ACLU in Prospect Research Controversy
First, a bit of background is in order so that the vast majority of people who have no idea what prospect research is will have some idea where I’m coming from.
If you’ve read my about page, you know that I work in a field called prospect research. What does this mean? When I’m feeling flippant I like to say that I find rich people for a living, but there’s more to it than that. The official description from the Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement (APRA) does a pretty good job of explaining things, but it’s laden with just enough biz-speak to make it somewhat mind-numbing to those outside the fundraising profession.
Here’s my nutshell explanation: I collect information from the Internet, public records, and the electronic and paper records of the college I work for. I analyze and distill that information to help ensure that my school’s gift officers (the people who ask in person for the big donations) are spending their time and the school’s money visiting only those alumni and constituents who have both the financial capacity to make a large gift to the college and the affinity to do so. If someone doesn’t have both ingredients — or at least the potential to have them in the future — then they fall into another pool of potential donors, suitable for phone and mail solicitation. In short, people like me help make sure that your alma mater doesn’t come knocking on your door with its hand out for $25,000 unless you can really afford it.
“That’s great,” I hear you saying, “but what are the privacy implications of work like this?” Glad you asked, O theoretical reader in my head!
APRA’s Statement of Ethics, which members must adhere to, contains very specific guidelines and limitations on the gathering, storage, and dissemination of donor and prospect information. Discussions of ethics and privacy issues occur regularly on the prospect research mailing list, and I have never seen any other professional community so earnestly preoccupied with ethical behavior and privacy issues. Along with the Statement of Ethics, APRA also supports a Donor Bill of Rights and has issued a position paper on privacy matters.
If I didn’t believe that the ethical standards of this profession were sound and the privacy protections employed for potential donors adequate, I would find work in another field. By and large, when it comes to prospect research you can be comfortable that you are in good hands. Which is where the controversy at the ACLU, and the media attention lavished on it, comes in… (more…)
