Helen E. Brown
Helen has been a development professional since 1987. Her previous experience includes The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the Albert Einstein Institution, Boston College, the Harvard School of Public Health and Northeastern University.
Under her eight-year leadership as director of research at the Harvard School of Public Health, Helen’s innovative prospecting strategies enabled the School to reach a $125 million goal with two years left in its capital campaign. HSPH Development went on to raise an additional $55 million in that campaign.
In 2002, she founded The Helen Brown Group to help organizations in the US, UK and Europe identify new prospects and research their alumni, members and friends. Since then the company’s services have broadened to include training, on-site auditing and consulting, prospect management, screening and data mining services.
Helen is currently a member of the board of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and is past president of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA). In 2006 she received the 2006 NEDRA Ann Castle Award for service to the prospect research community.
She is Special Advisor on Fundraising to the North American Foundation for the University of Manchester, England and a member of the board of directors of Factary Ltd. (Bristol, UK). Helen is a member of NEDRA, APRA and Researchers in Fundraising (RIF), based in London.
Helen is a frequent speaker and has led seminars for a number of professional associations, including Action Planning, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), APRA, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), NEDRA, RIF and Resource Alliance.
Currently she works with a variety of clients to establish, benchmark and re-align research departments; identify major gift prospects; and train researchers and other fundraisers through on-site and web-based training services. Helen leads a talented group of experienced researchers who provide targeted, strategic information tailored to each of its client’s needs. Helen is president of ShareTraining and is also a partner in BFTConnect ContactReporter, which provides swift, automated solutions for traveling professionals to report meeting results to their office via telephone.
Valerie Anastasio
Valerie Anastasio works with nonprofit organizations on relationship management, portfolio management, prospect identification systems and development research training, with a particular focus on wealth screening and data mining, strategic planning, and fundraiser/researcher management.
Valerie’s 19 years in development spans management roles in research, operations and prospect management, volunteer management and frontline fundraising. From 1999 to August 2007, she served as the Director of Research and Prospect Development at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, working on strategy, feasibility, and donor prospecting for its unprecedented $500 million campaign (completed in June 2008), to date the largest fundraising effort for a cultural institution outside of New York. From 1996 to 1999 she was the Director of Development Research in the Harvard University Development office, managing a staff of 14 in the context of Harvard’s comprehensive $2 billion campaign (completed in 2000). Prior to Harvard, Valerie worked in frontline annual fund raising and volunteer management positions at Boston Lyric Opera, Brandeis University, and WGBH Television and Radio.
Valerie has presented locally and nationally on an array of topics including compensation practices in hedge fund and private equity industries, the strategic role of research in campaigns, and proactive prospect identification systems, for organizations such as AFP, CASE, APRA, NEDRA and the IVY/Stanford/MIT conference. She serves on the editorial advisory board of the Association for Prospect Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and is a past board member of the New England Development Research Association, from which she received, in 2008, the Ann Castle Award for distinguished service to the research profession.
Beth Bandy
Beth Bandy has more than a decade of international research experience, spanning six continents and nearly 30 countries. She has directed prospect research offices at two higher education institutions – including Amherst College, where she first became interested in international research – and has served the research needs of numerous foundations and nonprofits as a consultant. Beth now writes how-to guidebooks for international prospect
researchers and a blog covering international research news and resources. Beth holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University’s Extension School and is pursuing master’s degree in public policy and management through the University of London.
Laura Beaudet
Laura Beaudet is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Office of Development Services, serving on a team that provides research for development officers assigned to MIT’s five schools, as well as the Office of Gift Planning and the Office of Institutional Initiatives. This team also provides research on most of MIT’s International prospects. Laura Beaudet has worked at the Office of Development Services since 2006. She has an educational background in international affairs and journalism.
Bruce Berg
Bruce Berg has served as Director of Research and Prospect Management at Northeastern University since 2007. Previously, he served as Deputy Director of Research at Harvard University. A frequent industry speaker on technology issues in the development office, Bruce is also a board member of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA) and has served on the awards committee of the Association for Prospect Researchers for Advancement (APRA).
Christopher Carnie
Chris is a researcher, consultant and trainer in prospect research. He has worked in fundraising and development since 1980 and was a researcher in the House of Commons 1982-84. In 1990 he founded Factary, Europe’s leading prospect research agency. In 1993 he became the first advancement researcher to be elected a Fellow of the UK’s Institute of Fundraising, and in 1999 the first to be appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (RSA). He was Founder Chair of Researchers in Fundraising, and is a member of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement, of the Association for Research on Nonprofit Organizations and Voluntary Action (ARNOVA), of the International Society for Third-Sector Research (ISTR), and a Board Member of the Asociación Profesional de Fundraising (Spain). He is the author of Find the Funds – a New Approach to Fundraising Research, Directory of Social Change, London, 2000 and Fundraising from Europe, Chapel & York, London, 2003. Chris lives in Barcelona, Spain.
Elizabeth Crabtree
Elizabeth Crabtree is the Director of Prospect Development at Brown University where she manages a team of professionals that provide advice, counsel and analytical support that is critical to Brown’s fundraising effort, including: campaign planning and management, prospect identification and research, data mining, modeling and market research, and relationship management. Elizabeth is a member of the board of directors for the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), where she serves as Vice President of Education and Professional Development and chaired APRA’s 2005 and 2006 International Conferences. Elizabeth is a member of AFP, CASE, and NEDRA and is a frequent, nationally recognized speaker and philanthropy and nonprofit research consultant. As the founder of givingresearch.com, Elizabeth created a website to share resources, techniques and best practices related to understanding wealth, philanthropy and fundraising research. Elizabeth is a graduate of Berklee College of Music and is currently an Executive M.A. candidate in the Philanthropic Studies program at Indiana University.
Deborah L. Drucker
Deborah L. Drucker is the Director of Research at the Central Park Conservancy in New York City. She previously served as Research Manager at The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, and has held positions in prospect research, foundation relations and data management at The University of Minnesota – Twin Cities and the United Way of St. Paul. She is the current President of the Association of Prospect Researchers for Advancement of Greater New York and has been an active present for the Association of Fundraising Professional’s Fundraising Day in New York and its Fundamentals of Fundraising Course. She holds a degree in history from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
David Eberly
David Eberly has been in the fundraising profession for more than twenty-five years, dividing his time between higher education and health care. He served as Director of Research at Tufts University, Director of Development Services at the Harvard Medical School, and Director of Resource Development at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government before returning to the research field in 2003 at Children’s Hospital Boston. He has consulted to numerous hospitals and health care organizations including Beth Israel Hospital, The Cleveland Clinic, Tufts Medical Center, and the University of Chicago Medical School among others. Co-editor of Virginia Woolf and Trauma: Embodied Texts, he has become involved in the study and practice of Narrative Medicine, most recently lecturing on that topic at the University of Louisville School of Medicine.
Jay Frost
Jay Frost currently serves as Vice President at Fundraisinginfo.com, a provider of on-demand fundraising counsel and support. Before joining FRI in 2007, Jay served as the Chief Strategy Officer of WealthEngine and, immediately before, as President and CEO of Wealth ID. Previously, Jay had worked as Director of Major Gifts at the International Rescue Committee; editor and co-founder of International Philanthropy; Development Associate at Meridian International Center; and, Program Specialist at the National Endowment for the Arts. An active volunteer and trainer, Jay has served as a member of the CASE Industry Advisory Council, a past national board member and Metro DC Chapter President of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and a featured speaker at international, national, regional and local conferences and meetings. In addition to his work as editor of International Philanthropy (1993-1998), Mr. Frost has also published Winning Grant Proposals (The Taft Group, 1993) and Japanese Resources: A Guide to Information on Japanese Business and Grantmaking Activities (The Taft Group, 1991). His book chapters include: “Fundraising Country Profile: Japan” in International Fund Raising for Not-for-Profits: A Country-by-Country Profile (John Wiley & Sons, 1999) and “U.S. Philanthropy in the Asia Pacific Region” in Emerging Civil Society in the Asia Pacific Community (JCIE/ISEAS, 1995.) A graduate of the University of Michigan and the Interlochen Arts Academy, Jay lives in Northern Virginia.
Jennifer Fry
Jennifer Fry has more than fifteen years of experience in a variety of development roles and organizations. At Northwestern University, she oversees prospect research, analytics, relationship management and information management, and has led the development of a comprehensive prospect management system and ongoing prospect identification strategy, as well as successfully implemented predictive analytics, image-enabled gift processing and data visualization initiatives. Prior to Northwestern, she held development posts at the Milwaukee Art Museum and Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design, successively managing annual giving, corporate and foundation grants and sponsorship programs.
Jennifer regularly speaks on prospect development topics to regional, national and international audiences, including APRA, CASE and AASP, and has served as a guest lecturer at Columbia College and in Northwestern University’s School of Continuing Studies. She is a featured contributor to WealthEngine’s Best Practices for Prospect Research in Higher Education and Measuring Fundraising Return on Investment reports.
Martine Godefroid
Martine came to the non-profit sector with a successful track record in international finance as a Vice-President at J.P. Morgan. She was a Project Director at NEF – Network of European Foundations for Innovative Cooperation in Europe – where she was responsible for projects involving several member foundations. Martine has worked with leading foundations in Europe – including among others, the Charities Aid Foundation (UK), Fondation de France (FR), King Baudouin Foundation (BE) and Compagnia di San Paolo (IT) – for which she carried out research in new approaches to project funding and conducted feasibility studies on innovative philanthropic vehicles. Experienced in setting up partnerships and managing cross-border projects, she developed “Transnational Giving Europe” – a uniform framework allowing tax-effective cross-border giving. At Factary, Martine utilizes her business skills and experience with grant-makers to help clients with insightful strategies and effective research.
Cynthia Hetherington
Cynthia Hetherington has more than 18 years of experience in research, investigations and corporate intelligence. Formerly the leader of Aon’s Corporate Strategic Intelligence group, Cynthia is currently the principal of Hetherington Group, a competitive intelligence research firm. During her career, she has assisted a vast number of clients with Internet investigations related to employee theft and intellectual property loss, and has conducted online and database research to uncover well-hidden relations between fraudulent associates, their assets and secrets. She has experience overseeing international investigations for Fortune 500 companies and other organizations in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. She is the author of Business Background Investigations: Tools and Techniques for Solution-Driven Due Diligence (2nd ed. 2010), The Manual to Online Public Records (2nd ed. 2010) and the Data2know.com: Internet & Online Intelligence Newsletter, now in its 10th year of publication.
Cecilia Hogan
Cecilia Hogan has led the development research effort at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington, for more than 13 years. She is the international editor for Internet Prospector, an electronic newsletter and Web site reviewing Internet resources for development researchers. She is a former president of the Northwest chapter of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) and served on the APRA International Board of Directors from 1999-2002. In the latter role she managed APRA’s professional journal, APRA Connections. She received APRA’s Distinguished Service award in 2004. Cecilia is the author of Prospect Research: A Primer for Growing Nonprofits (2007, 2nd edition: Jones & Bartlett Publishers).
Karen Isble
Karen Isble oversees prospect management, research and analytics for the University of Michigan’s 500-member development community. Since 2009, she has also led business process design for the University’s enterprise development software implementation project. She has held previous positions in prospect research and arts administration with the Chamber Music Society of Detroit, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Goodman Theatre. Currently serving as treasurer on APRA’s board of directors, Karen has previously served on the board of APRA-Michigan and is a former vice president of APRA’s Illinois chapter. She has presented at conferences for APRA, CASE V, APRA-IL, and AFP-West Michigan. Karen holds a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s from Harvard University.
Vicki Law
Vicki Law is a member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Office of Development Services, serving on a team that provides research for development officers assigned to MIT’s five schools, as well as the Office of Gift Planning and the Office of Institutional Initiatives. This team also provides research on most of MIT’s International prospects. Prior to joining MIT in 2007, Vicki Law was a corporate business library manager and information specialist for many years. She has worked for several major consulting firms including Ernst & Young, Deloitte & Touche, and Adventis.
Michelle Leder
Michelle Leder first became interested in SEC filings early in her career, while writing about a small Florida bank that was engaged in aggressive accounting during the last real estate boom. As a reporter, and later editor, she spent 10 years at daily newspapers in Florida, Connecticut and New York. As a freelance business journalist, her work has appeared in BusinessWeek, The New York Times, Portfolio and Slate, among others. Leder has appeared on Bloomberg TV, CNBC, the Today Show and has been quoted in dozens of newspapers both in the US and abroad. Financial Fine Print (John Wiley & Sons, 2003) is her first book. She holds a degree in Economics from Brandeis University.
Dan Lowman
Dan Lowman is senior vice president, philanthropic analytics, at Grenzebach Glier & Associates, a leading fundraising consultancy. Since joining GG+A in 2000, Dan has worked with hundreds of clients to enhance their prospect management, prospect identification, and campaign planning. Dan is also one of the nation’s best-known experts on grateful patient fundraising.
Tara D. McMullen
Tara McMullen is a senior research analyst at MIT where she focuses on leadership giving prospects in the metropolitan areas of New York, Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Chicago, Minneapolis-Saint Paul, and Detroit as part of three regional teams, and also provides ongoing special support to MIT’s Executive Director of Development. She previously served as a Research Associate and ShareTraining Coordinator for The Helen Brown Group and as Assistant Director of Prospect Research at Simmons College in Boston. Tara is currently on the board of directors of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA), for which she serves as secretary, and a member of the Membership Committee of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA). A graduate of Smith College, she has worked in development since 2002.
Jill Meister
Jill Meister is the Director of Research at the Williston Northampton School in Massachusetts. She is the current president of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA) and served as NEDRA’s 2006 Conference Co-Chair. She is the former Assistant Director/Manager Research Services, Prospect Development at Brown University.
Jeffrey Ouellette
Jeffrey Ouellette joined the Office of Prospect Research at Brown University in July 2003. He served previously as Volunteer Engagement Coordinator in the Office of International Advancement. He is currently a Senior Research Analyst. Prior to joining Brown University, Mr. Ouellette served as General Manager of Pacific Opera Victoria in British Columbia, and in the areas of development and artistic administration at New York City Opera, the New York Philharmonic and Florida Grand Opera.
Marianne Pelletier
Marianne Pelletier, CFRE has been in the fundraising field since 1988, when she joined the research team at Harvard’s University Development Office. She has served as a researcher for Harvard and Lesley University, and as Director of Advancement Research at Carnegie Mellon University. She is currently Director of Advancement Research and Data Support for Cornell University. Pelletier has served as Director of Annual Giving and Development Services for Southern New Hampshire University. She also worked with Datatel’s clients on the Benefactor product and process improvement. She has a bachelor’s degree from Rockford College and an MBA from Southern New Hampshire University, and is president of APRA’s Upstate New York chapter, and newsletter editor of her local hand spinning guild.
Christina Pulawski
Christina Pulawski is an independent consultant specializing in development research, prospect management and information flow for fund raising. Previously, she was Director of Development and Donor Services at Loyola University Chicago, overseeing the areas of research, prospect management, data management, systems, and stewardship. Prior to joining Loyola, she was Director of Development Research at Northwestern University from 1994-2003, which earned “top research shop” distinction under her direction. A Chicago native, Christina earned a BA in Political Science from Northwestern and a JD from the University of Illinois. She is admitted to practice in Illinois and practiced in the fields of real estate and litigation before taking the opportunity to explore development in 1991.
Christina completed a six-year term on the board of the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA), serving as Vice President for Education and Professional Development and Secretary-Treasurer. She chaired APRA’s International Conferences in 1999, 2001 and 2002, developed APRA’s Boot Camp and other symposia, and received the organization’s Distinguished Service Award in 2005. She has also served as President of APRA’s Illinois Chapter. She co-chaired CASE’s 1999 and 2000 Development Researcher conferences, earned CASE “faculty star” distinction several times, and has frequently published, presented, and consulted on the field of prospect research and advancement services for APRA, CASE, Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, AFP, other public and private organizations and non-profit education and management programs.
Heather Reisz
Heather Reisz is the Director of Research and Prospect Development at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Previously, she ran the research program at the Museum of Science in Boston and was a researcher at Northeastern University and the San Francisco Jazz Festival. She began her career in fundraising as a grant writer for the AIDS Memorial Quilt in San Francisco. Heather is a former board member of NEDRA. She is a frequent speaker and has presented sessions at APRA, NEDRA, and AFP events.
Joey Sample
Prior to joining Northeastern University, Joey Sample worked for Simmons College as the Corporate and Foundation Relations Officer, where he was responsible for creating and implementing a comprehensive research program for corporate and foundation prospects. Before he was a researcher, Joey spent several years in the non-profit sector, serving in both stewardship and proposal writing roles for Gay Men’s Health Crisis, The Damien Center, Indiana University School of Medicine and Planned Parenthood. A member of the Client Advisory Board for Metasoft Systems, Inc. (producers of FoundationSearch), Joey is also active in the prospect research community through his affiliations with the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA) and the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA).
Eric Siegel
Eric Siegel has served in senior advancement services capacities for both large and small universities and has worked on the for-profit side of the non-profit industry at JSI FundRaising Systems and Kintera, Inc. Eric is a frequent speaker at professional conferences and is a recipient of the Association of Prospect Research for Advancement’s annual service award.
Marlisa Simonson
Marlisa Simonson is Director of Development Research at Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. She is also a board member of the New England Development Research Association (NEDRA) and the Green Street Arts Center. Prior to becoming Director in June 2007, Marlisa had spent ten years in Career Services, most recently at Wesleyan and previously at Middlebury College, her alma mater. She has a Master’s degree in Organizational Management from the University of Phoenix-Online.
Michele Whitney
Michele is Director of Donor Data, Research & Analytics at the Robin Hood in New York City, where she leads several teams responsible for supporting data driven decision-making within the fundraising department. Robin Hood raises $150 million in grant-making funds each year, primarily from the hedge fund and investment banking sectors, and applies investment principles to charitable giving, supporting 240 of the most effective poverty-fighting programs in New York City.
Before joining Robin Hood in 2008, Michele helped lead the 17-person Prospect Research department at Yale University, where she started in 2001. Michele is a frequent speaker at APRA events, and was a member of the 2010 APRA Conference Curriculum Committee, programming the Trends and Data Analytics tracks. Before getting started in fundraising work, Michele was a Community Producer for Hothouse Interactive in Sydney, Australia, where she built websites and managed online communities. She has a degree from Smith College.