Happy new year friends and followers! We hope you’ve had a lovely holiday period with your family and loved ones.
As 2015 kicks off, we hope you’re all raring to go. We’ve got some awesome plans for the year and we can’t wait to share them with you. Follow us on Twitter and watch this space to keep up to date with everything as soon as it happens!
Over the past few weeks we’ve noticed a lot of chatter about the legality of scrubbing the web for data. This issue has been shrouded in too much ambiguity and confusion, so we thought it was about time to clear everything up – at least when it comes to how our team works.
What is web scraping?
Web scraping is the process of gathering data from websites, usually via a program that emulates the human behavior of finding information on the web. It’s useful because it helps translate a lot of unstructured data that’s available on the web into useful information that can be stored and/or analyzed.
Here’s why we’re all a little confused
We exist in the age of social media and, as a result, more and more people are choosing to make information about themselves available on social media platforms. These platforms – e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook etc. – typically require you to register and log in before accessing the data they contain. Their data is restricted, and logging in to export data from these platforms is usually a violation of their terms of service.
So far so simple.
The confusion tends to arise when you consider that, in some cases, certain social media profiles are in fact available via search engines – whether you’re logged into the platform in question or not. This is when people become – understandably – concerned that the data, despite its visibility, is also restricted.
Here’s how we can clear things up
When we first began developing our profile service, we knew the public web represented a vast resource of data that could prove invaluable to our customers. We also knew to effectively use that resource we had to fully understand all the issues involved in gathering the data. So we put together a team to conduct extensive research into all the nitty gritty details so we could become fully educated on the issues at hand.
And, here’s why you don’t have to worry
The services we provide have been developed considering every detail that our team discovered. We’ve worked very hard to ensure our methods are 100% legitimate by focusing entirely on the “public web.”
So what does that mean exactly? When we say we pull information from the “public web” we mean the part of the web which is indexed and made available via search engines – the data that is readily available without registering for or logging into any websites. In the specific case of our profile service, we are referring to the data individual users of social media platforms have actively chosen to make public.
This choice makes the entire issue wholly transparent. When a user chooses to make their profile public, they are deciding not to restrict their data to the platform they are using, choosing instead to share it with the wider web via search engines.
Once the data is made public in this way, we have the right to gather it without ever approaching any legal “gray areas” – thus ensuring you can use our services without any concerns at all.
A university’s alumni is one of its biggest assets. An alumni pool brings with it word-of-mouth references, potential donations, and potential connections to some of the most powerful people in the world. Occasionally your alumni may even be a part of that elite group of powerful and influential people.
However, what about the rest? The alumni who are incredibly successful but less public. Do you have a strategy for keeping them engaged? Do you know why you should?
Here’s why your relationships with your alumni matter.
When was the last time a former acquaintance you haven’t heard from in years reached out to you and asked how you were and then, after some token small talk, asked you for some money or a huge favor? Were you inclined to grant them their wish? I’m guessing not.
The same goes for your alumni. When a school neglects its alumni and reaches for donations, seemingly out of the blue, chances are that the school will either get a negative response or none at all! So maintaining links with alumni is crucial before asking anything of them.
Okay, you accept that alumni relationships matter—what does employment data have to do with it?
How do you keep track of the ever-changing groups of students who pass through your institution? How do you reach out to the ones who have slipped through over the years?
The most efficient answer is employment data. By gathering information on their current and past employment roles, Universities can not only receive insight into what their alumni are doing, they can get a sense of what really matters to their alumni now. By finding out their interests and the companies they’ve been working for, you can focus your strategies for reconnecting with alumni by concentrating on each person’s unique profile and interests.
The result? A new pool of prospective donors who are going to be far more inclined to donate to their alma mater.
Right, you’re on board—employment data is the answer! But how is that going to help you contact them?
To many, the most obvious solution seems to be an email address or phone number—and if you can gather that information along with employment data, you might think you’ve struck gold. Well, we think there’s an even better option.
Many alums—particularly the successful ones—are constantly being approached over email or phone by any number of people. They might not notice your attempts to get in touch or—at worst—they might see such direct solicitation as too invasive.
Connecting to them via profiles on public websites (e.g., LinkedIn), however, represents a far more welcome and comfortable form of communication. They won’t delete the email because they think it’s spam or ignore a call because they think it’s a cold call. Social media is “social” by its nature, and because of this, approaches through social media tend to be much more likely to gain a positive response.
Great, you got it. So now you have to gather employment data AND social media info? How?
In short, you ask for help. Many services out there can help you collect the employment data you need. Some—such as Prospect Visual’s service—even include URLs for free as part of any employment append package and offer special prices to educational institutions.
So if you’re ready to build those alumni profiles, what are you waiting for? Use the form below to get a sample file of your own alumni or get in touch with us to find out more!
DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE FILE OF YOUR OWN ALUMNI
If you’d like to make an inquiry about our Append / Alumni Profiling service or would like to download a free sample file of your own alumni please use the form below to make your request.
Is your nonprofit using YouTube? If not, you should be!
The success of the ALS Ice Bucket challenge highlighted – among many things – the power of social media to help nonprofit fundraising. YouTube gets more than 1 billion unique users each month and, according to Nielsen, YouTube reaches more US adults aged 18-34 than any cable network.
What this means is that YouTube represents a great avenue for nonprofits to spread their message. There’s even a published playbook that the company has put out in order to help nonprofits make the most of the video channel.
And to help make it even easier to turn views into donations they’ve added this handy donate button seen below in a snapshot of The Nature Conservancy’s YouTube page.
Technology is making it easier and easier for nonprofits to connect to the masses and generate small gifts. Of course connections to the masses aren’t enough – but advances in technology have also produced relationship mapping services, such as Prospect Visual, which allow nonprofits to connect with the more niche groups of high capacity, potential major gift donors.
“Donations from individuals are already an important source of income for the voluntary sector — making up nearly 22% of income in 2011/2012. And this funding is particularly valuable because ittends to be flexible and unrestricted. We know that older people currently give more, so charities could enjoy a funding bonanza as the baby boomers retire with more access to financial resources and even greater potential to give both during their lives and after death.”
– Susie Rabin, Project Manager, Commission on the Voluntary Sector & Ageing
– Dinah McKenzie, Senior Consultant and Ria Bowler, Communications Manager, NPC
Ben Roethlisberger, star quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and his wife Ashley will donate a cool million dollars to Roethlisberger’s alma mater. The gift is to go towards the school’s indoor sports center and in honor of the gift, the 120-yard field inside will be now be called “Ben Roethlisberger Field.
Miami athletics director David Sayler said, “This gift continues our vision to make a difference in the lives of our student-athletes and that includes winning MAC Championships. I am thankful that both Ben and Ashley share in that same vision.”
The donation is the latest in a trend of notable alumni making large gifts to their former schools and reiterates the need for fundraising and development teams to focus on building and maintaining close relationships with their students, during and after their time at their schools. To ensure that your team is doing everything possible to cultivate relationships with your alumni, ensure that you have their most up-to-date employment information on hand and register for a relationship mapping service such as Prospect Visual to help you identify how you can reach out to them.
University of Tampa has received one of the largest gifts in the school’s history from Howard and Patricia Jenkins. In honor of the donation, there will be a residence hall named after the Jenkins couple at the University of Tampa. The 11-story West Kennedy Hall, which was completed in August 2013 and houses 528 students will be re-named the Jenkins Hall.
The Donors
Howard Jenkins, serves on the executive committee of University of Tampa’s Board of trustees and chairs the board’s planning committee. Mr. Jenkins also serves as the Chairman and President of Jenkins Clinic, Inc. He started his career with Publix Super Markets in 1966 and served as its CEO since 2001.
Patricia Jenkins founded Apollo Environmental Inc. ,which specializes in hazardous materials consulting and analysis, expert witness testimony and regulatory compliance.
Howard and Patricia Jenkins have made some significant impacts on so many cultural and educational areas in Tampa Bay, and University of Tampa is pleased to welcome the couple to the UT community according to the university president Ronald L. Vaughn.
The Relationships
For insight into the relationships which may have been the catalyst behind the gift, see this connections report from Prospect Visual to see who may have acted as an influencer for UT.
Selling part of your company is a lot like seeing your child walk off to their first day of kindergarten and start a life without you. It’s an important moment, a time for reflection — and a little terrifying.
Finding and then attracting the right investor can feel impossible, especially if it’s your first time raising capital…
Leverage your network. To begin the process, you’ll want to look to the people closest to you. Your circle often turns out to be a lot larger than you think when you add in your alumni networks, colleagues, relatives, clients and social media connections. Look for people who are involved in investments or have started companies themselves. Start the process of reaching out to them for ideas. If you don’t already, start having regular lunches and coffees with old friends and colleagues.
– Miles Jennings, “Next-Level Networking” via The Accelerators. (Read Original Article here)
Eli and Edythe Broad of the eponymous College of Business at Michigan State University surprised and delighted students and officials alike last weekend with the announcement of a $25 million “challenge donation” to kickstart a $1.5 billion fundraising goal which the institution hopes to achieve by the end of 2018.
Eli Broad is the architect of two Fortune 500 companies – KB Home and SunAmerica – and is a long time friend of the school. His connection with the institution is obvious in the name of the Business school and confirmed by the relationship report below, provided by Prospect Visual.
Proof yet again that an organization’s largest donors tend to be those who have strong relationships with them.
If you’re interested in finding out which prospective donors are most likely to become your donors, use relationship mapping to investigate which ones have strong connections to your institution. Contact the Prospect Visual team for a free demo to find out more.
– Tatia Zuloaga, Director of Sales & Marketing via www.prospectvisual.com
DOWNLOAD A FREE SAMPLE FILE OF YOUR OWN ALUMNI
If you’d like to make an inquiry about our Append / Alumni Profiling service or would like to download a free sample file of your own alumni please use the form below to make your request.
The Relationship Mapping Blog 