Using Google to Find Funding for Research

1. Using Google to Find Funding for Research Jeff Briand, Associate Director, Research & Records Steven Wardle, Senior Research Analyst, Research & Records Division of Advancement, York University March 21, 2012

2. Introduction • Overview of Research and Records at the Division of Advancement • Research and Prospect Management • Research Sources - Publically available information at York University • Accessing and using research resources • Search engines • Using search operators • Questions

3. Research & Records at DOA • Prospect Research • Prospect Management • Records Management • Central Files Administration • Concept of Prospect Development

4. Prospect Research • Research Profiles – Individuals, Corporations & Foundations • Response to queries – Memos, projects etc. • Research Identified Prospect Process – serendipitous discovery of prospects • Prospecting Initiatives – By Request or Strategic • Trip planning • Briefings and memos for events and trips

5. Prospect Management – What is it? • Designed to focus development activity towards the successful cultivation of Major Gifts, Planned Gifts, Sponsorships and Leadership-level Giving • It involves a series of activities that are conducted in order to develop and nurture the prospect’s awareness, interest, involvement and commitment to York University and its mission. • Prospect Management enables: • Consistent and appropriate donor relations across all university units • Repository for institutional memory related to the development of relationships with prospects • A process to maximize organizational, divisional & individual performance through systematic tools and portfolio measurement • Monitoring and predicting proposal activity and the securing of future gifts to YU

6. Prospect Management - Components • Details on the Prospect’s fundraising relationship with YU: • Stage of Relationship • Rating • Forecasts for donations • Assignments • Interests • Details on any Proposals provided to a prospect to support an initiative at YU: • Type of Proposal • Stage of the Proposal • Projection & Expected Date for Proposal’s Approval • Assignments

7. Prospect Management – Codifying Actions • Contact Reports • Meetings, Events, Correspondence, Formal Invitations • Notes to outline what happened with that activity/interaction • Tasks • Reminders for future actions to move the relationship forward • Notes • Strategies, Assignments, Memos to File, Research, Reassignment, Stewardship, Inactivation & Trip

8. Information Collection: From People to Resources • Human Interaction • (Contact Reports, Impressions & Observations) • VS • Publically Available Research • (Databases, Internet, Subscriptions & Media Sources)

9. What’s Advancement got to do with it?Finding Funding for Research • Tools the Professionals Use • Free Resources • The internet! • Using free resources • Google • Better searches • Operators • Searching databases • Additional web resources • The Library • Fee Based resources

10. Research on a Budget • Free Resources • Search Engines - Google, Bing, Ask • (Tip) Use more than one, use the Canadian domain • Pick a few search sites and learn them inside out • Bookmark your favourite sites so you an access them quickly

11. Research on a Budget (2) • What’s out there? • Biographical Dictionaries • Donor lists • CRA • Appointment Notices • Canadian Honours • Rich lists • Company lists • Industry Canada • SEDI • SEDAR • LinkedIn, Zoominfo • Foundation Finder (U.S.)

12. Understanding Search Engines • Do I really need to understand how this internet thingy works?

13. Search Engines - Google • Googlebot • Google’s webpage finding web crawler • Constantly searching for new web pages and indexing them

14. Google - How it Works • Ordered by priority of rank or “PageRank” • Proprietary algorithm developed by Google that measures a website (actually named after a guy named Larry Page) • Believed to include: • Link Popularity • Link Quality • Link Quantity • Age of domain name • Quantity of traffic • Monitoring Bookmarks • Monitoring clicks away from page • Frequency and quantity of page changes

15. Remember: Keep it Simple Better Searches • Describe what you need in as few word as possible • The more words you use the greater the search will be limited • Don’t be put off by too many hits, this is a chance to refine our search

16. Search engine strategy • Devise a Strategy • Write down key search terms you want to use • Don’t be buried under too much information – you don’t have time to read hundreds of pages • Make your searches specific and to the point • Make use of search operators • Consider name variations - are there short forms?

17. Critical Thinking • What is the first page to come up? • Wikipedia – a great resource that can be vandalized, be critical, seek confirmation • Zoominfo – may contain inaccuracies

18. Google Search Operators • Quotes • “Quotes” – enclosing multiple search terms in double quotes finds pages where the terms appear together, exactly • Example: top researchers in Montreal – will find pages where “top”, “researchers” and “Montreal” will appear • However: “top researchers in Montreal” – will search for pages with that exact phrase

19. Wildcards 19 • Wildcard Operators – using * (asterisk) that can match a missing word or term; wildcards can be used when you are missing one or more words (or letters) • Example: donor to big * of Canada will return – donor to big brothers of Canada, donor to big sisters of Canada, and donor to big organizations of Canada • Also: donation* will search for donation and donations • Remember the wildcard only works on whole words, not parts of words

20. Site • Searching within a Site: • Using the site: operator instructs Google to provide results only from a given website • Example: donation site:globeandmail.com will deliver results where donation was mentioned in the Globe and Mail website • Most important for us site: yorku • Sometimes flipping the order will also work, try – yorku Site: term or name

21. Synonym Operator • Synonym Operator • Use ~ at the beginning of a search term (with no space in between) and make Google search for that term and its synonyms • Example: ~donation will bring up pages that include donation and gift

22. Inclusion • The Inclusion Operator (+) • Place a +immediately before a search term to ensure the word is present in the results • Example: if looking for a job in Los Angeles, use +LA careers; without the + Google will exclude LA since it would deem the word as “the” (in Spanish or Italian)

23. Exclusion • The Exclusion Operator (-) • Place a –immediately before a search term to instruct Google to find pages that do not contain the given term • Example: to find about a health-related virus, use virus –computer to ensure that Google returns pages that contain virus, but no pages related to computer viruses

24. OR • The OR Operator • Use the OR Operator to tell Google that you wish to find pages including any of your search terms • Example: a Google search for TV program OR show will generate pages referring to either • Example: the OR operator helps with regional spelling differences: like labour OR labor, neighbour OR neighbor • OR must be in caps 24

25. Every word Matters Remember, if you add a word to a search query it will be used But there are always exceptions: Common words such as ‘the,’ ‘a’ and ‘for’ are called stop words and will generally be ignored And there are exceptions to exceptions: search engines are programmed to imitate how people think. A search for ‘the who’ will direct you to the official website of the band

26. Filters • Using filters to limit the number of results you see • Pages from Canada • Any time • Past hour • Past 24 hours • Past 4 days • Past week • Past month • Past year • Custom range...

27. Google Alerts • Let the research come to you • Email updates of the latest relevant Google results (Web, news, etc.) • Based on your choice of query or topic • http://www.google.com/alerts • Handy uses of Google Alerts: • A developing news story • Keeping current on a research interest or industry • Getting the latest on an event • Track news on a donor

28. Further Google Insights • Google Image (shhh! now you know my secret) • Can shed new light on prospects • Who are their Friends, Family, Business Associates • Pictures from a gala with movers and shakers • Google Maps • Where does your prospect live

29. The other players There are approximately 35 additional search engines out there Bing – Microsoft challenger to Google, strong graphics focus Ask.com - Q&A focused search engine Yahoo! – now in partnership with Bing Webcrawler – One of the first, launched in 1994, a metasearch engine that blends the top search results from Google, Yahoo!, Bing

30. Introduction to Boolean Logic and Operators [ ] $ • and same /Nn/ adjn nearn or and not * /Fn/ not $ ( ) atleastn w/n ? or

31. The man who invented it all George Boole (1815 – 1864) • Mathematician, philosopher and the inventor of Boolean logic, the basis of all digital computer logic (and my hero…)

32. Search Operators • AND • OR • NOT

33. Search Operators AND AND Donors and Alumni

34. Search Operators OR OR Donors or Alumni

35. Search Operators NOT NOT, AND NOT Donors NOT Alumni

36. Wildcards • Can be used to substitute for any of a defined subset of characters • Especially useful for names • Examples • Steph$, Brad$, Mitch$

37. Proximity Operators • Allow you to locate one word within a certain distance of another • For Example • w/n where n is any number between 1 to 10 • University w/3 research finds items containing “University” within 2 words of “research” where “research” is the second word • nearn where n is any number between 1 to 500 • University near5 research displays articles with the word “University” not more than 5 words away form “research,” where “research’ is the fifth word (0-4 words between)

38. More proximity operators • /Nn/ where n is any number from 1 to 500 • Bombardier Q400/N30/Porter Airlines finds articles containing the term “Bombardier Q400” within 30 words of “Porter Airlines” where “Porter” is the 30th word (0-29 words between) • /Fn/ where n is any number from 1 to 500 • Sanofi/F50/ will find articles with the word “Sanofi” with the first 50 words of the article

39. Truncations • $n where n is any number from 1 to 9 • Earn$4 will find articles that contain any word with the root “earn” including earnings, earns, or earned • *(asterisk) • Telecom* will find articles that contain the root “telecom” including telecom, telecommunications, telecommute, or telecommuting • Note: At least 3 characters must be typed before using the *sign, and the *sign must be entered at the end of a word only. No number is allowed following the truncation • ? • Globali?ation will find article containing “globalization” or “globalisation” • Note: At least 3 characters must be typed before using ?

40. Using Parentheses or Brackets, atleast and same • ( ) Parenthesis or [ ] Brackets • Select releases and (university or instructions, or course) finds items about select releases related to to universities, instruction or courses • atleastn - where n is any number between 1 and 50 • atleast6 Magna will return items with at least six mentions of Magna • same • Bergeron same VeriFone finds items containing “Bergeron” in the same paragraph as “VeriFone”

41. Library Resources • What’s Available • Factiva • Imagine Canada’s Canadian Directory of Foundations and Corporations • Lexis/Nexis • FP Directory of Directors • FPinfo Mart • Hoovers

42. Factiva • Factiva covers information on industries, public and private companies, business and management topics, current awareness information and historical news • Covers 1969 – present, dates vary by publication, worldwide • Many full text articles, trade journals, news wires, media programs, company and stock reports • News in twenty-two languages in over 8000 sources • Searchable by title, industry, geographic location and type

43. Better Factiva Results • Time Savers • Consider building a ‘canned’ search. Create it in Word, copy and paste into your search daily or weekly • Examples • donor$ or philanthropy or donation$ or endowment or York University or endowment • Rita Burak or Chantal Hebert or Step$ Ling or Ken Singh or Joel Cohen or Jay Hennick • Date: In the last week • Sources/Major News and Business Publications/Canada

44. Example

45. Using Imagine Canada’s Canadian Directory of Foundations and Corporations • Most accurate funding research tool in Canada • Bilingual database with detailed, searchable information on thousands of Canadian funders. • Contains searchable information on all Canadian grant making foundations, as well as government funding programs, American foundations, and hundreds of corporations that invest in the community. • First published in 1966 by the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada and adopted by Imagine Canada over 25 years ago. • But note: • Sometimes it does not display the most recent data. Always check CRA.

46. Different look, same techniques

47. Fee Based Resources • Can you afford it? Which one is right for you? • PRO – Prospect Research ONLINE • Guidestar Grant Explorer • Searchable by funder name, state/province, city, ZIP code and can be filtered by grants awarded ($), total number of grants awarded, Employer Identification Number (U.S.) • Pivot: funding connected • Onesource • ABI/ProQuest

48. Remember it’s a jungle out there Spyware Viruses Spyware Malware Viruses Malware

49. Possible pitfalls

50. Closing Thoughts • Interacting with the Research & Records Unit at DOA: • Focus Relationship Building that will result in asks over $5K; $25K is considered Major Gift Level • Concern on prospects heading into Solicitation • Concern with prospects with Stewardship commitments • Sharing information – both before and after “the ask” • Trips, prospect lists & ideas • Contact: • Jeff Briand, Steve Wardle Phillipa Vaz • Associate Director Senior Research Analyst Research Analyst • briandj@yorku.cawardle@yorku.capvaz@yorku.ca • (416) 650-8204 Ext. 58229 Ext. 20380