Prospect Research Weblog

We may not yet have a black rich list but we have the next best thing a black power list. Michael Eboda CEO of Powerful Media Ltd has produced the PowerList Britains 100 most influential black people. Interestingly he did consider producing a rich list My first intention was to put together a list of the wealthiest black people in Britain a rich list but after mulling it over and listening to various opinions I decided that was too crass and not all that interesting because it doesnt leave a lot of room for debate. After all if someone is worth 163100m they will automatically be higher up on such a list than a person worth half that amount and what more is there to say about that A pity as I think that there is definitely a gap in the market there and as for the view that a rich list doesnt leave a lot of room for debate what planet has he been on Was there ever a year in which the Sunday Times Rich List didnt prompt a great deal of debate

According to recent story from the Press Association machine gun bullets samurai swords a dead rat and a set of nude home videos are just some of the more unusual items donated to a charity in the last year. Animal hospital charity PDSA compiled the list of the most kooky donations that its wellmeaning but misguided benefactors had donated. Describing some of the items as like props from a Monty Python sketch PDSA said one wouldbe philanthropist even handed over a rat cage to staff complete with its deceased former occupant. Volunteers at a PDSA charity shop in Stevenage were equally shocked to receive a cache of machine gun ammunition and promptly contacted the police. Other donated weaponry included samurai swords and replica handguns. A cheekier but no less appropriate donation included a set of home movies made by a naturist who hoped his naked body could raise some much needed cash for sick animals. However sometimes charity shops strike gold literally. One PDSA charity shop ...

The Institute of Fundraising is calling for session proposals for their 2009 National Convention. If you attended the 2008 Convention you will be aware that prospect research was greatly under represented to say the least so we in the RiF Committee are making a concerted effort to encourage more researchers to submit a session. And we are leading by example I and three other members of the committee have already submitted a proposals for the 2009 convention. So far we have the following proposals a session on the Data Protection Act a session on how researchers and fundraisers canneed to work together and a session on dispelling some of the myths or misconceptions that fundraisers have concerning research. I spoke at the 2006 Convention and found the experience invaluable. Not only did I get some great feedback about research from the delegates I also made a number of excellent contactsfriends. Speaking at the Convention gives you the opportunity to educate fundraisers about the role ...

It may be nothing to get excited about or it may revolutionise the way in which we search for information on the web. Either way Googles new browser Chrome has got a lot of people very excited. Cool logo too

Is it my imagination or do the last four descriptions on the links page of The Oxford Fundraising Groups website bare an uncanny similarity to some of the descriptions on the links page of the Researchers in Fundraising website If I didnt know any better Id think that those cheeky scamps at The Oxford Fundraising Group have simply copied and pasted the links I wrote for the RiF website. Surely not...

The Telegraph is running a series of articles on Britains 100 biggest private companies. So far they have covered retailing property manufacturers food amp drink and transport amp leisure. Some entries are a little lacking in detail but its all interesting stuff. EDIT link should now work.

Im having a few problems with formatting so keep needing to republish the site apologies to anyone who gets the feed and gets this message more than once.

My word cloud that is

This weeks website of the week is JumpKnowledge. Have you ever wished you could add your two cents to a siteanywhere you wantednot just in an itty bitty blog area Have you ever wished you could email a web page with your comments inside it Well now you can with JumpKnowledge. What does it look like You can see an example using my own wonderlful site here. On a more serious note I have created an example here using the Charity Commissions website which could be emailed to a colleague about to apply to the Trust in question. Ive only just started to use JumpKnowledge but I think that it could prove to be very useful very useful indeed.

In a desperate attempt to join the 21st century I have added two new buttons to the front page of the website one to allow people to recommend the site to others and the other to allow people to receive my weblog via an RSS feed or whatever you call it. The first button works OK but I am not sure about the second one so...if anyone reading this can test it and let me know if it works or not I will buy you a big drink at the next RiF conference.

What a busy few days its been what with the RiF Conference Henley Regatta OK not I admit anything to do with prospect research and now the IoFs national convention again little to do with prospect research some might say The RiF conference was by and large excellent but then I would say that wouldnt I Some excellent speakers and some controversial opinions well for a RiF conference and I was pleased with the venue although I have reservations about the visibility of the speakers for some of the delegates. Hopefully lots of people will fill out the feedback form when we send it out and well know what everyone thought. I shall be attending the IoFs convention on Tuesday and Wednesday I know what larks So if you are planning to be there do grab me as I pass by in a trancelike state if you get me late in the day and say hello. I will also be at the drinks Tuesday evening although I am still in two minds about the party... One of these days Ill actually get some work done ho hum.

Those of us who are fulltime researchers sometimes forget that for many people research is just one aspect and perhaps not the most significant aspect of the work that they do. Many smaller charities do not have the resources to employ a researcher and so rely on their major donor fundraisers to carry out their own research. And some of those charities will only have one person doing all the fundraising for their organisation. This weeks website of the week is for those people but also for anyone reading this researcher or otherwise who wishes to carry out a little fundraising on the side perhaps for a local organisation or group that is too small too have their own fundraiser. RaisingFunding contains over 60 articles written by fundraising experts who continually update and add new content. Subjects include legal advice on fundraising using fundraising databases and software fundraising for an individual cause planning a fundrasing event and much much more.

When you join the PRSPCTL discussion list you get sent a Netiquette email basically a list of dos and donts to prevent or minimise irrelevant pointless or abusive messages. And one of those donts is the following No requests for a researcher from XYZ University to contact you. We are researchers find them. Why inconvenience 3499 list members with messages intended for a single member Why indeed Its really fucking annoying and also this is what really gets on my tits the people that ask these questions are supposed to be researchers Honestly what kind of a researcher are you if you need to ask for the contact details of another researcher This must be the research equivalent of asking someone to wipe your arse lazy unnecessary and staggeringly infantile. And yet people continue to send out such emails. Most recently someone asked Could a Yale researcher please contact me I have a quick question. Yeah well I have a quick question too Are you so crap at...

Most of the newspapers have given a great deal of coverage to Chris Hohns 163466m donation largest ever dawn of new era in philanthropy etc. etc but City AMs The Capitalist approached the story from a slightly different angle in yesterdays paper The Riddle of Hedgies Missing Millions MUCH has been made recently of hedgie philanthropist Chris Hohns 163466m donation to the charity connected to his hedge fund the Childrens Investment Fund TCI. However a quick trip to the Charities Commission website shows that last year only 16311.7m of the gift was actually used so what happened to the rest The answer is that much of it is returning to be reinvested in TCI completely feefree. The reason for this a spokesman for the Childrens Investment Fund Foundation charity tells me is that the gift works on an expendable endowment structure which after a good few minutes of explanation I take to mean that its charitable grants are executed over the long term. Its essential to take a prud...

We appear to have entered the age of the Super Gift. Whilst us mere mortals have to contend with rising inflation and falling property values by tightening the belt the very wealthy are moving in the opposite direction by giving away ever larger donations to charitable causes. It all started in February of last year when David and Simon Reuben gave Great Ormond Street Hospital a multimillion pound donation. Nothing too unusual there you might think Wafic Said gave 16320m to Oxford University in 1996 a donation equivalent to between 16325m and 16333m today depending upon how one measures the relative value of the 163 and Gary Tanaka gave Imperial College London 16327m in 2000. But the Reubens donation was just the start of a sustained run of Super Gifts for UK institutions the like of which we have not seen before. In October the financial services firm Morgan Stanley pledged 16310m towards Great Ormond Streets appeal in November the reclusive Barclay brothers Sir Frederick and...