Opportunities in Fundraising and Engagement
From prospect to grant, pledge, or donation, opportunity management is the process within Fundraising and Engagement that helps users manage any type of opportunity an organization needs to track and manage. An opportunity process is intended to support the request, or ask, that leads to a myriad of outcomes, including a major gift, corporate sponsorship, or a grant.
In the navigation pane, select Development from the Change area menu. Then, under Prospecting, select Opportunities.
Create an opportunity
Creating an opportunity is a two-step process. The first step is to identify a potential donor or prospect for the pipeline using the Add to Discovery option. This signifies the donor could become a future opportunity. The user can decide whether the individual in discovery should proceed as a real opportunity for the organization.
Once the prospect is identified as an opportunity, the second step is to add them to the opportunity process:
In the contact or organization record.
In the middle of the Summary tab, select Add to opportunity to create a new opportunity record.
You can also add an opportunity from a view of Opportunities.
In the navigation pane, under Prospecting select Opportunities.
In the view that opens, select New on the action pane.
Fill in the required fields. These are marked with a red asterisk (*).
Select Save on the action pane.
Opportunity process
The process of managing an opportunity from beginning to end is tracked in the solution with a sequential series of stages.
The stages of the opportunity process are displayed at the top of the opportunity form as an interactive map that represents the workflow stages a user goes through to obtain a gift or grant. You can configure the process to match your organization’s opportunity workflow.
Note
The stages detailed below may not represent the workflow of your organization.
The process map shows each stage as a circle. A completed stage contains a check mark and the current stage contains a dot. To the left is the number of days the opportunity has been active.
To move between the different stages, on the process map select the stage, and then:
- Select Next Stage to move forward, or
- Select the back arrow (<) to move backward.
If you see a warning at the top of the opportunity record that mentions project-based records, select the menu just under the opportunity name, and then select the name of the current stage.
Note
To close out an opportunity, select either Close as Won or Close as Lost on the action pane. You can't close the opportunity by proceeding through the phases and closing the opportunity.
Summary
The Summary tab displays information about how the contact, organization account, and household account relate to the opportunity.
Note
These fields aren't mandatory but intended to assist users with quickly identifying relevant information regarding an Opportunity.
| # | Field | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Topic | Used to add a custom name to the opportunity. |
| 2 | Potential Donor | A lookup to the contact or organization record to identify who is associated with the opportunity. |
| 3 | Currency | Represents the currency of this opportunity, to ensure that the budget is reported in the correct currency. |
| 4 | Est. Revenue | Represents the estimated amount or gift value for this solicitation. It will eventually be passed to the gift record if this solicitation transitions to a gift. |
| 5 | Decision Process | Choose whether an individual or committee will be involved in the donation or purchase process for the lead. |
| 6 | Description | Used to add additional information to describe the opportunity for the prospect. |
| 7 | Source Campaign | Represents the related potential campaign that this opportunity will be associated with. |
| 8 | Appeal | Represents the related appeal that this opportunity will be associated with. |
| 9 | Package | Represents the related package that this opportunity will be associated with. |
| 10 | Default Designation | Represents the potential designation that a gift might be directed toward. The designation might change over the course of the opportunity, and the user can change this again, once it transitions to a gift. |
| 11 | Solicitor | Represents the related staff who has been assigned to the related contact or organization. |
| 12 | Solicitation Type | Show the giving type being solicited, such as Renewal or Additional, or the communication medium used to reach the donor, such as TV, radio, or raffle. This value is copied from the associated campaign at gift creation and can be manually changed if necessary. |
| 13 | Est. Close Date | Represents the expected close date of the opportunity, to help make an accurate revenue forecast. |
| 14 | Primary Objective | Represents the primary objective of this opportunity. |
| 15 | Opportunity Manager | Represents the staff associated with the opportunity. This might be a different individual than the solicitor. |
| 16 | Event | This field represents the related event that the opportunity is supporting. |
| 17 | Expected Amount | Represents the expected giving amount of the opportunity. |
Preferences
The information on the Preferences tab is meant to aid the organization in identifying the topics or subject matter that the contact or organization prefers to support.
The Existing Preferences section can be used to add any existing preferences associated with the contact or organization. Simply select the blue arrow to add an existing preference.
Also, the Opportunity Preferences section can be used to create preferences. Add the field description, an objective, and the opportunity relation, and then select the save (blue disk) icon. A new opportunity preference will be created.
Reporting Plan
With the Reporting Plan tab, users can input and track deliverables and associated deadlines for an opportunity.
Create new reporting plan item
To create a new reporting plan item, fill in the fields Due Date, Title, Description, Types, Objective, Responsibility, and Status. Then select the save (blue disk) icon as indicated below. As soon as the record is created, the field No Reports will be updated automatically with the sum of reports created.
Update existing reporting plan item
To update an existing reporting plan, select the edit (yellow) icon. The fields Due Date, Title, Description, Types, Objective, Responsibility, and Status will be editable.
Remove existing reporting plan item
To delete an existing reporting plan, select the delete (trash can) icon and the reporting plan will be deleted.
Stage history
The Stage History tab shows users the opportunity progression of the stages. Here the user can see when each opportunity started, finished, the number of days each opportunity has been active, and the number of activities created.
Designation plan
The purpose of the designation plan is to forecast and manage opportunity-related payments. The designation plan, as displayed on the Designation Plan tab, consists of a series of dates that define when payments will be made and to what specific area of the nonprofit organization as specified by the donor. If no designation is applied, organizations will place the funds into their general operating budget and areas of greatest fundraising need.
Add designation line
To create a designation plan item, complete the available fields, select the designation that you want to use, and specify the date of the donation and the amount or percentage.
If you select an amount, the percentage field (%) is calculated automatically. If you type a percentage, the field amount will be updated automatically.
If you want to add another designation line, select the plus sign (+) and a new line will appear.
Remove designation line
If you want to remove one existing designation line, select the minus sign (-) and the selected designation line will be removed.
Split designation line
If you want to split one existing designation line, select the down arrow icon. A new designation line will appear under the selected designation.
In the split designation line, users can select the new designation that will be used, the amount, and the percentage of this designation.
Note
Similar to adding a designation line, if users select an amount, the field percentage will be calculated automatically, or if the user types a percentage, the field amount will be updated automatically. But, in this case, the amount cannot be greater than the parent designation amount, and the percentage cannot be greater than 100% of the parent designation amount.
Create a donor commitment
To create a donor commitment, the opportunity record should already have a designation plan created. Confirm that Estimated Close Date, Expected Amount, and Campaign fields have been completed on the Summary tab, and then select Save. Then follow these steps:
Select Set Committed.
Create Donor Commitment appears on the action pane.
Select Create Donor Commitment. The solution creates the donor commitment automatically.
Validate donor commitments
To validate donor commitments that have been created, go to the Related tab, and then select Donor Commitment.
The donor commitment grid shows all donor commitments associated with the opportunity record.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator in an opportunity
When viewing an opportunity, the LinkedIn Sales Navigator section functions the same way that it functions for a contact, embedding up-to-date information about the contact from LinkedIn. More information: LinkedIn Sales Navigator in Contacts