A Researcher’s Diary

A Researcher's Diary A Research’s Diary provides creatively and thoughtfully written content on prospect research, and fundraising.

Ohhh I am excited about this series, dear diary readers! Are you in need of some professional development?
Make sure to check out the February post #prospectdevelopment

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Cultivation Cases and Prospect Strategies — A Researcher's Diary Happy New Year! I want to focus today’s entry on familiar types of prospects. How many of us have had prospects dwelling in the depths of the cultivation stage for over two or three years? We’ve held ...

Let’s talk: Cultivation Cases and Prospect Strategies #prospectdevelopment

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The Battle of Your Strategies

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Prospect Development Favorite Things

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Takeaways from Apra Illinois’ Fall Symposium 2025

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Storytime and Lessons: The Unratable Prospect

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Happy New Year, Readers! 2025 was filled with great Diary entries. Here are the top 6:

Closing the Loop on Information Sharing

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The Hustle and Bustle of Prospecting

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Poem: The Power of a Name — A Researcher's Diary Here is another installment in one of my favorite series – Seasonal Poems. Today, I share with you a poem about the relatable struggle of verifying names, for example, when the prospect uses variation...

Seasonal Poem: The Power of a Name
#prospectresearch

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Adding an excerpt called Peace from #reading #Poems to the Men I’ve Loved #poetry #booksky
a.co/d/4tMrACP

Takeaways from Family Offices 101: What They Are and How They Manage Wealth — A Researcher's Diary On November 4, 2025, I attended a professional development session led by the Jennifer Filla, President of Aspire Research Group, and CEO of Prospect Research Institute. The session was presented and ...

Important 👉🏾 Takeaways from Family Offices 101: What They Are and How They Manage Wealth #prospectresearch

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Current books in rotation for the Readers out there-

(1) Poems to the Men I’ve Loved #poetry #poetrycommunity

a.co/d/4tMrACP

(2) What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing
#psychology

a.co/d/6R86TnQ

Prospect Development Favorite Things — A Researcher's Diary I want to share some of my favorite prospect development resources, free and paid tools. It is not an exhaustive list, but it does include resources that I rely on, on a daily basis. Many of you like ...

Dear Diary Readers- Here are a few of of my favorites things…

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Takeaways from Apra-Illinois’ Fall Symposium 2025 — A Researcher's Diary On September 12, 2025, I attended Apra-Illinois’ Fall Symposium at DePaul University. For today’s Diary entry I want to share some takeaways from each session. The morning started with refreshments an...

Did you miss this recent professional development opportunity? Here’s a recap of Apra-Illinois’ Fall Symposium 2025

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The Battle of Your Strategies — A Researcher's Diary Today, I want to focus on strategies and goal-setting– long term versus short term. Together, we are going to complete an exercise that creates and assess opportunities. The baseline is intentionality...

Diary Readers, complete a similar exercise with me - Read The Battle of Your Strategies

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What’s Keeping Higher Ed Fundraisers Up at Night? It’s an inherently stressful job, and one made all the more anxiety-inducing in recent years. We delved into a survey of advancement professionals to get a sense of how the work is evolving.

@InsidePhilanthr article, “What’s Keeping Higher Ed Fundraisers Up at Night?” has helped me realize a stronger presence and relationship with a prospect research and management professional and a data analytics professional would really help! Great read!

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Closing the Loop on Information Sharing — A Researcher's Diary Today, I want to share an interview on data integrity and information sharing. Ilana Blum is a professional focused on due diligence at Brown University. As a prospect researcher, I have learned so mu...

“To your point on art and science, I think the most challenging part of working in due diligence is to separate your personal feelings or perspective from what would be considered legally, ethically, or reputationally risky for your institution.”

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A Researcher's Diary - 100th Blog Post — A Researcher's Diary I would like to dedicate today’s entry to you, my reader. Today’s entry marks 100 blog posts. Since 2017, I’ve been writing for A Researcher’s Diary, and publishing on the 15th of every month. Here we...

Dear Diary,

100 blog posts 🎊🎉 Thank you!! #prospectresearch

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The Hustle and Bustle of Prospecting — A Researcher's Diary In the midst, my prospect research mind thought of the weeding exercises of prospecting through my database, through lists gathered from various sources, exported screening results, and potential pros...

The Hustle and Bustle of Prospecting #prospectresearch

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Shifting Industries: From Corporate to Philanthropy — A Researcher's Diary Today’s entry focuses on aligning one’s mission to their work. In this moment, before reading further, ask yourself – “Am I working within my mission? Does this work make me feel part of a community o...

Considering a career shift into the #philanthropic industry?

Here’s a great read: www.aresearchersdiary.com/home/shiftin...

The Flowing Activities Within a Portfolio — A Researcher's Diary For those that work in prospect management, I would love to brainstorm the structure of portfolios. I’ve been working on how portfolios are structured, from what I’ve learned from other shops to what ...

A new Diary entry 👇🏾

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3) The Honeymoon by Rona Halsall - not yet started to read this one so I can share more at a later date.
#fiction #ReadingCommunity

Happy reading!

2) Poems to the Men I’ve Loved by Joanne M. Heartly - an interesting collection of poems and photography by an author about romantic relationships

#poetry

Dear Readers,

I haven’t shared my current read list in a long time so I thought why not now.

1) Start With Why by Simon Sinek - an interesting read on how great leaders inspire and pull on their “why” to transform brands and create communities

#nonfiction #booklover #readers

Storytime and Lessons: The Unratable Prospect — A Researcher's Diary Following my previous story time about a prospect with a limited digital footprint, I thought I would share of a story (and there have been several over my years) when I came across a prospect that co...

Dear Diary Readers - I’m curious if this is a situation you can relate to?

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Setting a Tone for the New Year — A Researcher's Diary First, I want to acknowledge the difficulties and tragedies occurring around the world as we enter a new year. 2025 is full of unknowns and yet, history has shown us how to hold on to our values and e...

New year, new troubles, new processes, new opportunities, new tone -
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Download Ready: Prospect Engagement & Development Resources — A Researcher's Diary Dear Diary, I am thrilled to share the following content (Donor Stages & Relationship Report) with everyone, free, and ready for download! Enjoy, leave a comment, or message me directly. Until next...

(5/5)

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The Case of the Mature Portfolio — A Researcher's Diary I would like to tell you of the time I had to dissolve a mature portfolio, redistribute, and recreate fragments of it for a new major gift fundraiser. Let’s start with some guiding definitions: A matu...

(4/5)

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Helpful Excel Charts for Prospect Development — A Researcher's Diary This month I want to talk about Excel and my basic use of the tool to transform information and visualize data.  My journey with Excel began when I had the urge to better visualize activities in my f...

(3/5)

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The Introduction to Philanthropy — A Researcher's Diary I am excited to begin 2024 with a discussion on how we, nonprofit professionals, can better understand, learn, and acknowledge our role in introducing philanthropy to new and curious prospects; in add...

(2/5)

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The Not-So-Secret Thoughts of a Prospect Researcher — A Researcher's Diary Today, I want us to take some time to unpack several shared research experiences and see how we can reimagine and advance practical solutions. As colleagues, I hope our not-so-secret experiences can e...

Happy New Year Diary Readers!
2024 recap - here are the top 5 blog posts you all enjoyed! Make sure to subscribe to the blog for more content in this new year!

(1/5)

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Philanthropy Awards, 2024 As we bid farewell to 2024, we present this year's awards commemorating philanthropy's highs and lows: The 2024 IPPYs!

Readers, check out this great article, and award recipients. Love the creativity and thoughtfulness by @insidephilanthropy.com

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A Researcher's Diary A Research’s Diary provides creatively and thoughtfully written content on prospect research, and fundraising.

Ecstatic to join Blue Sky and connect with other prospect research professionals and fundraisers!

Make sure to check out my Blog -
www.aresearchersdiary.com