Do UK charities have a lot to learn?

This article discusses the key findings of some recent research carried out into the application of market segmentation in the UK charity sector. 410 of the top performing charities (as ranked by income from voluntary donations) were surveyed to profile their major donor groups. Respondents were also asked to indicate how this data was used for fund-raising purposes both in terms of new donor recruitment and existing donor development. The findings show that with the exception of a very few large organizations, the UK charity sector still has much room for improving the sophistication of its fund-raising techniques.     

浅议在Visual Basic中访问数据库

VisualBasic虽然自身没带有数据库,但它提供的MicrosoftJet数据库引擎却有着强大的数据库存取能力,使你有能力访问多种类型的数据库,如Access数据库、ISAM数据库、任何支持开放性数据库互连(ODBC)标准的关系型数据库,VisualBasic提供了2种使用Jet数据引擎的方法:数据控件和数据对象。文章主要讲述了在VB中如何使用数据对象:数据访问对象(DAO)、ActiveX数据对象(ADO)、远程数据对象(RDO)来访问数据库。     

Advanced techniques of donor recognition

This paper examines the issue of ‘donor recognition’ in fundraising, and how recent technological advances have given charitable organisations new strategic tools in which to recognise and protect their donor base. In providing real-life examples of how American charities are using new donor recognition techniques, this paper seeks to provide specific options of how any charity can maximise the net income potential of every donor on its file.     

Brand orientation in charity organisations: qualitative research into key charity sectors

The study explores, through qualitative research, levels of brand orientation in large, medium and small‐sized charity organisations where brand orientation refers to the extent to which the organisation regards itself as a brand. The results indicate that charity managers are largely endorsing the conversion from charity organisation to charity brand. Brand status was seen to offer a shorthand communication of what the charity organisation did, its cause, and what it represented, its values. Significantly, it was also seen to fulfil organisational objectives such as raising awareness, building trust, fundraising and parliamentary lobbying, with a more focused and more consistent communication of what the organisation stood for. Strategically, however, charity organisations were not making the best use of their brands. It was suggested, for instance, that more sophisticated targeting of key donor segments with research‐based, tailored messages, might help reverse the trend of declining donor numbers. Overall, however, the study provides much evidence of brand orientation in the charity sector with most charity managers clearly wedded to the concept of putting the brand at the heart of the organisation. The charities that enjoyed a full commitment to the branding process from all their stakeholders were best placed to reap the benefits of charity brand status. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Charity Art Auctions

Using a unique panel data set of art auctions on eBay, we conduct an empirical analysis of the impact of charity status on the outcome of an auction and find it to be substantial. Charity status increases the probability of sale by 46%, the observed number of bidders by 111% and the sale price by 45%. In addition, charity status substantially lowers the auction's opening price. Interestingly, the effect of charity status declines over time indicating that charity auctions may be susceptible to donor fatigue.     

Using data analysis in strategic legacy marketing

This paper is about the application of database analysis to records of deceased persons who have made bequests to charity, in order to establish their key characteristics. All findings are based on researched findings, with sources disguised. The paper outlines the benefits of such analysis in strategic planning, with particular reference to understanding the profiles of future legators, reducing inappropriate or wasteful marketing, establishing segmentation criteria, positioning legators in demographic terms, locating them geographically, sizing the market, establishing the most attractive prospects and determining the earning power of the existing ‘live’ supporter database versus the wider general public, and anticipating the effects of competition. Finally the paper suggests ways in which an understanding of legator profiles can control the effort applied to incoming enquiries and pledgers, using database analysis to predict their potential.     

Second‐gift behaviour of first‐time donors to charity: an empirical study

• This study examined the second‐time charity giving behaviour of a sample of 551 young people during a 2‐year period following the occurrence of their first ever significant donation. It explored the factors that encouraged an individual to make a second gift, the probabilities that a donation would be made within certain time intervals after the initial gift (3 months, 6 months, a year, etc.) and the variables that influenced whether the second donation would go to the charity receiving the person's first gift or to a different charity. Relevant issues were investigated via a Cox proportional hazards regression analysis and through a binary logistic regression. Covariates employed in the course of the study included the degree of emotional uplift a person experienced and the level of mind‐set change that took place consequent to a first donation, donor confusion with the range and variety of charities available and the reputation and image congruity of the second charity to which the participant had contributed. The roles of personal inertia and social pressure when making donation decisions were also examined.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Turning data into donations: A predictive model for individual giving

This paper describes a predictive model developed by the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) for the evaluation of donor management strategies. The high cost of acquiring new donors means that effective donor management is essential throughout the charity sector. Early RNID analysis of donor behaviour used conventional sector approaches. This led to the development of a predictive model that uses a statistically determined segmentation system for current donors with responses of the donor base described by a Markov model. The model is used primarily to evaluate the expected rate of return of possible campaign strategies, but there are many other ways in which the approach is of value, both to the RNID and to the charity sector as a whole.     

基于ASP的网站开发安全问题及漏洞防范研究

许多用户共享的数据都集中在数据库系统中,因而其安全性也是个十分重要的问题。一旦数据库遭到破坏,整个系统都将面临崩溃。从SQL Server2000数据库管理自身提供的安全机制出发,对在设计与开发Web网站中所遇到的操作数据库的安全性问题进行探讨,并对SQL注入漏洞给出具体的防范措施,这些方法和措施可用于网站设计中对SQL Serve数据库进行安全访问控制。     

European industrial relations in 1999: chronicle of events

This article chronicles industrial relations developments throughout the European Union (EU) during 1999. The information is gleaned from articles published by the European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). The text therefore contains numerical references to records contained in the EIRO database in order to allow the reader easy access to the relevant records. The article is divided into five sections. The first contains an overview of political, economic and legislative events at EU‐level, the second looks at EU‐level developments in employee representation, the third looks at the impact of European economic and monetary union (EMU) on industrial relations and collective bargaining and the fourth and fifth give a more detailed country‐by‐country analysis of main trends in key industrial relations areas—collective bargaining and industrial action; and employment creation, working time and new forms of work.     

TIME VARIATION IN THE DYNAMICS OF WORKER FLOWS: EVIDENCE FROM NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE

Vector autoregressive methods have been used to model the interrelationships between job vacancy rates, job separation rates and job‐finding rates using tools such as impulse response analysis. We investigate whether such impulse responses change across the business cycle or over time, by estimating time‐varying parameter–vector autoregressions for data from North America (the USA and Canada) and Europe (France, Spain and the UK). While the adjustment process of the labour market to shocks in Canada and the USA is similar, we find the adjustment process differs much more across the European countries, with greater persistence in shocks relative to the USA and Canada. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Inference for the two-parameter bathtub-shaped distribution based on record data

Here we consider the record data from the two-parameter of bathtub-shaped distribution. First, we develop simplified forms for the single moments, variances and covariance of records. These distributional properties are quite useful in obtaining the best linear unbiased estimators of the location and scale parameters which can be included in the model. The estimation of the unknown shape parameters and prediction of the future unobserved records based on some observed ones are discussed. Frequentist and Bayesian analyses are adopted for conducting the estimation and prediction problems. The likelihood method, moment based method, bootstrap methods as well as the Bayesian sampling techniques are applied for the inference problems. The point predictors and credible intervals of future record values based on an informative set of records can be developed. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to compare the so developed methods and one real data set is analyzed for illustrative purposes.     

Four Lessons Learned in How to Use Human Resource Analytics to Improve the Effectiveness of Leadership Development

The tools and methodologies being developed in the emerging field of human resource analytics can be used both to measure the impact of your organization's investment in leadership development and, perhaps more importantly, to improve the return on that investment. In particular, analytics can be used to move your organization beyond one‐size‐fits‐all competencies by identifying the unique leadership competencies that drive your organization's business results (sales, profits, and employee turnover). Your employee “engagement survey” is a powerful, but typically underutilized, tool for doing so. By linking it with other, disparate pieces of data (180/360 assessments, Learning Management System (LMS) records, turnover, and financial data), you create the foundation for understanding where leadership competencies explain variation (positive and negative) in your organization's business results. This, in turn, creates a strong evidence base for optimizing your leadership development strategy—and is done so using metrics and analysis, which is the language of CEOs and CFOs.     

Lifecycle‐based donor performance analysis

With charities of all sizes now having the ability to collect and store very large quantities of data about their donors on in‐house database systems, detailed donor performance analyses have an increasingly essential role to play in the effective planning and management of fundraising. If, however, such activities are to support fully the work of fundraisers then it is important that they are undertaken from the perspective of the fundraiser rather than of the specialist data analyst. This paper introduces an approach to donor performance analysis that is founded on what is termed a ‘donor lifecycle model’. The aim of this is to provide a formal analysis methodology that provides end results that can be more easily interpreted by nonspecialists and so more effectively used in support of the efficient planning of fundraising programmes. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications     

Widening the appeal of charity

In the UK there is a contracting donor pool, but a significant growth in registered charities. This paper discusses the impact of individual, organisational and environmental factors on giving, and also distinguishes characteristics of givers and non‐givers. The focus of the paper is on the long‐term solution to the problem of recruitment of donors, by expanding the current supporter base for the charity sector. Copyright © 2000 Henry Stewart Publications.     

Pictures of me: user views on their representation in homelessness fundraising appeals

There is a long‐standing ethical debate regarding the ‘right’ representation of recipients in charity marketing materials that are intended to accurately define and represent social problems whilst also prompting the maximum response in voluntary income. The study presented in this article makes a contribution to that debate by highlighting the views of charity beneficiaries regarding their representation in fundraising campaigns. Drawing on data from five focus groups conducted in cities across England, we explore the views of young homeless people regarding the images of homelessness that appeared in major charity campaigns aimed at raising money to fund homelessness services. Participants displayed a high level of reflexivity, demonstrating that they understood the issues involved with homelessness and the perceptions of people like themselves that exist in the public sphere and in the consciousness of potential donors. Although the participants held the view that maximising revenues through the use of simple, eye‐catching images is the prime goal of fundraising, they also expressed a desire for more nuanced campaigns that tell the dynamic stories of how people become homeless and the use of imagery that elicits empathy rather than merely arouses sympathy. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

POLITICAL BUDGET CYCLES: MANIPULATION BY LEADERS VERSUS MANIPULATION BY RESEARCHERS? EVIDENCE FROM A META‐REGRESSION ANALYSIS

Despite a long history of research on political budget cycles, their existence and magnitude are still in question. By conducting a systematic analysis of the existing literature, we intend to clarify the debate. Based on data collected from 1037 regressions in 46 studies, our meta‐analysis suggests that little, if any, systematic evidence can be found in the research record that national leaders do manipulate fiscal tools in order to be reelected. However, it is much more clear that researchers selectively report that national leaders do manipulate fiscal tools in order to be reelected. The publication selection bias highlighted has nonetheless been reduced during the past 25 years of research. We also show that the incumbents' strategies differ depending on which tools they use. Finally, the nature and quality of political institutions appear to be the factors which most affect the political budget cycles.     

A weighting approach to making inference with probabilistically linked data

Record linkage is the act of bringing together records from two files that are believed to belong to the same unit (e.g., a person or business). It is a low‐cost way of increasing the set of variables available for analysis. Errors may arise in the linking process if an error‐free unit identifier is not available. Two types of linking errors include an incorrect link (records belonging to two different units are linked) and a missed record (an unlinked record for which a correct link exists). Naively ignoring linkage errors may mean that analysis of the linked file is biased. This paper outlines a “weighting approach” to making correct inference about regression coefficients and population totals in the presence of such linkage errors. This approach is designed for analysts who do not have the expertise or time to use specialist software required by other approaches but who are comfortable using weights in inference. The performance of the estimator is demonstrated in a simulation study.     

Realising the future: forecasting with high‐frequency‐based volatility (HEAVY) models

This paper studies in some detail a class of high‐frequency‐based volatility (HEAVY) models. These models are direct models of daily asset return volatility based on realised measures constructed from high‐frequency data. Our analysis identifies that the models have momentum and mean reversion effects, and that they adjust quickly to structural breaks in the level of the volatility process. We study how to estimate the models and how they perform through the credit crunch, comparing their fit to more traditional GARCH models. We analyse a model‐based bootstrap which allows us to estimate the entire predictive distribution of returns. We also provide an analysis of missing data in the context of these models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The diary of a charity donor: an exploration of research information from the Royal Mail Consumer Panel and Mail Characteristics Survey

This paper looks at direct mail in the United Kingdom across all market sectors and in detail at the charity sector. It uses the research information that Royal Mail has been collecting foroveradecadetoshowthegrowthofthe medium. The diary system used by the Consumer Panel gives an insight into the typical donor and their relationship with charities. This paper looks only at direct mail: ‘personally addressed advertising material that is delivered through the post’. This definition means that leaflets put through the letterbox are excluded. Copyright © 1999 Henry Stewart Publications