ResearchPoint Designs - Comments

Jackie Huffman comments on What use does your organization have for mapping?

Jackie Huffman — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 18:20:21 +0000

I was at a customer site and they were using Microsoft MapPoint to map their zip code data from Patron Edge admissions to a map. They really wanted to see where the majority of their patrons came from and especially by county. The process now is export zip code data from PE to Excel. Import Excel data to MapPoint. This is a great use of a mapping tool and something users want and cannot do today.

B. Thomas, Summa Health System comments on Estimating Wealth and Giving Capacity

B. Thomas, Summa Health System — Thu, 29 May 2008 14:29:04 +0000

I find wealth indicators to be useful only in a general fashion: that is, it indicates some measure of wealth, and the actual giving capacity is usual far different from the figure or range given. What is more useful in determining capacity is looking at things like: is there a luxury car? propensity for giving (other/like organizations to whom the prospect gives)? vacation homes/real estate? On the opposite side of the coin, a second mortgage or children in college, for example, would tell me, unless this is a very wealthy individual, that this person's money is probably tied up for the time being.

Melissa Graves comments on Overall rating for a prospect or group

Melissa Graves — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 00:41:25 +0000

no and no.

David Lamb comments on Example Profile Reports

David Lamb — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:41:33 +0000

Could Nonprofit Affiliation and Private Foundations be combined into one category called Nonprofit affiliations?

David Lamb comments on Example Profile Reports

David Lamb — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 16:20:57 +0000

The first most comprehensive example is nicely formatted. You might be able to put the Overall rating in the header, leaving the space it currently uses for a picture.

There are some things that are redundant because there is redundant information in our sources. So Marketguide and Who’s Who both have biographical information. The same company is referenced in D&B, Market Guide, Thomson & Who’s Who. Just two examples. In doing the research, this redundancy is good. In profiling, less good. I know we are limited by the db structure. Nevertheless, if there was some way to take general information (like age) and put it in a general place (like an age field), that would make the profile read better.

Another improvement for the comprehensive profile would be to suppress most of the blank lines.

The second profile (the full summary) is fantastic! I think it is very usable just as it is. It eliminates the redundancies and blank lines. It is development officer friendly.

Likewise, the thumbnail summary is quite nice. The explanatory note is very useful, but requires some intervention from a researcher. Would this one stand up without the note? I think so, but we should consider other ways to summarize info. For instance, if there is no info found in a particular wealth category, take that out, and put more emphasis on connections found. For instance, concatenate the names of all the nonprofits and corporations found and put them in the note area with a label like “Affiliations:”.