The fundraising program at many non-profits feels unorganized, even to the staff. This is particularly true at smaller organizations, but it is often the case even at larger charities. This disorganization usually stems from the fact that the majority of non-profits are understaffed and trying to do too many things at once, rather than focusing only on those tasks that will result in the highest ROI.
The cure for disorganized fundraising programs is systemization. By building systems for each of your key development strategies, you’ll always know where you stand, what goals you need to reach, and what tasks come next for each member of your team. When it comes to major donor fundraising, the most essential system to implement is a moves management system.
What is “Moves Management?”
In short, moves management is a strategic approach for guiding new prospects through the donor funnel… moving them from first engagement to long-term major supporters of the organization through a series of deliberate interactions. A moves management strategy helps non-profits move donors from identification, qualification, and cultivation to the initial ask, recurring asks, and larger asks.
The “moves” portion of the term comes from the idea that turning prospects into long-term givers requires a number of “moves,” or donor interactions that fundraisers also call “donor touches.” Each of these touches should be meaningful and should help move the donor further down the donor funnel.
A moves management system helps to systemize this process by identifying major donors and major donor prospects, tracking each interaction with these donors, and setting goals for both continued cultivation and upcoming asks. This last part is essential: everything you do in terms of moves management should be focused on the ultimate goal of making the next ask to each donor. Identification, qualification, cultivation, and stewardship are all important because they lead to more asks, and presumably more (and bigger) gifts for your non-profit.
Setting Up Your Moves Management System
Many non-profits avoid setting up a moves management system because they think it is time-consuming, cumbersome, and restrictive. The truth is, it can be all of those things. But it doesn’t need to be. You can set up an effective moves management system in an hour that leads to more and larger gifts for your organization.
Some (but not all) donor CRMs include moves management capabilities. If yours does, great… so long as it is not overly complicated. A moves management system should be simple to use and to deploy. If your CRM includes a complex moves management module and you are worried about using it, you can always default to a simple system you create in Excel or another tool.
You don’t need to track every little bit of data about each major donor in your moves management interface. That’s what your donor database is for. To be effective, all you really need to track in your moved management system are the following fields:
- Donor First Name
- Donor Last Name
- Donor Status (Prospect, Current, Lapsed, Declined, or On Hold)
- Last Action Taken
- Last Action Taken Date
- Next Action
- Next Action Target Date
- Next Action Assigned To
- Target Ask Amount
- Target Ask Date
- Action History Notes
It’s that simple. Some organizations also track contact information in their moves management interface (which may already be tracked in their CRM). Some also track Last Gift Date, Last Gift Amount, Largest Gift Date, and Largest Gift Amount.
As you can see, this information can easily be tracked in your donor database, or in Excel, or in my preferred tool, AirTable. This is the tool we use with our clients, even if they already have a great CRM in place, because it is an effective way to create a moves management dashboard for major gift officers and others performing major gifts outreach. (Best of all, for most organizations, it is free to use.)
Using Your Moves Management System Effectively
If you want your moves management system to be effective, you have to use it. You’d be surprised how many organizations set up a system and then continue doing things by the seat of their pants.
I always tell major gift officers and development directors that the best way to use the system is to ensure that the last step, next step, and target ask (with the corresponding date fields) are filled out for every major donor and major prospect. Your major gift fundraisers should be in the system every day, sorting (or reporting) by next step date, which will allow them to stay on target with their donor touches.
Remember… you don’t need to put every donor and prospect into your moves management system. The only donors who need their touches monitored through the system are major donors, and those with the capacity to be major donors in the future. This means including any donor who is on a major gifts caseload or whom you want to meet with for a one-on-one conversation at least once per year.
Implementing a moves management system for your major donors doesn’t need to be a hassle. You can do it today, and it can make all the difference for your major donor fundraising program.
Photo Credit: Sabine Kroschel from Pixabay
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