Proposals - splitting the reason

Howard Marmorstein

We use the Prospect module and enter Proposals.



How do you show a Proposal (e.g., $1M) is to be split amongst more than one Campaign or Fund (it only allows one value), more than one Appeal, or that it's a certain amount for each year (e.g., $200K/year for 5 years)?



Until a commitment is made, we don't enter Pledges which can show this info.



If someone wants to see what's being planned or pitched where would you store that info.



I guess we can use Proposal Attributes but that can get cumbersome.



Thoughts?

Sunshine Reinken Watson

My first thought is to split it into two proposals, but that could become messy. Attributes would be a good way. You can easily pull those into queries for proposals. I am interested in what other have to say, as my organization is moving towards "package asks" for several different sponsorship and grant opportunities within one proposal. That is is going to drastically change how I report from proposals.

John Heizer

We will either enter multiple Proposals or just pick one key Campaign & Fund depending on how the gift officer wants to track their work.  Appeals aren't an issue because there is no Appeal field on Proposal records and all our gifts associated with a Proposal use a single "Proposal" Appeal.

ShawnAlis Cusato

John, why do you only use a single appeal for all proposals?  I've seen that before, but I don't know the reason why.  Thanks in advance for enlightening me.

 

John Heizer

ShawnAlis Cusato:

John, why do you only use a single appeal for all proposals?  I've seen that before, but I don't know the reason why.  Thanks in advance for enlightening me.

 

I know this may sound evasive, but why wouldn't you use a single Appeal for all Proposals?  What benefit is derived from multiple Appeals?



That said (or, more accurately "asked"), there are some instances where we do have Proposals that aren't associated with that generic "Proposal" Appeal.  For instance our annual "Board Appeal" has both an Appeal record and a Proposal for each board member.  Similarly when we solicit sponsors for our big fundraising gala we have both an Appeal and a Proposal.  Each of these "dual" situations are instances where an Appeal would suffice and is used for easy aggregate reporting based on the Appeal, but also has a Proposal that lets us assign a Solicitor and track the additional "touches" (Actions) associated with the gift request.  Our other Proposals tend to be so very individualized that they'd almost require a separate Appeal for each Proposal.

ShawnAlis Cusato

I wondered about a proposal to an organization that still fit within another appeal--say for a capital campaign you might be asking lots of individuals and organizations to donate toward the same wing, building or garden.  Thanks for your examples of when you assign another appeal to a proposal.  We don't currently use Proposals, but we plan to and this is helpful. 

Howard Marmorstein

We can do a proposal for monies for mone than one appeal (e.g., more than one event and also Staff Solicited appeal (non-event) and also the proposal could be for more than one fund (e.g., unrestricted monies, restricted monies for one or more department/program).



As stated, we only enter pledges AFTER a commitment (in-writing) has been made.



If we want to see what we plan to propose or what we just pitched we have no way to show this complicated breakdown.



I think I'm going to have to use Proposal attributes to do a breakdown.  It will be a lot of work but I can't think of a way around it.

 

Ann Milkowski

I wanted to follow up on this topic since I have a similar question.  We just got the Search module and are starting to enter proposals.  How have others handled splitting the gift type?  For example, for one of our prospects we would like to set up a total proposal for $1M, but the donor is going to be asked for a $500K pledge and a $500K planned gift.  My manager would like this to be entered as 1 proposal so she can see the total ask amount of $1M, but I am thinking I need to enter 2....one for the pledge and one for the planned gift.  Not having used the module before it is hard for me to foresee the pros and cons of each way, but my instinct says it will be cleaner and easier to do 2.  Has anyone else done this?

Gina Gerhard

Ann - I look at the proposal area as a way to logically group your work around accomplishing a goal.  So you might ask yourself about how you define the goal:  

• is it to solicit and get commitment on the $1M and you're really thinking about this as a single amount?
• Do you need to make the distinction between the pledge and planned gift amounts during the process of getting a commitment? (will there be different actions and statuses for each or would they be the same). Maybe you can functionally treat these the same with only one proposal -- and then when the commitment comes in you set up one as a pledge and one as a planned gift.
• Even if there is no functional difference and maybe you can treat these the same, do you need to report out on these separately because one is a pledge and one is a planned gift.  The reporting requirement alone might be enough reason to split them.
• If you do split them, then you're probably going to hear this: 'Why do I need to enter actions on both proposals - I really only want to enter them once'.  Sorry but can't you can't have it both ways.....

So you have to think through the process of how you will be working with the proposal, how you need to record actions and notes, if you need to report out on these differently during the commitment phase, etc.  And I'd guess there may be some compromises that need to be made depending on the approach you take.



This is example of where you run up against translating a way of thinking about something and the 'operationalizing' of it -- so often you'll hear 'why does it need to be so complicated', 'why can't we just do it this way, it would be simpler' and you are often the bearer of bad-news that yes, we do need to perhaps do it in a more seemingly-complex way to really get to what we want/need to do.

Ann Milkowski

Gina - Thank you for your response, I really appreciate your thought process!  I am currently in the "can't have it both ways"  since my manager wants to see 1 proposal and have her notes/actions in one place, but when I asked will she be asking me to separate proposals that are for pledges vs. planned gifts she said "maybe" .  I think we need to talk out that process and come to a conclusion before setting these up to decide if 1 or 2 are needed.  If we decide to set it up as 1 proposal for $1M, maybe I can use attributes to help distinguish which ones maybe split into more than 1 gift type.

Howard Marmorstein

That’s exactly
my issue.  The ask is for the total amount so only one
proposal should be necessary.  We thought to link it to a
Pledge which then has the breakdown – by appeal and/or
fund.

 

Of course, our
rule is to not enter pledges until we get a written commitment
(even an email) from the donor.

 

But if we want
to see which Proposals we will ask or have asked, we are going to
have to amend this.

 

Else, we were
thinking of Proposal attributes which would give the breakdown by
fund and/or appeal.

 

Howard J
Marmorstein

Associate
Director, Development Operations

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