After you identify major gifts prospects, you can create a moves management workflow in Bloomerang CRM.
This article explains the Personal Cultivation Plan and helps you set up and execute a moves management workflow in Bloomerang CRM.
The Personal Cultivation Plan
At the heart of the moves management workflow is the Personal Cultivation Plan. This plan is a multi-step process for prepping, soliciting and then stewarding major gift prospects. Here are the stages of the plan:
Discovery — During this stage, the prospect’s giving capacity is determined, an initial contact is made, and how the potential gift could be used in your organization is decided.
Cultivation — This stage involves phone calls, coffee, and conversation. During this step you are preparing the prospect for an opportunity to ask for a major gift.
Permission to Ask — During this stage, a meeting or phone call is arranged to ask for permission to ask for a major gift.
Solicitation — The solicitation stage is when the gift is officially asked for by the solicitor. This can take place in another meeting or phone call, etc.
Stewardship — The stewardship stage is the final stage, after successfully soliciting the gift. This stage involves acknowledging the gift, keeping the donor up-to-date with how their gift is helping the organization, and generally working towards adding the prospect back into the major gift pipeline.
Let’s look at the setup that needs to occur within Bloomerang CRM to successfully execute the Personal Cultivation Plan.
Create Custom Fields
Custom fields are an important part of the moves management workflow. They should be created before proceeding with the Personal Cultivation Plan. The fields below are a suggestion, so use as many or as few as applies to your organization.
Constituent
Create a section called Prospect Management in the constituent custom fields section of Bloomerang CRM. Then create the following individual fields within that section. Use these fields to save data that applies to the constituent regardless of any current major gift status.
Solicitor — The solicitor at this level is the person most likely to interact with the prospect. Multiple members of your organization may solicit the prospect at different times, and you can display those solicitors on a note specific to the solicitation.
What kind of data goes in this field? - Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? - Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add all of your potential solicitors when prompted.
Target Ask Date — The target ask date is the goal date to solicit the major gift. You can choose to include this on the profile, or it may be more useful on a specific note for the solicitation.
What kind of data goes in this field? - Choose Date.
How do you enter data in this field? - Choose Type it in. Click Save.
Target Ask — The target ask is the goal amount you would like to solicit in the gift. Choose to include it here or only on a note for a specific solicitation.
What kind of data goes in this field? - Choose Currency.
How do you enter data in this field? - Choose Type it in.
Impact Area — The impact area is where in your organization the prospect would like the gift to be used. It could be a specific Bloomerang fund or another program in your organization. Campaigns and appeals are only recommended if you are sure they will still be active when the gift is secured. Choose to include the impact area on the profile or only on a note specific to the solicitation.
What kind of data goes in this field? - Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? - Choose Pick 1 Value from a list. Click Save and then add your values when prompted.
Giving Capacity — Giving capacity is the total potential giving a prospect may have. This data can usually be found with data from DonorSearch.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Currency.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Type it in.
Transaction
Create a section named Prospect Management in the transaction custom fields section of Bloomerang CRM. Then create the following individual fields within that section. Use these fields to save data that applies to the specific transaction once it is secured.
Solicitor — The solicitor at this level is the person who secured the gift.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add all of your potential solicitors when prompted.
This gift is a bequest — A bequest is a legacy gift, and you may want to track that data here.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add Yes and No when prompted.
Interaction
Create a section called Moves Management in the interaction custom fields section of Bloomerang CRM. Then create the following individual field within that section. Use this field to track the current stage of the cultivation plan when an interaction is created.
Current Stage — The current stage of the cultivation plan.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add Discovery, Cultivation, Ask (Solicitation), and Stewardship.
Note
Create a section called Moves Management in the notes custom fields section of Bloomerang CRM. Then create the following individual fields within that section. Use these fields to track the Personal Cultivation Plan and related information needed to solicit the gift.
Solicitor — The solicitor at this level is the person who is actively working to secure this specific gift.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add all of your potential solicitors when prompted.
Current Stage — The current stage of the cultivation plan.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Text.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Pick 1 value from a list. Click Save and then add Discovery, Cultivation, Ask (Solicitation), and Stewardship.
Target Ask Date - The target ask date is the goal date to solicit the gift.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Date.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Type it in. Click Save.
Target Ask - The target ask is the goal amount you would like to solicit in the gift.
What kind of data goes in this field? — Choose Currency.
How do you enter data in this field? — Choose Type it in.
Moves Management Workflow
After you identify major gifts prospects and create the necessary custom fields in Bloomerang CRM, you can add prospects to a moves management workflow:
Starting a New Workflow
Begin a new workflow by going to the constituent profile of a prospect and clicking Edit. Scroll to the Prospect Management section and fill out the constituent custom fields.
Next, create a new note.
Create a note for each specific planned ask. The date on the note should be the Target Ask Date, and the note itself should include the Personal Cultivation Plan. See below for a template you can copy and paste into the note:
Open Opportunity - Personal Cultivation Plan
Discovery
Determine Capacity
First Solicitor Contact
Determine Impact Area
Cultivation
TBD (site visit, call, coffee)
TBD
TBD
Permission to Ask
Date
Solicitation
Date
Outcome
Stewardship
Donor Acknowledgment
Gift Impact
TBD
At this point, you have entered information about the prospect on the prospect’s profile and created a note to use with the Personal Cultivation Plan. The note should remain pinned to the top of the timeline since you gave it a future date.
You can now work through the workflow to solicit a major gift with the prospect.
Working Through the Workflow
The note with the Personal Cultivation Plan is at the center of the moves management workflow. As prospects are moved through the workflow, you’ll be updating the note to reflect progress and milestones. You can also use tasks to delegate work to solicitors, and interactions to reflect completed work. Always keep the note up-to-date with the latest information.
The following works through the Discovery step on a prospect’s note, as an example:
Determine Capacity — After assessing the giving potential of the prospect, determine the giving capacity. You can add the date this is completed on the note and update the giving capacity constituent field on the prospect’s profile.
First Solicitor Contact — Add the date in the future for when the solicitor should first contact the prospect. You can also assign a task to complete this step if the solicitor is a user in Bloomerang CRM.
Determine Impact Area — The solicitor may be able to accomplish this step during the first contact, or it might occur during a second interaction. You can create a second task or include this with the First Solicitor Contact task. Add the date this completed on the note.
Update the note’s custom fields as the information becomes available and click Save.
At this point, the note is up-to-date with the status of the Personal Cultivation Plan. Now the solicitor can complete their assigned work:
Complete the assigned tasks that were created for the Discovery stage. Remember you can convert a completed task to an interaction, which will save you some effort. If you’re not using tasks, you can still create new interactions to show that contact has been made.
Add the current step on the interaction’s custom field and click Save.
Update the note as needed, remembering to advance the Current Stage as the moves are completed.
Repeat these steps as you work through the stages of the Personal Cultivation Plan. Eventually, the gift will be won, tabled for later, or closed.
Next Steps
If the gift was secured, congratulations! You can move on to donor stewardship with the prospect. Donor stewardship may look different from organization to organization, but some ideas for stewardship include:
Gift Acknowledgment — Discuss with your donor to find out if they’d prefer to remain private or would appreciate a public acknowledgement of the gift.
Keep Donors Informed — Make sure you keep your major gift donors informed with how their gift is being utilized by your organization.
Major Gift Pipeline — Consider adding the donor back to a major gift pipeline, and begin planning for the next time you can solicit another major gift. If the donor is enthusiastic about your organization, this could be the first of additional major gifts.
If the gift was not secured, it’s time to assess and plan for what’s next. Some things to consider:
Is the donor still a good fit, but now was a bad time for a major gift? If so, keep them in your usual fundraising pipeline and consider plans to solicit a major gift in the future. Consider your process to see if anything could be improved to land the major gift next time.
Is the donor not a good fit for your organization? Did the donor express disinterest in ever making a major gift? If so, you should remove them from your major gift pipeline and focus on prospects that might be a better fit.