Kent was launched on Monday and gave mixed signals about the effect of the recession on multimillion pound gifts. On the one hand charitable donations over 1631m have fallen 13 since the onset of the recession with the number of 1631m donors falling by 6 whereas more donations over 1631m are being given directly to charities to spend on activities. The report identified 189 donations worth 1631m or more made by 102 different donors and received by 153 charities. This compares to 200607 when 193 donations of 1631m or more were made by 106 donors to 159 recipient charities. 2009-11-10 09:55:53 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#45498 Only a few days to go until I head over the pond to the colonies for APRAs 22nd Annual International Conference. Ooh the excitement etc. I see from the attendee list that there will be 5 of us heading over from the UK not exactly an invasion but better than no one I guess. Still more than the one person coming from New Zealand who we can gang up on of course...Bwa ha ha ha haaa Latest weather report from Boston crap. Rain and more rain. Bastards Im not flying halfway round the world to get rained on Except I am. Bum. 2009-7-24 12:02:38 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#45012 Barclays Wealth have just published a report that looks at how philanthropic habits are evolving and how the wealthy will engage with charities and causes in the future. Set against the backdrop of the global downturn the report indicates that a younger and ambitious type of philanthropist is emerging a positive sign for causes and charities around the world. There is also an accompanyng video. Cor blimey How very 21st century etc. 2009-7-16 09:26:21 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#44968 Quick update from Toollkit Towers. Ive added some of the presentations Ive given over the last few years to a new page on the website dedicated to...can you guess Presentations You can view it here httpwww.fundraisingresearch.infopage28.htm Two weeks to go until the APRA conference in Boston if you are also going do please let me know and we can meet up for a chat drink food etc. We could even talk about research Chin chin 2009-7-15 10:52:42 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#42982 Researchers in Fundraising is pleased to announce three new bursaries to help prospect researchers develop their skills and experience. APRA Bursary The first bursary is for the 2009 APRA Conference in Boston. APRA is the premier international organisation for prospect researchers. Their annual conference is attended by over 1000 researchers from around the world and is the perfect opportunity to learn about the latest trends techniques and resources in prospect research. The APRA bursary will contribute 1631000 towards the registration travel and accommodation costs of the conference any further costs will be the responsibility of the winner. CILIPTFPL Bursaries The other two bursaries are for courses run by CILIP and TFPL. CILIP The Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals is the leading UK professional body for librarians information specialists and knowledge managers. TFPL is a specialist professional services company focusing on knowledge information li... 2009-6-8 14:20:43 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#40213 I havent had a good rant for quite a while but the following article from the Sunday Times 190409 is just too much to bear. I include the article verbatim but with added notes where appropriate Altruists For Hire Charities Are Being Inundated With Job Applications From HighFlyers Who Are Keen To Ditch The Rat Race And Do Something More Honourable Instead Says Fleur Britten There was a time not so long ago when working for a charity meant socks with your sandals lunch with the ladies and celebrities with skeletons to hide. Then St Bono and His Bobness joined forces raising millions for needy causes as well as charitys fashion stakes. Nice intro not at all patronising out of date illinformed and dimwitted at all. Brand guru Jane Shepherdson left Topshop for Oxfam for a 100 pay cut yes we know she now also runs Whistles. And then last year when the capitalist skies started to fall in whitecollar disillusionment soon followed. Charity recruitment agencies report a threefold increase ... 2009-4-23 09:59:11 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#37560 My god its almost a year since my last TOTW Not so much Tip of the week as Tip of the year. Yeah well whatever girlfriend. clicks fingers sassy style Tip of the Week 20 is on the subject of advanced training courses for prospect research. This has been the subject of some discussion on the PRUK discussion group with some lamenting the lack of courses for advanced prospect research. Well lament no more because as you will shortly see there are training courses out there relevant to advanced prospect research. But before I get to those here are some introductory courses for prospect research Factary offer onetoone training online training in conjunction with ShareTraining and Research Immersion in which you spend a day at the Factary office learning about research first hand. Rebecca Funnell of Telos Research and Robin Jones of Milestone Research run regular introductory workshops on prospect research. Fundraising Research amp Consultancy offer courses on i The principles and... 2009-3-3 10:15:33 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#34981 Answer when its DONORRESEARCHL. Im hesitant as the Chairman of Researchers in Fundraising to show such ignorance in public but I have to ask what the hell is going on with PRSPCTL On the 1st January I received the following email as I imagine a lot of us did Next month CharityChannel will mark the beginning of the 5th year of hosting the PRSPCTL discussion list. It continues to be a privilege to serve all of you. CharityChannel remains committed to the donor research community and has a number of new initiatives in the works that will be of interest to this professional community to be announced shortly. As part of the new initiative the PRSPCTL list is changing its name to DONORRESEARCHL. The new posting address is DONORRESEARCHLlistserv.charitychannel.com OK fair enough. But I also received this email As promised the L is now back online and better than ever Our new list address is www.APRAPRSPCTL.org. If you click on this website you get redirected to a Listserv ad... 2009-1-14 09:52:08 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#34898 Well here we are another year another website of the week. Robert Franks Wealth Report is an insightful sometimes irreverent look at the lives and culture of the wealthy and fast becoming my favourite blog. For the insightful check out Millionaires Lose 30 of their Fortunes For the irreverent check out 10 Status Symbols We Hope Disappear in the Recession. Happy 2009 2009-1-12 15:39:52 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#32658 This weeks WOTW is David Broussards RelationshipMapReviews. As David says on his site in the field of prospect research we are often asked about a donors connections to others or what the best path might be from our institution to a particular donor corporation or foundation. This is where Relationship Mapping Technology RMT comes in as it allows you to see clearly how your board members trustees and donors are connected to the prospects you want to meet. And by visually mapping relationships between individuals organizations companies and universities prospect researchers are much more likely to uncover hidden relationships. In addition to saving hours of time spent researching these connections and helping development officers to know who is the warmest connection to a prospect RMT provides ataglance professional presentations of multiple networks for executives. But what products are out there and which are best suited for prospect research purposes This is where Davids site co... 2008-11-21 10:17:34 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#31301 Fundraising Recession Watch is a space for ideas aricles and research based on whether the recession is having an impact on fundraising in different countries. Created by Sean Triner of Pereto Fundraising it has various tips articles and links of relevance to fundraising in a recession. 2008-10-20 09:46:27 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#31050 Comment from Adrian Beney on the current financial crisis posted on PRUK While clearly many people will have lost money I am sure that as many of the super wealthy will not have done. One of my colleagues interviewed a potential donor for a client about two weeks ago. That interviewee described this current situation as a poor mans crisis.And hes right if you have enough wealth to have a reasonable amount in cash at the right moment and most of the really wealthy should have then now is a phenomenal buying opportunity. Barclays is already 20 above its nadir and is up 12.4 just today.The people who will be hurting are those with lots of their wealth in assets that they cant just sell like commercial property and those whose wealth is still tied up in single companies whose shares have tanked recently.Philip Green is not talking with Baugur for nothing...The lesson for us an understanding of the nature of wealth where it comes from how people make it and how people hold it. And for th... 2008-10-15 09:51:21 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#30595 We may not yet have a black rich list but we have the next best thing a black power list. Michael Eboda CEO of Powerful Media Ltd has produced the PowerList Britains 100 most influential black people. Interestingly he did consider producing a rich list My first intention was to put together a list of the wealthiest black people in Britain a rich list but after mulling it over and listening to various opinions I decided that was too crass and not all that interesting because it doesnt leave a lot of room for debate. After all if someone is worth 163100m they will automatically be higher up on such a list than a person worth half that amount and what more is there to say about that A pity as I think that there is definitely a gap in the market there and as for the view that a rich list doesnt leave a lot of room for debate what planet has he been on Was there ever a year in which the Sunday Times Rich List didnt prompt a great deal of debate 2008-10-6 11:31:57 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#29902 According to recent story from the Press Association machine gun bullets samurai swords a dead rat and a set of nude home videos are just some of the more unusual items donated to a charity in the last year. Animal hospital charity PDSA compiled the list of the most kooky donations that its wellmeaning but misguided benefactors had donated. Describing some of the items as like props from a Monty Python sketch PDSA said one wouldbe philanthropist even handed over a rat cage to staff complete with its deceased former occupant. Volunteers at a PDSA charity shop in Stevenage were equally shocked to receive a cache of machine gun ammunition and promptly contacted the police. Other donated weaponry included samurai swords and replica handguns. A cheekier but no less appropriate donation included a set of home movies made by a naturist who hoped his naked body could raise some much needed cash for sick animals. However sometimes charity shops strike gold literally. One PDSA charity shop ... 2008-9-19 10:48:44 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#29859 The Institute of Fundraising is calling for session proposals for their 2009 National Convention. If you attended the 2008 Convention you will be aware that prospect research was greatly under represented to say the least so we in the RiF Committee are making a concerted effort to encourage more researchers to submit a session. And we are leading by example I and three other members of the committee have already submitted a proposals for the 2009 convention. So far we have the following proposals a session on the Data Protection Act a session on how researchers and fundraisers canneed to work together and a session on dispelling some of the myths or misconceptions that fundraisers have concerning research. I spoke at the 2006 Convention and found the experience invaluable. Not only did I get some great feedback about research from the delegates I also made a number of excellent contactsfriends. Speaking at the Convention gives you the opportunity to educate fundraisers about the role ... 2008-9-18 11:34:41 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#29051 It may be nothing to get excited about or it may revolutionise the way in which we search for information on the web. Either way Googles new browser Chrome has got a lot of people very excited. Cool logo too 2008-9-2 10:49:42 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#28430 Is it my imagination or do the last four descriptions on the links page of The Oxford Fundraising Groups website bare an uncanny similarity to some of the descriptions on the links page of the Researchers in Fundraising website If I didnt know any better Id think that those cheeky scamps at The Oxford Fundraising Group have simply copied and pasted the links I wrote for the RiF website. Surely not... 2008-8-18 10:51:03 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#28338 The Telegraph is running a series of articles on Britains 100 biggest private companies. So far they have covered retailing property manufacturers food amp drink and transport amp leisure. Some entries are a little lacking in detail but its all interesting stuff. EDIT link should now work. 2008-8-15 09:37:05 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#28201 My word cloud that is 2008-8-12 12:13:24 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#27473 This weeks website of the week is JumpKnowledge. Have you ever wished you could add your two cents to a siteanywhere you wantednot just in an itty bitty blog area Have you ever wished you could email a web page with your comments inside it Well now you can with JumpKnowledge. What does it look like You can see an example using my own wonderlful site here. On a more serious note I have created an example here using the Charity Commissions website which could be emailed to a colleague about to apply to the Trust in question. Ive only just started to use JumpKnowledge but I think that it could prove to be very useful very useful indeed. 2008-7-25 14:28:43 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#26601 What a busy few days its been what with the RiF Conference Henley Regatta OK not I admit anything to do with prospect research and now the IoFs national convention again little to do with prospect research some might say The RiF conference was by and large excellent but then I would say that wouldnt I Some excellent speakers and some controversial opinions well for a RiF conference and I was pleased with the venue although I have reservations about the visibility of the speakers for some of the delegates. Hopefully lots of people will fill out the feedback form when we send it out and well know what everyone thought. I shall be attending the IoFs convention on Tuesday and Wednesday I know what larks So if you are planning to be there do grab me as I pass by in a trancelike state if you get me late in the day and say hello. I will also be at the drinks Tuesday evening although I am still in two minds about the party... One of these days Ill actually get some work done ho hum. 2008-7-7 16:20:35 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#26098 Those of us who are fulltime researchers sometimes forget that for many people research is just one aspect and perhaps not the most significant aspect of the work that they do. Many smaller charities do not have the resources to employ a researcher and so rely on their major donor fundraisers to carry out their own research. And some of those charities will only have one person doing all the fundraising for their organisation. This weeks website of the week is for those people but also for anyone reading this researcher or otherwise who wishes to carry out a little fundraising on the side perhaps for a local organisation or group that is too small too have their own fundraiser. RaisingFunding contains over 60 articles written by fundraising experts who continually update and add new content. Subjects include legal advice on fundraising using fundraising databases and software fundraising for an individual cause planning a fundrasing event and much much more. 2008-6-27 15:30:52 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#26084 When you join the PRSPCTL discussion list you get sent a Netiquette email basically a list of dos and donts to prevent or minimise irrelevant pointless or abusive messages. And one of those donts is the following No requests for a researcher from XYZ University to contact you. We are researchers find them. Why inconvenience 3499 list members with messages intended for a single member Why indeed Not only is it really annoying but the people that ask these questions are supposed to be researchers Honestly what kind of a researcher are you if you need to ask for the contact details of another researcher This must be the research equivalent of asking someone to wipe your arse lazy unnecessary and staggeringly infantile. And yet people continue to send out such emails. Most recently someone asked Could a Yale researcher please contact me I have a quick question. Yeah well I have a quick question too Are you so crap at research or so lazy or so bleeding THIC... 2008-6-26 11:25:31 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#26022 Most of the newspapers have given a great deal of coverage to Chris Hohns 163466m donation largest ever dawn of new era in philanthropy etc. etc but City AMs The Capitalist approached the story from a slightly different angle in yesterdays paper The Riddle of Hedgies Missing Millions MUCH has been made recently of hedgie philanthropist Chris Hohns 163466m donation to the charity connected to his hedge fund the Childrens Investment Fund TCI. However a quick trip to the Charities Commission website shows that last year only 16311.7m of the gift was actually used so what happened to the rest The answer is that much of it is returning to be reinvested in TCI completely feefree. The reason for this a spokesman for the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation charity tells me is that the gift works on an expendable endowment structure which after a good few minutes of explanation I take to mean that its charitable grants are executed over the long term. Its essential to take a prud... 2008-6-25 16:44:53 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25793 We appear to have entered the age of the Super Gift. Whilst us mere mortals have to contend with rising inflation and falling property values by tightening the belt the very wealthy are moving in the opposite direction by giving away ever larger donations to charitable causes. It all started in February of last year when David and Simon Reuben gave Great Ormond Street Hospital a multimillion pound donation. Nothing too unusual there you might think Wafic Said gave 16320m to Oxford University in 1996 a donation equivalent to between 16325m and 16333m today depending upon how one measures the relative value of the 163 and Gary Tanaka gave Imperial College London 16327m in 2000. But the Reubens donation was just the start of a sustained run of Super Gifts for UK institutions the like of which we have not seen before. In October the financial services firm Morgan Stanley pledged 16310m towards Great Ormond Streets appeal in November the reclusive Barclay brothers Sir Frederick and... 2008-6-23 16:28:24 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25618 Wealth estimation is a difficult task even for the experts and so its not surprising that they occasionally get it wrong. Having valued the architect Lord Rogers and his wife Ruth cofounder of the Riverside Cafe at 16352m earlier this year in their annual Rich List the Sunday Times were forced to offer an apology when Lord Rogers brought it to their attention that he was not nearly as wealthy as they claimed. He explained the situation in a letter published in Building Design on 9th May It has long been my belief that neither I nor any other director of this practice should hold any financial equity in the business. This is why the practice is owned by a charity and profits are divided between employees and directors as profit share and charitable donations. The constitution also limits directors salaries to a multiple of that earned by the lowest paid fully qualified architect. The Sunday Times Rich List has calculated the value of my stake in the practice to be 16340 milli... 2008-6-16 10:15:40 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25471 I havent really had enough time to play around with this one yet to determine how useful it may be but I suspect it could prove very useful so for that reason alone this weeks WOTW is TouchGraph. Touchgraph has a number of basic functions but the one in which I am most interested allows you to explore the connections between related websites by producing Google search results in the form of a clustered graph. You can see the results for yours truly below. It shows various websites some directly related to me others not really related at all but enough information to allow someone to get an idea of the sorts of things I was into. The left hand column lists the websites sorted in the same groups as the graph. As I say I have not had time yet to really test this sucker but I have a gut feeling that it could be good. Or I may just be hungry. TTFN 2008-6-13 10:44:07 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25342 Tomorrow the World Yup thats right my name is up in lights well black and white anyway in todays Times newspaper. If you go to Page 5 of the Public Agenda section and look at the In the Professional Press column on the right hand side youll see that Im quoted in the second paragraph quote taken from the article I wrote for Professional Fundraising magazine. What larks eh 2008-6-10 14:10:31 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25285 I have had an article published in the latest issue of Professional Fundraising Magazine. What fun Except for two things. They spelt my name wrong. They have edited the crap out of it although it might heve been too long in its original version. If you wish you can read the full unexpurgated version here. 2008-6-9 09:51:08 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25108 Just been checking out the latest FreePint Bar Digest the excellent summary of the latest postings at the FreePint Bar and what do I see An advert for the Dow Jones Booth at the Special Libraries Association Annual Conference inviting you to visit their booth to have an expert analyze your handwriting What the hell Dow Jones as you may be aware is the company behind Factiva the news archive amongst other products and a serious player in the researchinformation managment world. Why then do they feel the need to attract people to their booth at the SLA Conference by endorsing such mindnumbing mumbo jumbo as handwriting analysis No I will not call it graphology I refuse to dignify such infantile drivel with that term ridiculously pseudoscientific though it is. This sort of flummery really gets my goat. You can have Sarah or Ruth Holmes both nationally known handwriting examiners amaze you with their ability to read your personality from just a sample of your handwriting. I wil... 2008-6-4 14:50:48 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#25035 There is a new book out about prospect research which could be wellworth reading. It is written by Bobbie Strand a nationally recognized leader in major gift and prospect development capital campaign planning and implementation major gift management cultivation and solicitation as the CASE website puts it. You can read a sample chapter actually the introduction here. Its fairly expensive at 16325 but then again if it enables you to find the prospects to support your work with a decent donation or two its rather cheap I shall be ordering a copy forthwith. Well after lunch probably now I see what the time is. 2008-6-3 12:08:32 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#24586 Not so much Website of the Week as Website for the first time in several Weeks but hey ho what do I care So this weeks WOTW is AltSearchEngines which contains extensive information about alternativeniche search engines as well as the big boys. Their goal is to make AltSearchEngines the definitive destination for everything related to alternative search engines over 1000 of them Whilst not antiGoogle they do wish to emphasise the very many alternatives to that search engine giant. And lets face it Google may not be around for ever. Or rather it may not be the best search engine forever. After all it was only a few short years ago well the late 1990s I guess that Google was the young pretender and Yahoo Hotbot AltaVista and so on were the major players. How quickly things change. But just who will replace Google AltSearchEngines has a go at picking a few contenders. 2008-5-23 14:19:47 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#24508 Feedback from the ThirdSector Major Donor Conference 13th May 2008 I meant to write this up a week ago but various things work and illness got in the way so...here is a shortened version of what I was going to write because quite frankly I cant be arsed to write a long version. In fact here is an ultra short version No matter how much you know or think you know go to conferences You never know what useful information you may pick up. And boy did I pick up some useful information. For example I learned from one speaker that Patrons to their appeal have all given the charity at least 163100000. And a quick check the next day showed me that Patrons to their appeal are listed on their annual report. The upshot of this is that I now have a list of almost 100 prospects each of whom I know is capable of a donation in excess of 163100000. Cool. So to keep this short and sweet the conference theme was Identify and Cultivate Major Donors although the bulk of the day was about cultivat... 2008-5-21 15:26:01 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#24133 The Jewish Chronicle has just published its second annual list of those Jews and nonJews who wield the greatest influence on British Jewry. The JC Power 100 lists as the name suggests the top 100 movers and shakers as chosen by JC readers and an expert independent panel representing all strands of Jewish life. Unsurprisingly it includes a fair number of philanthropists and others of interest to fundraisers and researchers but equally surprisingly it does not include Sir Alan Sugar. I know cor blimey Or rather Oi Vei Oh come on surely you dont expect me to write a post about the JC Power 100 without at least one hackneyed stereotypical Jewish phrase. I think that I was very restrained. But then again it is Monday Im just warming up. 2008-5-12 09:43:44 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#23280 This is a question for those of you who get this blog by RSS. On the front page of my site I have the following information Regarding the weblog there is an RSS button right at the bottom of the screen i.e. if you go to the blog page and scroll right to the very bottom there it is nestling on the lefthand corner very conspicuous not. I have no idea how it works but apparently it allows you to receive the blog without going into the website etc. To do this I am reliably informed you will need an RSS reader which you can find here. What I want to know is a is this the best advice I can give regarding how to access the blog by RSS Personally I think its a tad uninformative. b is Newsgator the best RSS reader or are there better ones to recommend Answers please either in the comments section or via email. Thanks. 2008-4-24 11:12:15 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#23196 Or how to save the weeble This weeks tip is courtesy of Melanie Matthews of TB alert her second tip on The Prospect Research Toolkit you can read the first one here. How often do we see the following question on the Trust amp Statutory Discussion Group Im looking for a trust that will fund a new databaseinternet siteminibusrainforestmy breast enlargement Delete as appropriate I.e. the person thinks that to fund an unusual item such as funding for a new website you need to find a trust that specifically funds new websites. You do not. Here are some of the options you should consider. 1.Your overall fundraising strategy. Are you relying simply on trusts for your income If so eggs and baskets come to mind. Other types of income are nonrestricted and could be used for these things events appeals and many more if you dont do them then maybe your fundraising department should think about its long term strategy of getting core unrestricted fu... 2008-4-22 12:00:55 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#22881 The website o the week this week is Phil Bradleys website. Making search easier for everyone runs the tagline and I would have to agree. Phils site is a smorgasbord of information on search engines searching the internet and keeping up to date on internet events with numerous free articles on internet searching and a regularly updated weblog. Articles of particular interest to prospect researchers include Which search engine for which query and a comparsion of UK based search engines. Remember theres more to life than Google 2008-4-15 16:44:23 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#22704 This weeks TOTW is to read the Data Protection Act. I know what youre thinking this is a pretty obvious tip right Well maybe and yet I get the feeling that there are a fair number of fundraisers and researchers out there who have not read the act. But to be perfectly frank because Im tired of being Mathew you must read it. There are no excuses not to. Well there is one I guess which is that the act is very very boring to read. But thats not really much of an excuse is it The act is not very long not very difficult to read or understand and for the most part not very difficult to interpret. I say for the most part as there are sections of it that are a little ambigious when applied to prospect research. Hah to say the least. But you can help your interpretation of it by checking out Adrian Beneys site and also by reading the Researchers in Fundraising Guidelines on interpreting the Data Protection Act. The Institute of Fundraising has also produced a Code of Fundraising Pract... 2008-4-11 10:58:22 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#22703 OK this has nothing to do with prospect research but then it is Friday. For those of you who enjoyed my recent presentation on the Monkeysphere and in particular all the lovely pictures of chimps gorillas and orangs I urge you to go to this site Manifesto for Apes and sign their manifesto to try to help safeguard the future of these wonderful animals in their natural environment. Ive signed it as you will see if you check out the signatories. I am signatory 4030. Cool. 2008-4-11 10:08:29 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#22189 This weeks WOTW is the news amp current affairs site Newsbiscuit. Divided into various categories including ArtsEntertainment Business amp Celebrity as well as UK News and World News it contains many articles of interest to prospect researchers. You can also get articles sent direct to your inbox. Cool. 2008-4-1 10:21:16 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#21863 TechSoup provides a range of technology services for nonprofits including news and articles discussion forums and discounted and donated technology products. They have for example a comprehensive list of articles about using the internet going back some 8 years. 2008-3-25 16:40:25 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#21844 From the ARNOVAL discussion list I learn that Google has launched a new resource Google for nonprofits. The site features tutorials and examples of how nonprofits use Google tools to operate more effectively. 2008-3-25 12:22:10 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#21567 This weeks TOTW is courtesy of my old mucker Finbar Cullen who describes on his blog how you can access and search previous Sunday Times Rich Lists from 2002 to 2007. Even more useful than a mask in a fart factory. 2008-3-19 13:27:05 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#21513 Ive finally finished the notes to the presentation I recently gave to the Trusts and Statutory SIG earlier this month. Entitled Inside the Monkeysphere it considers how prospect research can help you in your trust fundraising. There are two versions a monkey version and a nonmonkey version. The choice is yours EDIT the first presentation was waaaay too large so Ive put up a smaller one. JPEG monkeys rather than bitmap monkeys. Makes all the difference. 2008-3-18 12:46:02 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#20996 This weeks WOTW is Karen Blakemans Tales from the Terminal Room tfttr. tfttr is a free newsletter for anyone who uses electronic media and particularly the Internet for locating information. The newsletter appears roughly every two months and discusses a variety of search tools information resources and other items of interest to researchers. Karen also has a blog which is well worth reading. 2008-3-13 16:35:51 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#20925 I wonder is it very childish of me that I find it rather amusing that the wonderfully named Debra Allcock Tyler Chief Executive of the Directory of Social Change has written a book called The Pleasure and the Pain Ooh matron 2008-3-6 12:18:33 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#20847 From time to time in your researching adventures you may come across a website intended for Johnny Foreigner. You know funny words some of them written with strange symbols that bear little relation to what you or I would recognise as letters that sort of thing. This is especially likely to be the case if you are carrying out research into wealthy nondoms or foreign prospects. And unless you are a cunning linguist he he oh grow up you are going to be stumped and not know whether you have stumbled upon a goldmine of information concerning your prospect or just another nugget of fools gold. But help is at hand In the first instance you can use Babel Fish which very kindly translates websites from foreign to English. Or if you prefer you can use the translating abilities of Google. Or better still use both. Why Because they can give markedly different translations of the same body of text. For example if you translate the following website www.bonsoirclara.be a Belgian rest... 2008-3-4 16:13:03 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#20260 Why oh why oh why do certain dimwits insist on calling Bob Geldof Sir Bob Geldof Being Irish and not British or from the Commonwealth he was awarded an honorary knighthood and so is not eligible to use the term Sir. Do you ever hear people talking about Sir Bill Clinton Sir Rudy Giuliani or Sir Bill Gates No. But they too all have an honorary knighthood. So why call Geldof Sir Bob It really niggles me that so many people who should know better can get it so wrong. Especially when we as researchers have to be so careful to get our prospects titles right. But perhaps they do know better and are just being sycophantic which is even worse the fawning sycophants. Still I suppose I should be grateful he hasnt been awarded an honorary peerage thus prompting ignoranti around the country to call him Lord Bob and no doubt style his wasteofspace daughters The Hon Trixie FagAsh The Hon Lulu Monkeyspank and The Hon Slagwit Drunkentart or whatever the hell their real names are. ... 2008-2-21 16:05:28 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19987 My website of the week this week is Richard McEachins Confidential Resource. His blog offers valuable information about sources methods and resources for professional and amateur Investigators and Researchers. And having just spent some time looking through the archves I can certainly agree. 2008-2-15 16:43:41 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19932 Research is a curious business. How do you measure its effectiveness its efficiency or its productivity How do you spot a good researcher or more importantly perhaps a bad one In a recent article for fumsi Evaluating Researchers Developing a Skills Matrix Anja Thygesen research manager with the Danish management consulting company Quartz Strategy Consultants says We probably all have an idea of what a good researcher is capable of doing and what kind of skills that person possesses. We also know when we provide good quality and what kind of skills we use when doing this or do we Thygesen raises what is I think a common problem in research it is one thing to give a general description of what makes a good researcher and quite another to actually define or quantify what good research actually is so that one is able in an interview for example to differentiate between those who are clearly good at researcher from those who merely give the appearance of being good or so ... 2008-2-14 11:28:52 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19359 This weeks website of the week is Ian Smiths iBlog. Canadabased Ian describes his blog as an outlet for individuals who wish to know more about internet research for business and dealing economic development purposes. At times Ian brings his cynicism to blog posts when he needs to rant or assess a new tool. Ah nothing like a good rant and I do love a bit of cynicism. Recent articles of particular interest to prospect researchers include a discussion of how to search Facebook and searching the invisible web and there are further articles of interest in the archives. 2008-1-31 09:49:15 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19131 The Garfield Weston Foundation has a rather nifty website but I do wonder at one piece of information that they provide the website address. Surely if you already have their website open the last piece of information you need is...the address for their website Most bizarre... 2008-1-25 10:15:24 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19098 City AM the free newspaper handed out at various stations in and around the City of London has finally got a decent website. About bloody time I hear you cry. Either that or City what For those of you not in the know City AM is a daily free newspaper with financial news and a bit of other stuff and invaluable as a whats going on in the City resource. It was through City AM that I learned about the websites Roll on Friday and Here is the City. Both excellent research resources providing news information amp gossip about City types not found elsewhere. I read it religiously every day and now that they have a website you can too Cor how lucky is that Well OK. Not very I admit. Still better than a smack in the eye with a wet kipper. 2008-1-24 15:46:57 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#19083 There are times when its nice to presentprintemail a document in a more professional manner than a Word document and at times like that PDF is an excellent alternative and is compatible across different computer platforms. But what if you dont have the necessary software to produce PDF documents Fear not for help is at hand. PrimoPDF is a free software package that allows you to convert documents in over 80 different formats to PDF. Or if you dont want to download the software or are unable to you can use their online conversion service PrimoOnline. Coolio 2008-1-24 11:35:07 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#18712 After a lay off of over a year Finbar Cullen for it is he is blogging again. Cor. The cause of or perhaps that should be blame for the long absence a world record between blog entries can be put down to Howard Lake and the time he has spent overhauling UKFundraising. But the haul is over and Finbar is blogging again. This now takes the number of prospect research blogs that I know of to four. Mine Finbars Maryrose Larkins Northwest Research Blog and Deborah Druckers Adventures in Prospect Research. I know impressive eh Well not really. If anyone knows of any others others who are currently blogging that is Id love to know of them. 2008-1-16 08:59:36 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#18600 I like blogging I like blogging I like blogging and I like to blog ...except during Christmas and the new year when I find it all too much effort. Hence the long gap between entries recently. Oh and a little thing called Researchers in Fundraising which has been taking up a little of my time. But thats enough moaning theres blogging to be done. This weeks WOTW is WatchThatPage.com which enables you to automatically collect new information from your favorite pages on the Internet. You select which pages to monitor and WatchThatPage will find which pages have changed and collect all the new content for you. I know cor blimey Oh and its free unless you monitor a large number of pages then they will contact you for a fee but were talking about someone who gets several hundred updates a day and what prospect researcher has that much free time that they could read them all 2008-1-14 11:53:16 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#18068 There are few things that annoy me more than unnecessary words with acronyms. Im thinking of PIN Number Personal Identification Number Number HIV Virus Human Immunodeficiency Virus Virus and LCD Display Liquid Crystal Display Display. There are more lovely examples here. And now I have found a new example of sorts. After a gap of some five years I am once again using Lexis Nexis as my news archive and Ive discovered some lovely new features which were not available when last I used it. Most pertinently there is a new source to search Web Blogs as you can see here Yup thats right Web Blogs. Now given that the word Blog is a shortening of Weblog what we have here is in fact Web Weblogs. Fools. Oh Happy New Year by the way. 2008-1-2 10:28:31 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#17686 Another day another wealth report this time from the Policy Exchange the centreright think tank. The report Give and let give Building a culture of philanthropy in the financial services industry is described by the Policy Exchange as the most comprehensive report into the state and future of British philanthropy in the City this decade. I know cor blimey. The report is designed to stimulate highearning City professionals to embark on a philanthropic journey which is no bad thing to say the least. Although how many of these highearning City professionals will have either the time or the inclination to read through all 132 pages of the report is a moot point to say the least particularly at this festive time of year. Still with contributions from the likes of Michael Hintze Nicola Horlick Shaks Ghosh Sir Peter Lampl Sir Tom Hunter Stanley Fink Theresa Lloyd Lord Joffe and Nigel Harris amongst many others it certainly deserves to be read. 2007-12-20 09:58:34 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#17642 Well its that time of the year when newspapers and magazines fill up all the space left empty by a complete lack of news worthy stories with crap Christmas quizzes. And who am I to be different So here it is The Prospect Research Toolkit Christmas Quiz Which phrase best sums up Xmas for you 1. Ho Ho Ho 2. Bah humbug 3. Of course I havent forgotten your present darling ha ha ha...ahem. 4. Will you bloody kids BE QUIET What is your favourite Christmas film 1. Holiday Inn. Im dreaming of a White Christmas... 2. Miracle on 34th Street. We believe 3. Its a Wonderful Life. Every time you hear a bell an angel gets his wings 4. Father XXXmas. When Santa empties his sack everyone has to swallow Who is Father Christmas 1. A timeless and endearing representation of the spirit of Christmas. 2. A sad reflection of the materialism that is the modern Christmas. 3. That fat bloke on TV who advertises Coke. 4. My dad. What best represents the true sprit ... 2007-12-19 09:51:47 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#17590 Why of why does Google list the number of pages it claims to have found when you search for something e.g. Results 110 of about 345000 pages when you can only ever look at the first 1000 pages it finds What IS the point Who cares if it found 3000 or 3000000 pages if you can only see the first 1000 Perhaps they wish to catch out unwary journalists For example a recent article in WealthBulletin discussed the number of results one gets when searching for private banks on Google. This line in particular caught my eye Third on the list is the search term Julius Baer which uncovered 660000 references and most of those look to be associated with the bank. Most of those look to be associated with the bank Most of them You mean you checked all 660000 references Even if we assume that you can check one page per second just time for a quick glance to see if it looks like it is associated with the bank and to make a note of this it would still take someone over a week ... 2007-12-17 14:52:35 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#17185 Digital Look a leading financial information and news service provides a wealth of information about companies directors and most wonderfully their shareholders. If you register with them they will send you regular emails of peoples share dealings amongst other things. Which could prove very useful for you. For example check out this email from November Hmmm Mr Jonathan Howell is not doing too badly is he That 16312 million hes got for his LSE shares must be burning a hole in his pocket. So why not help him out by looking him up on your database and seeing if hes a supporter of yours If he is if hes warm to your cause then you will have taken the first steps towards relieving him of some of his hard earned cash and wouldnt that be a nice Christmas present 2007-12-4 11:54:05 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#17062 Stuck for something to get your favourite millionaire this Christmas How about one of the following musthave items... To start with at a measely 163100000 the holiday of a lifetime A snip at twice the price Too cheap Well OK I have just the thing. Buy him his very own jet I know what youre thinking. Every millionaire worth his salt already has one of those. True but how many have one that is Supersonic And at only 16340m its a bargain Buy him two But even so planes are soooo last year arent they For that special UHNW person in your life it can only be a luxury submarine. And the best news it that they start at 16350m. I know theyre practically giving them away But I sense that you and your capitalist pig generous donor have a yearning for the really good things in life. So what you need is obvious. For 163145m you very own Airbus. And if none of those goodies tickle your millionaires fancy how about suggesting that he spend the night as a pros... 2007-11-30 17:02:24 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#16918 An article on the rise of philanthropy amongst the City of Londons bigwigs in todays City AM a free paper which is unfortunately not available online has lead me to this weeks WOTW The more you give...the more you get Founded by Mike Dickson also cofounder of childrens charity WhizzKidz after he wrote a book of the same name The More you give... offers advice to philanthropists and corporates looking to donate to charity. From their website Whether your interest is as a company or individual the principles are the same. Researchauditgetting to know you Setting the strategy including introductions to relevant tax specialists an overview of different guidance and donor organisations. The search for suitable causes Personal introductions Structured pitches A planned partnership Involvement and reviews So rather like a cross between New Philanthropy Capital and The Big Give. Or perhaps not. Either way yet another organisation dedicated to parting the wealthy from... 2007-11-26 13:08:18 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#16554 The ebusiness website eBizMBA has produced a great list of the top 55 reference websites based upon popularity content depth uniqueness accuracy and ease of use. Scroll down to the bottom and you can see a whole load of other lists some of which such as the 20 Most Popular Celebrity Sites and the 25 Most Popular Business Websites may also be helpful to your research. 2007-11-16 12:05:27 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#16206 This weeks site of the week is the Internet Resources Newsletter a free monthly electronic newsletter edited by HeriotWatt University Library staff Roddy MacLeod Catherine Ure and Marion Kennedy and published by HeriotWatt University. The newsletter aims to raise awareness of new sources of information on the Internet and although the focus is on engineering science and social science resources it also contains resources of interest to researchers. The latest edition for example includes links to the indispensable fResource the comprehensive Google Guide and a new one to me the newspaper search site Chipwrapper. 2007-11-5 09:22:49 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#16120 In the last few years there have been an increasing number of reports published into the wealthy and their charitable giving. These really are a must read for any researcher. Amazingly the first major British study into giving by the wealthy Why Rich People Give was only published in 2004. But since then numerous reports have been published in the UK. Here are a few recent examples from the last couple of months Researching the Very Wealthy National Centre for Social Research The 21st Century Donor NfpSynergy The changing face of Philanthropy today tomorrow and beyond Barclays Wealth Wealth and Philanthropy the views of those who advise the rich Philanthropy UK If you want to keep abreast of the latest reports you should regularly check Barclays Wealth fResource HM Revenue amp Customs New Philanthropy Capital NfpSynergy Philanthropy UK and Third Sector. 2007-11-2 15:22:43 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15781 As recommended or not in one case by those lovely peeps on PRSPCTL a new search engine pipl styles itself as the most comprehensive people search on the web. Well you would wouldnt you How can it justify such a bold statement Unlike other search engines it claims to be able to search the deep web aka the invisible web for information. I know cor blimey Anyway as with all such resources the truth is in the searching so what are you waiting for Gordon the Goforit 2007-10-25 12:57:46 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15516 From Pam Foster Editor of VIP Next month November VIP will publish its annual comparative review of the Big Three Factiva LexisNexis and Thomson. Thomson Business Intelligences News Research product is being discontinued at the end of 2007 and many users are wondering which service to migrate to. As such maybe you are currently or are planning to carry out your own trials of some or all of the Big Three products. If so please do get in touch as there may be areas on which we can compare notes. In order to make the comparison as meaningful as possible Id also like to invite you to suggest possible areas for research country coverage foreignlanguage indexing crossfile searching etc anything that youd find useful. Please either share you comments at the VIP Lounge or email me directly. All feedback will of course be treated in the strictest confidence. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards Pam Foster Last years report was excellent very comp... 2007-10-16 09:48:50 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15305 There was an excellent article in yesterdays Times about the socalled new philanthropy. Paul Palmer Professor of Voluntary Sector Management at Cass Business School and an independent charities consultant to the bank UBS Wealth Management dispels a few myths surrounding philanthropy most obviously that there is anything very new about the way philanthropy is currently carried out compared to how it has been carried out for the last 100 years. Here are a couple of pertinent quotes In the past year I have been working with the bank UBS Wealth Management in the development of its philanthropy service for clients. I have noticed no differences between literature charting the work of past philanthropists and the desire of wealthy people to give today. Problems such as how to give and by that I mean how to give effectively have been long cited by the original Rockefeller. Grantmaking has equally been around for a long time. I recommend reading the whole article i... 2007-10-10 10:34:45 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15276 According to a story in Third Sector venture capital group Doughty Hanson has established a venture philanthropy fund that aims to ensure charitable donations made by wealthy individuals are spent more effectively. What is it with these venture philanthropists and their erroneous belief that until they came along donations made by wealthy individuals were not spent effectively Arrogant illinformed gits. Makes me mad. However since Ive moaned about this in more detail elsewhere I shall say nothing more at this time. Grrrr. 2007-10-9 12:43:21 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15054 Philanthropy website The Big Give has gone live and is now ready to accept projects and promote them to wealthy donors. To get your projects uploaded visit httpwww.thebiggive.org.ukregister and then... 1. Enter your charity details and click Register 2. Click on Add a new project 3. Add your project details keep it short and sweet What are you waiting for go for it And in other news my site has now received over 4000 visits Woo hoo not a bad birthday present methinks. 2007-10-3 11:44:11 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#15050 Its my birthday today Oh yes. I am 29 again. Ive had several nice birthday messages including one from Everyclick who say Happy Birthday Thank you for using everyclick to support charity. Which is nice and personal isnt it Ahem. Anyway given that they provide a no cost fundraising facility to 276428 charities I thought Id give them a quick plug. But as its my birthday there is not just one but two count them TWO websites of the week this week. The second website is NewsExplorer. You can read in detail how the site works here but basically it compiles news stories from around the world in various languages should you be a cunning linguist and allows you to find out pertinent information about a particular person including variant name spellings found in the news both in the same and in different languages titles and phrases found around the name these tell you about the function nationality etc. of the person a picture of this person a list of the most recen... 2007-10-3 09:32:30 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14852 How often have you been asked one or more of the following Can you find me the postcode for this address please Whats the phone number for that company again Oh I can never find anything on Google could you do it for me please Do you get asked these sorts of questions by your department Pain in the arse arent they Honestly how hard is it to check a postcode on the Royal Mail website find a phone number on BT.com or type a word or two in Google Theyre all a piece of piss to use. Lets face it its easier to use Google than it is to empty your bladder and most people seem to manage that without any difficulty. So here is this weeks tip. The next time someone asks you for something that a trained chimp could find dont just give them the information show them how they can find it for themselves. Give them a list of 5 or so websites that you regularly use to find pisseasy information of the sort described above. Heres a few that I use Whats the phone number fo... 2007-9-26 14:58:42 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14792 If you have a couple of minutes spare check out this breaking story Are Americas Rich Falling Behind the SuperRich Thanks to Matt Ide for pointing this one out. 2007-9-24 11:29:49 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14658 I just came across this review of Debretts People of Today on www.amazon.co.uk and had to share it it is brilliant. It was with some trepidation that I first opened the pages of Debretts People of Today the book is an impressive tome consisting of a list of halffamous captains of industry aging judges and BBC Board Members. Not necessarily the most inspiring of reads one would naturally assume however this is the books devilish ingenuity as it seemed to me fairly obvious that the work is a satire on conventions of what makes people important. The device of listing the names rather than say arranging them higgledypiggledy across the page may seem to hark back to the antiquated and overornate literary conventions of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries but it is precisely this that makes the work so clever as in the same way that Joyce interspersed Ulysses and Finnegans Wake with apparently randomseeming lists the meaning of which became clear when set against the background of the ... 2007-9-20 14:39:41 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14634 Barclays Wealth has published a study on the future of philanthropy entitled The Changing Face of Philanthropy Today Tomorrow and Beyond. It examines the current climate of giving amongst the wealthy what issues the individuals and the charities face and how all of this is set to change in the next decade. Participants in the study included over 500 High Net Worth individuals holding over 163100000 in investable assets who provided quantitative data 15 Ultra High Net Worth UHNW individuals holding over 1633million in investable assets who completed indepth qualitative interviews and a Panel of five expert Thought Leaders including Peter Beckwith the multimillionaire philanthropist Salvatore LaSpada Chief Executive of the Institute for Philanthropy Susan Weingarten a fundraising consultant for Charities Brian Smouha trustee for the Institute of Philanthropy and Guy Davies Head of Charities at Barclays Wealth. It makes for an interesting read here are a few choice quotes to... 2007-9-19 14:22:32 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14491 Following on from my post the other week about the Top Ten Free Resources I have decided to have a regular new feature Website of the Week Cue loud fanfare flashing lights dancing girls in unnecessarily tight tops and short skirts various assorted cast members of Casualty Coronation Street and Eastenders and of course Ken Livingstone. And for this weeks website of the week what else but Matt Ides excellent fResource. Although just launched Ive no doubt that it will become an invaluable resource for researchers and fundraisers alike. Theres a wealth of information on it already and this is sure to grow as we contribute to it. And when I say we I dont just mean Matt myself Peter Finbar etc. but all of you as well. fResource is designed to be an online community and to achieve that we need as much participation from fundraisers and researchers as possible. So go on and check out the website and dont be afraid to send us your questions comments and feedback. Or your money. Im alwa... 2007-9-18 16:57:47 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14277 nfpSynergy have just published a new report The 21st Century Donor which is the conclusion of several years of work by nfpSynergy researching and understanding donors in a whole variety of guises. The report as a whole makes for interesting and sometimes surprising reading but the section on Major Donors page 30 will be of most relevance to researchers. 2007-9-5 11:23:45 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#14248 Actually I could have picked more than ten but ten is such a nice round number dont you think httpwww.wealthbulletin.com Produce twice daily free email alerts covering wealth and philanthropy news and analysis from around the world. httpweb.researcha.comiccquery Free search facility of UK companies and company directors. OK its not DASH but it is waaaaay cheaper. httpwww.muckety.com Founded by journalists who recognized the need for better ways to visualize relationships Muckety uses Java technology to produce interactive maps showing connections between people businesses and organizations. httpwww.spotlight.com Founded in 1927 this series of directories now contain over 30000 performers including actors and actresses child artists presenters stunt artists and dancers. Online search facility. httpwww.northcote.co.uk Comprehensive list of links to UK annual reports on the internet. Simple registration required. httpwww.corporateregist... 2007-9-4 14:29:02 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13940 Ten signs that your Director is clueless about Prospect Research When you tell him that youre getting Lexis Nexis he replies that he drives a Toyota. He thinks that a prospects liquid assets refer to his wine cellar. He doesnt understand the need for screening because he hasnt seen a mosquito in the office in months. When you tell him that youve got DASH he replies OK see you tomorrow. When you talk about a prospects inclination he asks why you need to know their sexual orientation. When you tell him that you really like Raisers Edge he replies that he doesnt know them but thinks his daughter saw them at Glastonbury. When you mention joining APRA he expresses surprise that she would want to interview you and says she thinks her talk show is overrated. When you tell him that you have some concerns about the Data Protection Act he nods sagely asks how they compared to the other acts and then starts reminiscing about the time he went to the Edinburgh Festiva... 2007-8-24 16:27:50 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13931 A thought provoking article in The Business this week entitled The great charity ripoff. The author Jon Ashworth argues that charities need to be more accountable and that may be so although in my opinion he fails to make his case as he provides little or no actual evidence to support his many claims. In fact in the end the article just comes across as a series of wild accusations by a disgruntled exdonor. Here are just some of the unsubstantiated claims waste and inefficiency is even greater than these figures would suggest. there is a wealth ofanecdotal evidence pointing to the cavalier way in which big charities treat donors funds. Charities place large orders for goods without asking for competitive quotations. Staff on overseas assignments are given generous daily allowances on top of their salaries invariably they stay in the most expensive hotels. Charities conduct their activities behind a veil of secrecy operating perhaps at only 60 efficienc... 2007-8-24 10:42:53 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13910 What does your average billionaire do when he tires of his Ferrari his jet and his yacht and when even a trip into space has become old hat He buys a luxury submarine. You know I really thought I had seen in all in the world of the wealthy. Clearly I was wrong. 2007-8-23 17:00:04 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13877 Given that someone in a 1635000000 property is more likely to be wealthy than someone in a 16350000 property one tried and tested way of identifying wealthy prospects is through their property. One easy way to do this is to look for people who live in large country houses as they often end in one of the following Abbey Castle Court Hall Manor or Park. E.g. Lacock Abbey Sudeley Castle Coughton Court Norman Hall Owlpen Manor amp Dyrham Park. So simply search your database or to be specific just the first address field for Abbey Castle Court Hall Manor or Park to bring up as many large country properties as you can. This will also of course bring up a large number of unwanted addresses. I.e. anyone on your database living in Manor Road Castle Street Park Hill and so on but it will also bring up if they are on your database various large country properties. After that its up to you 2007-8-22 13:09:29 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13380 Theres an interesting article in Time about the future of information gathering on the web Online Snooping Gets Creepy Thanks to Jeff Walker of the Childrens Hospital of Wisconsin for posting the link on PRSPCTL. I am now off work until the 13th August so until then happy researching 2007-8-3 14:54:37 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13284 According to a recent piece in WealthBulletin.com philanthropists who donate their priceless artifacts to the UKs museums when they die deserve tax breaks in return throughout their lifetimes The UK government faces a call to extend a scheme that allows ultrawealthy philanthropists who promise treasures to the nations museums after their death to receive tax concessions during their lifetimes. Last year museums in Britain received precious objects worth more than 16325.3 million 51 million including a diamond tiara paintings and vintage steamboats in lieu of inheritance tax. The Acceptance in Lieu panel which is lobbying the government to extend the scheme said the generosity of those ultraHNW donors needs to be stimulated by tax concessions if they are to fill the funding gap on behalf of national institutions. Am I missing something here Philanthropists can already donate treasures to the nation in lieu of inheritance tax so they are already getting a pretty hefty tax ... 2007-7-31 10:47:09 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#13093 Social networking sites allow users to create a profile of themselves and then get in contact with other people who have also created a profile usually friends work colleagues and family but also complete strangers. You can search for people on these sites and depending upon the site and the level of content that the person makes publicly available find out about them their work their friends and so on. A bit hit and miss but can sometimes be useful. And as Bryan Miller has recently blogged the average MySpace and Facebook user is now in their midthirties so these sites will Im sure become an increasingly useful resource for researchers. Here are a few of the more well known networking sites Friends Reunited Popular British site which has a search facility which allows you to search for peoples profiles. Also has sites in other countries which are listed on www.friendsreunited.com Myspace Another well known site that also has a search facility which allows y... 2007-7-25 12:24:00 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#12804 Could this be the end of traditional Major Donor fundraising as we know it OK probably not but an interesting story all the same from todays ThirdSector Website will help richest to donate The Reed Foundation is to launch a website that allows wealthy philanthropists wanting to donate between 163100000 and 16310m to search for charitable projects. Oxfam the Red Cross and the NSPCC are among the charities that are interested in uploading projects to TheBigGive.org.uk when it launches in September. Wealthy donors will be able to view projects that are looking for funding and search by the amount of funding needed sector location and type of beneficiary. Once they have chosen a project they will be provided with the appropriate contact number at the charity for example the chief executives number if they want to make a donation of 16310m. They will then be able to make phased payments over five years. The foundation which was set up by recruitment company Reed is planning a 16310... 2007-7-18 10:46:49 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#12194 Theres an interesting article in todays Independent The Big Question Why do wealthy Americans donate so much to charity and rich Britons so little Its not exactly groundbreaking but worth reading all the same. 2007-6-27 09:55:44 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#12170 No matter how detailed your research there is always the nagging doubt when you completepresent a prospects profile to your colleagues have I missed something Or more to the point have I missed something bloody obvious To err is human after all especially if you are as busy as most of us researchers are. And of course there is no easy way to find out. Unless that is you show the profile to the prospect himherself and ask them to comment. And this is what I have recently done and it is something that I cannot recommend too highly. OK I didnt actually show a profile to a prospect bit of a cheat there. What I did do was prepare a profile for an acquaintance of mine as if she was a prospect and then ask her to comment on it. I was hoping I must admit to wow her with my expertise and guile as she is by no means hugely visible and she was impressed of course but my main motivation was to find out what I had missed. Either because it was not possible to find it or through my own dozine... 2007-6-26 14:24:57 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#12040 According to a story in yesterdays Evening Standard some 85 of Britains superrich do not pay any income tax. Surprised I am. In fact Id say Im flabbergasted shocked disgusted and quite frankly very annoyed. According to information obtained by the Evening Standard under the Freedom of Information Act of the 400 or so people thought to earn 16310m or more just 65 declared taxable earnings. 65 Analysts say this means as much as 1632bn a year is lost to Treasury coffers. Now dont get me wrong Im not one of those lets raise higher rate income tax to 90 nationalise everything amp trash McDonalds Starbucks and all those other representatives of corporate globalisation leftie types. Oh no. Far from it in fact. But I do believe in responsibility. And it is pretty clear that many of the super rich are shirking theirs under the cloak of legality. By this phrase I mean that as they are avoiding paying income tax through perfectly legal means they think that it is a perfectly acceptabl... 2007-6-22 10:52:26 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11940 According to a story on UK Fundraising Muchloved the charity that assists people who have suffered bereavement through the death of a family member or friend has set up an online memorial site where charities can solicit in memoriam donations in a sympathetic and appropriate manner. Muchloved aims to help charities raise new funds in a respectful way whilst offering their supporters an opportunity to celebrate lives and remember loved ones. Whilst I agree that this is an excellent idea it is also clear to me that theyve missed an obvious gap in the market dead family members whose lives you dont want to celebrate. You know the sort the cranky old git who whinges and moans about all the foreigners coming over to our country the sour faced bint who always insists on giving you the benefit of her experience even though this amounts to nothing more than a lifetime of failure and misery and the tight fisted bastard who sponges off you for years with never a word of gratitud... 2007-6-19 15:06:46 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11749 News alerts are a must as far as I am concerned. Why go to all that bother of searching through countless newspapers journals websites blogs and so forth when news alerts will do it for you I currently have some 50 or so alerts set up through my news archive subscription and also Google Alerts which scan the newspapers and websites of the world for information about my prospects. They cant even breath without me hearing about it. OK so sometimes you get information overload theres no doubt about that but better to receive too much information than too little is my view. And of course you can in fact you must tailor your alerts using Boolean operators to filter the information that you receive. For example working as I do at the lovely Stroke Association I am interested in news concerning prospects who have had a stroke or know someone who has and so on. I could if I were really dumb use the following search term for a daily news alert Stroke This would bring up every news it... 2007-6-13 09:51:22 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11343 F Google In this day and age of web 2.0 and all that hyped bollocks dont just rely upon Google or the other bog standard search engines for your research when there is so much more out there. Here are four search engines that are a little different and could prove useful in your ongoing research. Blinkx is the worlds largest and most advanced video search engine. Using automatic spiders that crawl the Web and through partnerships with 200 leading content and media companies blinkx has indexed over 12 million hours of video content and made it fully searchable using speechtotext transcription and visual analysis. Kartoo is a metasearch engine with visual display interfaces. When you click on OK Kartoo launches the query which sends your search to a set of search engines gathers the results compiles them and represents them in a series of interactive maps through a proprietary algorithm whatever the hell that is. Who cares It looks good and could be useful for visuali... 2007-5-30 14:24:21 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11318 A recent post on the ProspectL discussion board asked what sort of information a researcher should gather about their prospects. Here are the responses Business information where amp what do they do there. Interests in giving any strong preference for a particular area of our organization any strong preference against anything. This will help when soliciting them for a gift and being able to offer them something they have a strong interest in. Any giving even to another organization is good information to collect to understand their capability of giving or where their interest is Family connections who are they related to. Information on children is helpful major donors with wealth and no children make excellent planned giving prospects. Community Connections who are they connected to that they can help us with or vice versa. Or if we play 6 degrees to that unreachable person out in the community can we make the connections through this person and their ... 2007-5-29 14:59:57 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11099 It must get very monotonous for the people who have to update DASH and so its not surprising if their minds occasionally wander and they mistype certain words which must be the explanation behind this little gem I mean what other explanation could there possibly be for mistyping Hampshire 2007-5-22 09:10:12 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#11065 There are few things that irritate me more than outsiders coming along and making all sorts of unjustified claims about charities and the way that we operate. Such people seem to cling to this 19th century view that most charities are run along the lines of a church fate with a few well meaning old biddies and exservices types mucking in together to do their bit for society. What these charities really need is a bit of advice from the private sector. Or so they think. Honestly do they really believe that a modern charity is some sort of repository for those who failed to get into the private sector or retired gentlefolk or middle class housewives with too much free time and that we have no idea of efficiency accountability professionalism or bestpractise Do they to paraphrase Cartman have no respect for our authoritaay A quintessential example of this idiocy is to be found in a recent article in the Independent on Sunday entitled Hedge funds get the bug fo... 2007-5-21 11:22:16 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10994 The electoral roll is an invaluable aid to finding and confirming a prospects address and 192.com has been at the forefront of suppliers of electoral roll information for several years. Each year they produce what they describe as Britains leading people finder on CD ROM and they have now just published UKInfo Pro V13 which allows you to search 29 million names and addresses from the 2007 Electoral Roll 17 million Directory Enquiry listings and 2.3 million company listings. Cor blimey mister Not bad eh Well not bad but not cheap either at 163349.99 why this price Why not just 163350 Makes no sense to me... This is the list price on their website but fear not gentle reader for there are alternatives. For example you can get it for only 163254.47 from Dwarf software which is a saving of almost 163100. But you can do better. For only 163229.99 you can get it from Amazon. A saving of 163120 But why restrict yourself to 192.com or their UK Info product The UK Electoral R... 2007-5-18 12:37:50 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10974 Another day another awards ceremony. This time it is the turn of the Third Sector Excellence Awards 2007. They now have some 24 different awards in 8 different categories surely room enough for a research award no No. No room. Awards for Communications Fundraising Finance and so on but nothing even remotely to do with research. Perhaps we should start our own awards The Fundraising Research Awards for Excellence we could call them...or something. Whatever lets do it I nominate me. 2007-5-17 14:38:33 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10781 When one is a member of a discussion list there are few things more irritating than getting emails of the sort Fred Smith is out of the office repeatedly filling up your inbox. But on the AdvanceL discussion list there is one out of office email that always make me chuckle. It comes from someone from Canadas York University and always has the following in the subject field Deonic Lee is away... But what I cant help seeing is Demonic Lee is away... First time I read it I wondered if York U had some sort of Satanic sponsorship or something 10000 for every soul procured that sort of thing. Anyway I should add that I have not met Deonic but presume that she is a perfectly nice nondiabolical person with no affiliations to Beelzebub. At least I hope not 2007-5-11 12:04:06 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10761 Anyone who is a member of the Trust Fundraising group will be familiar with the following message Im looking for the XYZ Trust and I cant find it on the charity commission register... Oh boy how annoying are they Yup very. But fear not for this weeks tip by guest tipper Mel Matthews of TB alert gives some prime pointers on how to find those seemingly elusive trusts If I had a pound for every time someone said they cant find a charity on the register and I found it Id be rich Thats not to imply someone is being stupid or lazy not to find it. The problem is you have to think stupid probably why Im so good at it. The thing to remember is that it is there. If its a charity registered in the UK it is there. Then you have to think of all the wrong ways to write the name for ages I couldnt find my own charity TB Alert because they put it as T B Alert. We had to get TB added as a keyword so you still wont find it if you search under name only. And we cant do a thing about i... 2007-5-10 14:06:30 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10569 Ah the Sunday Times Rich List what would we do without it Some real research into a prospects wealth is the first response that comes to mind. Now dont get me wrong I use the ST Rich List as much as the next manwomantranssexual but it is important to realise that one should take many of the wealth valuations with a large pinch of salt. An accountant acquaintance of mine with some 40 years experience of valuing companies is very rude about the way wealth is calculated in the Rich List. Having explained to me how a particular figure was probably arrived at he concluded All this I hasten to add is a journalists idea of value and almost certainly will have no relation to the real world which is why when it comes to unquoted companies noshyone can rely on Beresfords figures. Of another method of wealth evaluation using shareholdings in a company and its various subsidiaries he commented that the result is unlikely to be a value as such but that never troubles Beresfor... 2007-5-3 12:14:33 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10494 Heres an amusing story from Sundays Telegraph amongst others illustrating the importance of doing your research before inviting prospects to an event. For the last few months the multimillionaire Sir Christopher Evans has been appearing in national newspapers and television news bulletins because of his prominence in Scotland Yards cashforhonours inquiry and was even arrested during the 13month inquiry. A longterm donor to New Labour Sir Christopher secretly lent the party 1631 million in 2005 it was recently repaid. His role came under scrutiny after the police obtained a note handwritten by Sir Christopher about an alleged conversation with Lord Levy in 2000. The Prime Ministers chief fundraiser is alleged to have asked Sir Christopher whether he wanted a K or a big P believed to have been a reference to a knighthood or peerage. Scotland Yards 12th and final report on the cashforhonours affairs was submitted to the Crown Prosecution Service nine days ago. There have... 2007-4-30 10:30:17 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10415 Cor would you believe it My visitor counter has reached 2000 All together now Hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah...hallelujah halleyeeeelujah Not too shabby. Now to work. You know how it is youve got a Hedge Fund manager in your sites but you just dont know how much hes actually worth. Well now you do thanks to Alpha Magazines Hedge Fund Compensation Report. The Report reveals the truth about hedge fund salaries. Based on the results of questionnaires completed by nearly 900 professionals from more than 600 firms now you can find an answer to the question What are hedge fund professionals really making Cool eh 2007-4-26 12:26:48 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10169 A story in last Fridays Daily Express caught my eye Charity donors in a chorus of protest at NSPCC wasters Charity donors were outraged yesterday over the Daily Expresss revelations that thousands of pounds were squandered on a glossy brochure for the NSPCC. Cor blimey Squandered money. Outraged donors. What on earth is going on The Express reveals all Yesterday we revealed how 16325000 was spent producing 2000 limited edition brochures for wellheeled supporters to mark the end of the 163250million Full Stop Appeal. Now whilst I admit that 16312.50 for a colour brochure does seem a bit steep what were they gilt edged given that they were being produced for people who must each have donated considerably more money than 16312.50 and given that the cost as the Express article itself makes clear was actually met by former Prudential chief executive Mark Wood deputy chairman of the charity and also a trustee what is all the fuss about According to the Express ... 2007-4-16 14:07:40 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#10074 Ive added a new feature to the front page of the website a Google search box so that you can find what you want without having to wade through pages of tedious guff reading and rereading the same bad jokes and cursing my ideosyncratic website design etc. Talking of Google the latest issue of Information World Review has an article comparing the leading search engines Google Yahoo Ask Microsoft AOL and Orange. Speed of search size of database total number of hits returned these are nothing but eyecandy in the world of serious web search. Who cares if a search generates 21 million hits Noone is ever going to sort through that lot. All that really matters in search are the first few pages and engine finds. I quite agree To really test the search engines IWR devised a battery of realworld tests to come to a meaningful conclusion as to who should be crowned king of web search. The terms they searched for were deliberately chosen to put pressure on specific aspects of web search ... 2007-4-12 14:01:40 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#9894 Reading this weeks Thirdsector I was struck by the similarity between Gordon Lishman Director general of Age Concern and Andy Millman Ricky Gervaiss character in Extras. Ricky Gervais Gordon Lishman I wonder if by any chance they are related Im off for a few days now. I wish my readers a very Happy Easter both of you 2007-4-5 15:42:20 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#9824 Just come across an excellent interview with research guru Gary Price on Search Engine Watch hat tip ResearchBuzz. He talks about the work he has been doing on www.ask.com and the importance of not just relying on Google well he would say that wouldnt he. Ask certainly seems to have changedimproved since I last gave it a looksee. How useful it will be for prospect research remains to be seen. Ciao M Hat tip is one of those irritating bloggy phrases that I thought I would never use but here I am using it. I know what youre thinking Mathew be careful you walk with Satan. But Im just walking OK Were not holding hands. Yet. And if I ever start using graphical emoticons smileys and such like just shoot me. 2007-4-3 14:27:17 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#9545 Just been reading the spring edition of Giving Insights New Philanthropy Capitals newsletter. One article in particular caught my eye Female philanthropythe womans touch. It asks why there are so few highprofile female philanthropists and interviews three of them Stagecoach cofounder Ann Gloag Kiawah Trust founder Lynne Smitham and Childrens Investment Fund Foundation President Jamie CooperHohn to find out more about how women give. A pertinent question to ask Im sure youd agree and it was an interesting article but some of the comments by Jamie CooperHohn were rather...interesting. Heres the pick of the crop. Women in general struggle for the right to have a cheque book and so are very conscientious about making defendable grants says Jamie CooperHohn who manages the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation that derives its income from her husbands hedge fund. Women struggle for the right to have a cheque book Do they Which women Certainly none of my female friends or ... 2007-3-23 11:52:41 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#9507 When I was at university when they still called it university rather than uni and dinosaurs roamed oer the earth etc. they were always talking about reading around the subject. I.e. rather than just read the standard textbooks specifically for that subject topic etc. by experts in that field one should read other books on related subjects by those not necessarily working in that field or on that topic. In this way so the belief went you could pick up on useful information related to your own subject that you would otherwise have missed. Another example from a somewhat different angle. Consider the great polevaulter Sergei Bubka. I remember reading about his training methods. Rather than just practise the vaulting and sprinting he ran cycled swam weight trained in fact pretty much every type of exercise that one can think of. He trained around his subject as it were. And Im a great believe in doing the same looking outside the usual major donor amp prospect research param... 2007-3-22 11:02:20 http://www.fundraisingresearch.info/page31.htm#9457 Ive read a couple of interesting articles recently. First Cheapskate billionaires The superrich have more money than they can possibly spend so why do they give so little By Gregg Easterbrook in the LA Times Easterbrook discusses the tiny amount of their fortune 1 or less that many American billionaires give away each year Microsoft mogul Paul Allen net worth 16 billion gave away 53 million in 2006 according to Slate onethird of 1 of his fortune. Software magnate Lawrence Ellison net worth 20 billion gave away 100 million half of 1. Pierre Omidyar founder of EBay net worth 7.7 billion gave away 67 million less than 1. Nike tycoon Philip Knight net worth 7.9 billion gave away 105 million slightly more than 1. Tight buggers. But generous compared to their British counterparts. For example Earl Cadogans private company Cadogan Estates had pretax profits of almost 16352 million in 2005. What did the Cadogan charity give away 1631.2m. Which is even more insignificant w... 2007-3-20 12:25:15