request for conversations: how do you structure your major gift work?

Kat,

Hope my answers are somewhat helpful!

- How do you manage solicitor relationships, both through a specific solicitation cycle, and on an ongoing basis?  How do you file and report on contact/call reports?

We file call reports under research documents. They are word documents saved in a shared file on our network. We use the solicitations area to track meetings, phone calls, etc in tasks and would mention in the task note that there is a call report about this particular meeting and/or phone call. All moves are recorded under tasks. For donors where we have not yet identified a campaign and are only growing our relationship with them we use a generic “Portfolio Manager Campaign” to track the relationship. When a campaign is identified we would change that to the appropriate campaign.

- How do you report on solicitation activity not tied directly to a financial outcome (e.g. moves management reports)?

All of our moves management reports are custom. I’ll be presenting on them at the conference!

- How are you currently managing your major gift prospects within your direct response program?  Do you use suppression lists (and if so, how?)?  Do you identify them in other ways?

Depending on the mailing we often suppress any record with a portfolio manager assigned to it (which is assigned through associations). For AF renewal mailings (which are smaller) we’ll email the list of upcoming renewals with portfolio managers highlighted and give them the opportunity to change their ask amount, add a personal note to the solicitation or remove them from the mailing all together.

- What fields are you using to identify major gift prospects who would not otherwise be identified through giving history or a solicitation relationship?

We use attributes to code prospects based on data from a wealth screening. Most of our major gift prospects are in portfolios however.

Let me know if you have other questions!

Marta

Hello Tessiturians -

I'm brand new to Tessitura, and while I'm still in the early gee-I-miss-Raiser's-Edge stage of things, I'm learning - and loving - Tessi more every day.  I'm in a new position at an amazing theater, and as such have the opportunity to build a lot of our systems from the ground-up.

I'd love to have a conversation with a couple of peers who also manage individual giving or major gift programs (preferably - I think - at theaters raising $2-4M, but I'm not going to be picky!) to see how you are structuring things.  Specifically, I'm struggling with the following questions:

- How do you manage solicitor relationships, both through a specific solicitation cycle, and on an ongoing basis?  How do you file and report on contact/call reports?

- How do you report on solicitation activity not tied directly to a financial outcome (e.g. moves management reports)?

- How are you currently managing your major gift prospects within your direct response program?  Do you use suppression lists (and if so, how?)?  Do you identify them in other ways?

- What fields are you using to identify major gift prospects who would not otherwise be identified through giving history or a solicitation relationship?

- What else are you doing particularly well, and would be eager to share with someone brand-new to the software?

Whoever you are, I'd love 10 minutes of your time, either reading your answers here in the forum, or through a phone conversation in the near future.  Thanks in advance for your advice!

warmly,

-Kat

(brand-new Manager of Individual Giving, Westport Country Playhouse)

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Kat,

Hope my answers are somewhat helpful!

- How do you manage solicitor relationships, both through a specific solicitation cycle, and on an ongoing basis?  How do you file and report on contact/call reports?

We file call reports under research documents. They are word documents saved in a shared file on our network. We use the solicitations area to track meetings, phone calls, etc in tasks and would mention in the task note that there is a call report about this particular meeting and/or phone call. All moves are recorded under tasks. For donors where we have not yet identified a campaign and are only growing our relationship with them we use a generic “Portfolio Manager Campaign” to track the relationship. When a campaign is identified we would change that to the appropriate campaign.

- How do you report on solicitation activity not tied directly to a financial outcome (e.g. moves management reports)?

All of our moves management reports are custom. I’ll be presenting on them at the conference!

- How are you currently managing your major gift prospects within your direct response program?  Do you use suppression lists (and if so, how?)?  Do you identify them in other ways?

Depending on the mailing we often suppress any record with a portfolio manager assigned to it (which is assigned through associations). For AF renewal mailings (which are smaller) we’ll email the list of upcoming renewals with portfolio managers highlighted and give them the opportunity to change their ask amount, add a personal note to the solicitation or remove them from the mailing all together.

- What fields are you using to identify major gift prospects who would not otherwise be identified through giving history or a solicitation relationship?

We use attributes to code prospects based on data from a wealth screening. Most of our major gift prospects are in portfolios however.

Let me know if you have other questions!

Marta

Hello Tessiturians -

I'm brand new to Tessitura, and while I'm still in the early gee-I-miss-Raiser's-Edge stage of things, I'm learning - and loving - Tessi more every day.  I'm in a new position at an amazing theater, and as such have the opportunity to build a lot of our systems from the ground-up.

I'd love to have a conversation with a couple of peers who also manage individual giving or major gift programs (preferably - I think - at theaters raising $2-4M, but I'm not going to be picky!) to see how you are structuring things.  Specifically, I'm struggling with the following questions:

- How do you manage solicitor relationships, both through a specific solicitation cycle, and on an ongoing basis?  How do you file and report on contact/call reports?

- How do you report on solicitation activity not tied directly to a financial outcome (e.g. moves management reports)?

- How are you currently managing your major gift prospects within your direct response program?  Do you use suppression lists (and if so, how?)?  Do you identify them in other ways?

- What fields are you using to identify major gift prospects who would not otherwise be identified through giving history or a solicitation relationship?

- What else are you doing particularly well, and would be eager to share with someone brand-new to the software?

Whoever you are, I'd love 10 minutes of your time, either reading your answers here in the forum, or through a phone conversation in the near future.  Thanks in advance for your advice!

warmly,

-Kat

(brand-new Manager of Individual Giving, Westport Country Playhouse)

This message was sent automatically to you by www.tessituranetwork.com because you subscribed to the Tessitura Development Forum. You may reply to this message to post to the Development forum or visit the site to search, read and post to the forums. In the interest of keeping the forum posts from becoming cluttered, we encourage you to delete previous message text from your reply before sending. Thank you!