This week the blog belongs to Angie Herrington, who is one of the most resourceful research professionals I know. “Resourceful” in two ways – because not only does Angie always have a great stack of resources in her back pocket, she is the undisputed magnet on our whole team for the most complicated/obscure prospect research assignments, and that has made her very canny. We’re all very lucky to have Angie sharing her resources this week on her new favorite topic – international research. ~Helen
Angie Herrington
My supervisor: “We have a new client you’ll be working with, and they want to focus only on international research.”
Me: …
Me: …
Me: Sounds great!
The past year has been a travelogue through six continents (sorry Antarctica) and 26 countries. I began with a severe case of imposter syndrome but within a few weeks realized I loved doing international research! In the past my initial reaction was always “where do I even start” or “I’m never going to find anything.” I now look forward to the challenge and creative ways to approach finding actual substantive information to help my client.
The thing about international research is you can’t rely on databases to do the work for you. Channel your prospect research ancestors who looked at primary sources like phone directories and business registries. You have to jump off the modern and well-paved path that’s become a push of a button with data aggregators and start putting together clues to build a picture. Even if you only have a name and a city, the odds are still in your favor you can find something helpful.
Corporate Directories
Corporate directories can be the key to your success when you don’t have information from your database or LinkedIn to rely on for biographical information.
First search to see if the country has a government corporate registry database similar to the U.S.’s individual Secretary of State offices. Examples include the U.K.’s Companies House, the Australian Business Register, or Switzerland’s Central Business Name Index.
There are several sites with varying levels of information searchable by an entity or company’s name. Although some require a subscription, most provide basic details for free. Be sure to use more than one source to verify its accuracy.
- B2BHint – search over 100 jurisdictions
- Dato Capital – search companies and officers for 14 countries
- Infobel – covers 73 countries from 300 telephone subscribers and 270 million businesses
- Infoclipper – search companies in over 200 countries
- Kompass – search companies in 70 countries
- North Data – search companies and officers for 18 countries
- OpenCorporates – search companies and officers in over 140 jurisdictions
- OCCRP ID (The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a partner with the ICIJ) – search 181 countries for links to corporate and director databases, stock exchanges, land, legal sites, and more
By using a combination of these sources, you might find incorporation and dissolution dates, addresses, directors, and business descriptions. Look for patterns:
- Names or addresses connected to other companies or people
- An address might be their residence
- Family members who are also part of the company
- Several sites let you search by a director’s name, and you’ll find current or past employers or board affiliations
Real Estate
Even if you don’t have an exact address, you can still provide an estimate based on the general area, neighborhood, city, or province they might live. Start your search with the full address and based on what you find work backwards by removing the house number, street name, and so on until you can get a sense of the price range, reputation for highly sought after areas, and other indicators. Don’t expect to find exact home values but you can give estimated ranges which are enough to determine wealth, lifestyle, and an initial estimated capacity.
Examples include:
- Switzerland is one of my favorite countries to research because of its easy to find real estate, even down to the exact address. I’ve had a lot of success with ch, a phone and address directory to find or verify a person’s most up to date home address or phone number. RealAdvisor lets you search homes, rentals, and provides the median value for homes in a postal code. Another good one is immobilier.ch.
- Idealista Spain, Idealista Italy, and Idealista Portugal are frequently compared to Zillow.
- Area guides like the UAE’s Bayut also provide details about districts, neighborhoods, and communities including price ranges, amenities, and other valuable information to consider. Area guides and expat discussion boards give some of the best information about where your prospect lives.
- It’s important to understand address formats. For example, knowing which of the 12 administrative districts in Taipei or the postal code in Bangladesh can help you narrow down neighborhoods and districts to find a range of sales prices.
Bits and Bobs
- Bookmark the HBG Prospect Research Links Library for more resources, including due diligence, salary and compensation, and global privacy laws.
- It’s possible the person you’re researching has lived or attended school in the U.S. If you have a subscription to Lexis Nexis for Development Professionals search for current or previously owned homes, family connections, professional licenses, and more. Always use the Advanced Search feature for potential business connections and contact information, biographical details, articles, and due diligence checks for red flags.
- If you have a subscription to iWave PRO search under the individual’s name AND company. Although the charitable donation amount is shown in USD, double check the provided donor report source or search for one externally. The gift amount from the annual report is usually in the home country’s currency, and you’ll need to convert it.
- Remember naming conventions can vary and will affect your search results
- Research the cost of living, especially for putting real estate and compensation in context
- Search expat websites, travel websites, and similar resources to find the insider information about neighborhoods, income, and culture
- Copy and paste full text into Google Translate
- Add a translation extension to your web browser
- Create a spreadsheet of all of your go-to bookmarks and share them with your coworkers. I’ve collected over 200 bookmarks and organized them by country, type of resource, name/description, and URL.
When it comes to international research it’s important to manage everyone’s expectations. You’re inferring wealth based on pieces of information that might give you a ballpark capacity for your gift officer to further evaluate and work their magic.
And finally, DO NOT forget that prospects in countries in the European Union fall under GDPR and prospects in the UK fall under the very-similar Data Protection Act. Worldwide privacy laws are always evolving including within the U.S. See HBG’s Michele Borucki’s Data Privacy: Where We’ve been and Where We are Going and Jessica Woodbridge’s Data Privacy (Part 2): Practical Tips and Better Practices for additional information.
