Ok, so after an unimaginable hiatus, I'm back to writing. Words and ideas flowing with greater speed than a worldclass stenographer can record! Where was I for the past 9 years? Maybe the land of Oz for all I know... I would stare at that blank page (er.. screen) daring me to efface it with my thoughts an ideas only to switch to facebook and play Farmville or read MSNCB News. I would do anything BUT WRITE.
So what changed in my life? Pretty much everything: careers goals; finances; friends; family; priorities.
I have switched out of an MBA program and into a MS LIS* (Library and Information Science Degree) and love it! From the classes to the projects; from the professors to my classmates; from the associations to the opportunities. I have not been more "into" what I am doing than I am. I love information, searching for it, finding it; putting puzzle pieces of it together to make a cohesive story people can understand. Ok so what do I do?
Professionally, I'm a Prospect Researcher for a 4-year Liberal Arts University in NY. I research University alumnni, corporations, and sometimes foundations to identify potential major donors. (Basically, I'm paid to be nosey.) When I explain this at networking events/cocktail parties, I usually get one of the following: a) the cocked eyebrow quizical look; b) that glazed over blank stare that says "Huh?"; or my favorite c) "Oh! You take money from old people!" WELL I WISH I got even a 2% of the money raised through information I gathered! If only C were TRUE!
My usual explanation likens my profession to market research, where you try to match the prospect to a cause he shows interest in. It also helps to weed-out those prospects who are not philanthropically inclined, thus saving major gift officer’s valuable time and University money. Prospect Research is a little known and lesser understood profession.
The goal for this blog is two-fold:
1) help people understand what Prospect Research is all about;
2) provide tips and useful info on finding information, looking to understand information, or even analyzing data.
The blog will also be interspersed with my adventures into library and information sciences and other fun things I find on the “internets.”
* More on this in a later post. If I forget, please, please, please remind me to add a link.
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