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As Helen Brown reminds us, March is Research Pride Month. To celebrate this occasion, several Apra North Texas board members are sharing their thoughts on Research and what it means to them. Marla Morris is our 2019 Conference Chair.
At our APRA North Texas conference last November at SMU, our keynote speaker was prospect research veteran Elizabeth (Liz) McHugh who talked to us about the many faces of prospect research.
As prospect researchers, we sometimes feel misunderstood by our advancement colleagues. Often times, it feels like they see us a homogenous group performing some mysterious work. But Liz reminded us that we perform diverse duties and come to our jobs with varying backgrounds, personalities and skill sets.
Liz spoke about the three main aspects of our field: prospect research, prospect management and data analytics. In larger organizations, there may be a team of people who can fill these differing roles. But until recently, I have been a one-woman show. As the only prospect researcher at my organization for three years, I have certainly felt the constant pressure to fulfill all three roles.
Even before becoming a prospect researcher, I had always been awed by data whizzes. I mean, I understand in general how the stats are compiled, and I can definitely use them effectively, but that nitty-gritty high-level mathematical genius is just beyond my aptitude. The fact is, I’m never going to be a predictive modeling pro. And if I’m honest with myself, it has intimidated me a bit.
So it was refreshing - and kind of a relief - to hear Liz say that those of us on the relational side of are just as vital to prospect research as our data-wrangling colleagues. She said there is not just one face of prospect research, and that we practitioners are called upon to move from research to analytics to strategy to relationship management to management to consulting to leadership, and so on.
As a trained historian and a storyteller by nature, I realized I’m in an ideal position to serve as a translator for my frontline fundraisers. Instinctually, I see links, relationships, interconnections within the database. Also, as a former broadcast sales professional, I’ve been on their side of the desk and can understand what it’s like for the fundraisers in relating to prospects and donors.
My takeaway from Liz’s talk was to embrace the natural abilities and individual traits we bring to our jobs and find ways to complement those in order to fulfill the other aspects of our positions. In my case, with the backing of my supervisor, I finally convinced my vice president to hire another researcher and to make gifts processing a dual role, allowing me to fill the relational prospect management role.
Which role(s) do you fill within your organization's prospect research department?
--Marla Morris, University of North Texas Health Science Center
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Lately, there has been a lot of talk about how Foundation Search compares to Foundation Directory. Possibly to help others make a more educated decision, I’ve decided to share our experiences, at Texas Christian University, using both services.
Foundation Directory
This is the standard database that my organization has used for very many years. Our foundation gift officer knows it well and together, both researchers and gift officer, we have very few complaints about it. The support team is always responsive when we have a question, but then, we rarely have any. It is easy to search for foundations, board members, and all the search options are great. Above all else, it is intuitive.
My small frustrations with Foundation Directory come when I have to dig very deep to find prospects. If searching for specific funding interests, you are limited to the interests that the Directory uses. If you want specifics, you have to dig into 990s.
Foundation Search
It took quite some time to become familiar with this product. It is not intuitive. Some researchers on our staff have given up trying to use it and have turned to Guidestar (which is now going to become Candid). When we ask for support, or call with specific questions, Foundation Search has clear answers (though their initial training tutorial was awful). But it takes time to learn how best to do what you want in this product.
The best thing about Foundation Search, for a researcher, is being able to search for keywords. Foundation Search uploads all foundation gifts (for the past 15 years and over about $2000) into the database, and makes them searchable, assuming the foundation has provided a gift description in the 990. This is a phenomenal tool. You can also search for gifts by recipient state, county, or city. Another great feature is that you can find news articles about foundations – they’re listed on the foundation’s main page. So you know, right away, if this funder has given major gifts that made the news. There’s also a nice feature of being able to search for a gift by size – so you can weed out any smaller gifts, if you’re so inclined.
Comparison
Foundation Search has the edge on uploading 990s. They are much quicker with getting the data into their system.
For us, Foundation Search was a bit cheaper, but not by much.
Though this did not factor into our final decision, the sales representatives from Foundation Search were so persistent in their calling that we almost declined their product because of it. Foundation Directory representatives rarely bother us.
The initial training for Foundation Search was very unhelpful. The representative seemed more interested in telling us how to apply for grants instead of how to find potential funders. In the subsequent months, they gave us some very good tutorials. In general, I think this company would do very well to hire someone who has actually researched foundations for a nonprofit.
Foundation Directory is still preferred among our staff – except by the CFR researcher (me!) who now prefers Foundation Search.
Conclusion
For us, there has been talk of now subscribing to both services. Many on our team want the ease of Foundation Directory. It’s very easy to use and is, to many, the industry standard. But if you want to be able to do major, in-depth prospecting, Foundation Search has the clear edge.
In the coming months, it will also be interesting to see what Candid, the alliance between Foundation Center and Guidestar, will offer.
Donia Wright, Advancement Research Officer
Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX
Vice President, Apra North Texas
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Apra North Texas is a 501(c)6 non-profit organization
PO Box 600516 Dallas, Texas 75360
