I was new to Prospect Research (PR) when Heather shared her wealth of knowledge with me. Each meeting she came with a detailed agenda and many resources and links to help me enter the world of PR. She started by explaining the field of PR and the expectations of the position. Then she moved on to showing me some templates for Profiles, Research Requests, Visit logs, etc.

Our office was not able to purchase expensive software like Lexis Nexis so Heather showed me how to find this information on my own. She provided me with the tools to find a prospect’s biographical data, employment information, educational data, family background and financial information. She taught me to use the small pieces of information that we had to uncover larger pieces of data about a prospect. She also helped me feel confident in estimating a prospects wealth and giving capacity and shared some formulas as guidelines.

She taught me that PR is more than going through a list of web sites, using formulas and doing Goggle searches; it's an art. It's knowing where to look for information when you have no clues. It's taking small bits of meaningless data and seeing things nobody else sees. It's putting all the pieces together to create profiles that aide your development team in their cultivation or ask.

Kerry Jensen, Prospect Research Coordinator, Carroll College, Helena, MT