After having served as president of APRA for two-and-a-half years, I find myself at a bittersweet moment. As my term ends at the end of August, I am sad to see one chapter of my life coming to a close. What makes this transition very easy is knowing that I am passing on my presidential responsibilities to another champion of the advancement research profession — Elizabeth Crabtree.

Pamela_Poland

Is it truly possible that philanthropy in the United States can ultimately power the economy? And can it save Americans from the struggles of a capitalistic democracy? Claire Gaudiani, Ph.D. explains why the answer to both questions is yes in her book, The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism.

Four years ago, a friend and co-worker dragged me reluctantly to an APRA meeting in my home state of Indiana. With my background in proposal writing and natural curiosity for all things that are “none of my business,” she thought prospect research was right up my alley.

Henry David Thoreau said, “It’s a good thing to poke around at the margins of life…” We can take his quote and apply it to prospect research. Like Thoreau, the role of today’s data miner is one of a storyteller. We extract the truth and bring to light stories that lie dormant and unwritten. Sometimes we know the story we are about to tell, and sometimes we have to look for it.

David_Robertson

Our present vogue in donor modeling is to use linear regression for analyzing prospects. However, we have other tools available to us that can expand the kind of prospecting that we can do. Linear regression has limits, and using it in conjunction with other tools for donor modeling provides depth to an organization’s prospect efforts. This article explores one of those tools — decision tree analysis — and its usefulness as a prospecting tool.

Marianne_Pelletier

In its regular efforts to identify new prospects, Stanford University’s Office of Development Research conducts a number of in-house data mining projects. The following is a Nuts & Bolts article about those efforts.

Mention the word “campaign” and it virtually becomes synonymous with “database screening.” Once your organization decides to embark on a campaign — be it a capital campaign, an endowment campaign or a campaign for a very specific project — a database screening is on the horizon.

My name’s Jake Mittelstadt, and I’ve been riding the rollercoaster of philanthropic partnership-building for nearly 20 years. Today, I’m prepping for an appointment with a supposedly reclusive retiree, a former genetic engineer whose two great-great-great-granddaughters both suffer from seizure disorders. She’s read about some pretty hot research being conducted by one of my clients, a pediatric health care center based in that part of the North American BioTech Co-Op once known as Wisconsin.