Big Nonprofit Ideas for the Other 95%
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Tony’s Guest:
Maria Semple is The Prospect Finder and our monthly prospect research contributor. She does a lot of speaking and training and gets asked a lot of questions She’ll answer the most frequent, about researching individuals and foundations.
On Tony’s Take Two, guests from Australia! Sally West and Keith Wright share the Love Is campaign.
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Here is the link to the audio: 145: Maria’s FAQs. You can also subscribe on iTunes to get the podcast automatically.
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Metoo hyre hello and welcome to tony martignetti non-profit radio big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent, i’m your aptly named host it’s friday, june seventh. Oh, i hope you’re with me last week i’d suffer and our card itis if i heard that you had missed grow grass roots, michael o’brien, founder and principal of mob advocacy, had ideas on how to bring people to your cause with grassroots advocacy and divine devices desktops, laptops, tablets and handhelds. Scott koegler had tips for picking the right device. He’s, the editor of non-profit technology news and our regular tech contributor this week, maria’s faa cues maria simple, the prospect finder and our prospect research contributor does a lot of speaking and training, and we’re going to talk about what she’s frequently asked about halfway through the guests through my conversation with maria on tony’s take to keith, right, and artist sally west are in the studio. They’re joining me from australia and they’re going to tell us about the love is campaign it’s my pleasure right now to welcome maria semple back to the show she’s the prospect finder you’ll find her at the prospect finder dot com she’s a trainer and speaker on prospect research, her book is panning for gold. Find your best donorsearch prospects now you know her she’s are dyin of dirt cheap and free. And you can follow maria on twitter at maria simple. Welcome back, maria, how are you? Hey there, tony, how you doing today? Terrific. Lee, how are you? Just fine, that’s. Good. You do a lot of speaking. You go all over the country, i guess. Don’t you? Yeah. Mostly mostly in the north east. And every once in a while, unconference will take me elsewhere to speak. But for the most part, it is in the northeast area. Okay, mostly northeast. And you’re talking about prospect research for for individuals? Certainly. And what else? Well, also, i touch upon foundation research and business or corporate research. So most of the stuff so that people are interested in gaining knowledge on is on individuals. Ok? And before we start getting into the questions that you’re often asked and you know well, we’ll start with where you start. But when you’re given an assignment before you start going online or anywhere to any resource, online or library or, you know all the others that you have what do you what do you looking at in the assignment? And what are you thinking about? I’m thinking about what is the relationship that the person already has to the organization because that’s very important to know, and also what is the goal of the research? So is this person a donor prospect? Is this person perhaps being considered for boardmember ship at a large organization? And they’re trying to determine, you know what that person’s network is like and what that might bring to the organization? So i guess, you know, ultimately, what is the overall goal? And and is it for an annual gift versus plan gift versus a kn endowment or major gift? The goal of the gift is very important. Why? Why? Why is gift type important to what you’re going to be doing with that assignment? I might be looking for certain markers. You know, tony, if i were doing research, for example, on plan giving prospect, you know, age would come into play, i’m trying to determine where else they may have made major significant commitment, even if i could find maybe a multi year commitment, maybe through a foundation or so something like that. So, yeah, i’m interested in knowing their age. What? The goal of the gift iss and how would that distinguish from whether the person maybe was a prospect for annual giving? So for an annual gift, you know, they might they might be looking for somebody that could just sort of, you know, upgrade what they’ve been giving overtime, so i might be looking for well, if they’ve been donating to your organization at levels of one thousand dollars a year. But if i’m able to determine that they’re donating elsewhere in the community e-giving of five or ten thousand a year than that, that points to, well, we’re not asking for enough, you know where they are able to do more. So really just trying to determine where they’re giving where they’re at in their lives. Is this an appropriate time? T even asked them for a major gift. There might be something that would prevent them from doing so. Several kids in college things of that nature and as we are giving assignments to prospect researchers what information is helpful to you, it’s very helpful for me to have a person’s correct spelling of their names. So it’s interesting that’s. The first thing you say is that is that often not not correct? Every once in a while, i do come across a misspelling on a name, and i need to go back to my client and say, are you sure the spelling isn’t this way? You know, because i am finding somebody connected to that company but a different, slightly different smell, its spelling on a name, and then they’ll say, oh, yes, sorry, miss type that okay. Meanwhile, i’ve got off, you know, trying to look for a completely different individual. So, yes, spelling really important, do they have a middle initial? Are they a junior or senior? When i’m researching a male, um, their spouses named their home address and where their employees, even if they don’t know a lot about their employment history, sometimes that just knowing where they’re currently employed if there’s a common name, you know, if i’m researching tony martignetti probably not that common in there all distinguished, but there aren’t very many but were distinguished, you know, searching joe mccarthy. Yeah, that’s going to be a much more common name across the united states, so i would want to know exactly where joe mccarthy might be employed, so i know i’m researching the right guy. Okay, we’re trying to get into your were getting in your head today. I should’ve called the segment in maria’s head change it well, now it’s too late now we’re committed, but, you know, yeah, i want i want listeners. Teo, get the idea of how this process works for you. I mean, what it is like what you’re thinking about, you know, like i said, before you go to resource is anything else that that you’re you’re thinking about or or doing before you actually start the research process? You know, in this in this, like, thinking and analyzing process or stage, i should say, yeah, i mean, just really trying to get i think part of it, too, is making sure that you’ve carved out some quiet, uninterrupted time to do the research is probably important as well, so that when you’re able tto find and get yourself in a curious mind set, right, sort of like an investigative reporter mindset, so that when you’re about to start this research, if you see some sort of a clue that leads you to believe that there’s something you want to explore a little bit further, you then carved out that time and space and that mindset to be able to really explore something a little bit more in depth and also knowing when to stop knowing that every little bit of information that you come across might not even be relevant to the fund-raising process, okay, interesting knowing, knowing when to stop? No, we went to stop because you could really, you know, this is this is something i hear from people a lot saying, well, how do you know when you hit hit the right mark? How do you know when to stop? Because you could just sort of go on forever, right? You could just stay on google, for example, and just kind of keep going, but you really need to understand what what the goal is of the overall process. So, as i said earlier, understanding what type of gift you’re looking for, and then when you’re able to frame your mind set in that way, you’re able to understand what those potential pieces of information are that you’re looking for. Also, i’ll usually say to a client up front if i find information related to e-giving teo, your organization, i’m not going to note that. On my profile, because the assumption is you have that information already, so i don’t need to kind of repeat that in a profile that i’m sending back to you. All right? All right, on. I like that analogy of the investigative reporter that’s. Cool. Yeah. In fact, you know, one book. Yeah. You mentioned that one book when i first started out. Really getting into doing prospect research. I think it was called. I mean, look, i think it’s still having on my bookshelf here, i think it’s called the investigative reporters handbook. Oh, no, the reporters handbook. And that was kind of a neat tool to have on hand because it kind of gave me a bunch of resource. Is that people who do investigative journalism investigative reporting might be using and i thought, well, that must be a lot of the same resource is that prospect researchers might use? Oh, interesting. That was your very first book. Before you want one of your enterprise, i had kind of looked at and thought, well, this could be really useful. Awful for me to have, you know, on hand just in terms of resource is so i still have it sitting on my bookshelf every once in a while, i have to pull it out and look something up in there just to remind myself of a resource that i might want to check out. Okay, we have just a minute before our first break back-up what’s the well, is it going to vary where you go first, depending upon with the assignment is actually no, i do. I do have a first stop, always make, and it is a sea bass resource, and the reason why i used it is that it normally points me to a lot of markers that i would want to check out further on my own through other sources. So it kind of gives me a really good first overview glance of an individual and then has has be pointing to a lot of different sources, okay, you’re teasing us. You haven’t given us the name of the site yet? No, not yet. So what is it already? Well, on the way to after the break it out because you’re taking control. No, i run this show, you’ll say it now or we’re not taking a break. So what’s the name of the site. Sure, i’ll say it now, so the site is wealth engine. Okay, now we’re taking a break, okay? Marie goes to wealth engine first. We do have to take a break, come back in a couple seconds, and she stays with us, and we’ll keep picking maria’s brains. Find out how this prospect research process works will stay with us talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you confused about which died it’s, right for you? Are you tired of being tired? How about improving your energy strength and appearance? How i’m rika keck, holistic nutrition and wanda’s consultant? If you have answered yes to any of my questions, contact me now at n y integrated health dot com, or it’s. Six for six to eight, five, eight five eight eight initiate change and transform your life. Are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office need better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills? Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s. The answer. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com welcome back to big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. We’re pre recording this week those air listening live on friday at fund-raising day in new york city, doing a podcast interviews for future shows. We’re on the exhibit floor and the marriott marquis hotel all day friday, doing interviews of speakers at at fund-raising day. So i can’t send live listener love, but i know there are live listeners out there we know california has certainly checked in, of course, often texas and oregon, north carolina, very frequent listeners. North carolina on dh asia konnichi wa for our japanese listeners in china and taiwan, always checking in ni hao and in korea on yo haserot and we’ve had occasional listeners for listeners from australia as well, not every week but occasional and that will play into tony’s take, too, because my two guests on tony’s take two r visiting from australia. Okay, maria simple, you goto wealth engine first. Why is that? I do? Because it very often will point me toward key pieces of information that i want to explore further, such as, uh, property ownership, primary and secondary properties that they might own it would. Point me toward cos that they’re connected to foundations, they’re connected to political giving charitable giving, so it gives me a lot of great information for me to then say, all right, these are all potential places. This person either is now or has been in the near past connected teo, so let me then go on to some other resource is to explore these further. Now, what about people who don’t have the budget for wealth engine? You said it’s a it’s, a fee based service? What right do you know? I would say google google could really be great, but you know what? You want to go to the advanced search page of google? So you’re really using it efficiently, and you’re able to really narrow down your search results so that you’re not getting thousands or potentially a million hits that you need to kind of comb through. Andi, i think we’ve given this site out before if we talked about the advanced search pages google in the past? Yes, we have. So why don’t you just remind listeners how to get to it so you can go to google dot com forward slash advance underscore search and that brings up a completely different search page for people to take a look at. You can look for things as an exact phrase. You can look att specifics. Right? So let’s say, you know that a particular prospect toe went to columbia university and you’re trying to figure out in your head. Well, how do they still maintain a relationship with columbia? Are they donating their are they serving on the board? There? You can actually narrow down your search results. Two on ly include hits that are on columbia university’s website. Okay, so for ah, for those of us who don’t have wealth engine google, advanced search. Very good place to start. Yeah. Okay. Um, you mentioned setting aside a block of time to do this research. How long should you set aside? How long can we estimate how long this is going to take when you have an individual’s name to research? And in particular, if you’re trying to research a couple, you should probably set aside roughly four hours of time to research an individual’s name. Okay, four hours. That’s. Quite a block it’s a half a day? Yeah. You know, i mean, you know when when you’re talking about doing this, this level of in depth research from the time you’re doing the research to the time you’re typing it, you know your data either into a ah word of file, or write straightaway into your donordigital base and populating it there that’s kind of the ideal, you know, it’s going to take you some time to gather the info phone and then type it into where it’s going to make sense into a nice profile for for the development officer that’s going to use the information? Um are you ah, are you ever asked? Hyre why should we use the the fee based resource is if if we have free ones, yes, i am asked that all the time because, you know non-profits especially, i would think a lot of your listeners tony, have very tight budgets in terms of what there of really going to be allowed to spend, but what i find is that paying teo use some of the fee based three sources really cut to the chase and get to the meat of the data that you’re looking for very quickly. So, you know, although you might sound like you know, off the top of your head, you know? Well, why do we need to spend, you know, two to five thousand dollars or something for a particular resource when i can access a lot of that information for free? Well, yeah, you can access a lot of it for free. However you’re going to all these different sites. And now with your time of going to a ton of different sites to find this information versus having it all gathered in one place on dh. You know, as i said, it really kind of just cut to the chase, so you’re going to spend the money somewhere, whether it’s on a fee based resource or on bath time to do the research. Okay? Ah, that’s a frequent tradeoff time versus money, but you’ll be more efficient if you can invest in some of these. If if someone had a limited budget, what what of the resource is you’d suggest paying for first, or does that vary based on the task? May be, you know, i think it would very based on the task, so somebody role is really just to do foundation research, right? Then they might want to expend their their research budget on sources that that really focused on foundation research. Now, if somebody’s role is really on on ly in researching individuals than they would want to set aside some funds for screening companies such as the wealth engines of the world to be able to really cut to the chase and it would allow them to then research more people in a given week. Okay, you see what i’m saying? So you know, when you’re talking about spending four hours on a name, you know, look at how many names one person than khun research potentially in a week, all right, way, and we’ve talked a lot about the foundation center for foundation research hyre is that one that you would recommend if if we’re going to invest in something on the foundation side? Or or is it something else? I don’t want to get in your mouth, you know? No, i usually use a combination all used a combination of three resource is when i’m using my foundation research the foundation center, by the way, you can access their fee based research, the foundation’s center online foundation directory online i should say they have that available at a lot of the cooperating collections. So there you can use that resource for free if you’re willing to take a trip to a nearby library that houses a cooperating collection. Um, otherwise, i would say he based i like to use foundation search dot com. I really like the way they aggregate their data and the output and hyre let’s say i’m researching for a social service agency right versus an educational institution. Say my client is a social service agency i’m interested in seeing. Well, what are the gifts in that particular category? Are they you know what? Air the range size of gifts so that i can hone in specifically on this resource i can hone in on just the social service gives it that foundation has made, and i can print that out on an excel spreadsheet and save it in a spreadsheet, i should say. And then send that to my client so they can see a sampling of the gifts that have been made in that category. And that one was foundation search. Dot com. Yeah. Okay. Is there another one? One more that yeah. Guide stars. Very good. Well guide star has a very good research capacity, and you can do both free and fee based research on guide star on the really cool thing is that if a non-profit maintains their own data on guide star than they are actually granted access to their their premium search level source. So there’s kind of ah, a double bonus really? To maintaining your own data on guidestar. Ok. And that’s also on that’s still on the foundation side, right? Guidestar. Yeah, because you’re able tto look at guidestar kind of monitors both non-profit organizations and foundations. So you can get dad on both in that source, let’s, go to the individual side. If if someone is willing to invest in able to invest in some paid resource is what do you like first couple? You know, top few on the individual side help you that i like are as i mentioned already. Wealth engine another one i like is i wave. Um, i waive has a number of resource is that they have under their banner. And they actually just changed up in the last couple of months where you can now input one person’s name and it will research. Across all the different sources that they have, such as zoom info, power search, they have foundation information, e-giving data sabat the property information. So i like, i like that resource very much as well. Okay, we’re picking the brains of maria simple, the prospect finder and our monthly prospect research contributor, trying to get at what this process is and getting at it through the questions that she’s asked in all the seminars and training that she does what’s what’s something else, maria, that people frequently ask about research. On the individual side. They wonder how. How they should be looking at people versus couples, you know, they say, well, should i? If i have the name of an individual, um, is it necessary for me to be looking at what their spouses doing? And i always say, you know, if if you can come across that data and have the time to include that in your research, i think it is important because most people are not making their philanthropic decisions in a vacuum, and they’re making those decisions as a couple, whether they’re donating from a personal cheque book or a foundation checkbook. So i really think that if you can find out where their spouses also spending time, volunteering on a board or where they’re donating elsewhere, i think you’d be really good to be able to include that if you have the time to do so, we’ve had guests to recommend that the relationship should be with a couple where, where the where there is, where there is a couple just for a deeper relationship, just as you said, there’s influence one person to the other. It’s just a, you know, it’s a broadening of the relationship, why have why have the relationship only with one person out of a couple, if you can include both right, right? And, you know, and then extended to potentially multigenerational, you know, a t some point, if you want to be able to have that legacy, continue with that family, you know, as the children start to mature and come into their own and become part of the overall, um, charitable decisions that that that couple maybe making and become more aware of it and that happens, you know, as you well know, tony at all different ages and levels depending on people’s, income and so forth, so e think it would be important to start including their children, and some of these maybe have family friendly activities for that younger set and start getting them engaged, or at least event invitations, even if even if the other, even if the kids can’t come just the thought of of an invitation i think is important. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. What’s, another f a q that you get on individual research. People say to me, you know, i’m interested in their network, uh, you know, i just really get need to get a handle on their networks. And people get hung up on that phrase and, you know, the key thing to keep in mind is a prospect. Researchers i don’t have access to certain key pieces of information that make up networks. We don’t have information about the liability side of somebody’s equation. So while i’m able to tell you how much somebody paid for their home, what the home is valued at now, how much taxes they pay on that home, i don’t know how much debt they’re carrying, not only on that home, but credit card debt and so forth never access things like credit reports, so yeah, you don’t you don’t know the liability side of a person’s balance sheet. No, no, we we can get, you know, a pretty good handle on the asset side, but not on the liability side. So a true picture of network is not something that that we have access to. Why is that important? Why would someone get hung up needing to know networth? You know, i think it’s just because it’s one of these phrases that’s thrown around out there, you know, somebody’s got a network of whatever. And, you know the forbes list somebody’s. Network, you know, on ford, but it doesn’t the net worth, i think it doesn’t even matter as much as the relationship as the person already has with the nonprofit organization or the potential for that relationship. So, you know, somebody could have a much lower networth paper but have a really significant and deep relationship with a non-profit very committed, and they’re going to be a probably a much better donor. Zampa lt’s for your small little amount profit helping in geographic community, of course, and the network’s number it’s really not something that people really should be getting hung up on. Yeah, it sounds like a red herring to me based on, you know, even just a different goals that you mentioned earlier of research. I don’t see where networth would would have a lot of value. Yeah, but, you know, it seems like it shouldn’t, but i get asked that all the time. Well, you know, you able to tell me so and so’s net worth and it’s a little bit of an educational process. Sometimes when i have to come back and say no, and this is why okay, just a minute or so again before before another break, what about political giving is that is that relevant before we get into where you might do it? Is that relevant? I do like to include political giving information, some non-profits, you know, our kind of supercharged in one direction or another politically, so it is kind of important to know where prospect might lie, but i think it just gives it a general marker as two again, where somebody’s capacity is. If they’re able to make donations annually of, you know, two thousand five thousand dollars to political donations, i think it just gives you another indicator of overall capacity for somebody to be able to donate to your non-profit. Okay, we’re gonna break there, and when we return, it’s tony’s, take to live guests for tony’s, take two from australia, and then we’ll continue our conversation with maria picking, picking maria’s brains will stay with me talking alternative radio twenty four hours a day. Are you confused about which died it’s, right for you? Are you tired of being tired? How about improving your energy strength and appearance? How i’m rick, a keg, holistic nutrition and wellness consultant? If you have answered yes to any of my questions, contact me now at n y integrated health dot com, or it’s. Six for six to eight, five, eight five eight eight initiate change and transform your life. Are you concerned about the future of your business for career? Would you like it all to just be better? Well, the way to do that is to better communication, and the best way to do that is training from the team at improving communications. This is larry sharp, host of the ivory tower radio program and director at improving communications. Does your office needs better leadership, customer service sales, or maybe better writing, are speaking skills. Could they be better at dealing with confrontation conflicts, touchy subjects all are covered here at improving communications. If you’re in the new york city area, stop by one of our public classes, or get your human resource is in touch with us. The website is improving communications, dot com, that’s, improving communications, dot com, improve your professional environment, be more effective, be happier, and make more money improving communications. That’s. The answer. Hey, all you crazy listeners looking to boost your business? Why not advertise on talking alternative with very reasonable rates? Interested simply email at info at talking alternative dot com hyre welcome back time now for tony’s take too and i am really i’m pretty excited to have live guests for tony take two. This is very rare joining me from australia. Keith right, and artist sally west here to talk about the love is campaign welcome. Thanks, tony. Sally, you literally flew last night, right? You arrived last night. New york city. I’ve had two hours sleep. Okay. Excellent. So, that’s. Why you’re here in new york. There’s. No time for sleep. We don’t know where you’re coming from. Where? Where? In australia. Sydney, we’re okay. But where’s blue he’s baby, you’re blue. He’s beat, right. That’s three and a half. Hour’s up, because what is that? Where you told me? Thats the paradise ijust moved from, you know louise beach tonight. No reason that i was going to come to the match. All right. Living city. Deal on the base. Okay. And keep your in this city. It’s, the australian city. Okay, i know sally’s an artist. What? What is your work, keith? Social entrepreneur. Okay. And what’s, the love is campaign that brings you to new york. You were putting on a vent on in july, which is to provide young people in new york with the opportunity to share with the world what love’s all about and it’s. Very exciting. I’ve been meeting with a lot of people in new york in the last few days and yeah, sensei stone okay there’s, a book there’s film there’s art acquaint us with some of this here we’ve created a book celis panting is on the front of the book and there’s impressions of love from around the world. Six continents have been covered with a short film on the website which talks about love, and we’re in a film festival at the moment in new york as well. And what what festival is that? That’s, the picture start film festival, which is running in this week this week? When does it in thursday and there’s unfortunately, right. So listeners not going to get that? Because streams on friday, but, sally, you have a show that’s affiliated with the love his campaign. Is that right? Or the show is separate or what? Well, it’s, a way to promote the project with the campaign. Okay, and tell us about your show. It opens on the fifth of june and it said the artifact gallery in new york, heidi for orchard street in lower east side, and the work’s, uh, a, um, and oppression, i guess you’d say off the of what i see as the beauty ofthe people’s lives that they create out of the chaotic out of their own chaos, poor ones, working on two hours sleep, but again, welcome to new york way thrive on that. Is that’s that’s actually a luxury you’re lucky to get teo. You’re trying to capture love in your heart. Yeah, love is one of the aspects. Beauty and peace, definitely so there’s, a very minimal color palette, and harley, textured and holly chaotic works, i would say. But within the works is when you stand back, there’s a simplicity in the workers well, keith, you want teo connect with non-profits in the u s, right? Very much. The case part of our trip this time is to connect with charities that are working with young people they would love to be. I would speak to those guys about the event, which is an art i intended a vent in july event takes place on the twenty eighth of july. We’ve got some campuses that we’re going to be taking around new york and having the opportunity for people to write what they think love is on those campuses, so we’d love to hear from other charities in new york and especially charities, they’re looking to raise their awareness and consider increasing their dahna poles and i want to spread a message to the world and charities that are working with children that that would be great, yeah, and and or suicide, we’ve got a project that were doing in australia around on suicide prevention, so we’d love to hear from a suicide prevention charity, too. Ok, you’ve already got a couple of charities that you’re affiliated with, correct? Yeah, we’re doing some. Work with the women worldwide initiative in new york. The point. And this week we last week we signed with let world which is a global charity. And that was a very exciting step towards describe how can listeners reach you if they wantto during the campaign that they can visit the website, which is www book love is on those details on their how to connect with us on email address. Well, they can email me directly at keith at square shaped circles. Dot com okay, say they say that your email i just one more time. It’s keith k i t h at square shaped circles dot com. Okay. And the website is book love is dot com. Correct. Okay. And sally west’s show at artifact gallery on orchard street in new york city. Runs until when? Sally from the fifteen. Twenty third of jean. And you, khun, fund out more information about the show on my website, which is w w sally west at dot com sally west art dot com sally west keith, right. Thank you very much for joining me. Thank you very much. Time for pleasure. Good luck with the love his campaign. Thank you and i will see you at the opening tomorrow night. Thank you. Thank you for real pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Returning teo. Maria simple. You’re still there. Maria. I am here. Okay, but let me just say that. That was i’m sorry. I’m not a sequence. That was tony’s. Take two for friday. The seventh of june twenty third show of the year are almost already halfway through. Twenty thirteen. Okay, uh, let’s. Continue. Maria. We’re talking about individual research and picking your brains. We were talking about political giving. And if if that is germaine to the goal of our research, where can we find it? One of the easiest places to go to their number of resource is but i like going to the web site of the federal election commission. So that’s f like frank s e c dot gov and you can search by an individual’s name. Um, if that individual also has a very common name, they have actually an advanced search page. So if you knew that person was from a particular state, you might focus your research down to having that person’s name affiliated with that state so that you’ll know. That that you’ve got the correct person, but what i also really like about that is sometimes i’m only told that, you know, well, this person is, uh, this is their name, and we think they’re affiliated with the construction industry, but we don’t have their address or we don’t have their work address that’s not a lot going on name, and we think they’re affiliated with the construction industry. Yeah, they won’t have very much information to tell me a memory told you earlier, it’s often helpful if i’ve got their address and but if i don’t have it on biff, i’m not able to readily find it what’s kind of interesting is that on political donations, when you make a political donation, i think the minimum is two fifty or more it’s either two hundred or two fifty or more than it becomes part of public record and searchable on this fdc database. Part of what they provide in making this donation public is a gn address and very often an employer affiliation. So sometimes that those air the missing pieces to my puzzle, i’m able to find it through their political giving. So that’s kind of an extra bonus to looking at their political giving. I find anywhere else besides ftc dot gov, uh, there are a number of sites out there i think mother jones is one of them. Certainly the major resource is that i mentioned earlier, like wealth injun and i wave, they do aggregate data as well, but i do like to see that recap right on the f because i think that’s probably the source that a lot of these aggregators they’re getting it from anyway. Okay, ftc dot gov sounds like a big site. Where do we go after we’re at that? That rude girl? You would want to do a search for a campaign contribution by then. And you can search by individuals name um, so that’s very useful, you know want one caveat that i should mention about that sight, though, is, um, you you can’t use the information it says very clearly on there that you can’t use the information for any solicitation purposes at all. So really, i just do that is part of my overall data that i’m gathering on somebody, but you do need to be careful about using it to proactively prospect for new people, and by that, i mean, the resource allows you to go in and search by zip code and find out who all the big political donors are in a particular zip code. But they say that the data is seated so meaning that i don’t know, i think i don’t know the federal government’s watching to see who’s going to download the list and then mass, you know, mail out to them on so they might throw some fake names in there. Maybe i’m not sure or no, you’re names of people who work for the federal elections commission to see what, what nefarious things people might be doing with the names they find, right? So, you know, i would just be very careful don’t use the data to proactively prospect, i think that would get you in trouble, all right? And this this type of political giving, we’re talking about onl e-giving to the major political parties, is it? Is it on lee republican and democratic parties? Or does it go a little broader than that? There’s e-giving teo to political action committees as well. So yeah, i mean, it is pretty broad, it is pretty broad, so i do like to at least include that the person you know, i might even just recap it on my profile the person has donated in the last five years x number of dollars toward political campaigns, and then i might note if i can find it, you know, most of them are democrat versus republican, you know, for example, so if the non-profit needs to know more, i can actually expand on that and show exactly what gifts have been made to which political candidates can we get to the data on giving to the five oh, one c four’s that are in the press a lot because they’re the ones that were mostly not exclusively but mostly targeted and flagged by the irs determinations unit, which i’ve talked about a couple of weeks ago on tony’s take two. Can we get to that five or once before those those social change organizations? I’m not sure i don’t. I don’t recall ever seen five oh one c for specifically, but that’s a good one for me to explore. I’m kind of curious about that myself. Now that you’ve brought it up, i would have to dig a little bit. Further and find out about that. Maybe we can talk about it on a future show. Make a note for myself to find out about five a onesie for it. Okay, i think a feature of them is that they don’t have to disclose their there their donors, i think, well, i could be wrong about that, but you’ll know, because you’re going to do the research this’s the value of having regular contributors of prospect researcher like these assignments i’m giving out left and right, yeah e-giving the work. I had no idea i’d be getting a work assignment. Okay? Things i didn’t have enough teo it’s helping you prepped for the next show. This is this is a valuable aid for you. I think so. Okay. Um okay. What else? What other people? What other things are people asking you about on the individual sabat still individuals people are also asking about. They want to know if a z a general marker for wealth, they would like to know if people are owners of yachts or planes, and both of those are also part of what one can find out in the public record field. So you want to talk about some of those resources since they’re not to come and what you just listen, you know, two or three. Okay, so the yachts are all registered with the coast guard on. So the coast guard does maintain a website. It’s a little cumbersome. I actually goto ah, very inexpensive sea based resource to do that research it’s called boatinfoworld dot com dahna you can research by person’s name and find out they own a yacht. And on the airplane side you can go to the f a a website, the federal aviation administration you khun search to see somebody as a pilot license. You can also searched to see whether they were their company would own a plane so that, you know, is other pieces of information that if somebody is really, you know, high net worth individual, they might have one of those two items. Okay, for the rest of our conversation, we’re going to switch to the foundation side because that’s important too just a minute before a break. How do we get started on the foundation side? And then we’ll have time or after the break, i think probably a great place to start. Then would be just to go to two foundation center and find out for free whether or not that that last name might have foundation affiliated with it. But sometimes people don’t always use their name. They’ll come up with some sort of a creative name for their foundation, so that would be the easiest way to start is to go there with a guide star and find out and foundations center guidestar sighted again because you can do it for free on those two sites just to run their names through the search field. Okay, i know johnny carson was famous for that. I think his foundation was like the john w foundation or something like that. It was something obscurely named. We’ve got to go away for a couple of minutes. When we come back, marie and i will keep talking on maura about foundation research will stay with us. I didn’t think that shooting good ending things, you’re listening to the talking alternative network e-giving good. Are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications, then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you, too? He’ll call us now at to one to seven to one eight, one eight, three that’s two one two, seven to one eight, one eight, three or find us on the web at www dot double diamond wellness dot com way. Look forward to serving you. Hi, i’m ostomel role, and i’m sloan wainwright, where the host of the new thursday morning show the music power hour. Eleven a m. We’re gonna have fun. Shine the light on all aspects of music and its limitless healing possibilities. We’re going invite artists to share their songs and play live will be listening and talking about great music from yesterday to today, so you’re invited to share in our musical conversation. Your ears will be delighted with the sound of music and our voices. Join austin and sloan live thursdays at eleven a. M on talking alternative dot com. You’re listening to the talking alternative network. Schnoll i’m can burger of charity navigator. And you’re listening to tony martignetti non-profit radio. Big non-profit ideas for the other ninety five percent. Dahna ken berger is so modest he’s, ceo of charity navigator and he’s just been in the news just so i’m quoted in the new york times, um, around around disaster aid. Yes, i think it was in the wake of the dahna moore oklahoma tornado, he was quoted, you know, making the point that there’s a tension between getting money, two victims fast and vetting where that money goes so that it goes to people who actually need it. But anyway, can burger, ceo of charity navigator, was a guest has been a guest. Maria, what we’ve been talking about so far on the foundation side, that was whether an individual is connected to a foundation, right? That’s, right? Ok, or whether they might have their own, their own foundation or what if you want to know if they’re on the board of a foundation. So there that’s where i do get into the fee based resource of foundations search dot com because i’m able to put in an individual’s name and find out if they come up connected as a trustee of a foundation. So again, even though they may not have their own family foundation, they still have access to another foundation as a trustee, i want to know that that’s really important information for me to know about, ok and yeah, and, you know, one, you know, one of the other things we didn’t touch upon with regard to individuals, and it kind of relates to foundations as well is whether or not somebody’s a corporate insider at at at a public company, meaning that they would own significant shares stock of that company, and then as an insider, they have to report that to the sea. Sometimes what people will do is they will take on, and that will be the influx of cash, for example that that foundation received. So if i look through and at a particular foundation, and then i see that the foundation has had an influx that year of x number of shares of stock, or or that the foundation that happens toa hold a large position of a particular type of stock that’s kind of a marker two mated. Somebody connected to that foundation may have been connected to that company. Where there’s that large dog position. And now give me another piece to the puzzle that i might want. To explore further, very interesting. So you’re looking at the finances of the foundation, not just what they give to and what the timeline is for sending your letter of inquiry and things like that. Yeah, because if i don’t really know that much about the person and i’m trying to figure out what their work history has been about, andi are connected, as they said to a foundation or ceding their foundation with stocks of of a particular company, then that might be something for me to look at, see if their name is connected to that company and maybe some news resource. Is there something like that? Maybe they’ve retired recently from a company so it’s very important for me to try and figure out, you know where that where that money is coming from that that’s really financing that foundation? Okay, all right, so, so but i’m exploring it from the from the researching, the foundation side. You look at the look at the finances in the sources of their giving as well as you know, other than mission related things. Yeah, sometimes sometimes it is important for me to have that piece and, you know, we’re also, it’s very important to know where they’re the foundation has their money invested is i was once doing research for american cancer society, and they wanted to make sure that the foundations they were approaching did not have significant assets, i think or any assets invested in stocks related to tobacco. And so my research project became very different at that point, right? Because i had to try and figure out well and, you know, and some of the, you know, sometimes it’s not as evidence there was remember what the company wass that had a significant position as a subsidiary company owned this suit very company that was tobacco related, and it didn’t it wasn’t apparent at the outset we figured out what that company really did. What is something that you’re back to our f excuse that you’re asked often about researching foundations, so they want to know, you know this foundation give to pre selected organizations, so on page nine or ten or so of a neiers, every every foundation files an irs nine, ninety pf and about page nine or ten of that of that form, it’ll have a little check box that a foundation. Can check off if they get to pre selected organizations or not. And it’s really important to know that because it could really just be a dead end foundation for you if you’re trying to knock on that door and they’re just not accepting any proposals in that case, what i say to a non-profit is, look, if your mission is so perfectly aligned to what that foundation likes to fund let’s, try and figure out if a member of your board perhaps has a connection to somebody who the trustee of that foundation so we can at least open a dialogue because just sending an outright proposal it’s really not going to get you anywhere that sounds like the first thing you should look at if you look researching the foundation is jump to whether this check off on page nine or ten is checked about pre selected organizations only right that you spend half an hour researching a foundation on ly to get to page nine and find out that you wasted half an hour, right? Exactly. But you know that resource that i mentioned earlier foundation search dot com? Actually, you can if you’re searching for foundations. Say, who donate to the arts in your particular state? You can actually tell the source toe on ly search for foundations who accept who are accepting proposals so you can actually have the tool. And again here that’s where you were talking about, you know, was it worth paying for a tool or not? Here’s a resource that will help you cut to the chase is to knocking all those other foundations off the list for you so that you’re not spending any valuable time researching it unnecessarily. And the thing that we’re going to end with is how would you execute your suggestion to find out whether one of your one of the board members on the board you’re doing the work for has a connection with someone in a foundation that that only gives to pre selected organizations? So what i’ve done in the past for some of my clients is i’ve taken those organizations that give only to pre selected may be saying in their in their county or their geographic community that they serve, um and i will outline the list of all the trustees of those foundations and circulate those names on a spreadsheet. With the members of the board and ask himto identify. They have any connections if they happen to know any of these people. So it becomes a very different task when you approach a development committee meeting or a fund-raising or ah general board meeting and say, you know, dj, does anybody have a foundation connection that they know of versus ifyou’ve proactively gone out and sought out the names of foundations in your community that you just need some help getting doors open, too? Put a list of names in front of them of those trustees. Then it becomes a very different meeting in a very different conversation for those who are interested in strategy around foundation grantspace ship. I’ve had a guest, john hicks. In the past you could go to my blawg twenty martignetti dot com and search for john hicks. H i c k s pull up that show where he was a guest and he took he talked a lot for an hour about the strategy of approaching foundations. Marie, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me my pleasure. As always. Each month, maria simple is the prospect finder and you’ll find her at the prospect finder dot com next week it is software selection. Don fornes, ceo of software advice, leads us through the software selection process for non-profits and amy sample ward returns she’s, our social media contributor but she’s no longer membership director at intend the non-profit technology network that you get booted out, we’re going to talk about it, she has an announcement, i’ll leave it! I have to leave it at that insert sponsor message over nine thousand leaders, fundraisers and board members of small and midsize charities. Listen to the show each week you can contact me on my blogged if you’d like to talk about sponsoring the show. Our creative producer is claire meyerhoff janice janice taylor line produced today’s show our social media is by regina walton of organic social media and the remote producer of tony martignetti non-profit radio is john federico of the new rules, and as you’re listening on friday, june seventh, we are remote at fund-raising day at the marriott marquis in new york city. Oh, i hope you’ll be with me next week, and i hope next week you will have been with me. This week. Otherwise, i’ll suffer some serious, but not life threatening disease. You’ll find us every friday one to two p m eastern at talking alternative broadcasting at talking alternative dot com hyre. Hyre i didn’t think the shooting. Good ending. You’re listening to the talking, alternate network, waiting to get in. Cubine hi, i’m dahna and i’m done were certified mediators, and i am a family and couples licensed therapists and author of please don’t buy me ice cream. Our show new beginnings is about helping you and your family recover financially and emotionally and start the beginning of your life. We’ll answer your questions on divorce, family court, co parenting, personal development, new relationships, blending families and more dahna and i will bring you to a place of empowerment and belief that even though marriages may end, families are forever join us every monday, starting september tenth at ten a m on talking alternative dot com are you suffering from aches and pains? Has traditional medicine let you down? Are you tired of taking toxic medications? Then come to the double diamond wellness center and learn how our natural methods can help you to hell? 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