Prospect Visual Success Story: How I turned a “mission impossible” request into actionable information My name is Cristi Hendry and I am Director of Advancement Research at Harvey Mudd College. Like many colleges outside of campaign, our major gift efforts typically yield gifts below a million. Like most prospect researchers, I am tasked with providing prospect information to move our advancement efforts forward - and sometimes other areas of the college make unusual requests

It was announced yesterday that entrepeneur and philanthropist Ming Hsieh made a quarter of a millon dollar donation to West Virginia University's forensics program. The image from Prospect Visual shows that Hsieh has some strong relationships with individuals at WVU. He has also established two professorships at the school and received an honorary doctorate of science from them in 2012. All of the above combined with the fact that Hsieh's total donations to the school now am

On Tuesday it was announced that The State University of New York's Stony Brook is directing a $3.5 million donation from New York couple, Kavita and Lalit Bahl, towards a new molecular imaging lab which will also be named in honor of the couple responsible for the endowment. According the a Press Release from the school, the Bahl Laboratory will “enable Stony Brook physicians and researchers to diagnose and monitor disease at the molecular level, as well develop new, targete

Earlier this week a Swiss-based global global pure-play photovoltaic (PV) inverter company was revealed to have donated SolarMax inverters to the University of Georgia College of Engineering. SolarMax's North American HQ is based in Atlanta and their donation is the largest equipment donation that the College has ever received and will help with studies in the solar inverter technology field. Corporate Relationships The individuals who help maintain the connection between the

Yesterday Worcester Polytechnic Institute announced that they had received a $40 million donation from a former student - the largest gift the school has ever received, since it was founded in 1865. Who was the donor? The donor was a Robert A. Foisie, a highly successful entrepreneur has been president of Matik North America since 1981. In 1952 Foisie had to rely on scholarship funds to help him afford the tuition at Worcester Polytechnic. He now credits much of his subsequen

The news was announced yesterday that the Wilmot family and the James P. Wilmot Foundation has combined to make a $4 million donation to fund genomics research to the University of Rochester Medical Center's Cancer Institute. The Institute is in fact already named after the Wilmot family, which has just embarked on a campaign to raise $30 million in support of Cancer Research. The gift is the latest in a series of donations dating back to the 1980s when a fellowship to train

Building new relationships is an integral part of developing social capital. Your social capital – i.e., your access to people who can give you great advice, help you meet the right person, spread the word about you, etc. – may be an intangible asset, but it is also an invaluable one. There are some people out there who are natural networkers – they have a plethora of contacts because they have a genuine ability to form connections and make friends when they meet new people.

Last week Texas Tech University announced a new Donation from United Supermarkets totalling $9.45 million. The large gift will go towards improvements in the on-site arena at Texas Tech - which will also be renamed from the United Spirit Arena to the United Supermarkets Arena in honour of the gift. University Chancellor Kent Hance, thanked the company for their donation, “As an industry leader and great corporate citizen, we are truly thankful to United Supermarkets for their

A Record-Breaking Donation Last week the Chicago Tribune reported that John W. “Jay” Jordan, a University of Notre Dame alumnus and the founder of a private investment firm donated $75 million to his former school - the largest single donation in the university's history. The details of the Gift The gift will be directed towards a variety of programs at the school, including a new science and technology research program and recruiing faculty and students. In a Press Release,

by Tracey We all network. We hold events, we go to events, and we are introduced to Mark through Mary, who also knows Janice and Steve, who serve on the same board as Gerry. We leave with a big stack of business cards from people we later try to place in the Rolodex of our minds. Why do we do this? Because we understand that face-to-face interaction is valuable, and we know that relationships are valuable. Whatever you want to do, you usually can when you know the right perso