Prospects with two or more campaign management cycles and tracking prospect status

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Rodrigo Guardado
Rodrigo Guardado
Ninth Anniversary 10 Comments Photogenic Name Dropper
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi all,


Assume you have two campaigns going on, an annual and a capital campaign, how does your organization track the progress within your prospect management systems for both asks (i.e. within prospect status feature in R.E.)? I was thinking that the prospect management cycle stays as a single process with two or more proposals to account for asking for two different campaigns/purposes. Is this how your organization tracks this?  

Here are some other questions:
  1. How does your organization track whenever a change is made to the prospect status given that there is no date field within the prospect tab?
  2. How does your organization track the prospect status when the fiscal year closes and a new one starts?
  3. Is there a way to track a future “ask?” I was thinking of using the proposals for making a future ask. Have any of you tried this?
Let me know.

 

Rodrigo A. Guardado

Liberty Hill Foundation

rguardado@libertyhill.org

 
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Comments

  • Sandy Fiddis
    Sandy Fiddis
    Tenth Anniversary Photogenic 5 Likes First Comment
    We don't use Prospect Status for exactly this reason.  We use Proposal Status only.


    As to knowing when status have changed I've seen it done 2 ways.  Either use the Date Rated to reflect when the current Status was changed (which only tracks the most recent status) or use attributes to show when each stage started (i.e. Cultivation Started On, Qualification Started On...) - I prefer this approach because you get a full timeline.


    If the fiscal year starts we just rename/recode any active proposals.  We don't change date rated, date asked, etc.


    "Future asks" is exactly what the Proposal information is for.  I know some fundraisers get hung up on the term "proposal" but get them to think in terms of prospect instead. Do NOT wait until you've already written a proposal to start using the tab!
  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy
    Tenth Anniversary 1,500 Likes 1000 Comments Name Dropper
    NXT does maintain a history of Prospect Status changes.  See my first comment on this post for a screenshot.


    You might also consider using Actions to track changes in the Prospect Status, if you have no immediate plans for NXT.


    I would consider the Prospect Status separate from the Proposal Status, and it could be used even if there are no proposals on that record.  A prospect can have more than one proposal, say one for an event that has been made and one for an annual gift that is in the planning stages, and the Prospect Status would indicate Solicitation because of the first one.  The prospect then declines the proposal for the event, so the Proposal Status becomes Declined for that one and the Prospect Status becomes Cultivation for the second proposal.  Even if the prospect accepts and funds the first proposal, I would update the Prospect Status to Cultivation instead of Stewardship, because that stewardship will happen along with the cultivation steps for the annual gift proposal.


    In the end, it comes down to a policy that your team should write, implement, and then maintain.  How to use each field, what the options are for each field, and what, if necessary, the heirarchy is for the options in each field.  Consistency and documentation are key.

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