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NEDRA board member James Cheng, assistant director of analytics at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, has recently returned from the DRIVE/ conference, and has some enthusiastic advice for all of us: attend a conference! (How convenient, then, that the NEDRA Annual Conference is coming up so soon.)

DRIVE/ing the Point Across: Whether MARC, NEDRA, DAS/APRA or Any Other Name - Get Thee to a Conference!

by James Cheng

I had the privilege of attending the DRIVE/ (Data Reporting Information Visualization Exchange) conference, and the APRA-sponsored overDRIVE, a couple of weeks ago. Being a first-time DRIVE/r, I quickly got exposed to novel and titillating ideas such as “Goals are for losers” and “Passion is overrated.” (Thank you, Dilbert creator Scott Adams!)

To be honest, I wasn't sure how much I would enjoy the conference as work projects, life events, and everything in between dwell on my mind. Of course, with DRIVE/ and overDRIVE being for those who focus on data management, analysis and communication, I thoroughly wished it lasted longer than just three short days!

Beyond information dissemination and networking opportunities as part of our professional development, conferences also allow us to collaborate and be inspired in ways that would not be probable in the “regular 9 to 5.” For me, one gratifying moment during the conference turned out to be a “fireside chat” with colleagues from another healthcare fundraising analytics shop. We spent the time bouncing ideas with one another, trying to solve a particular predictive modeling dilemma. Having in-person interactions was crucial to generating and evolving those ideas that even remote/online meetings wouldn't fully capture.

Another example involves comparing and contrasting different services and products. The technical sessions and vendor booth demonstrations were extremely informative during the conference. With that said, trading notes about different vendor services and products and getting first-hand user experiences directly from colleagues allowed all of us attendees to benefit from one and another.

Alongside being places for collaboration and idea exchange, conferences inspire professional creativity. One of the guest DRIVE/ speakers, Rayid Ghani, worked as the Chief Data Scientist for the Obama 2012 campaign. He explained how he utilized analytics/data science in predicting for different outcomes along a quadrant map delineating for whom a voter will vote (Obama or Romney) by how likely individuals will actually vote. As Mr. Ghani's keynote peculated in my mind during an overDRIVE Q&A session, I became inspired to replace the familiar “capacity & activity” quadrants for prospect management with stock-rating “risk & reward” quadrants, imagining prospect managers like the “Morningstar” investment researchers of prospect “stocks” within a gift officer's portfolio.

Another inspiration came as my mind drifted during an introductory session on data science. Admittedly, in true confession style, I let my mind wander but remained seated physically, trying not to leave any session within the first fifteen minutes of presentation. However, that time allowed me to think about the history and evolution of research from “reactive research” to “proactive research.” The “Eureka!” moment suddenly appeared to me that the next evolution leap for the research profession would be “predictive research!”

What do the constructs of “risk” and “reward” look like in prospect management terms? If and/or how would “risk” and “reward” be measured or encapsulate something more than what “capacity and activity” or even “wealth and philanthropy” would? What WOULD “predictive research” look like; would it simply be another way of predicting for principal/major gift donors?

If and/how would “predictive research” benefit the philanthropy pipeline; would it actually help in predicting for wealth events (or something else), such that prospect ID/proactive researchers would not have to wait for news alerts or manually flip through newsprint daily?

These are the kinds of ideas and questions I hope I and/or others get to ask as we collaborate with and inspiring others at future conferences!

Thanks to all who attended the RING last week in Wethersfield, CT on re-energizing prospect portfolios! We hope everyone walked away with new ideas and strategies to share in their offices.

The next offering from the Programming Committee will be the pre-conference Research Basics Bootcamp, to be held at the Strawberry Banke Museum in Portsmouth, NH on Wednesday, April 15. Are you a new researcher, or recently returned to the field after a long time away? Want to learn the ropes of research and make some connections with other researchers? The Bootcamp is a great opportunity on its own, but it's also an excellent precursor to the Annual Conference, giving new researchers a foundation to help them make the most of the educational sessions and networking opportunities offered during the conference. Register today for the Bootcamp alone, or for the Bootcamp-and-conference package, on the Upcoming Programs page.

The Conference Scholarship Committee and the Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship Committee have announced the winners of this year's scholarships!

Pamela Abraham, senior development assistant at the Children's Aid Society, is the winner of this year's Conference Scholarship. There are two winners of the Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship in its second year of being awarded. Stephanie Cavagnuolo, donor services manager at Oxfam America, is one; Rebecca Elwin, development associate at the Conservation Law Foundation, is the other. The scholarship committees received a number of excellent applications this year. Congratulations to the winners, and we look forward to seeing you at the conference!

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In this article from the Spring 1996 NEDRA News, Valerie Anastasio talks about patents, and about what they mean for the wealth of inventors and assignees.

Patented Prospects.pdf

The NEDRA Board had its monthly operations call on February 11. Among the subjects discussed were this spring's conference and scholarships, donations to the Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship Fund, upcoming programs, and more. On February 26 and 27, NEDRA President Suzy Campos and Vice President Tara McMullen represented NEDRA at the APRA Chapter Leaders Summit in Chicago, to compare best practices among chapters. Read on for more information.

Registration is open for the 2015 Annual Conference! We hope you'll join us in Portsmouth, NH on April 16 and 17 for what promises to be a lively, educational, and interesting conference. Attend presentations like "The When, Why, and How of Data-Driven Fundraising" and "Herding Cats: The Art of Prospect Management, hear the keynote by Billy Starr of the Pan-Mass Challenge, and network with fellow researchers. Don't forget: even if you can't make it to the conference itself, all NEDRA members are invited to the Thursday night Networking Reception, sponsored by iWave!

Check out the 2015 Conference Schedule At-A-Glance for more information on what to expect.

Looking for a way to defray the cost of attending the NEDRA Annual Conference this spring? Why not apply for one of our scholarships? The deadline for both the Conference Scholarship and the Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship has been extended to Friday, March 13.

The 2015 Conference Scholarship, sponsored by The Helen Brown Group, covers the cost of conference registration. All are welcome to apply.

NEDRA has also established the Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship, in honor of one of NEDRA's most active and beloved members. The Heather Reisz Memorial Scholarship is intended for those who have been in prospect research for less than two years and will cover the cost of registration and lodging for the 2015 Annual Conference and pre-conference Research Basics Bootcamp, as well as a one-year NEDRA membership; travel expenses will also be reimbursed up to $300.

Both scholarships are need-blind. Submit applications for review by Friday, March 13.

Hugh Bennett, Associate Director of Prospect Identification at MIT, gives an overview of prospect ID, and makes the case for a dedicated staff in research offices to oversee this important function.

What is new Prospect Identification?

by Hugh Bennett

There's an old story about how an elephant is described by blindfolded people who touch different parts of the elephant. One feels the trunk and thinks it is a fire hose. One feels an ear and thinks it is a frond of a palm tree. Another touches a leg and thinks it is a porch pillar. When dealing blindly with things, it is possible to have different reactions. Prospect Identification for major gifts is like this. Depending on whom one asks, prospect identification for major gifts is defined differently.

- A senior non-profit VP or president might think it is a donor who has made a first time $1M gift.

- A non-profit fundraiser might think it is that major gift prospect that he/she had contact with for the first time or that prospect someone else told them about.

- A non-profit prospect management analyst might think it is that person they found in the database that no one is calling even though there may be copious amounts of data on the prospect and a capacity rating history in the database system.

- A non-profit researcher might think it is that person they wrote up details on for the first time, or maybe it is like the prospect management analyst - finding someone unsolicited in the database even though there may be copious data and capacity information existing.

- A predictive modeler or data mining analyst might think it is the prospects they find in the database who could be aligned with certain fund raising causes that currently interest the non-profit, or maybe those prospects they churn back as wealthy (even though they are already identified as such in the database).

All of these definitions are actively being used. The one thing these definitions all lack is the actual point of origin.

Prospects for major gifts can be identified for the very first time in different ways by different organizations. References are big in some shops; new patients in hospitals are another common source. But few organizations have systematic ways to find unknown wealth among an existing and fairly static pool of connected prospects, like alumni.

In my higher education research department, we have what appears to be one of the only dedicated proactive research groups in higher education.

We identify new major gift prospects that were not previously recognized as such. These people are almost all already affiliated with our schools (typically as graduates), but they were not known to be wealthy.

In our case, this research results in 800 to 1,000 totally new major gift prospects with confirmed wealth every year. That’s approximately 7,000 in the past 8 years. And, it’s over 90% of our newly rated major gift prospects over the past 8 years. (The rest are mainly unconnected "wish list" type prospects rated by others.)   Our efforts have also doubled our overall pool of now known wealthy prospects. All these people had new data entered and were written up when recognized as major gift prospects by proactive research.

Our fundraisers don’t need to qualify these prospects for wealth, only inclination. And they aren’t wasting their valuable time on prospecting people without major gift level wealth.

Our dedicated proactive research professionals have developed systematic approaches to source totally new major gift prospects, mostly from data external to our in-house database. Proactive prospect identification is a science of methodical, valuable work that empowers an organization to hire more fundraisers and raise greater amounts for its cause.

Some non-profit consultants like Dan Pallotta have argued that organization should invest in their advancement services and do more to grow their non-profits. Having a dedicated proactive research staff is arguably one of the best ways to do this.

Reactive researchers are not trained to do proactive research and are busy doing their jobs. Having them do proactive research as part of their job is a waste of time in my opinion. It’s distracting from their main activity and they haven’t got the training, tools, time, or “radar” to be effective or efficient. They are good at detailed research on assigned pre-identified prospects, not at repetitively and systematically finding new golden needles in a haystack.

Proactive research is steps before other fund raising work and often not recognized for its value. Solicitations and other steps along the way can truly add value. But, it is possible that the most valuable work was the origin. All that follow-up work would not have been done without highlighted prospects to focus on.

Strangely some call this proactive work glamorous, even alluring. Hardly. It's methodical and sometimes quite tedious. And we rarely are recognized for what we do.

Yet, my group has discovered several thousand connected individuals as new major gift prospects. They all have proven levels of high wealth, many with recent liquidity events that make them likely and timely tax-driven candidates for major gifts. Even though many are still yet to be solicited, some have already made subsequent multi-million dollar gifts.

Others can emulate this process and improve the health and wealth of their fund raising organization. They can improve and redefine their prospect identification.