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MISSION
Connections is the premier information resource for professionals in fundraising research, analytics and relationship management. Connections publishes timely and pertinent articles about research issues, methods and industry trends; offers thought-provoking opinion about emerging issues; serves as a platform for the exchange of information and ideas; and provides the knowledge required to succeed in today’s philanthropic environment.
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APRA gratefully acknowledges the continuing support of conference Platinum Sponsor WealthEngine for its commitment to the educational needs of professionals in fundraising research.
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APRA members, login now to view past issues and search the Connections archives.
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A Letter from the President
By Elizabeth R. Crabtree
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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I had the pleasure of seeing many of you at the 21st Annual International Conference in Denver several weeks ago. While there, we hosted the Annual Membership Meeting, which is a unique opportunity to hear first-hand about APRA’s growth and progress over the past year and to learn about the organization’s plans for the future. I’d like to thank you — the APRA community – for being such an active part of our ongoing success. Together, we have expanded the reach and impact of our profession by forging new partnerships for the association and celebrated several record-breaking achievements. The following recaps highlights of these accomplishments shared at the Annual Membership Meeting.
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A Letter from the Editor
By David Eberly
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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| This fall issue of Connections follows the APRA conference in Denver and, I hope, captures some of the heady excitement — not solely the result of the altitude — experienced by those of us who attended. As Troy Smith shares in his commentary on his experience as a frequent APRA attendee, “This year’s conference had a different feel for me than ones in the past that I attribute to confidence; the confidence that our profession has really come into its own.” It is an observation with which I agree entirely. From the knowledge-packed workshops and sessions that took place in its conference rooms to the informal networking that occurred in the Hyatt’s spacious lobby, this conference signaled our entry into the third decade of our profession, whose vistas are as high and wide as the Colorado country that surrounded us. |
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Community Mourns Loss of Former APRA Board Member
By Elizabeth R. Crabtree
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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The APRA community was saddened to learn that Paulette J. Persinger, former APRA President, passed away on October 1, 2008 after a long battle with cancer.
Paulette served on the APRA Board of Directors from 1994 to 1999, and was President of APRA from 1996 to 1998. During Paulette’s time as president, APRA transitioned from being the American Prospect Research Association to the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, acknowledging the organization's growing international membership. Under Paulette’s leadership, the first APRA Skills Sets were created in 1997. The APRA board also authorized the creation of the APRA Foundation, approving a grant to spearhead the Foundation’s efforts to raise gifts and pledges in support of the Margaret Fuhry Memorial Scholarship Fund, an endowment that continues to support professional development opportunities awarded to a deserving member each year. |
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Ten Top Pieces of Unsolicited Advice
By Shelby Kloures Radcliffe
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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This year’s APRA Distinguished Service Award, sponsored by Bentz Whaley Flessner and DonorCast, its analytics division, was presented to Shelby Kloures Radcliffe. In her presentation, Pamela Poland, a past president of APRA, noted her many accomplishments, including her long career at Bucknell University where she began as a prospect researcher and now serves as director of campaign administration. In accepting the award, Radcliffe inspired her audience with a vision of research that Connections would like to reprint here. |
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Finding Our Way Through the Financial Services Crisis
By Pamela Poland
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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| At a time when presidential campaigns or back to school events should be leading the headlines, the economy and the financial markets dominate the news. The subprime loan fiasco that started in 2007 led to a tightening of credit, which triggered the demise of Bear Stearns and its acquisition by JPMorgan Chase in March 2008. In August, the government bailed out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. After an unprecedented weekend of deal brokering between the heads of America’s top private and public financial institutions, on Monday, Sept. 15, Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy after failing to secure a buyer or help from the government. Fearing the same fate, Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America, as American Insurance Group (AIG) struggled to raise the cash needed to keep itself afloat. A week later the U.S. government acquired a 79 percent stake in AIG, placed temporary restrictions on short selling, and proposed a $700 billion plan to buy up bad mortgage debt to bail out the country’s financial system and prevent the turmoil from spreading further to world markets. |
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Collecting Ethical Information for Research Reports
By Kate Fultz Hollis
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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| Sometimes when writing our research reports we face a question about what information is ethical and how we should present information ethically. When we think about what data we are going to put in a research report or add to a database, how conscious are we of what that data tells about the person you chronicle? Even within the limits of unending deadlines, we can also stop and think about what information is ethical to report on our prospects and donors. |
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The APRA International Conference Experience as Seen by a First-time and Long-time Attendee
By Stacey Vial & Troy Smith
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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As I stepped through the door of my first pre-conference workshop, “An Introduction to Data-Mining,” I felt ready for anything. I had come to Denver ready to learn, to grow, and to meet hundreds of others who are as passionate about prospect research as I am.
The APRA-International Conference is always an uplifting and energizing time for me. Sometimes it’s easy to get lost in the day-to-day grind, but attending the annual conference gives me a chance to learn new things, touch base with old colleagues and make connections with new ones. It’s an opportunity to be around like-minded individuals who, although they make work for organizations of various sizes and missions, are all dedicated to helping others. It’s a time for inspiration and innovation. The APRA-International Conference is more than an educational opportunity. It’s the great annual celebration of our profession. |
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Toward a “Geography of Hope”: Thoughts on Our Cultural Addiction to Paper
By Jeffrey A. Walker, Ph.D.
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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It’s a variation on that classic, no-good-answer courtroom question: “Have you stopped abusing trees?” Well, have you? Have we?
The question might instead be: Can we? Researchers and other philanthropy professionals harvest and process a high volume of information daily, which often — out of longstanding habit — entails reams and reams of print-jobs. If the total amount of paper used annually by all APRA members and their immediate colleagues in advancement, alumni relations, and PR were quantified as T, the equivalent number of trees, how large of a forest would T be? |
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Book Review
Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits (Second Edition) by Cecilia Hogan
By David E. Robertson, Jr.
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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| Okay, so I’m sitting in my office and I’m five cups of coffee into a Monday afternoon; deep in concentration and deeper within the cavernous confines of the Women’s Building on the Syracuse University campus. With little warning, someone walks in and drops a box onto my desk. Much like Steve Martin in the movie “The Jerk”, I dance a cerebral jig, not because “the new phonebook” has arrived, but because I too love surprises, in this case a hand-delivered, book-heavy package. |
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Book Review
A Kaleidoscope of Prospect Development: The Shapes and Shades of Major Donor Prospecting by Bobbie J. Strand
By David Eberly
Issue: Vol. 19, No. 3: Fall 2008
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Over the last quarter century, the field of prospect research has grown from its modest beginnings in the development offices of a few organizations scattered throughout the country to become an established and vibrant profession. Bobbie Strand is one of those pioneers who were there at the start. I can remember her, employed in the early 1980s by Kalamazoo College, standing before an audience at a CASE conference and holding up a green sheet of paper. She was introducing the concept of a “research request form,” now available on our office intranets and downloaded to an Excel spreadsheet. (Did Excel exist? Perhaps I should Google it—something we could not do then either.) As Bruce Flessner notes in his introduction, “Over this past generation, prospecting has moved in its professionalism as far as, or farther than, any other facet of development and external relations. So much has happened so fast.”
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