Continuing our celebration of Research Pride, for today’s article Senior Consultant Jayme Klein polled her colleagues at HBG to find out what made them most proud in the past year, and the trends they’re following for the year to come. ~Helen
by Jayme Klein, Senior Consultant
Jayme Klein
Happy Research Pride Month!
While our work is something to be celebrated year-round, we want to share what the HBG team was most proud of in the past year. For some of us, it was sharing in the accomplishments of our clients. For others, it was a new skill or resource that made our work that much easier. In any circumstance, a person’s pride in their work affects the quality of their work, and what we do is something to be proud of!
I surveyed my teammates on a variety of questions, and here’s what they had to say.
What made you proud at HBG this past year?
As always, our clients are the focus of our work. Many on the team were proud of the discoveries that they assisted with during the year, including someone who found that “helping clients find $1M donors in their new donor pool” was a highlight of their year. Sometimes, geography was key, such as a team member who was “most proud of expanding my international prospect research skills and finding new resources to add to my international prospect research toolkit.”
In addition to research work, the HBG team assists our clients in other ways, including portfolio reviews, analytics, helping with resources and technology, and strategizing regarding new prospects, amongst other tasks. For example, one of my teammates said, “My client contact was tasked with building new portfolios for gift officers. After a conversation I proactively offered to assist and was able to take a lot of pressure off of her shoulders.”
Often, database integration can be stressful or overwhelming. Brainstorming about best practices is a wonderful teambuilding experience and has helped us bond with our client contacts. “I began to work with a new client this year and am proud that I helped them adapt to departmental changes and new requests. My existing client and I have worked together to make their Salesforce integration work for them (and me!).”
Profiles are often a large part of what we do, but our project work is also very important. A teammate noted that they assisted with “a very large, very complicated project for a beloved dedicated client that is not assigned to me. It was such a wonderful collaborative learning experience, and I was so glad I could make HBG and their assigned consultant proud.”
Another felt the proudest that they were able to “course-correct a client project that looked like it was going sideways.” Being able to step in and assist when our clients need help is a source of joy for us. We can also cast a fresh perspective on something that may not seem obvious from “inside” of an organization. “I completed a private foundation prospecting project for a client and was pleased to uncover several promising prospects. They recently restructured their gift officers to align with geographic regions. Capitalizing on this new regional strategy, I identified funders with specialized interests in specific areas. An additional benefit of this project was the establishment of new relationships facilitated by the gift officers’ networking efforts with these locally based foundations.”
I can speak personally of the fact that while you’re working on these larger assignments, it is sometimes hard to see the big picture or an outcome. However, one of our clients reached their annual goal and another secured two $10M gifts thanks to the help of our team this year! Another team member did 1,000+ capacity ratings. All of us share the feeling of one teammate, who noted that “I love knowing that my research assisted my client in creating successful ask amounts.”
Just as our clients vary, so does the nature of our work. One of us that primarily researches international prospects “quickly learned it’s not as scary or impossible as we think…. [with] a few more steps and a little creativity… it’s satisfying when you put the pieces together and provide valuable capacity and biographical information for your client.”
Professional development is often on our minds at HBG. Several of us serve on committees, including one of us, who enjoyed their “work on the Apra NW’s mentorship and awards/PD programs which included matching some new mentees with mentors and handing out scholarships to deserving members.” For another colleague, “joining an Apra International community and meeting new people” was a highlight of their year.
Learning new workflow skills has made one colleague’s day-to-day easier. “I developed and strengthened project management skills – from simultaneously managing multiple portfolio management needs to completing competing research requests to relationship management with my fundraisers.”
Each team member contributes a blog post to The Intelligent Edge each year, and it was a standout experience for my colleague who said: “I am proud of my blog post… I wrote about a personal experience and related it to our profession, and I was very pleased with how it turned out. I really enjoyed writing it.”
We were lucky to welcome several new team members this year, who were proud of their skills and new roles at HBG. Said one new team member: “I completed my first year as a full time consultant–a year full of challenges professionally and personally. Looking back, I am proud of all that I have learned over the past year–areas that once intimidated me no longer do and I look forward to building more confidence in the year ahead.”
What are you most excited for in the year ahead? What will give us something to talk about next year?
Many of us are especially excited for our annual get together at a professional conference. This year, we’ll be gathering at NEDRA in New Haven, CT. It is an amazing opportunity to advance your career, meet others in our field (especially if you are in a small shop) and learn from your peers.
Others are interested in some of the topics and trends that we saw gathering steam at the end of 2023.
Privacy and compliance issues:
“I am most interested in seeing what lies ahead for data compliance, especially as it relates to the nonprofit world. There is an influx of information everywhere we turn, and as new rules and regulations come about, it is more important than ever to stay abreast of these changes.”
“Really interested in what will happen once some of the state privacy laws go into effect and the resolution of the antitrust lawsuits against big tech companies – it could change a lot about how we search for info.”
AI:
“I think artificial intelligence and its role in our professional and personal lives will be a topic to watch in the future.”
“I’m interested in where AI is going with regards to research. I’m excited and nervous about it all at the same time. I hope that it makes us smarter and work more efficiently and doesn’t bombard us with needless extraneous or false information.”
Financials:
“I think a trend that is coming back around and will be fun and challenging to learn more about will be crypto and how organizations are using it to fund programs and initiatives. “
“I am looking forward to increasing my knowledge of stock and financial documents.”
Donor-advised funds:
“I’m excited for DAFinitive® and also for the time everyone on the team puts into finding/vetting new resources.”
“Seeing if DAF trends change with proposed legislations and learning more about the DAF world!”
“I am excited to see how the transfer of wealth impacts philanthropy. I am interested in trends in impact investing.”
As you can see, there was a wide array of things that people were proud of this year at the Helen Brown Group! As the author of this post, it was a treat to read my colleagues’ responses and see all of the wonderful things that we have accomplished. Although fundraising research sometimes flies under the radar, it is important to remember that our work has real outcomes for the people and organizations that we work with every day. These small acts add up to make real change in the world.
What made you proud in your work this past year? Research Pride Month is a great time to reflect on your work, your career, and what you hope to accomplish in the year ahead.
