Reasons for Prospect Research

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 12:33:18 GMT

From a posting on PRSPCT-L on top reasons we need Prospect Research compiled by Heather Willis.

My original question:

Does anyone know of a top ten list of reasons why we need prospect
research, why its helpful, why you can't live without it, something to that
effect?? I found one for sales and marketing professionals but can't seem to
find anything for fundraising professionals.
__________________________________________________________________

From a November 12, 1997 PRSPCT-L posting…….

What are the top 10 (5,2,1,etc.) reasons/benefits for conducting prospect
research? From an institutional stand-point, why should you commit valuable
resources for either in-house research staff or outside consultants to develop
information on your suspects, prospects and donors. Why spend thousands of
dollars each year for database access, directories, etc.?

Why do we research, let me count the ways ..

1 - To identify donors needs and motivations for cultivation

2 - To determine capacity and frame the ask

3 - To identify the right people to approach

4 - To increase organizational productivity in support of cultivation and
solicitation

5 - To avoid wasting time or money pursuing the wrong prospects

6 - To identify relationships and influences among donors and prospects

7 - To identify potential conflicts before they occur

8 - To develop and maintain institutional memory

9 - To interpret and manage information

10 - To solve problems and answer questions in support of the institutional
mission
__________________________________________________________________
*Prospect Identification. One of the first steps in prospect research is
the identification of prospects. This is often accomplished by an
electronic screening of the organizations' constituency database.

* Identify Capacity. The research process can identify stock holdings,
stock options, business ownership, real estate assets, yacht ownership,
aircraft ownership and the earnings of top corporate executives.

* Identify linkages. Research can uncover relationships linking donors
to your organization, such as two persons knowing each other through
service on a corporate board.

* Identify Philanthropy and their interests. Research can often turn up
a donor's gifts to other institutions and board memberships. This can
assist in identifying giving levels, what they are passionate about or
interested in, and commitment to philanthropy.

* Identify Donor Needs and Motivation. Research can provide insight into
that may assist you in understanding their motivation for giving. Are
they passionate about education? Do they serve on several boards
related to health care? Did they volunteer in the Peace Corps?

* Track Donors. Once you have identified and cultivated a donor,
research affords the ability to periodically keep track of major events
or changes in their lives. How the donor's company is doing. Significant
relationships, i.e., one major prospect marrying another or two
graduates from your institution who have remained friends for 50 years.
Continued research allows for carefully planning future cultivation for
gifts and the timing of strategic moves.

* Avoid Wasting Time (yours and theirs). Research can help avoid wasting
the donor's time, as well as your own in pursuing a donor who is not
motivated, not connected, and/or does not have the capacity to give at
the level you are seeking.

* Identify Potential Conflicts. Research will sometimes uncover
background information that may avert embarrassing situations or
problems.
__________________________________________________________________
Some other ideas might include (depending on how your shop is set up):

•         prospect management

•         tracking

•         assigning new prospects to MGOs

•         Campaign preparation

•         data modeling

•         push technology on top tier prospects

•         strategic planning

•         sphere of influence meetings - build a prospect tree based on current

•         donors

•         to find connections between various donors/prospects

•         Working more with alumni relations/annual fund/planned giving
__________________________________________________________________
OK, I'll take a stab. But I want to give credit where credit is due -
this is inspired by a great presentation by Abbey Silberman called
Information Fundamentals of Prospect Research (it's out there on the web
somewhere, and has a great chart that shows how frontline fundraisers
and fundraising volunteers can use the information generated by the
research department):

Top Ten Benefits of Prospect Research
•           Helps develop long-term cultivation and solicitation strategies
through assessment of capacity and interest
•           Ensures ask amounts are appropriate and that money is not being
left "on the table"
•           Helps set priorities, resulting in more efficient and effective use of
limited
fundraising resources, through rating and segmenting potential donor pools
•           Expands organization's access to potential donors through
identification of contacts and spheres of influence
•          Aids frontline development professionals in establishing a connection
with potential donors by identifying talking points, approach and potential
funding interests
•           Expands the prospect pool through identification of new prospects
•           Ensures that donor's privacy needs are respected and that standards
for confidentiality and accuracy of information are maintained
•           Maintains institutional memory through maintenance of donor and
prospective donor file, both paper and electronic
•           Keeps department up-to-date on fundraising trends and news that
has an impact on fundraising and philanthropy
•          Gives the database manager someone to commiserate with
__________________________________________________________________

10. So we can have jobs.
9. So development officers will think they know more than they do.
8. So DOs will have a scapegoat for when they don't get any money.
7. To have someone in the office who can find out how much your neighbor's
house is.
6. To have someone in the office who doesn't mind having no windows in
his/her office and can occupy what would have been a closet had you
not "come on board."
5. To have cool reports that impress the Board.
4. So that the DOs will have someone to exclude from their meetings to
feel "cool."
3. So that the subculture of librarians, computer geeks, and the socially
challenged does not become extinct.
2. To help campaign managers sleep at night believing that they will meet
their goals because Bill Gates is on their prospect list and qualified at $800
gizzilion

And, the number one reason that we NEED prospect research is

1. That we all need the support and encouragement to bring back BBSs - GO
SYSOPS
__________________________________________________________________
Top Ten Signs that your Development Staff are clueless about Prospect
Research

10. Your Development Director doesn’t understand the need for screening
because he hasn’t seen a mosquito in the office in months.
9. Your Development Director keeps calling you Marcia.
8. You have to explain that liquid assets aren’t wine collections.
7. When you ask about inclination, your DoD is surprised you know how to
find out what gender they prefer.
6. Your Major Gifts officer thinks APRA is new French bra.
5. Your Development Director wants you to find out the shoe size, favorite
color of your key board member. She also wants to know if they are Elvis
Costello fans. She wants it by 5pm today.
4. Your DoD and ED hire an expensive firm to do a 6 month feasibility study
that you could in a weekend with a pint of good ice cream and some
Starbuck’s latte’s.
3. Your Executive Directors thinks you have access to personal bank
records, criminal records and are afraid your going to find out about
5-10yr stint they did for armed robbery in the state pen. Of course you
lord it over them to maneuver for a raise.
2. You just met your Major Gifts Director after she has been there for…4
years.
1. When you say you purchased Lexis Nexis your development staff are
thrilled you replaced your old Toyota.
__________________________________________________________________

Fundraising Success has an article from 8/1/07 called "Prospect
Research: What You Don't Know and How It Can Hurt You" It is not a top
10 list but it is a good article.
__________________________________________________________________

From a May 13, 2003 PSPCT-L posting…..
I think you covered many of the aspects of why donor research is important.
Below are some excerpts from "Getting to Know Your Donors" which was
featured in the January 2002 issue of our Solutions Newsletter. In the first
quote from the article, we more-or-less define donor research. The second
quote addresses the efficiently aspect of doing research. The last two
quotes talk about the importance of prospect research in helping to find
ways in which the institution can involve prospective donors into the life
of the institution, whether it be shared values, likes & dislikes, or common
friends/associates.
"It is a multifaceted process of information retrieval, analysis, and
dissemination of biographical and financial information."
"Donor and prospect research can significantly reduce the time it takes to
get to know your constituents while increasing the quality of information."
"It often uncovers shared values and prospective donor's friends and
associates who may help form a basis for institutional involvement."
"Donor profiles can provide relevant and up-to-date background information,
financial capacity, charitable nature, and likes and dislikes of
individuals, corporations, and foundations for the purpose of donor
cultivation, solicitation of funds, and welcoming them into the life of an
institution."
__________________________________________________________________

From a February 17, 2007 PRSPCT-L posting “The Role of Research”
One of the key areas in which research goes beyond prospect profiles is in
peer institution benchmarking. We created a list of 12 institutions that are
comparable to ours and have put together significant statistical data on their
advancement operations. We selected three individuals from these
institutions who will be visiting for several days to review our operations and
generate a report with their own recommendations. This includes everything
from management structure to prospect pool size and types to salaries to gift
processing procedures and on and on.

The "proactive leads" program mentioned on the report entails sending each
fundraiser (and one dean who is very active in her own fundraising) prospects
appropriate for their position each month. They receive a one-page, three-
paragraph bio for each prospect. Major gift officers receive three per month,
and development officers receive five per month. Anyone who does not
demonstrate any activity with these prospects for six months is suspended
from the program and have a special meeting with their supervisor and me to
determine what the issue is. (To date, this has occurred with three
development officers; all three were having various issues with cold calling.
Two are back in the program, the third is undergoing additional training.) Each
month has its own "theme", such as widows/widowers or lapsed donors or past
alumni award winners.

__________________________________________________________________

We haven't done full research profiles for a couple of years now, except for
the President's Office during BOT nomination time. We're probably doing
90%/10% proactive/reactive research. We're very lucky to have a VP
who "gets" research, is very analytical, and even asks us for total wealth
calculations and ask amounts before making the big asks. To keep up our end
of the bargain, we are very well versed on the latest information pertaining to
wealth calculations and gift amounts from IRS and market research data, so
that we can tell him where our estimates are coming from. The major gift
officers are assigned to prospects by the director of major gifts as we
determine they are capable of making a major gift ($100,000/5yrs), so there's
no dickering about whether or not they'll take someone -- they are asked to
go out and see everyone we send their way. We have continuous dialogue
with our gift officers as they report back on their impressions of capability,
and as they
measure readiness & willingness. Our suspicions are not always right, so they
also help us adjust capacity ratings with facts they note.

I've attached a strategy document we put together when it was clear we had
to double our major gift prospect pool before announcing our campaign (March
2007). That gives you an idea of the kind of proactive research we have
done to increase our major gift pool. It all starts with finding and sending to
your MGOs good, new prospects. To that end, we are lucky to be able to
have the latest resources, and run all our people first through an in-house
regression program (data mining) and Echelon screening for hidden liquid
assets, before doing our wealth indicator research. We only complete the
data field of those assets that back up our rating; we don't do a complete
profile. Our MGOs know that the people we're sending them are worthy of
their taking a look. I know attachments don't work on PRSPCT-L, but that's
probably a good thing, since I'm not sure I'd want this all over.

Besides the proactive research, we also monitor numbers of prospects major
gift officers have and may adjust strategies to focus on different geographic
areas, if we see an MGO is "light" in prospects. We follow prospects, visits,
and call reports each month. We have tracking reports for prospects for
specific projects, tracking ask amounts and dates and completion, and are
working on a report that will track one individual throughout all projects for
which he or she may be a candidate.

We create compensation guides for various sectors, for example investment
bankers, based on articles and research and MGO feedback. Something new,
and really working well, is we now run those compensation guides by small
groups of influential alumni in the various fields so they can confirm our
compensation levels and titles. That is a terrific cultivation tool, besides
giving us and our MGOs great info.

It's pretty clear to us that all this "success" in infusing research into our major
gifts operation is enhanced by face-to-face contact with the MGOs. We
benefit by being in the same building with Major Gifts, Parents and the Annual
Fund, so contact happens around the water cooler, besides in weekly
meetings. When they see us, they think of us -- and that leads to joint
projects or our being able to suggest a strategy or gently remind them about
a particular prospect. Warning: you could generate more requests for your
ideas and help than you can handle: job security!

Bottom line, though, is the "buy in" of your supervisors, all the way up the
line. If they bring you to the table whenever they're talking about prospects
(even if it's so boring you can't stand it), you'll be noticed -- and asked to
help -- more and more.

This isn't particularly "best practices" but hopefully there's something in this
tome to help you in synthesizing your ideas of how you can advance your
operation.
__________________________________________________________________

"Prospect research identifies, analyzes, and recommends avenues of financial
support so that the fund-raising goals of a nonprofit organization can be
realized."

"Prospect research's mission is to use the first philanthropic dollar raised
to efficiently identify the next. The essence of the mission is
simple--efficient dedication to uncovering the possibility of the largest
gifts an institution can realize."

"One fund-raising adage is that most nonprofits raise about 90 percent of
their major gifts from less than 10 percent of their constituency. For
fund-raising goals to be met, donors in the top income groups must be
cultivated." (I would add that they must first be identified.)
"Fund raisers will count on research to serve as institutional memory -
to identify, research, analyze, rate and mange prospects. We serve as
the catalyst for fund raising through reporting, strategizing, tracking
and providing detailed information. This includes all the things that
allow prospects to be uncovered, discovered and followed up on. We are
here to perform at the same professional level as the development
officers."

Financial Frustrations

services@supportingadvancement.com — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:09:42 GMT

All year long there has been an ongoing campaign to reduce tuition fees in universities and colleges all over my province. Booths to sign petitions against rising fees winked in and out of existence around the main student areas— places where thousands of students pass through every day.

The series of these rallies to get signatures, individual protests, and other events throughout the year culminated one Wednesday as a group of students put together picket signs inside the rotunda that stands majestically in front of the main lawn. Buses were lined up outside of the doors, ready to take everyone on the short trip downtown to hold a city-wide protest in one of our largest parks near government buildings.

Student debt rises every year. It is nearly impossible to live away from home and avoid going into debt if a student is supporting him or herself. In addition to paying for tuition, there are textbook meal, and living expenses. It isn’t always feasible to balance a part-time job against school either.

Thankfully, there are scholarships… or are there?

I was talking to one of my closest friends about her biggest worries regarding school and the issue of financing her education came up.

She is attending a prestigious university in the Midwest and was telling me about her experiences with out of state tuition prices and the pressure about reapplying for the scholarships that are allowing her to pursue her academic dreams.

She has to apply for the scholarship each and every year. It is not guaranteed for four years. There is no ease of mind that she will be able to finish her undergraduate degree in the place she now calls home— a school which is a perfect fit for her major.

“It should be guaranteed for four years,” she tells me.

I ask, “What about your marks? What if they fall?”

“That’s fine; the scholarship can be dependent on marks, but if I do achieve what I am supposed to, I want to know that it will definitely be there for next year.”

She tells me about another trick that her school might play on her.

“Sometimes they offer a higher amount to you as a freshman. They draw you in and then drop your financial aid down because they know you’re stuck there.”

A remedy for this would be to increase government funding for education, don’t you think? Isn’t investment in this area of society important? Some students don’t pursue their full academic potential because they cannot afford to. That is a crime.

When asked how she felt about her educational future being dictated by whether she could score a scholarship or not, my friend said, “It’s very frustrating.”

Sometimes it seems there are a lot of unnecessary hoops to jump through in order to pursue something you love—but, maybe, if you really want it enough, if you really want to pursue change or excellence, it is achievable. I know that I will do whatever it takes to finish my degree; I’m just hoping that I won’t be paying it off until I’m forty.

Whispers and Lives: What Murmurs Can Tell You About a City

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 15:12:48 GMT

Whispers and Lives: What Murmurs Can Tell You About a City

Have you ever visited a city— an outsider— and then left feeling the same way? You’ve seen the big sites: the towers, museums, the famous landmarks, but you feel no connection to with the city, no grasp of the community. For visitors to certain areas in Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, San Jose, Dublin, and Edinburgh this can change. You can soak yourself into essence of a community. How? Enter: [murmur].

[murmur] is a project that records stories that people have about specific geographic locations. Some of these locations include Vancouver’s Chinatown, Dublin’s Docklands, and Toronto’s Kensington Market. People who live or have lived in these neighbourhoods can contribute their own anecdotes about places that are important to them, ranging from local library to a favourite pub. These are the stories and points of view that you don’t normally get when you visit a city; not so legendary legacies.
The [murmur] website contains maps of the murmured areas, hand drawn with dots that are linked to audio files. Click a dot anywhere on the map, and you can listen to someone tell their story of that place. If you choose to venture out into the city and phone the numbers on the signs (great big steel green ears) you will find them on fences, poles, and the sides of buildings. The public can get involved with [murmur]; there is no requirement to be part of the artistic elite. Anyone can become a part of the public discourse of a neighbourhood, adding their own story and voice to paint a picture of the community. Likewise, anyone with a cell phone can walk up to a [murmur] sign and dial the number that will allow them to engage with the art.^[1]

Acting as installation art around a city, [murmur] deepens the richness of community through recorded personal experiences. You can pick up the general vibe of a community through what its inhabitants have to say. Looking at [murmur] through a psychogeographical perspective, we can see that a community is not built up and enriched by disengagement with our surroundings, but rather, a rendezvous with human emotions (told through personal stories and historical recollections) that are tied to a physical place (wherever you find that green ear). The concept of la derive is also linked to [murmur] because the participant can expand their understanding of a community by strolling along with the storyteller (who they hear through their cell phone) in an off-the-beaten-path manner. By doing this, they resist the usual “walk forwards and don’t look up” manner of navigating through a city and can discover the intricacies and emotional impacts of urban spaces, finding memories tucked away in every corner of a neighbourhood. The artistic practice that [murmur] supports is similar to an aim the situationists (pre-mobile technology) strived for: connecting the viewer or participant by reconnecting art to everyday events and places. ^[2]

As a type of locative media, [murmur] seeks to blend digital and geographical domains, making use of technology to create art. The locative dystopia that Drew Hemmet suggests, where a cell phone can become a means of tracking and surveillance— a Panopticon in your pocket— does not seem to arise as a concern connected to [murmur]. With the use of technology, locative media like [murmur], “transforms a system of domination into a participatory milieu,” as Hemmet states. ^[3] Additionally, it can be argued whether [murmur] is an attempt to subvert the dystopia of total control through mass telecommunications, perhaps flipping the observation paradigm to liberate the masses and place the powers of observation in their own hands, allowing them to interact with the city around them. ^[4]

The interactivity of [murmur] can be questioned since the participant cannot respond to the story while it is being told to them; they cannot interject their own thoughts or ask questions. In her article, The Poetics of Interactivity, Margaret Morse makes a good point when she says, “The critical discourse on "interactivity" is ideologically loaded, even schizophrenic in its tension between pejorative connotations and utopian values and expectations.” Yes, communication in [murmur] is restricted, but this doesn’t mean that participation with the art is lost. A person engaging with [murmur] is not forced to be a spectator; they are free to roam through the neighbourhood, following with the course of the story they are listening to, walking into the restaurants or shops that are talked about, and strolling down the avenues, hearing sounds and smelling scents the storyteller might have heard and smelt too. Interactivity involves decision making: the decision to seek out the green ears in cities’ neighbourhoods, to call the number on the sign and enter the code, and furthermore, and to engage with the story as it is being told to you. ^[5]

When interviewed by Angela Murphy of The National Post^[6], the creative director of [murmur] Toronto said, “We wanted to do something to make people pause and take a look at Toronto from a slightly different angle… interesting things don’t just happen at the Rogers Centre and Nathan Phillips Square.” The creators of [murmur] and the people who support the project are urging you to challenge your perception of a city by engaging in their project. Their website’s subtitle is “Hear you are”. They’re saying, “We’ve got you where you should be, slow down now, and listen.”
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Sources Cited

↑ Micallef, S., Roussel, J., Sawhney, G. “[murmur]” http://murmurtoronto.ca/ June 17, 2007
↑ Hashemi, Gita. "Lecture: Wireless Utopias, Connected Dystopias: Locative Media 5_10." Understanding Digital Art FA/VISA 1005_S2007. 7 June 2007. York University. 16 June 2007
↑ Hemmet, Drew. "The Locative Dystopia." 9 Jan 2004. Nettime.org. 17 June 2007. <http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-0401/msg00021.html>
↑ Hashemi, Gita. "Lecture: Communication as Art 2_3." Understanding Digital Art FA/VISA 1005_S2007. 14 May 2007. York University. 17 June 2007
↑ Morse, Margaret. “The Poetics of Interactivity.” 2003. Women, Art, and Technology. 17 June 2007. <http://www.immersence.com/publications/2003-Mmorse-full.html>
↑ Murphy, Angela. "The green ear wants to tell you a story" 2 May 2006. The National Post. 15 June 2007 <http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=dd253e38-9e43-4958-a2bf-c85267cd5bc2>

Constructed Suspense: From Objective Bondage to Hybrid Freedom

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 02:18:14 GMT

Constructed Suspense: From Objective Bondage to Hybrid Freedom

Ten artists from nine countries are featured from May 3 to June 3, 2007 in the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) exhibition, The Constructed Image: Photographic Culture. This exhibit displayed approximately fifteen individual pieces of art created between 2003 and 2007. The type of medium used in the exhibit was photography, differing in size and formality (some were quite small and others such as the "Smoking Gun", consumed an entire room).

Due to the advent of technology, it is inevitable that we question the credibility of the images we see and consider 'digital art'. The idea of The Constructed Image: Photographic Culture, is that images are constructed based on artists' visions with the use of technological practices. It is an exploration of the hybridity of photography, recognizing the manipulation that occurs in photographic images as they are, “digitally altered, theatrically arranged, artificially staged and fabricated.” This practice has allowed for new artistic endeavors that are sponsored by freedom from objective documentation. ^[1]Sources Cited

Posed and digitally altered, Sam Taylor-Wood's "Suspended Self Portrait" series, creates a sense of freedom and realism in the viewer that is nonparallel in impact when compared to the possibility of an enslaved reality. Three photographs out of the total seven were displayed in this exhibit of Taylor-Wood's "Suspended Self Portrait", created in 2004. Sam Taylor-Wood herself floats gracefully, in the center of a heavenly-lit room stretched out languidly; a face that cannot be seen with a body that expresses serenity and freedom. It does not seem at all like she is falling, but gracefully posing. It is clear that the object which is harnessing her, which allowed her to pose in incogitable positions, was taken out through the use of technological tools.
Technology has facilitated changes in art forms and practices in three aspects: the perception of art, reception of art, and participation in art. The aspect which most relates to Taylor-Wood's piece is the perception of art. As outlined in lecture, Benjamin argued that the nature and function of the art itself is facilitated by technological change. Without the use of digital manipulation, the nature of the “Self Portrait Suspended” series would be entirely different. ^[2]

Benjamin stated, "Technical reproduction can put the copy of the original into situations which would be out of reach for the original itself."^[3] Also, Taylor-Wood's reason for digitally erasing the harness was to show her graceful sense of freedom which would not look the same or have the same interpretation if she were to be awkwardly strapped within a harness. Taylor-Wood's poses can be compared to what Benjamin speaks of, slow graceful motions, in order to rely the message onto its audience. He states, "...which, far from looking like retarded rapid movements, give the effect of singularly gliding, floating supernatural motions." Her face is not showing in the photographs, allowing for the viewer to imagine her or himself being suspended in the room. These photographs have exhibition value; they establish a connection between the art and viewer, allowing them to participate by means of remotely immersing themselves in the tranquility that the subject’s body suggests. If the photograph had been taken for ritualistic value, the harness would be there (eliminating the idea of a floating freedom) and her face would be turned towards the camera, removing any participation and engagement with the audience. ^[4]

Looking at the photographs, we can see they adopt a deadpan aesthetic. In Charlotte Cotton’s book, The Photograph as Contemporary Art^[5], she states, “Deadpan aesthetic moves art photography outside the hyperbolic, sentimental and subjective. These pictures may engage us with emotive subjects, but our sense of what the photographers’ emotions might be is not the obvious guide to understanding the meaning of its images.” The coolness of the deadpan aesthetic that contributes enormously to the serenity in these photographs would have been impossible if they were not altered, but instead, left with harness and ropes intact.

Likewise, in Module 3_5, Gita discussed the notion of technology + art as having a highly imaginative position and approach in a digitally manipulated photograph. This method of detaching the photographer’s own emotions from the photograph allows the viewer to enlist her or his own thoughts and emotions when perceiving the artwork. ^[6]

In this piece, Taylor-Wood was not trying to tell a 'fascinating tale', as John Mraz^[7] explains in his article as the reason for reconstructing an image. However she was trying to display her sense of freedom to her audience. "Mraz focuses on the credibility of documentaries which is based on the notion that events captured are in their true form. However, as he illustrates throughout his article, these images are altered or modified to emphasize on its message or meaning that the artist wishes to convey upon its audience....The deliberate distortion or reconstruction of such images, as with many others, were aimed to add to its message and the real world reality which many wanted to document but was unable to capture in its moment."^[8]

Mraz’s discussion of the representation of reality in photography can lead us to question whether Sam Taylor-Wood’s decision in altering her photographs is socially harmful or unethical. The series does not represent reality (humans do not have the capability of flying) and thus, twists the truth. But for social implications, “Suspended” goes nowhere near the line that fashion photography often crosses in body manipulation and distortion. Instead of making me devalue my body upon viewing, it made me feel relaxed as I imagined myself in the bright room, stretched out freely without anything holding me down.^[9]

Artist Arthur Rothstein states in John Mraz’s article, “Deliberate distortion may actually add to its reality.”^[10] And though he is speaking about the alteration of photojournalistic images, the quote rings true for the qualities that make Taylor-Wood’s “Suspended Self Portrait” series so stimulating, so very engaging and a gem in the practice of hybrid photography.
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Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art. “The Constructed Image: Photographic Culture.” Exhibition Notes. Toronto: MOCCA, 2007. Taylor-Wood, Sam. (2004). "Self portrait Suspended, I, IV, and VII". Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto.
Hashemi, Gita. "Lecture: Art and the Democratizing Potentials of Technology 1_2." Understanding Digital Art FA/VISA 1005_S2007. 11 May 2007. York University. 3 June 2007. http://www.yorku.ca/gita/visa1005/lectures/1_2_democracy.html
Benjamin, Walter. 1935. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. UK Media. 1 June, 2007. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/benjamin.html#A
Benjamin, Walter. 1935. “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction”. UK Media. 1 June, 2007. http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Modules/MC10220/benjamin.html#A
Cotton, Charlotte. The Photograph as Contemporary Art. New York: Thames and Hudson, 2004.
Hashemi, Gita. "Lecture: Photography: The Crisis of the “Real” 3_5." Understanding Digital Art FA/VISA 1005_S2007. 22 May 2007. York University. 29 May 2007. http://www.yorku.ca/gita/visa1005/lectures/3_5_photography.html
Mraz, John. "What’s documentary about photography?: From directed to digital photojournalism." Jan 2003. ZoneZero Magazine. 29 May 2007. http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/mraz/mraz01.html
Gajie, Shabana. "Group 1, Module 3_5, Individual Responses." Understanding Digital Art Discussion Forum. 24 May 2007. York University. 03 June 2007.
Dowling, Sarah. "Group 1, Module 3_5, Individual Responses." Understanding Digital Art Discussion Forum. 24 May 2007. York University. 03 June 2007.
Mraz, John. "What’s documentary about photography?: From directed to digital photojournalism." Jan 2003. ZoneZero Magazine. 29 May 2007. http://www.zonezero.com/magazine/articles/mraz/mraz01.html

Marketing the Intangible

services@supportingadvancement.com — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 02:17:35 GMT

The Kimball Group has a newsletter and also runs a number of courses on data warehouse design and maintenance. The following Design Tip #91 is another good one, on marketing somthing that is somewhat intangible to most people, your data warehouse.

This is a quick read, so have a look and then think of the marketing ideas in relation to your Advancement/Development services organization. We also provide a number of "intangible" services, and marketing is not one of our stronger skill sets.

The design tip, and what we need to do to sell our virtues to our peers, have a lot of parallels.

Design Tip #91Marketing the DW/BI System

Marketing is often dismissed by technical folks. When someone says "oh, you must be from marketing," it's rarely meant as a complement. This is because we don't really understand what marketing is and why it's important. In this design tip, we'll review classic marketing concepts and explore how we can apply them to the DW/BI system.

It might be more palatable to think of marketing as education. Marketers educate consumers about product features and benefits, while generating awareness of a need for those features and benefits. Marketing gets a bad name when it's used to convince consumers of a need that isn't real, or sell a product that doesn't deliver its claimed features and benefits. But that is a different article. Really great marketing, when effectively focused on the value delivered, is hugely important.

Before you start creating your marketing program, you should have a clear understanding of your key messages: what are the mission, vision, and value of your DW/BI system? Marketing 101 has focused on the four Ps, Product, Price, Placement, and Promotion, for at least the last 30 years or so.* We’ll look at each of these factors in the context of the DW/BI system and direct you to additional information where it is available.

Product

As far as the business community is concerned, the DW/BI products are the information needed for decision making and the BI applications and portal through which the information is delivered. Our products must excel in the following five areas:

Value – meet the business needs identified in the business requirements process
Functionality – product must work well
Quality – data and calculations have to be right
Interface – be as easy as possible to use and look good
Performance – work in a reasonable timeframe as defined by the users

Price

Most users don't pay for the DW/BI system directly. The price they pay is the effort it takes to get the information from the DW/BI system compared to other alternatives. There is an upfront cost of learning how to use the BI tool or the BI applications, and an ongoing cost of finding the right report or building the right query for a particular information need. You must lower the price as much as possible by first creating excellent products that are as easy to use as possible. Then offer a full set of training, support and documentation, including directly accessible business metadata, on an ongoing basis.

Placement

In consumer goods, placement is obvious: the product has to be on the store shelf or the customer can't buy it. For us, placement means our customers are able to find the information they need when they need it. In other words, you must build a navigation structure for the BI applications that makes sense to the business folks. Additionally, tools like search, report metadata descriptions and categories, and personalization capabilities can be extremely helpful. For additional information, see Design Tip #58: BI Portal and my February 2006 Intelligent Enterprise article, “Standard Reports: Basics for Business Users” at www.kimballgroup.com.

Promotion

Every customer contact you have is a marketing opportunity. TV ads are not an option, not counting YouTube, but you do have several promotion channels:

BI applications – These are what people use the most. Names are important: having a good acronym for the DW/BI system can leave a good impression. Every report and application should have a footer indicating that it came from the DW/BI system and a logo in one of the upper corners. Ultimately, if you create a good product, the name and logo will become marks of quality – your brand.
BI portal – This is the main entry point for the DW/BI system. It has to meet the same requirements as the BI applications.
Regular communications – Know who your stakeholders are and which communications vehicle works best for each. Your ongoing communications plan will include status reports, executive briefings, and user newsletters. Consider webcasts on specific topics if that's an option in your organization.
Meetings, events, and training – Any public meeting where you can get a few minutes on the agenda is a good thing. Briefly mention a recent successful business use, remind people of the nature and purpose of the DW/BI system, and tell them about any upcoming plans or events. Host your own events, like User Forum meetings, every six to nine months or so.

Ongoing marketing is a key element of every successful DW/BI system. The more you keep people informed about the value you provide them, they more they will support your efforts.

* A fifth P, People, is sometimes included. In recent years, there’s been a push to replace the Marketing 4 Ps with 4 Cs: Customer solution, Customer cost, Convenience and Communication.

Warren Thornthwaite

warren@kimballgroup.com

Changing Web Culture with Conventional Employment Techniques

services@supportingadvancement.com — Mon, 21 May 2007 01:27:58 GMT

Changing culture is often difficult but there are some basic strategies centering around job descriptions/performance and accountability that can help change an organization.

Every employee should have a line or two in their job descriptions on their web responsibilities. Even clerical staff can be responsible for deploying content within the CMS, Intranet, etc. We should be mentioning this at the onset of the hiring process.

The other piece is accountability. If someone is reponsible for a web site, are they evaluated on traffic? Are they required to provide reports that are included with the rest of the monthly reporting cycle?

How do we provide the right professional development to make an organization more "web centric" overall, rather than just having communications or technology staff understand the concepts? Guest speakers, webinars, conferences?

We've only just started seeing the uptick in job postings and descriptions that reflect how the communications world is changing. Some examples: Online Engagement Manager, Director of Interactive Communications. Positions specifically related to e-communications help ensure that the budget is applied directly to these activities, rather than having "soft" budget amounts related to the "other duties as assigned" line in the job description.

Here's a good one that is related to Facebook:

Data Analyst

Facebook is seeking a Data Analyst with strong communication skills and a mild obsession with extracting useful information from data. The ideal candidate will read Matthew Hurst, the Juice Analytics blog, paidContent.org, information aesthetics, and Many-2-Many; that is, they will be interested in the business and product of an online social network while having a passion for data analysis and visualization. The position is full-time and based in our main office in downtown Palo Alto, CA. This position will report to the Senior Manager of Data Insight.

Responsibilities:

* Work closely with business users and product managers to determine how the data we collect could help solve their problems

* Apply your expertise in statistical inference, data mining, and the presentation of data to help inform and support our business and product decisions

* Work with the data infrastructure team to translate the business requirements into technical specifications

* Possess a thorough understanding of our data collection methods

* Develop reports and monitor the validity of the data being reported

Requirements:

* Data junkie

* The ability to communicate the results of your analyses in a clear and effective manner

* Crazy Excel skills or experience with data reporting and analysis tools such as Spotfire, Business Objects, Cognos, Tableau, et al

* Experience with R, Matlab, SAS, SPSS, or a similar tool for data analysis

* Understanding of the methodologies of the major internet audience measurement firms: comScore Media Metrix, Nielsen//NetRatings, Hitwise, Quantcast, Alexa, Compete

* Basic knowledge of relational databases and SQL

* Strong willingness to contribute to a small team

Web 2.0 as a Catalyst for Corporate Change

services@supportingadvancement.com — Mon, 14 May 2007 01:26:58 GMT

Check out the following blog on Web 2.0 (Enterprise 2.0)

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Hinchcliffe/?p=105&tag=nl.e622

Can we really expect to use web 2.0 to change the way our advancement and development cultures communicate?

Although most of these tools are readily available, they still don’t integrate well into out “conventional” applications.

For example, what about the “Daily Gift Blog” instead of the Daily Gift Log (a report)? The blog could allow registered users in Development to post comments on gifts, and emphasize some of the teamwork idea approach. RSS feeds would allow self subscription and empowerment.

Wikis could be good for performance reviews with comments back and forth by supervisors/employees. If we made them public to the organization and allow anonymous comments, it could all get pretty interesting and rather radical in a big hurry. We would probably be more likely to use them to develop policies and procedures.

Culture change is critical to 2.0 integration, and is the most difficult component.

Key is to remove all of the barriers. You need 1 login, integrated front and back end, and ability to integrate any of the 2.0 components into any page.

Interestingly enough, at the Senior Advancement Services Professionals conference, nobody seemed to be considering this. In one session with about 40 people, only 2 had a blog, only 1 had posted to a Wiki, and very few had profiles on any of the social networking sites etc. etc.

The current generation of “techies in charge” do not appear to be leading the charge these critical areas for the future.

The next generation may become frustrated with conventional infrastructures and architectures, and this could lead to the same kind of schism in the workplace that occurred when the balance of male/female employees shifted in the 70’s.

We need to start to be more creative and begin to deploy 2.0 technologies within our organizations.

Broken Telephone

services@supportingadvancement.com — Tue, 01 May 2007 01:26:05 GMT

School is over for the year, and summer classes begin in May. Exams are coming to a conclusion and essays and portfolios are being marked and returned to students.

Actually, “returned” isn’t the right word for how I received my photography portfolio. In reality, I embarked on a quest that was plagued with many dead ends and confused people.

The first e-mail came from my TA who said that the portfolios had been marked and were:

1. in white envelopes

2. in alphabetical order

3. in boxes

Hmmm. The campus is pretty big. Where could these “boxes” be? Well, there were three floors in the Centre for Fine Arts. It had to be on one of those floors.

On the day I was supposed to drive to campus, I received an e-mail from my professor saying that the portfolios were in the first floor photography room and we would need to call ahead to make sure someone was there. I couldn’t find a number.

When I got to campus I went to the Fine Arts building and knocked on the door where my portfolios should have been sitting behind. No Answer. I knocked again and waited and realized that even if I did have a phone number, nobody would be there to pick it up.

I walked across campus to check my final Psychology mark, got a coffee and walked back to the Fine Arts building. I was starting to feel flustered. I knocked on the door loudly. No answer. I knocked loudly once again, an exasperated, reverberating knock. As I was about to leave in defeat, the door opened. A girl stood in the doorway and I smiled, explaining that I needed to pick up a portfolio. She looked perplexed.

“There aren’t any portfolios here. They should be upstairs.” She pointed to the piece of paper on the door that said portfolios could be found upstairs.

I pointed to the bottom of the sheet. “It says portfolios for sections three, four, and five are upstairs. I’m section one. My professor told me that it was here.”

“Ok.” She let me in. I began to walk down a hallway and was met with an older man who reeked of darkroom chemicals. He looked at me like I was crazy as the girl explained to him why I was there.

“There aren’t any portfolios here,” he said, “They’ll be upstairs if anywhere.”

I left the photography lab as the two looked after me like I was out of my mind for thinking that the portfolios could ever be there and headed up stairs. Navigating down the hallways of visual arts offices brought me to my TA’s door. The lights were off and the office was empty, but outside the door were the boxes and the white envelopes and the portfolios in alphabetical order.

I grabbed mine and walked out of the Centre for Fine Arts, wondering how picking up a portfolio had become so complicated. Was I wrong in thinking that my professor told us to go to the photography lab?

No. I read the e-mail again when I got home and found out that I had followed the directions my professor e-mailed the entire class. As I eyed the white envelope on my desk I thought, ‘How much more simple it would be if we all had Facebook!’ I imagined being able to communicate with my professor and TA in an instantaneous format.

Message boards and wall postings are available in a context (you can see postings before and after you own). E-mails fail to accomplish this— giving a student like me only a pinhole view of the entire picture.

Somehow the lines of communication need to be tightened between professors and their teaching assistants and students. A closely linked network must be formed rather than a scant series of dead-end lines. There are many students who are tired of being on the receiving end of a message that was lost in translation and not corrected in time.

Office Trials and Tribulations

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sat, 21 Apr 2007 01:23:05 GMT

I’d like to speak a little bit on the experience of installing and using Office 2007.

If you haven't already installed, or tried to deploy to your users, you really want to be careful. While the upgrade process itself is fairly transparent, as with most installations of Office, your users will experience a substantial degree of frustration as they attempt to use the new products.

All those old familiar menu commands that you access with the keyboard, all those keystrokes you've memorized for the last 10 years are all slightly changed. Not have to make them impossible to figure out but just enough to make you have to think about the time.

While the ribbon bar provides a more compelling visual experience than the previous menu systems, many familiar items are initially hard to locate and while you struggle to find them your productivity is seriously impeded. I'm currently working on an RFP, a very document and spreadsheet intensive activity and as an early adopter and learning the hard way on this one.

It's important with this roll out, to really have good training and help desk support to move users through the process.

There seems to be less to functionality and more just a re-skinning of the product. It's interesting that some of the features such as Smart Art and others are still different between the different applications. For example, Smart Art in PowerPoint is different than Smart Art in Word. I don't quite understand this from both an integration standpoint and a profitability standpoint. Even with all the money Microsoft makes, and the fact that office is its cash cow, you'd think they'd want to utilize the same code even more than they already do.

It's astounding that after all this time, common tasks like working with headers and footers in Word and Excel still require different approaches. Visio 2007 and Outlook 2007 don't have the same ribbon toolbar. In fact, Visio 2007 doesn't have the ribbon toolbar. Not quite as consistent as you'd like to see.

There are some great new features: Excel can now handle many more rows than it did previously. There's also a button you can click on that eliminates duplicate rows.

I bring up the term creeping featurism's. I first learned this in a programming class years ago and it referred to the idea that software development is really part art and science, and never totally a set of well defined user requirements. Remember “Clippy”, Smart tags and other featurisms. Programs now have so many features that sometimes when I get a new version, I think I've found a new feature but it's only because I'm exploring, and quite possibly think it's new because I never used it before.

I don't use most features in most programs most of the time, and when I try to do something more advanced, I keep feeling that one could spend their whole life on one software package, and still not know how to use everything. I wonder how these complications that we run into while trying to do simple tasks add to our constant information overload.

While I'm not suggesting that we move back to the days of DOS, because I do enjoy the richer user experience, with all of its colors, sounds, ease of accessing information and everything else that we experience on a day to day basis, I think software developers need to re-focus on simplifying rather than complicating.

This also speaks to our own roles within our own shops. Our customer service approach should be to simplify our interactions with users and find solutions that truly make them more productive. Our stock in trade is complications, the buck stops here, rules and regulations and everything else that makes it tough for our customers. How are we conveying all of this to them, and how are they perceiving us in the long run?

A Big Brother Education

services@supportingadvancement.com — Sat, 14 Apr 2007 01:22:14 GMT

I like the thought of my well-rounded liberal arts education. I take courses for my major, but am not specializing my degree to the point where there isn't room for me to take a History course, a Humanities course, or a Philosophy course if I choose to do so. There is plenty of time for specialization when pursuing a master’s degree or doctorate. During the four years that it will take me to complete an Undergraduate degree, I want to discover what I love— what I hate.

When discussing the level of specialty required in an engineering program that a friend of mine is in, the question of a well-rounded education came up.

“Most engineering students are perfectly happy being in engineering courses only. They go to one of our general education classes that deals with philosophy and don’t know how to respond. They don’t understand the purpose of asking questions. They rebel against any thought outside of traditional scientific thinking.”

Is the structure of certain degree programs implemented at some colleges and universities too rigid? Are we specializing in our educational paths a little too much?

An article that mentioned the changing focus of students recently appeared in the New York Times. It stated that in the past, students went to college or university to find out for themselves what they believed in and what they liked doing. Today the focus has become one of pursing marketable job skills and thus, shirking the concept of personal growth.

As a society, we don’t want educate people to be machines, mindlessly thinking about their jobs, we want to educate people to be people.

Bill Beattie said, “The aim of education should be to teach us rather how to think, than what to think - rather to improve our minds, so as to enable us to think for ourselves, than to load the memory with thoughts of other men.”

While general education requirements often fulfill this, having to take too many general classes is not good either. Most students are smart enough that they don’t need to take Introduction to Social Science and would do much better off in a class like International Development Studies.

There is a fine balance… force is required to a certain extent.

Let’s say a general education requirement in one university is to take a Social Science or Humanities course. If this is so, then it would be best if there was a diverse selection of courses to choose from under these disciplines. It allows for the experience of studying something that isn’t a student’s major. It is necessary, because experiences— whether joyful or painful, dull or enlightening— will cause a person to grow.

My friend said, “I want to be able to squeeze a minor into my degree. I want the option of studying abroad, but if I have to spend all my time in courses for my major I can forget about growing as a person in other areas.”

The thinkers of the world are not born when they attend an institution that puts the blinders on its students, restricting the education process to one that trains us to be mindless job drones. We don’t need Big Brother, watching over our every move, dictating each step of our education; we need the chance to span out, to spin the square.

A certain degree of specialization is necessary, but sometimes our focus to get ahead, get ahead, closes the doors on opportunities to enrich all aspects of our lives and push our education to real and diverse limits.

How do we want to be challenged as students; as important people in the society of today and tomorrow? Mathematically, logically, analytically, spatially? E. All of the above and more.

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