When to use an action versus an appeal?

Alicia Van Straten

We do not have the prospect module and would like to start tracking our "asks" or proposals that are out or pending. We use actions on a case by case basis meaning we do not mass assign actions (which I just learned you could do) and need to get a cleaner process for this. When do you add an appeal to an account versus an action? In my head, an appeal should be added when we do a direct mailing to multiple constituents and you want to see a record of how many times we have appealed and for what. Don't know how to do this yet but will learn. An action to me is, I have a meeting or phone call with someone and want to follow up with them. Would like to attach the actual proposal and amount asked for but not sure if this is can easily be pulled in a query. Goal would be able to pull a report of outstanding proposals/asks and how much? Thoughts and thank you!

JoAnn Strommen

Alicia VanStraten:
We do not have the prospect module and would like to start tracking our "asks" or proposals that are out or pending. We use actions on a case by case basis meaning we do not mass assign actions (which I just learned you could do) and need to get a cleaner process for this. When do you add an appeal to an account versus an action? In my head, an appeal should be added when we do a direct mailing to multiple constituents and you want to see a record of how many times we have appealed and for what. Don't know how to do this yet but will learn. An action to me is, I have a meeting or phone call with someone and want to follow up with them. Would like to attach the actual proposal and amount asked for but not sure if this is can easily be pulled in a query. Goal would be able to pull a report of outstanding proposals/asks and how much? Thoughts and thank you!

I'm in agreement with you that an appeal is to a broader section of the database than just a few and actions allow for much more individualized tracking like meeting with a prospect and assigning followup.  

We don't have prospect module either.  I'll be tracking ask status/updates in actions when we hit our next capital campaign.

Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen:

I'm in agreement with you that an appeal is to a broader section of the database than just a few and actions allow for much more individualized tracking like meeting with a prospect and assigning followup.  

We don't have prospect module either.  I'll be tracking ask status/updates in actions when we hit our next capital campaign.

So after doing some research and calling, I put together a plan and handouts and reviewed with staff. Some questions came up: - Is it beneficial to have a start and end date to an appeal? If so, why and what do you pick for an end date? What if a gift comes in after the end date of the appeal, can you sill use that appeal? - Still more clarification on when to do an appeal versus when it is an action? If I send out a mailing to 30 donors, that would be an appeal. But if I have a meeting with a local rotary organization and do a presentation asking for funding, that would be an action correct? But then, where do I store my proposal? Is that in the notes of the action which only allows you to upload a .rtf file or is that in the media tab with a note in the action to "refer to media tab"? - So, is realy appeal only for mailings such as direct mail, newsletter, or a phonathon (basically anything that goes to a group of people) and everything else is an action? If so, what is the cut off? More than 10/20/50 people in the "ask" than it is an appeal? Sorry for the barrage of questions - just still trying to figure it all out and be thoughtful about it. Thank you in advance!

Christine Cooke 2

Alicia VanStraten:
So after doing some research and calling, I put together a plan and handouts and reviewed with staff. Some questions came up: - Is it beneficial to have a start and end date to an appeal? If so, why and what do you pick for an end date? What if a gift comes in after the end date of the appeal, can you sill use that appeal? - Still more clarification on when to do an appeal versus when it is an action? If I send out a mailing to 30 donors, that would be an appeal. But if I have a meeting with a local rotary organization and do a presentation asking for funding, that would be an action correct? But then, where do I store my proposal? Is that in the notes of the action which only allows you to upload a .rtf file or is that in the media tab with a note in the action to "refer to media tab"? - So, is realy appeal only for mailings such as direct mail, newsletter, or a phonathon (basically anything that goes to a group of people) and everything else is an action? If so, what is the cut off? More than 10/20/50 people in the "ask" than it is an appeal? Sorry for the barrage of questions - just still trying to figure it all out and be thoughtful about it. Thank you in advance!

 Let's see:  End date to Appeal?  I think it depends on the appeal and the organization.  Some appeals are short lived and would have an end date.  Others may be used year after year (sort of generic) and so no end date.  For example: A specific ask because a person significant to your organization is retiring vs. an annual appeal, which always takes place at the same time of year and the reports can be pulled by the date window. 

Suggested end date for appeal?  If you are going to put an end date I would suggest using the last day of the fiscal year that the appeal started in.

If a gift comes in after the end date of the appeal you can still use it as long as you keep it Active.

You are on the right path regarding Appeal vs. Action.  It is your choice as to where you store the proposal.  Either place, the action notes or the Notes/Media tabs with a note in the action to refer to Notes or Media.  Whichever would work best for your org/dept.  Same goes for the cut off.  You often hear folks referring to their capital campaigns.  During the silent phase you can be asking up to 150-200 people, but they should be tracked under Action during the silent phase -- that is if you do not have the Prospect Tab.  

If those of you out there need to also track the ask amount or anything related to that, you could set that up in the Action Attribute.  As you can see, the Action has the option of filling in the Fund/Appeal/Campaign.  You can use the Status and change it according to where you stand with that donor and the cultivation and/or ask.  That status along with the "completed" option should allow you to report on what is pending vs. what is completed.

JoAnn Strommen

Alicia VanStraten:
So after doing some research and calling, I put together a plan and handouts and reviewed with staff. Some questions came up: - Is it beneficial to have a start and end date to an appeal? If so, why and what do you pick for an end date? What if a gift comes in after the end date of the appeal, can you sill use that appeal? - Still more clarification on when to do an appeal versus when it is an action? If I send out a mailing to 30 donors, that would be an appeal. But if I have a meeting with a local rotary organization and do a presentation asking for funding, that would be an action correct? But then, where do I store my proposal? Is that in the notes of the action which only allows you to upload a .rtf file or is that in the media tab with a note in the action to "refer to media tab"? - So, is realy appeal only for mailings such as direct mail, newsletter, or a phonathon (basically anything that goes to a group of people) and everything else is an action? If so, what is the cut off? More than 10/20/50 people in the "ask" than it is an appeal? Sorry for the barrage of questions - just still trying to figure it all out and be thoughtful about it. Thank you in advance!

What you choose for an end date could be end of fiscal year, date before your next appeal, date for when you expect appea/project related to the appeal to be active... totally up to you.  And yes you can still enter gifts using that appeal after end date.  You may get pop up asking you to confirm if you want to use it - I get them once in a while and can't remember if they're appeal or just fund confirmations. 

Using your example, if appeal was to Rotary Club we'd record that as action.  If you are making an appeal for personal donations from each Rotary Club member and have their bio data in RE I could see recording it as an appeal.  Usually that's not the case. 

Not sure what to suggest for where to 'store proposal'.  In notes?  As document - an option for action type of other. Maybe you'll get some other suggestions.

Each org can define "appeal" differently. As the number of appeals on a record can get quite large if you are an org doing regular mail/event solicitations, I say just keep that in mind. 

Just my thoughts...

Alicia Van Straten

JoAnn Strommen:

What you choose for an end date could be end of fiscal year, date before your next appeal, date for when you expect appea/project related to the appeal to be active... totally up to you.  And yes you can still enter gifts using that appeal after end date.  You may get pop up asking you to confirm if you want to use it - I get them once in a while and can't remember if they're appeal or just fund confirmations. 

Using your example, if appeal was to Rotary Club we'd record that as action.  If you are making an appeal for personal donations from each Rotary Club member and have their bio data in RE I could see recording it as an appeal.  Usually that's not the case. 

Not sure what to suggest for where to 'store proposal'.  In notes?  As document - an option for action type of other. Maybe you'll get some other suggestions.

Each org can define "appeal" differently. As the number of appeals on a record can get quite large if you are an org doing regular mail/event solicitations, I say just keep that in mind. 

Just my thoughts...

Thank you both! So, I feel like we are are on the right path then for how to do appeals versus actions. In regards to the comment of "keeping appeals generic" that has actually shot us in the foot a little. We have never entered a constituent appeal before and have only done gift appeals with the business rule popping up when a gift is being entered and the appeal picked is not on the cost. record to add it and mark as gave. Well, now we want to start tracking our appeals (mailings for now at least) and I found out that if I try to add an appeal to a const. record and it is already on there and marked as gave, it will prepopulate the amount given field with the previous appeal. Some of our appeals were Direct Mail / Personal Solicitation and then if it was direct mail we used an gift attribute of "direct mail code". That way (I thought) I could track how much came in via various mailings or how much came in via Direct Mail as a whole. Now I have found "Appeal Category" (wow, huh) and will be making our appeals more specific if Direct Mail or more year specific. Whoo, you try to research and do your do diligence and then find out sometimes what you set up is not always the best way. We are going to be using the action attributes tab for "Funding Proposal" with the amount asked and then I can pull reports based on action status and amounts pending via a query. We do not have either the search module or the prospect module. So trying to make it work with what we do have. Sometimes it is tougher getting our Board and Director to identify what buckets we are going to report on or benchmarks so that we can be consistent year over year.

Melissa Graves 3

Alicia VanStraten:
So after doing some research and calling, I put together a plan and handouts and reviewed with staff. Some questions came up: - Is it beneficial to have a start and end date to an appeal? If so, why and what do you pick for an end date? What if a gift comes in after the end date of the appeal, can you sill use that appeal? - Still more clarification on when to do an appeal versus when it is an action? If I send out a mailing to 30 donors, that would be an appeal. But if I have a meeting with a local rotary organization and do a presentation asking for funding, that would be an action correct? But then, where do I store my proposal? Is that in the notes of the action which only allows you to upload a .rtf file or is that in the media tab with a note in the action to "refer to media tab"? - So, is realy appeal only for mailings such as direct mail, newsletter, or a phonathon (basically anything that goes to a group of people) and everything else is an action? If so, what is the cut off? More than 10/20/50 people in the "ask" than it is an appeal? Sorry for the barrage of questions - just still trying to figure it all out and be thoughtful about it. Thank you in advance!

I rarely ever used end date on an appeal. I keep appeals open as long as there is a chance that someone may respond to it and make a gift. Once that is less than likely (81-24 mos?), I tend to inactivate the appeal but if someone still gives, I reactivate so that I can add the gift then inactivate again. I inactivate simply to keep the drop down list of appeals in query and batch manageable.

I use anything that is going to a group - an appeal. Even if a small event. I use actions for personal 1:1 meetings, calls, emails, etc. If someone gives as a result of one of these actions, I keep an appeal type of personal solicitation. All personal solicitation gifts should be linked to a proposal on the prospect tab (optional add-on module) (which in turn is linked to action(s) - one of which was the solicitation action and/or linked to the media storing the written proposal). If you do not have the prospect tab then the media tab can be used for written proposals and actions for more verbal solicitations.

Melissa 

Melissa Graves 3

Melissa Graves:

I rarely ever used end date on an appeal. I keep appeals open as long as there is a chance that someone may respond to it and make a gift. Once that is less than likely (81-24 mos?), I tend to inactivate the appeal but if someone still gives, I reactivate so that I can add the gift then inactivate again. I inactivate simply to keep the drop down list of appeals in query and batch manageable.

I use anything that is going to a group - an appeal. Even if a small event. I use actions for personal 1:1 meetings, calls, emails, etc. If someone gives as a result of one of these actions, I keep an appeal type of personal solicitation. All personal solicitation gifts should be linked to a proposal on the prospect tab (optional add-on module) (which in turn is linked to action(s) - one of which was the solicitation action and/or linked to the media storing the written proposal). If you do not have the prospect tab then the media tab can be used for written proposals and actions for more verbal solicitations.

Melissa 

oops - 18-24 mos.