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Review your Opportunities and Fundraising Management

Jessica Abejar
Jessica Abejar
  • Updated

This article will cover how to review your organization’s use of the Opportunities Interface and other features and tools in Spektrix which are used for fundraising management. 

This article is a great starting point for assessing your organization’s current fundraising management processes and how you can best utilize Spektrix’s features in the Opportunities Interface to achieve your desired outcomes. 

TIP: If you’d like to further explore ways to better use your Spektrix system for your fundraising initiatives, we recommend a consultation with our Fundraising Specialists.

In this article, we’ll look at editing, setting up and/or tidying the following features:

TIP: To access the Opportunities Interface, you’ll need the Opportunities User and/or the Opportunities Administrator User Roles. If you don’t have these User Roles, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add the roles.

 

Evaluate Your Current Processes

Take a look at your current fundraising processes. Consider if your strategic needs have changed since you set up your system.

If your processes have changed, you may need to update the following elements.

  • Opportunity Stages: Stages that track how close you are towards receiving a Donation linked to an Opportunity.
  • Activities and Activity Types: The steps taken or planned towards an Opportunity as well as other day-to-day tasks and how they are classified.
  • Campaign Structure: The structure of your Campaigns, Sub-campaigns and Sub-sub-campaigns that help you organize, set targets and assign accountability for your fundraising initiatives.

 

Opportunity Stages

Opportunity Stages track how close you are towards receiving a Donation linked to an Opportunity.

Example Opportunity Stages.

Consider the following when evaluating your Opportunity Stages:

  • Do your Opportunity Stages accurately reflect how you describe the status of a prospect?
  • Do all your team members use the same terms and workflow?
  • Do you need more or less granularity in Reports?
  • Can you estimate your default probabilities of success in each Stage?

There are five standard Stages in the system based on a classic "moves management" approach to fundraising:

  1. Research
  2. Involve
  3. Cultivate
  4. Confirm
  5. Thank

If you determine that you’d like to make changes to your Opportunities Stages, including renaming, reordering, adding or removing Stages, you can follow the instructions in Setting Up and Editing Opportunity Stages in the Introduction to Opportunities and Opportunity Stages article.

REMINDER: Any changes you make are universal and will apply across all Opportunities, in all Campaigns, for all users at your organization.

When removing any Opportunity Stages, you’ll be prompted to select a new Stage for any Opportunities in that Stage.

For more information on Opportunities and Opportunity Stages, take a look at the following articles:

 

Activities and Activity Types

Activities are used to track steps taken or planned towards an Opportunity, as well as other day-to-day tasks.

The Activities tab in the Pinboard.

Activity Types are used to classify the kind of task they represent. For example, an Email or a Meeting.

Consider the following when evaluating your Activity Types:

  • Do you use all of the Activity Types in your system?
  • Which Activity Types are used most frequently?
  • When Reporting, would you like to be more or less specific?

To assist with your evaluation you can run the Activities Report (detailed) and/or the Activities Timeline with User Breakdown (Excel Formatted) to view your most and least used Activity Types. You may also identify Activity Types that are missing.

If you determine that you’d like to make changes, including renaming, adding or removing Activity Types, you can follow the instructions in Creating and Editing Activity Types in Introduction to Activities and Activity Types.

REMINDER: When an Activity Type’s name is edited, it will only affect new Activities. Any Activities that already exist with the edited Activity Type will retain its previous name.

When an Activity Type is deleted, it will no longer be available to use. However, any existing Activities with the deleted Activity Type will still retain that type. A deleted Activity Type cannot be added to a new Activity.

 

Using the Bcc Function

You can use the Bcc function to automatically record emails as Activities. For more information, read Automatically Record Emails in Activities Using the Bcc Function.

Make sure that every User you’d like to use the Bcc function has generated a Bcc email address.

REMINDER: The Bcc functionality will only work for Opportunities Users. Attempting to generate a Bcc email address for a non-Opportunities User and sending emails with that Bcc email address will result in Activities not being created. The sending email address should match the email address of the User.

Later in this article, we’ll take a look at tidying the Activities Dashboard and the Pinboard.

For even more information on Activities and Activity Types, take a look at the following articles:

 

Campaign Structure

Campaigns track and organize the way revenue is brought into your organization. Campaign Structures help you organize, set targets and assign accountability for your fundraising initiatives.

Example Campaign structure.

Consider the following when evaluating your Campaign Structure:

  • Is it easy for your team to designate Donations appropriately? 
  • Do you need more or less specificity? 
  • Are your Campaigns helping you easily Report on progress? 
  • Are you able to Report on both past performance and future targets?

If you determine that you’d like to make changes to your Campaign Structure, you can edit, deactivate or delete Campaigns, Sub-campaigns and/or Sub-sub-campaigns by following the instructions in Setting Up and Editing Campaigns.

TIP: You can also update targets, start and end dates and accounting codes.

We also recommend reading through Planning your Campaign Structure to help plan your Campaigns, Sub-campaigns and Sub-sub-campaigns.

REMINDER: If you change your Campaigns or Structures, make sure you update the Default Campaign on your Funds and Memberships. You won’t be able to deactivate or delete Campaigns if they are the default Campaign associated with any Funds or Memberships. You also won’t be able to delete Campaigns if they’re linked to any Opportunities.

For more information on Campaigns and Campaign Structures, take a look at the following articles:

 

Tidying Your Dashboards and Pinboard

We recommend routinely tidying up areas of your Opportunities Interface including:

 

Opportunities Dashboard and Bulk Updating Opportunities

Your Opportunities Dashboard should reflect the asks that you’re actively pursuing. 

The Opportunities Dashboard.

We recommend taking the following actions to tidy up your Opportunities Dashboard:

TIP: You can use the search function to filter your Opportunities and help you tidy the Opportunities Dashboard.

  • Update Opportunities to accurately reflect their current Opportunity Stage
  • Close outdated or outstanding Opportunities
  • Update the Campaigns linked to Opportunities, especially if you’ve made any changes to the Campaign Structure
  • Reassign owners for Opportunities where the ownership has changed

 

Bulk Updating Opportunities

While you can individually edit and close each open Opportunity, you can also bulk update Opportunities. Follow the instructions in Bulk Updating Opportunities in Managing and Closing Opportunities.

TIP: We recommend using the update multiple Opportunities feature to close Opportunities in bulk, for example, to close Opportunities when a Campaign has ended.

For more information on the Opportunities Dashboard, take a look at the following articles:

 

Activities Dashboard and Pinboard

Next, take a look at your Activities Dashboard to ensure everything is up to date.

The Activities Dashboard.

We recommend taking the following actions to tidy up your Activities Dashboard:

TIP: You can use the search function to filter your Activities and help you tidy the Activities Dashboard.

  • Check for any Activities with missed deadlines (dates that appear in red)
  • Mark outstanding Activities as complete
  • Reassign the owners of any Activities where the ownership has changed

 

Activities in the Pinboard

Check the Activities tab on your pinboard for any Unsaved Activities.

Unsaved Activities in the Pinboard.

 

Unsaved Activities are Activities that are still in draft mode or have changes that haven’t been saved since last edited.

If a newly created Activity hasn’t been saved, it will not appear in any Activities Reports. If an existing Activity has any unsaved changes, those changes also won’t appear in Activities Reports.

You can check for any Activities that have missed deadlines, with dates appearing in red, in the Pinboard.

 

Adding Multiple Activities to Opportunities

You can add multiple Activities to Opportunities in the Opportunities Dashboard. Follow the instructions in Adding Multiple Activities in Creating and Managing Activities.

TIP: You can use Activities to set reminders to move, close or edit Opportunities.or example, setting an Activity as a reminder to close Opportunities at the end of a fiscal year.

For more information on the Activities Dashboard, take a look at the following articles:

 

Creating tabs

Saved search tabs can be used to save searches that you commonly make on the Opportunities and Activities Dashboards. You can create saved searches so that they are easy to access whenever you log onto the Opportunities Interface. 

For example, you can create tabs for all Opportunities linked to Campaigns that you manage, or all Activities assigned to you. 

Saved Opportunities tab.

REMINDER: The saved search tab is only visible to the User who created it. Any new Opportunities or Activities that fit the search tab criteria will automatically be added to the saved search tab.

For more information on creating saved tabs, take a look at the following sections in Introduction to the Opportunities Interface: 

 

Creating multiple Opportunities

Opportunities can be created in bulk from a Customer List. This can be useful when it’s time to create a number of new Opportunities, for example at the start of a new fiscal year.

Creating Opportunities in bulk from a Customer List.

Follow the instructions in Bulk Creating Opportunities in Creating Opportunities. 

TIP: Creating Opportunities in bulk takes place in the Insights & Mailings Interface. In order to navigate to and access the Insights & Mailings Interface you’ll need the Insights & Mailings User role. If you don’t have this user role, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add the Insights & Mailings User role.

In Customer Lists, you can identify prospects by using Segments based on previous Opportunities or Donations. Here are some examples of ways you could do this:

  • Use an Opportunity segment to find Customers who had Opportunities in the previous year’s Campaign. You can include criteria such as Received Amount to only identify Donors who donated towards that ask. For a list of available metrics to use as criteria, take a look at the Segmentation section in Managing and Closing Opportunities.
  • Find first time high-level Donors by combining different Purchasing segments. Create a Purchasing segment looking for Donors from the past year with a minimum Donation value (for example, cumulative $1000). Then, combine it with another Purchasing segment looking for NOT donated in the previous years.

Along with creating multiple Opportunities, you can create and link an Activity to the newly created Opportunities.

REMINDER: When you add Opportunities in bulk, the Customers will have identical Opportunities with the same details. For example, the Opportunities will have the same Owner and Campaign. You can edit these Opportunities individually later.

If you also add an Activity, the details you enter will be applied to all of the Activities you create. For example, each Activity will have the same Activity Date and Priority. You can edit these Activities individually later.

For more information about bulk creating Opportunities, including more information on different Segments and metrics to use, take a look at the following articles:

 

Reports and Reporting Schedules

Scheduled Reports can be used to ensure your team gets key information and updates.

Scheduled Reports.

To learn more, read our article on Report Schedules.

TIP: Creating Reporting Schedules takes place in the Insights & Mailings Interface. In order to navigate to and access the Insights & Mailings Interface you’ll need the Insights & Mailings User role. If you don’t have this user role, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add the Insights & Mailings User role.

Here are some recommended Standard Reports that your fundraising team could put on a Report Schedule:

  • Activities Report (detailed): Keep the whole team informed about upcoming Activities and cultivation tasks. We recommend delivering this Report at the beginning of each week, or month, and including a Critieria Set of upcoming, incomplete Activities.

    activities-report-detailed

  • Donations Report: Scheduling regular Donations Reports can keep the whole team informed of the Donations received and logged in your Spektrix system. We also recommend sending this Report to senior stakeholders to keep everyone informed about what gifts have been received.

    donations-report.png

  • Campaign Summary: Keep track of your progress towards goals and the forecasted income for your Campaigns. Each team member can have a unique Report schedule to receive Reports for the Campaigns they are focused on.

    An example of the Campaign Summary Report.

You can also create Report Schedules for any Custom Reports on your Spektrix system.

For more information on Reports and Report Schedules, including other available Standard Reports, take a look at the following articles:

 

Transactions and Processing Donations

Make sure you’re capturing accurate transaction information when Processing Donations. For example, use Accounting Date to reflect the date when a Donation is received and use Soft Credits to credit all Customers recognized for the Donation.

Processing Donations

TIP: Processing Donations can take place in both the Opportunities Interface and Sales Interface. You’ll need the Opportunities User role for the Opportunities Interface. You’ll need the Sales User role for the Sales Interface. If you don’t have either of these User roles, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add these roles.

Your organization may consider the following when evaluating how you process Donations:

  • Soft Credits can be used to ensure credit for donations is shared across all relevant Customer Records. This includes crediting spouses, matching gifts and Donor Advised Funds.

    A Donation with Soft Credits.

  • If you haven’t already, look into implementing Accounting Date so that you can record an accurate gift date for reconciliation and reporting.

    Changing the Accounting Date in the

  • Confirmation Text Attributes let you add quick custom messaging to confirmation emails. This means you can tailor your acknowledgement message for Donors. You can add the Confirmation Text Attribute to different Funds and Memberships so that specific Donations and purchases have a custom message.

    Sample Confirmation text.

For more information on processing Donations including information on other features to consider when processing Donations, take a look at the following articles:

 

CRM Features and Customer Data

Make sure your Customer data tools are accurate and include any updated Campaigns and transaction details.

 

Auto Tags

Review your Auto Tags to ensure they match your Donation levels and have the correct criteria.

Example Donor Tags.

TIP: Setting up Auto Tags takes place in the Admin Interface. You’ll need the General Administrator role. If you don’t have this User role, contact a Settings Administrator in your organization to edit your User Account and add this role.

Your organization may consider the following when evaluating your Auto Tags:

For more information on creating Auto Tags, including more information on different Segments and metrics to use, take a look at the following articles:

 

Customer Groups

You can also create Customer Groups to quickly identify VIPs, major donors, and prospects to box office staff and front of house staff.

 

Example Customer Groups.

Customer Groups will appear in the Sales Interface, the Opportunities Interface and the Scanning Interface.

Example Customer with a Customer Group border.

Customer Groups use Customer Eligibility, so we recommend using Auto Tags for Customer Eligibility to apply these for your Donors.

Read Customer Groups for more information.

 

Consultations and Further Reading

You now have the information you need to review your Opportunities and fundraising management.

If you’d like to further explore ways to better use your Spektrix system for your fundraising initiatives, we recommend a consultation with our Support Team.

You may also want to consider a System Efficiencies Check to tidy up the data in your system. Read System Efficiencies: Analysing your data for more information.