Moves Management

eTapestry Best Practices: The concept of Moves Management asserts that fundraisers need to manage a series of steps (or "moves") for each prospect. These steps, which vary depending on the individual prospect, will "move" from attention to interest to desire to give. The goal is to move prospects to giving everything they can to your organization.

To incorporate the concepts of Moves Management into eTapestry, you can add the Moves Management fields set. From the Management tab, click User Defined Fields. Under Defined Field Sets, click Add Defined Field Sets.

The list of standard Defined Field sets appears, including the Moves Management set. You can select which fields and/or relationships to create. Fields are then added to the Base category, and you can edit their values.

Moves

Each "move" represents a separate contact with the prospect. Contacts include, but are not limited to, email, phone calls, letters, faxes, face-to-face conversations, and planned events. Most moves represent cultivation steps where a direct solicitation does not occur. For example, if you sit next to a prospect at a dinner party and discuss community issues, one being the focus of your organization. You haven't directly asked the prospect for a donation at this point, but you have cultivated the relationship. The key is to make an impression on the prospect regarding your organization or a giving opportunity.

Moves Statuses fields include “milestones” assigned to a constituent to indicate their current status in the Moves Management process, such as Solicit, Cultivate, Qualify, Stewardship, and Inactive.

Prospect Evaluation Grid (PEG)

The Prospect Evaluation Grid, referred to as "PEG," plots prospects on a grid to measure their financial capability and current interest. Combining the two provides the PEG score, which you can use to rate prospects. Fields relating to the Prospect Evaluation Grid include:

  • Financial Ratings fields: Based on the PEG ratings, these fields are used to classify constituents in regard to their net worth.

  • Gift Rating fields: Used to classify constituents by potential gift amount.

  • Interest Rating fields: Used to classify constituents in regard to their interest and knowledge about your organization.

Coding Moves Management Accounts

Once you have determined who your major gift prospects are, the above codes can be used to classify them appropriately. You can then query, export, and report on these codes.

Using Journal Entries for Moves Management Initiatives

There are three kinds of journal entries that are useful for tracking moves management initiatives: contacts, notes, and calendar events.

The objective of the initiative process is to map the steps you will take to move your prospect from awareness to commitment in simple terms over a period of months. It might start with a center of influence or secondary partner simply mentioning that he or she is very involved with your organization and is interested in your work. These contacts should be added via the relationship page for the prospect and will grow in both frequency and intensity over time. As many contacts and partners should be involved as is practical.

For example, here's how you would create a sample initiative for a constituent:

  • Create a new journal contact for the constituent. This might be an invitation to a dinner party by his primary partner. The desired outcome of the dinner party might be to transmit the partner's belief in and commitment to your organization. The journal contact record would track the date of the invitation, the subject, that it was a personal meeting or meeting at an event, and what the desired and actual outcomes of the dinner party were.

  • Enter notes regarding follow up from the dinner or other information about the constituent. Notes can include the ability to track a date, the note itself, and as with any journal entry, various codes that may relate to that note.

  • Set the dinner party on constituent's calendar. By creating a calendar event for the constituent, you can title the event, set the day and time, whether the event should be public (viewable by all users) or private (only available to the originator and other attendees of the event). You can also add notes as to what happened at the event or any other relevant information.

Repeat this process for all initiatives you would like to track. All of these entries show in the journal page of the constituent's account, which allows you to track the invitation, notes, and event information regarding this initiative.

Adding Moves Management Relationships

A constituent in the Moves Management process will have several key relationships with people related or supportive of your organization. These relationships are coded in eTapestry as a center of influence, primary natural partner, or secondary natural partner. Tracking these relationships is vital to acquiring a major gift.

  • Center of Influence/Major gift donor: Centers of influence include people in a prospect's network or circle of friends, often personal friends, colleagues, and acquaintances. These are all people who can provide information to you about the prospect. Centers of influence may have active relationships with the prospect or they might have known each other in the past.

  • Primary Partner/Major gift donor: Primary natural partners have a role in building a productive relationship with the prospect. There is one primary natural partner for each prospect. Natural partners can provide information that help you develop a strategy for your moves. Natural partners also help cultivate the relationship with the prospect.

  • Secondary partner/Major gift donor: Secondary natural partners also have a role in building relationships with prospects, but while there is only one primary natural partner for each prospect, there are often many secondary natural partners.

These fields will be added to the relationship types and are used to classify types of relationships between your solicitors and constituents.

Reporting on Moves Management

There are several ways within eTapestry you can report on information regarding your moves management accounts. Please refer to the eTapestry help for specific information regarding each of these options.

  • Journal: Within the journal you can select to view only contacts, notes and calendar events. Printing this page will give you the journal entries that have been entered for that constituent.

  • Export: The export feature of eTapestry allows you great flexibility in reporting. Within the export you can select which fields are important to you, and export only that information. By then merging this into a word processor or spreadsheet, you can create customized reports for yourself, board member or volunteers.

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