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Apra-IL Blog

You Should Write a Blog About That!

As part of our goal to share industry and career-related information to colleagues in the fundraising development field, we encourage you to contact us if you would like to contribute to our blog. 

Current 2022 Blog Series:

T.R.U.S.T - What Does Collaboration Mean to You?

Completed in 2021/2020: 

The Research Rabbit Hole

The Hot Seat

The Prospect Development Professional's Haven

Questions, Questions, Read all About the Answers!

Placing a Seat at the Table

  • Mon, October 30, 2017 1:31 PM | Anonymous

    Written by Kathryn Thomas

    Director of Membership and Marketing, Apra-IL

    Prospect Identification Analyst, Wisconsin Foundation & Alumni Association

    Hello, colleagues! For those of you who couldn’t make it to the Apra-IL Fall Networking Conference, you were missed! Those of us who could attend enjoyed several hours of structured (and not-so-structured) conversation about how our shops define analytics and utilize them to aid us in our work, how we write and organize biographical information, how to wrangle gift officer portfolios, and more.

    The Prospect Research tables had rousing conversations that veered away from our structured topic list to issues immediately effecting them. During round three, I learned the various attitudes toward and time allotted for proactive verses reactive research. Most shops allotted some time every month, but wished they had the ability to explore new proactive research projects. A few shops are able to devote considerable amounts of time to proactive research and have been experimenting with the best areas to focus on and improve over time.

    The management of portfolios and portfolio reviews were the primary topics of conversation for the Prospect Management table. The conversation confirmed what we’ve all struggled with: what makes a healthy portfolio and does it change depending on a fundraiser’s level of experience or focus area? Development metrics was also touched on during round one. A participant noted that "[she loved] the round table format because the composition of each group really directs the conversation, and it’s a great forum for brain-picking and brainstorming with our peers on those hard-to-answer questions we all come across in our line of work, at every level."

    Over at the analytics table, the round two conversation began with a definition of analytics at each of our shops. From there, discussion centered on projects various shops are undertaking – from using analytics to understand changing trends in corporate giving to parsing out the most beneficial annual giving segments. One attendee noted that she learned some new strategies for encouraging more contact data updates in their CRM. She also noted that she liked having the ability to, "discuss the overall philosophy of different shops on our day-to-day processes and documents" at the event.

    Afterward, we paraded to the World of Beer for tasty snacks (including a truly massive pretzel), delicious drinks, and further conversation.

    When asked what they thought of the day, one attendee noted, "It was a great opportunity to connect with my fellow chapter members and discuss our work and current challenges. This is the one time a year that I can connect with other similar organizations and compare notes. Taking the time to do that has greatly benefited my work and ongoing projects for my team. I’m looking forward to next year!" One new Apra-IL member noted that is was wonderful to have an understanding space in which to share interpersonal issues she's worked through with co-workers and to receive advice and support in that area from a new group of colleagues and soon-to-be friends. 

    For anyone who'd like to give the Apra-IL Board some feedback as we begin planning our fall event, please fill out this very short survey

    Thank you! And I look forward to receiving your feedback and meeting you at the next Apra-IL event in the spring!

  • Mon, October 30, 2017 10:57 AM | Anonymous


    The working relationship between researchers and gift officers can make or break a shop's morale, efficiency, and ability to reach its goals. Wouldn't it be awesome to be able to match yourself with major gift officers based on strengths and work-style capability instead of random assignments? Apra-IL is having some fun imagining a world where we could pick our perfect research and gift officer match. In an ode to all the popular reality match making shows, we present to you - a new series, Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition!

    Final Installment 

    Host: Welcome back, everyone, to the final episode of Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition. That’s right folks, this is our final episode! So far, our researchers Xavier, Veronica, and Melissa have been tested by research requests to analyze their skills and compatibility with Jared, our major gift officer. Our researchers have built portfolios, conducted targeted research in "Whose boat is it anyway," and uncovered a family’s inheritance. In today’s challenge, the researchers will work with a special guest on Jared’s portfolio, and at the end of this challenge Jared will decide who will be his perfect researcher match.

    Xavier, Veronica, Melissa, and Jared, welcome back! I hope you all are ready for today’s challenge.

    Let’s welcome our surprise guest Ericka. Ericka please introduce yourself to our audience, tell them what you do here, and fill them in on today’s challenge.

    Ericka: Hello everyone! My name is Ericka and I am the Prospect Manager at Ordinary University. I manage the plans that Fundraisers like Jared put in our database on prospects, I work with each fundraiser to restructure portfolios, ensure that each fundraiser has a set number of prospects in his or her portfolio, and I analyze how the prospects are being moved along the cultivation pipeline. My job involves a lot of data and collaboration with researchers and fundraisers.

    Today’s challenge is going to be very different. As we all know, Jared is fairly new to OU and has adopted a lot of the previous fundraiser’s portfolio. As a result, Jared is beyond the limit of prospects for his portfolio. Therefore, each researcher will get a chance to review some of the data I’ve compiled on Jared’s portfolio and suggest a "collaboration plan" that would help us as a Development team clean up Jared’s portfolio. This challenge is called,

     C is for Collaboration

    Veronica: Hi everyone, so I was the first to meet with Ericka. As I was looking through Jared’s portfolio I saw a lot of prospects that had old ratings, so I told Ericka that my collaboration plan would consist of updating the prospects’ ratings through quick screenings. Jared’s portfolio is full of prospects with 10-year-old ratings and several principal gift donors. I think it’s important that we as researchers update these ratings and consider distributing some of Jared’s prospects to their second units of interest, if necessary.

    Host: Great plan Veronica! Time to hear from Xavier.

    Xavier: Hi! So, as I looked through Jared’s portfolio with Ericka, I presented her with a collaboration plan in which research and prospect management would work together to redistribute Jared’s portfolio so that it would decrease the number of prospects. In fact, I am familiar with the prospects within Jared’s portfolio because I provided several of the researched profiles.

    Host: Xavier that makes a lot of sense! Thank you for that plan! Melissa?

    Melissa: Hello everyone, when I met with Ericka and looked over Jared’s portfolio, I realized that the best collaboration plan would consist of reviewing Jared’s prospects, and conducting some updated research. I also felt like it would make sense for us to figure out which prospects would remain in the portfolio based on the progress recorded on each prospect's plan. Jared is coming with his own strategies so we need to make sure his portfolio reflects this.

    Host: Melissa, great plan! Ericka? It's time to decide who won this competition after reviewing their collaboration plans. What do you think?

    Ericka: After speaking with Jared about each researcher’s collaboration plan, we really believe that Melissa’s plan won. It was a thorough plan that considered all aspects of how we needed to construct and clean up Jared’s portfolio.

    Jared: And the winner of Match Makers, and my new researcher will be Melissa! All the researchers have done an extraordinary job! But I believe Melissa has been one inch ahead in the game. Thank you to everyone for participating!

    Host: Folks this is so exciting! Thank you, Ericka, Jared, Xavier, Veronica, and our winner of Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition, Melissa!

    I believe we have learned a lot from our researchers and Ericka. Thank you all for participating! And thank you to our audience for being a part of this journey!

  • Tue, October 10, 2017 8:38 AM | Anonymous


    What makes Prospect Development a great career?

    APRA-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in Prospect Development. Through this blog series we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and Prospect Development forward.

    For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, APRA-IL member and volunteer, interviews Leigh Petersen, former Apra-IL President and Senior Director of Advancement Services and Operations at Southwestern University.


    Working with non-profits for over 15 years, Leigh Petersen is currently the Senior Director of Advancement Services and Operations at Southwestern University. She previously worked as the Director of Prospect Development at Harvard Business School where she developed the prospect management, analytics, and research teams. Prior to Harvard, Leigh served as Director of Prospect Development at Loyola University Chicago. Leigh chaired the 2017 Apra Data Analytics Symposium and served in leadership roles with Apra-IL. Leigh earned her MBA in Information Systems Management with a certificate in Data Warehousing from Loyola University Chicago and a BA in Music Performance from Doane College (Crete, NE). She enjoys singing with the Round Rock Community Choir, running Ragnar Relays, traveling worldwide, and nerding out with data.

    Apra-IL: Describe your motivations to build your career in Prospect Development, and what keeps you engaged.

    Petersen: Like many others, I fell into Prospect Development by accident. My career started in arts management, moved to working in finance, and landed in planned giving. As a gift officer, I enjoyed the donor stories, but found myself more interested in the big picture of prospect identification. Around the same time, I started my MBA at Loyola University Chicago and found my data classes to be very intriguing, which peaked my curiosity in this field. With the techniques learned as a gift officer paired with the data concepts from my MBA class, it felt very natural to transition into the Director of Prospect Development role at Loyola. 

    The Prospect Development professionals whom I have met through Apra and AASP or colleagues whom I've worked with at Loyola, Harvard Business School, or Southwestern University (as well as many other non-profits) continue to amaze me. These individuals continue to ask new questions of our field while taking the time to teach those around them. These wonderful people are why I stay engaged in this area of nonprofits.

    Apra-IL: What impact does your work, and the overall field of Prospect Development, have (and could you describe who you believe your audience is)?

    Petersen: Prospect Development's impact is enormous - locally in our organizations and globally across organizations of all types. Generally, I'm a person who wants to create improvements in my day-to-day role for not only myself, but the environment around me. It's greatly satisfying to know that even a small change in a process or a tiny update in a data point can lead to better productivity and growing results for the entire team and organization. Too often the unsung heroes, Prospect Development professionals, improve the data, processes, flows, relationships, etc. that help raise money in supporting noble efforts. Though it's very difficult to measure our direct impact, I can only estimate (with my experience in capital campaigns) that our impact is in the hundreds of billions of dollars across the industry.

    Apra-IL: Please share a piece of advice with the readers on what you have gained during your professional development.

    Petersen: I'd recommend readers build a network of 3-5 honest and fun people in the profession who can provide straight feedback, push you to be better, and cheer for you along the journey. There were plenty of times when I doubted decisions or walked unknown paths, but these individuals helped guide and support my efforts through constructive conversations. They are also super fun individuals who can handle chilling with a beer and not talking work if that's what's needed.

    Next, I'd recommend learning how to be an expert in something. Whether it's prospect staging, data visualizations, or real estate valuation, find something and become the go-to person on the topic. I've found my passion and success in turning around departments and building teams and processes from scratch. Each situation has been different and extremely challenging, but also very rewarding, especially when you see staff who you've hired move to amazing, successful careers.

    Apra-IL: What is next for you? Is there anything you would like to accomplish or a challenge you hope to overcome?  

    Petersen: It was an honor presenting at CASE Asia in Hong Kong in 2016 with Josh Birkholz. Speaking somewhere outside the US is on my short to-do list. Next, I recently purchased www.leighpetersen.com, so I guess I had better do something with that webpage! I want it to be more than just a blog, so feel free to send me any suggestions of what you're interested in seeing from me. Also, I'm continually intrigued by the power of analytics, so I'm currently investigating some online course options since I need more training in that area. Finally, I love donuts, so those continue to stay in my future.


  • Mon, September 25, 2017 8:45 AM | Anonymous

    By Elisa Shoenberger, Benchmarking Analyst, Grenzebach Glier and Associates

    Dear Analyst,

    My organization has decided to do a wealth screening of our entire database. I’ve never been through a wealth screening before. What are the benefits of doing such a large screening?  What should I be aware of before we start this process? All I’ve been told is that we have to go through and verify the information of 1000s of records. How do I do that? And is that even feasible? When we are done with the verification, what’s next? I’m so overwhelmed!

    Thanks,

    Wealth Screening Flummoxed

    Dear Flummoxed,

    Take a deep breath. It’s going to be okay. Wealth screenings are a useful way of unearthing new prospects in your database. By matching people and their addresses from your database with possible assets and other data points, you can learn new information about people in your database. Many services can tell you about their real estate, securities, philanthropic giving, political giving, and much more. Some screenings provide demographic segments for the people in your database that could help in understanding a person’s philanthropic habits. Some screenings are quite comprehensive, including a large portion if not all of your fundraising database. Others may be smaller or more targeted based on the needs of your organization. There are also services that allow you to upload a list of prospects (like Parents or ticketholders) for a mini-screening. Some institutions set up continuous screening of ticketholders, new members, etc. based on their needs and what works best for your organization. You might want to consider a wealth screening every couple of years with some targeted screenings in between depending on what donor populations you want to look at.

    From all of this data, you hopefully can replenish your pool of prospects with new major gift prospects to visit and qualify. Other opportunities from a screening could be developing a new pool of Planned Giving Prospects or Annual Giving Prospects. Through developing these types of pools, you may discover some annual giving prospects who have a very high capacity or you may learn that someone who had a low prospect rating has a lot of securities and may be worth a fresh look. Wealth screenings are very powerful and can aid the work of a prospect researcher enormously.

    While these screenings can be immensely helpful, they also can be a lot of work both before and after you submit data. You mention that there are a lot of records and the information needs to be verified and common names such as John Smith can be tricky and slow the process down. How do you handle all that data? Having a plan for dealing with the wealth screening is very important. First you have to figure out how to handle the extra depends on a team’s time. Some shops have been known to go on a research freeze; only priority projects are worked on while the department work to verify gift capacities. Not all shops are able to do that and so it even more important to have a plan of action and a reasonable time line for verification to be completed. You may have to allot some of your time every day to the screening and the rest to the normal workload. Or you could try to schedule a day a week where you work exclusively on the wealth screening.

    Second, how do you segment the wealth screening data? Chances are that you just won’t be able to get to everyone. So how do you do it? I would highly recommend a top down approach. Often times, wealth screenings will come up with a rating like $100,000 - $250,000 or a score. Some services will have a total of identified assets. Use these ratings, scores, and assets to prioritize your verification process. You may want to start at the very top rated prospects per the wealth screening or those with the highest number of identified assets. If you have a specific program or project you are working on, focus on that to help your prioritize. For instance, if you are helping a law school with their campaign, you may want to focus on law alumni with high number of assets. It would help to parse it out, by an area of interest like law or the arts or geographic areas. In other words, assemble small groups of people that need to be verified. For instance, you could create a group of all Illinois residents with a rating over $250,000+. In my shop, we’d try to segment it by about 250 people. That is way more manageable than 1000s. Dealing with the data in smaller chunks is a lot easier to comprehend and far more useful!

    Third, how do you get your new prospects into gift officer portfolios? This likely will require discussion with management and major gift officers (and other officers) as well. A good approach would be to put together a list of new prospects that you think should be assigned overall or to a specific gift officer. Of course, as noted in previous Dear Analyst post, you may have to sell the prospects to get major gift officers interested in them. Some gift officers can be very eager for new prospects and make the process easier but we all know we will have to make a tough sell at some point. Another ideas would be to consider looking at the new prospects’ contact information to help aid gift officers in reaching out to the new leads. But that is very dependent on your availability!

    As a final but important note, it will be important to set expectations with management at your institution. Also, some leaders may get very excited about the data and want the leads right now. While it’s great that they are onboard, you want to explain the importance of verification to ensure that you have the right data per prospect. You may have to show them your plan so they understand that it is a process and won’t happen overnight.

    You are going to find a lot of new prospects but it probably won’t help as much with folks that you already know. Wealth screening can help uncover new prospects to support your mission, find new upgrade opportunities to build pipeline donors, and may help align high end donors to the right giving area. It’s an important complement to the efforts of prospect research and prospect management. These are just a few ways to help guide you as you handle your first wealth screening. Each screening is an opportunity and you should take full advantage of it! At the end of the process, you’ll have a new pool of prospects with lots of great information on their capacity!

    Have a burning question for Dear Analyst? Email us at apraillinois@gmail.com or tweet us at @apraillinois.


  • Tue, August 29, 2017 7:43 AM | Anonymous

    The working relationship between researchers and gift officers can make or break a shop’s morale, efficiency, and ability to reach its goals! Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to match yourself with major gift officers based on strengths and working style capability instead of random assignments? In this month of love, APRA-IL is having some fun and imagining a world where we could pick our perfect research and gift officer match. In an ode to all the popular reality match making shows, we present to you- a new series, Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition. 

    The Prospect Development Addition

    Host: And we are back everyone! Welcome to another episode of Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition. Let’s also welcome back our researchers Xavier, Veronica and Melissa, and our major gift officer Jared. I hope you all are ready for today’s challenge because it will be enticing.

    For this challenge, the researcher’s will show us their ability to verify the information gathered from a gift officer. We call this challenge,

    True or False: A Family’s Inheritance

    Jared has very important information about a prospect’s mother. The prospect: Gabrielle Hunter is now assumed to inherit a significant amount of wealth, in addition to her current career and status.

    It is up to the researchers to verify this information, and report their findings to Jared.

    Will our researchers uncover the truth about this mysterious inheritance?

    Or will there be more to learn about this family?

    Stay tuned folks, this is going to get interesting.

    *End of the Day *

    Host:  Let’s hear from our researchers and find out what they’ve found.

    Xavier?

    Xavier: So, I spoke with Jared this morning and learned that Gabrielle Hunter’s mother supposedly owned several properties in her home state of Illinois, and several farms in Iowa, where she lived with her husband for some years. The Hunters are an interesting family and have always been rumored to be an affluent family, with a name tied to wealth thanks to several Hunters being very successful in rural real estate, in the late 60s.

    I began to search for the Hunter name in Illinois, and thanks to Jared, I also was familiar with the towns in which their properties were located so I knew resources to use to access property records related to ownership and taxes. After searching for an hour, I found nothing beyond property values of these rural properties to help inform me of their wealth beyond real estate. I was able to find a few properties but only one or two were being held by the family. Being able to confirm that the family holds at least one of these homes does give me some idea of their capacity but the lack of clarity on their ownership of the other properties makes it hard to give a complete assessment of their holdings. Based on the difficulty of my search, I can confirm that this family has taken great steps to shield their wealth using LLC’s and other strategies. I found an old interview with the Chicago Tribune in which Gabrielle Hunter’s father describes an interest in being an angel investor to several real estate companies in the country, and would not reveal the ones he was in talks with. While this explains the hard to find personal information, it still gives us something to work with since he has disclosed that he has enough capital to be an angel investor.

    I brought this information to Jared and explained the significance of an angel investor- someone described to be an investor to small start-ups, and entrepreneurs, and to meet the Securities Exchange Commission's (SEC) standards, an angel investor is one who must have a minimum net worth of $1 million and an annual income of $200,000.

    And based on the Hunters’ anonymity, as a researcher I could only conclude that their wealth has been based on the residuals from these investments. 

    Host: This is amazing, I was not expecting this! Melissa, what were you able to find?

    Melissa: I could not find any signs of property under the Hunter name, and search tools such as Lexis Nexis, only gave me old addresses. But what I did find was a large gift made to a hospital in Illinois under our prospect’s mother’s nickname. Although we already know her nickname is Shelly, I still had to verify that it was really her because she was acknowledged as simply “our most devoted volunteer Shelly”. Michelle Hunter, Gabrielle’s mother, is known to speak highly of this hospital in public settings and her previous gift officer has noted her volunteering experience.

    I think this information should be a great indicator of the Hunter family’s capacity, and perhaps what Gabrielle could inherit from her parents, being the only child.

    Host: Great work Melissa, I would like to remind our audience-  It’s important to emphasis that your fundraisers are keeping their interactions with prospects in the database up to date, and recording all the details. A good contact report can sometimes be the only trace of a previous relationship or strategy and could make or break future solicitations. It truly helps the researchers. So, shout out to that previous gift officer who entered their contacts!

    Now onto Veronica.

    Veronica: After getting all the information about the prospect’s potential inheritance, I started searching for the properties and farms, and came up with not much to work with. I unfortunately spent hours using all the resources available to us, and still found very little. I did find that although Gabrielle’s mother didn’t own properties, Gabrielle has two a summer homes in Florida and recently bought a condominium in New York. Thanks to some interactions with her previous gift officer I verified her comments on wanting to own homes in those states as factual. I think Gabrielle has major gift capacity, and although we hear things about her family, she is building her own reputation!

    Host: Wow, I’m sure Jared appreciates learning this news about Gabrielle, thank you Veronica!

    Jared, its time now, the audience and I are dying to know what you thought about the researcher’s feedback and who won this challenge?

    Jared: Well honestly, I am shocked at what they uncovered.  Each one of them gave me so much to work with and I will be setting up a meeting with Gabrielle to talk about a gift, using all the information learned today. Today, I will not be crowning one person the winner because they all did an exceptional job with the information I gave them. I think they made sure they brought something I could use and add to my strategy and I am grateful. Thank you researchers!

    Host: *In shock* Folks I think Jared just changed the show on us. This was not planned! Are you saying we don’t have a winner today Jared?

    Jared: Nope, I’m sorry they all won this one!

    Host: Well there you have it folks! Today everyone is a winner. Thank you all for joining us for another amazing episode! This challenge was full of twists and turns!

    Make sure to join us next time on Match Makers: The Prospect Development Edition. At the end, there will only be one match.


  • Mon, August 21, 2017 8:49 AM | Anonymous


    By Elisa Shoenberger, Benchmarking Analyst, Grenzebach Glier and Associates 

    Dear Analyst,

    I know that there are a lot of resources for prospect development professionals through social media out there but I’m not sure what to do with it all. Are there better social media sources than others? How do I decide what platform is best for my research purposes? Should I be using any information I find on Facebook or LinkedIn? Is it ethical to be using these platforms? Is it reliable? I’m wary of the potential effectiveness and ethical implications of using social media research sources but also have researcher’s FOMO (fear of missing out) by not utilizing these tools.

    Thanks,

    Social Media Confused


    Dear Confused,

    You are right. There is so much information out there that it is hard to know what to do with it all. You are asking the right questions about ethics and reliability. There’s no one size fits all when it comes to the use of social media in research. Platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn in particular present specific ethical challenges for prospect researchers.  You might first decide what social media sites you want to use. For instance, LinkedIn seems to be a fairly standard social media site used by fundraisers and prospect researchers alike. The purpose of the site is professional with job information, etc. Gift officers may even use it as a tool to supplement their regional visits. Facebook may be trickier since it contains much more personal information, beyond the job. Twitter even more so.

    With whatever sites you choose to use, you should probably take the information with a grain of salt. Everything is self-reported and may not always be up-to-date. But then again, anything a prospect says to a gift officer or staff member is also self-reported so don’t shy away just because of that. I like to look for clues about the person by looking at their LinkedIn profile. I like to consider how much information is available? Do they list one job and that’s it? Or does it seem they are updating it constantly? That can provide some clues as to the reliability and potential usefulness of the information. That’s a first step. Second step is try to verify the information to the best of your ability. For example, if they work for the XYZ Company, it may be worth going to the company’s website and seeing if they are there. Some companies will have lots of information about their employees and some don’t. You can also look up companies and see if there is information about them to ensure they exist. You can see what’s in your database about the person and see if it matches. Basic attempts at verification like these can greatly enhance your confidence in using these types of social media resources and doesn’t stray too far from traditional prospect research work.

    In terms of ethics, APRA International has provided guidelines about the use of LinkedIn that can be found here: http://www.aprahome.org/d/do/4884. One point that they are explicit about in this discussion is that it’s okay to look at a person’s profile even if you are signed in. You can even do it anonymously by adjusting your privacy setting. However, you cannot create a fake account or misrepresent yourself. That would be considered unethical.

    Special note: There’s a lot of furor in the UK about data and prospect research. You can read a little bit about it here http://apraillinois.org/blog/5016608. If you are conducting international research it is important to remember to tread carefully and consider local laws in regards to privacy and data use. Ultimately, you may want to work with folks in your organization to put together a policy statement about how the information is going to be used. That way, everyone adheres to the same set of rules.

    Hope that helps you manage the amount of social media out there and make use of it for your work! Good luck!

    Have a tricky prospect management/research or analytics question? Ask us at apraillinois@gmail.com

  • Mon, August 07, 2017 10:12 AM | Anonymous
    By Elisa Shoenberger, Benchmarking Analyst, Grenzebach Glier and Associates 


    This is the saddest week of the year. It’s a little over a week since APRA International ended. It’s the longest period until the next one!

    As you may tell, APRA International remains one of my favorite times of the year. There’s nothing like a few days to talk and learn from your colleagues from all over the world and different institutions. Plus, this was the 30th annual APRA International.

    One of the sessions that I attended “Organizational Capacity Ratings: Don’t Leave Them out of Your Campaign Mix Tape”. Four institutions presented their different methods for handling organizational data including University of British Columbia, University of Alberta, University of Washington, and University of California – San Diego. Each institution reviewed how they rated organizations. I thought that University of Alberta’s system was the most impressive. Instead of developing one system to rate both corporations and foundations, they have developed two different systems for each. In their system, they use three criteria for rating corporations, creating a matrix to rate corporations on operating revenue, affinity, and fit. The system for rating foundations has four criteria including capacity, assets, affinity and fit. This is such a great idea! It never occurred to me to have different systems but it does make a lot of sense.

    I also attended a very useful presentation, “Grateful Patient 2.0: Integrating Patient data into Distinct Prospect Pools” from the University of California San Diego. They talked about how they turned their direct mail grateful patient system into physician based fundraising with a major gift focus in two years. That’s pretty incredible! The majority of their presentation dealt with how they got a daily patient feed of in-patient and out-patient data from the hospital each night and the administrative work that went in to it. That feed needed to be HIPAA compliant so it was critical to have good relationships with Compliance Officers to earn their trust and get the right data consistently.  Their end result was a problem that every shop hopes for- a huge number of new constituents.

    My last session was “You Spin Me Right Round: Fundraising Regulation & GDPR Changes in the UK.” This session talked about the current and future privacy laws and their impact on fundraising. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will make the privacy laws stricter and will be implemented on May 25, 2018. It is critical to note that organizations need to be compliant when the law goes into effect so the time to plan is now. This law will “enhance data subject rights, increase fines, international reach, and stricter consent requirements.” People need to be informed of their rights about their data in a clear way. People must opt-in, instead of opting-out like here in the States. Further clarification will be released in the upcoming months and even at the beginning of 2018.

    The above are just a few nuggets that I learned at this year’s APRA International. I met wonderful people, learned a lot of great things. I can’t wait for next year’s conference!

    Photo credit Elisa Shoenberger


  • Mon, August 07, 2017 7:18 AM | Anonymous

    What makes Prospect Development a great career?

    APRA-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in Prospect Development. Through this blog series we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and Prospect Development forward.

    For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, APRA-IL member and volunteer, interviews Jo Theodosopoulos, Manager of Prospect Development at The Minneapolis Foundation. 



    Jo Theodosopoulos is the Manager of Prospect Development at The Minneapolis Foundation. She launched the organization’s first prospect research program in May 2014, after successfully doing the same at Sanford Health Foundation/Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation (Sioux Falls, SD) in 2012. She works across the organization with all departments to find and help build potential relationships. Jo was elected to the board of APRA-Minnesota in January 2016. Prior to joining the prospect development field, Jo spent five years in development and donor relations at the Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and a Bachelor’s degree in Liberal Studies from South Dakota State University. She lives in Minneapolis with her husband and Wyatt the Rottweiler.

    Apra-IL: What impact does your work, and the overall field of Prospect Development have? And could you describe who you believe your audience is?

    Jo: Community foundations work to improve the lives of people in a geographic area. They bring together resources to support nonprofits in their communities. So, in a sense, my work impacts a lot of nonprofits and, therefore, the overall community by helping to find and build those resources and partnerships that support the good work that frontline organizations do. I think the same can be said for the overall field of Prospect Development. We’re all trying to help improve our organizations and communities in some form. I believe that my audience is pretty broad. I work with our Philanthropic Advisors, our executive team, our Impact Directors, and other members of the nonprofit community to further our impact.

    Apra-IL: As a leader, can you tell us what motivates you in your current field? And perhaps whether your motivations have ever changed?

    Jo: I’m motivated by the fact that our work at The Minneapolis Foundation helps support so many organizations that work to improve our community. I love working with our staff to strategize the best and most efficient way to make this happen. I also love collaborating with others across the Prospect Development field to share ideas and best practices. We’ve developed a great community among Prospect Development professionals. I definitely think my motivations have changed. I never realized before that I could be a leader, but now I’m happy to take on that challenge.

     Apra-IL: With 3 words, describe the role of a Prospect Development professional, and why?

     Jo: Strategy. I think that one of the most important jobs we have is to help inform the strategy of the organization in regard to fundraising and, in my case, grantmaking and partnerships using the data we provide.

    Information. Sometimes I like to use the word “information” rather than “data”. It seems a little less daunting, but that’s my opinion. At any rate, we provide the data/information used to inform strategy (see above!).

    Partnerships. Whether they are internal partnerships with other staff members or external partnerships with other prospect development professionals, our networks, grantmakers, donors, etc., we should strive to make those partnerships as strong as possible.

    Do you know a leader you want us to profile? Let us know! 

    Email us at info@apraillinois.org

  • Mon, July 10, 2017 7:30 AM | Anonymous member


    One of our favorite times of year is almost upon us! Apra International is only a few weeks away. Many of us from Apra-IL are heading off to Anaheim, CA to learn, socialize, and even present. We are excited to announce that blog feature, Dear Analyst, will have its very own panel! Come with questions for our panelists, Katie Ingrao, Rush University Medical Center, Elisa Shoenberger, Grenzebach Glier and Associates, and Jessica Szadziewicz, Loyola University Chicago to answer!

    We have noted the sessions of other folks from Illinois below. Come and support your colleagues!

    Dear Analyst

    Katie Ingrao, Rush University Medical Center, Elisa Shoenberger, Grenzebach Glier and Associates, Jessica Szadziewicz, Loyola University Chicago

    Thursday, July 27

    2:15pm to 3:00pm

    Frontier or Failure? The Social Impact Bond

    Sarah Brandywine Johnson, University of Chicago

    Friday, July 28

    11:00pm to 12:30pm

    Scaling up Interest-Based Fundraising

    Elizabeth Goodman, John McBride, University of Chicago

    Friday 28, 2017

    3:45pm to 4:30pm

    What’s Your Style? APRA Chapter Board Members on Leadership

    Katie Ingrao, Rush University Medical Center, Amy Begg, Harvard University; Nicholas Sollog III, The Sollog Group; Iberia Zafira, University of California, Berkeley

    Saturday, July 29th

    9:30am to 10:15am

    Natural Partners: Levering Analytic Talent at Your Institution

    John P. Gough, The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

    10:15am to 12:00pm


  • Mon, May 08, 2017 7:29 AM | Anonymous member


    What makes Prospect Development a great career?

    APRA-IL is asking local and national industry leaders what the field means to them and why and how they have pursued success in Prospect Development. Through this blog series we will explore what drives industry leaders to propel their careers and Prospect Development forward.

    For this month's piece, Joan Ogwumike, APRA-IL member and volunteer, interviews Sabrina Latham, Director of Prospect Management and Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 


    Sabrina Latham has been employed at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for more than 25 years and is currently the Director of Prospect Management and Research - a position she has held since October 2012. She is a member of Apra International and most recently served as a member of the planning committee for ARC 2017 Conference in Atlanta. Sabrina is also president of the Apra MidSouth chapter that represents Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee. She has one daughter, Anissa Simone, who graduates from UAB this month.

    APRA-IL: Describe your motivations to build your career in Prospect Development, and what keeps you engaged.

    Sabrina: It is so easy to burn out from doing the same job repeatedly. However, one comment I heard recently put things into perspective for me. Schoolchildren today are going to be working in careers that have not been created yet. I had to stop and really think about that in comparison to prospect research’s evolution to prospect development. Looking back to the eight or nine years that I’ve worked in the field there have been substantial changes in the various techniques and tools that were not available several years ago. I guess you can say that really keeps me engaged and excited about coming to work.

    Also, the outstanding work my colleagues from near and far are doing to promote our profession via the various professional development offerings and through Apra’s Connections newsletter motivate me to do better every day. I don’t know what I would do without their contributions.

    APRA-IL: Describe your journey into your current position.

    Sabrina: My journey started sometime in 2000 when I was working as web communications specialist in the vice president and dean’s office of our medical school. The senior associate dean and I had a long discussion about what it would take to move up in the rankings of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) federal funding. You can say we were a couple of nerds excited about all of the information that we able to find on our peer institutions as we traded random, yet interesting, statistics back and forth. Additional faculty and staff joined in on the fact finding and the project eventually grew into a school-wide strategic plan that drew over 150 team members, affectionately known as N.E.R.D.s (Network for the Evaluation of Research Data). During this time, I was also writer and editor for the dean’s faculty newsletter, inforMED.

    A few years later, a position on the school’s annual giving team opened up and the associate dean recommended me since I had a knack for persuasive writing. That opportunity led to philanthropic grant writing and ultimately my present role in prospect research and management. It wasn’t your typical foray into the field, but it really helped me develop the persistence for finding and analyzing information that is needed for this type of position.

    APRA-IL: Can you share three takeaways from your time as an APRA chapter leader? 

    Sabrina: Never be afraid to ask for guidance from your colleagues that are serving in similar roles because starting out can be a bit intimidating and overwhelming. Everyone is willing to provide advice. When I first started, I reached out to leaders as far as Colorado and picked up wonderful tips with every call or e-mail.

    Along those same lines, take advantage of the national networking opportunities offered by headquarters. For example, Apra hosts a Chapter Leaders’ Summit in Chicago every February to distribute important information (i.e. new branding, new web platform, etc.), develop leadership skills and allow us to get to know one another, so we can eventually…

    Collaborate, collaborate and collaborate again as much as possible. Just because you volunteer with one chapter does not mean that another chapter is off limits. At the last leadership summit Katie Ingrao (Apra-IL), Jo Theodosopoulos (Apra-MN) and I discussed merging our webinar calendars. Instead of one chapter hosting multiple webinars in a year, Apra-IL will host one and make it available to Apra-MN and Apra-MS members and so on each quarter.  More details on the webinars are forthcoming.

    Do you know a leader you want us to profile? Let us know! 

    Email us at info@apraillinois.org


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