Partners in Fundraising: Researcher / Gift Officer Collaboration Targeting Major and Planned Gift Prospects Carrie Lewis & Melinda Murphy EASTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY

Today’s Presentation Understanding terms of art: prospect researcher perspective and development officer perspective Enhancing communication: ideas to establish, build and maintain relationships between prospect researchers and development officers Real life: helpful tools and case studies

EKU’s TEAM AMP aka Team Annual, Major & Planned Gifts Ben Mohler, AVP for Annual, Major & Planned Gifts Alexandra Carter, Associate Director, Friends of the Center Amy J. Foulkes, Director, Annual Giving Ben J. Kees, Associate Director of Development Melinda A. Murphy, Director of Gift & Estate Planning Austin Newton, Assistant Athletic Director of Development Josh S. Nicholas, Associate Director of Development Marissa Parmer, Director of Colonel Club Sharron Townsend, Senior Director of Development Christine Tuveson, Director of Development

EKU’s PROSPECT RESEARCHER Kathryn Aquadro, Prospect Researcher

FUNDRAISERS What the University thinks we do

What the Prospect Researcher thinks we do

What we really do

RESEARCHERS What the Development Team thinks we do

What we really do

Source: Filla, Jennifer J. & Brown, Helen E Source: Filla, Jennifer J. & Brown, Helen E. (2013) Prospect Research for Fundraisers – The Essential Handbook Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Top Prospect Research Tools Library resources: i.e. newspaper databases

Our colleague, Ben J. Kees, deserves full credit for these next few slides as he researched and presented a recent training at EKU on December 2, 2016 that brought our Development Team and Prospect Researcher up to speed on WHY every development officer and prospect researcher should be utilizing LINKEDIN’s SALES NAVIGATOR…

With Sales Navigator… our colleague Ben J. Kees has experienced: 35% of visits have come from people found via LinkedIn (since February 2016) Nearly 40% when excluding October (light travel due to Homecoming & Keeneland) Even more effective in major metro areas 43% rate of response using InMail What are you getting elsewhere? Effective due to dual receipt Linked to most current contact info

Ways to build the relationship… Continually enhance good communication between frontline fundraisers and researchers Dispel myths

Continually Enhance Communication Meet with the researcher working on the project and provide them with ALL of the information you know and WHAT you would like to know about the prospects identified or researched. Be clear about what you would like to receive back in your report and what format would work best for you. Attend cross-functional team meetings and trainings

Myth vs. Reality MYTH: DOs can find everything they need GOOGLING; REALITY: DOs cannot find everything they need using GOOGLE – subscription services such as LEXIS NEXIS are telescopes that help researchers see deeper and obtain very reliable information MYTH: Prospect Research can tell me someone’s net worth or exactly how much to ask a donor for; REALITY: net worth is calculated by subtracting someone’s liabilities from their assets; Prospect researchers can only see assets that are “publically” available, they will never be able to prove a net worth figure. Prospect researchers can discover MAJOR GIFTS that a prospect has given to other charities or provide an estimated gift amount based on wealth factors.

In summary… One thing that I would love for gift officers to know is that we love when they share with us everything they already know, or think they know, about a prospect before we begin our research efforts! Sometimes a small piece of information that has been gathered and shared internally is the golden key that allows the research team to pull together their findings and confirm x, y, and z about the prospect. --Jennifer Falcon, Director of Research and Prospect Management, Saint Joseph’s University

Contact Us Ben Kees Ben.Kees@eku.edu 859-622-1573 Carrie Lewis Carrie.Lewis@eku.edu 859-622-8172 Melinda Murphy Melinda.Murphy@eku.edu 859-622-8090

QUESTIONS?

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