Back to Premium Features

Prospect Cultivation Workflow

As a fundraiser, you manage a portfolio of prospects at different stages — some you haven't reached out to yet, some you're actively cultivating, and some who are close to making a gift. Keeping track of prospects at every stage, tracking interactions, and planning outreach can be one of the most time consuming parts of the job. Premium features in Raiser's Edge NXT can help streamline this work. This tutorial shows you how to use four premium features together as a repeatable cycle that keeps your pipeline moving without letting anyone fall through the cracks.

The four features and how they connect:

• Optimized Opportunities identifies which prospects in your portfolio are being under-asked or are missing opportunities entirely, and recommends ask amounts based on their giving capacity.

• Action Plans (powered by Chat for Blackbaud AI) builds a structured cultivation sequence for each opportunity — a series of touchpoints working backward from your ask date so nothing gets skipped.

• Action Strategies prepares you for each conversation by surfacing donor context, recent activity, and a recommendation about whether to proceed, pause, or cancel the outreach.

• Chat for Blackbaud AI is your research assistant and writing partner throughout the process — available anytime you need a quick summary, a drafted email, or a strategy suggestion.

A note on where these live: Prospect insights is the navigation area where you manage your portfolio and pipeline using predictive analytics. Optimized Opportunities is the capability within Prospect insights that identifies under-asked prospects and recommends ask amounts. Undergiving is the specific queue, within Prospect insights, where you act on those Optimized Opportunities recommendations. This tutorial uses all three names consistently, so keep this hierarchy in mind: Prospect insights (area) → Optimized Opportunities (capability) → Undergiving (queue).

Together, these features create a cycle: Identify who needs attention → Plan the cultivation sequence → Prepare for each conversation → Reach out → Track outcomes → Repeat.

Note: Recommendations and generated content from Optimized Opportunities, Action Plans, Action Strategies, and Chat for Blackbaud AI are informed by data and patterns — not mandates or finished work. Apply your relationship knowledge, and verify details like gift amounts, dates, and names before using them with donors.

Before You Begin

Audience: Fundraisers who manage an active prospect portfolio.

Prerequisite: This tutorial assumes Optimized Opportunities, Action Plans, Action Strategies, and Chat for Blackbaud AI are already set up in your environment. If not, complete Get Started with Premium Features first.

Time: Allow 30–45 minutes to work through this tutorial once. After that, the daily rhythm takes 15–20 minutes and the weekly review takes 30–60 minutes.

Identify who needs your attention

Before you can cultivate a prospect, you need to know who in your portfolio is ready for outreach but isn't getting it. Some donors have no active opportunity at all. Others have an opportunity, but the ask amount no longer reflects what they're capable of giving. Without a systematic way to surface these gaps, you're relying on memory — and prospects slip through.

The Undergiving queue in Prospect insights solves this by using Optimized Opportunities to rank your assigned prospects based on how far below their target giving level they are. The Optimization status filter narrows it further — showing you exactly who is missing an opportunity, who has a stale ask amount, or who has an opportunity but no plan to work it.

1. Go to Portfolio, then select Prospect insights, then Undergiving.

2. Select Add filter and search for Optimization status. This filter groups prospects by what's missing:

   • No opportunity — The prospect has giving capacity but no active opportunity on their record. They need one created.

   • Ask below capacity — An opportunity exists, but the ask amount is lower than what the prospect is predicted to give. The opportunity needs updating.

   • No action plan — An opportunity exists with the right ask amount, but there's no cultivation sequence to work it. An action plan is the next step.

3. Start at the top of the list. Prospects are ordered by priority — those closest to their target gift range (the ask amount range Optimized Opportunities predicts this prospect can give) and most likely to respond to solicitation appear first.

4. For each prospect, open their record and look at the Prospect management section. Review their target gift range, recent giving history, and any engagement signals (events attended, emails opened, recent interactions).

5. Decide what this prospect needs based on their optimization status: a new opportunity, an updated ask amount, or an action plan. The next sections walk you through each scenario.

Tip: Make this a weekly habit. Set aside 30–60 minutes at the start of your week to review the Undergiving queue. You'll add a few new prospects to your active pipeline each week without letting your existing cultivation work fall behind.

Set the right ask amount

A well-calibrated ask is one of the strongest predictors of whether a prospect will give. Ask too low and you leave money on the table — the donor gives what you asked for, not what they could have given. Ask too high and you risk the relationship — the donor feels pressured or disconnected from your organization's work. Optimized Opportunities recommends amounts based on the donor's actual giving capacity, not guesswork.

There are two scenarios you'll encounter in the Undergiving queue: prospects who need a new opportunity created, and prospects whose existing opportunity needs a higher ask amount.

If no opportunity exists

1. From the prospect's record, select Add opportunity in the Prospect management section.

2. Optimized Opportunities populates three recommended values:

   • Ask amount — An aspirational target within the donor's predicted capacity. This is the amount you'll work toward in your cultivation.

   • Expected amount — A more conservative estimate based on the lower end of their giving range or their recent cumulative giving. This helps with pipeline forecasting.

   • Deadline — Typically aligned to your fiscal year end, giving you a timeframe to work backward from when planning your outreach.

3. Review these recommendations against what you know about the donor. Consider their relationship with your organization, any conversations you've had about their giving intentions, and whether the timing makes sense given their other commitments.

4. Adjust the amounts based on your relationship knowledge, if needed.

5. Save the opportunity. A confirmation message appears with an option to create an action plan — you'll use this in the next step.

If an opportunity exists but the ask is below capacity

1. Open the existing opportunity on the prospect's record.

2. Look for the Accept recommendations option. This appears when Optimized Opportunities has calculated that the current ask amount is below what the donor is likely capable of giving.

3. Review the recommended updates — the new ask amount, expected amount, and deadline.

4. Accept the recommendations or adjust them based on your judgment, then save.

Note: As always, apply your relationship knowledge before accepting a recommendation.

For details on how recommendations are calculated, see Getting Started with Optimized Opportunities.

Build a cultivation sequence

An opportunity without a plan is just a number on a record. The difference between prospects who close and prospects who stall is usually a structured sequence of touchpoints — each one building on the last, moving the relationship toward the ask. Without a plan, it's easy to go too long between contacts, skip a step, or show up to a meeting without context on what happened last time.

Action Plans uses Chat for Blackbaud AI to generate a cultivation sequence tailored to your specific opportunity. It works backward from your ask deadline, spacing out calls, emails, meetings, and other touchpoints so the donor is engaged consistently throughout the cultivation period.

Create the plan from an opportunity

1. After saving a new opportunity (or updating an existing one), look for the confirmation message that says Create an action plan for this opportunity. Select it.

2. Chat for Blackbaud AI opens with the opportunity already in context — it knows the constituent, the ask amount, and the deadline.

3. Chat generates a sequence of up to seven steps. Each step includes a suggested date, an action type (phone call, email, meeting, mailing), and a brief description of the purpose — for example, "Introductory call to reconnect and learn about current interests" or "Follow-up email with impact report related to their giving area."

4. Read through the full sequence. Ask yourself: Does this match how I'd naturally cultivate this donor? Is the pacing right? Are the touchpoint types appropriate for this relationship?

Refine the plan before committing

The generated plan is a starting point. You can — and should — iterate on it in the chat conversation before adding anything to the opportunity record.

1. If a step doesn't fit the relationship, ask Chat to adjust it. For example:

   • "Replace the introductory call with a handwritten note — I already know this donor well."

   • "Add a step to invite them to our upcoming gala before the ask meeting."

   • "Move all the steps two weeks earlier — our fiscal year deadline is sooner than the default."

   • "Remove the email step — this donor prefers phone calls."

2. Chat regenerates the sequence with your changes. Review again until the plan reflects how you actually work with this donor.

3. When you're satisfied, confirm to add the steps. You can choose to apply them all at once or review and apply each one individually.

4. The steps appear as actions on the opportunity record. From here, they work like any other actions — you can edit dates, update descriptions, reorder them, or delete steps that become unnecessary as the relationship evolves.

Create a plan directly in Chat

You don't have to start from the Undergiving queue. You can create action plans anytime by opening Chat for Blackbaud AI and describing what you need:

• While viewing an opportunity record, open Chat — it picks up the context automatically.

• From anywhere in Raiser's Edge NXT, describe the situation: "Create an action plan for my opportunity with an ask amount of $25,000 and a deadline of December 15."

• Include details that help Chat build a better plan: the donor's communication preferences, how long you've known them, or what stage the relationship is at.

Tip: Include your ask amount and deadline in the prompt even if Chat already has context. Plans are calibrated to the gift size — a $5,000 annual fund ask gets a different sequence than a $100,000 major gift. The deadline determines how steps are spaced.

For details, see Getting Started with Action Plans.

Prepare for today's conversations

Every conversation with a donor is an opportunity to deepen the relationship — but only if you show up prepared. Knowing what they gave last year, what event they attended last month, or that they have an active opportunity with another fundraiser at your organization changes how you approach the call. Without preparation, you risk asking questions they've already answered or missing signals that would change your approach.

Action Strategies does this preparation for you. Each morning, it pulls together everything you need to know for the actions due in your queue — recent donor activity, key signals, communication preferences, related opportunities — and provides a recommendation about whether now is the right time to reach out.

Start your day in Work Center

1. Go to Work Center and select Prepare for actions. You can also access this from the My actions tile on your Home page.

2. Your queue shows actions ordered by urgency — overdue actions first, then actions due today, then upcoming ones. Use the date filter to focus on a specific timeframe (this week works well for planning).

3. Select the first action in your queue to open the strategy view.

Understand the recommendation

Each action gets one of three recommendations — signals, not instructions, based on what the system knows about the donor's current situation:

• Proceed — No red flags. The timing is good, the donor is engaged, and you should go ahead with the outreach as planned.

• Pause — Something has changed that might affect your timing. A recent gift just came in, an opportunity status changed, or another fundraiser recently contacted this donor. Review the highlighted signals and decide whether to adjust your approach or timing.

• Cancel — A governance reason exists not to reach out through this channel. The donor may have opted out of the communication type, a solicitation code (a record flag that restricts how or whether a constituent can be solicited) may be active, or there's another reason the outreach shouldn't happen. Review the reason and determine the right next step.

Review donor context

1. Read the constituent highlights. Action Strategies surfaces the most relevant context for this specific action: recent gifts, lifetime giving, related opportunities, and any recent interactions with your organization.

2. Check the related action plan summary if one exists. This shows where this action sits in the broader cultivation sequence — what happened in the previous step and what's coming next. Knowing the arc helps you frame the conversation.

3. Note the donor's communication preferences. If they prefer morning calls, or if previous interactions happened by email, factor that into when and how you reach out.

Generate content for the action

1. Select the content type you need for this action:

   • Talking points — For phone calls. Key topics to cover, questions to ask, and relevant context to reference.

   • Meeting agenda — For in-person meetings. A structured outline with topics, time estimates, and suggested discussion points.

   • Email draft — For written outreach. A complete draft you can edit and send.

2. Review the generated content — it doesn't know your voice.

3. Adjust the language, tone, and specifics before you use it. Add personal details that only you know — a shared interest, a recent conversation topic, or a reference to something they mentioned last time.

Tip: If a strategy recommends pausing, don't automatically skip the action. Read the highlighted signals. A recent gift might mean you should call to say thank you instead of making an ask. An active solicitation code might mean another team member is handling something — coordinate rather than cancel.

Go deeper with Chat

If the strategy gives you enough context, proceed with the action. But for high-stakes conversations — a major gift ask, a first meeting with a new prospect, or a donor who's been unresponsive — you may want more.

1. Open Chat for Blackbaud AI from anywhere in Raiser's Edge NXT (select the sparkle icon in the top navigation).

2. Ask for what you need. Examples:

   • "Summarize this constituent's giving history over the last 3 years."

   • "What's a good opening for a call with a donor I haven't spoken to in 6 months?"

   • "What are the key points I should cover in a meeting about increasing their annual gift?"

   • "Draft a brief voicemail script for a follow-up after our event last week."

3. Use the response as preparation, not a script.

For details, see Getting Started with Action Strategies.

Complete the action and capture what happened

Closing the loop after every conversation keeps your data accurate and ensures the next step in your cultivation plan is already queued. It also means that Action Strategies has better context for your next interaction — if you note that a donor mentioned an upcoming trip, that detail is available next time you prepare.

1. After the conversation, return to Work Center and open the action you just completed.

2. Mark the action as complete.

3. Add notes about what happened — what the donor said, what you committed to, any concerns they raised, or signals about their readiness to give. These notes feed into future strategies.

4. If the conversation revealed something that changes your plan — the donor mentioned they're not ready to meet yet, or they expressed interest in a different fund — consider whether the remaining action plan steps still make sense.

5. If you need to adjust your plan, open Chat for Blackbaud AI and describe what changed. For example: "The donor said they'd prefer to wait until after the holidays to discuss their gift. Can you suggest revised timing for my remaining action plan steps?" Then update the action dates on the opportunity record accordingly.

6. Move to the next action in your Work Center queue and repeat the prepare-reach out-complete cycle.

Note: Completing actions in real time — not in batches at the end of the week — gives Action Strategies the freshest possible context for your remaining actions. If you complete a call on Monday and have a follow-up email on Wednesday, the strategy for Wednesday's email already reflects what happened on Monday's call.

Use Chat throughout your day

Chat for Blackbaud AI isn't just for action plans. It's available anytime you need quick information, a drafted communication, or a strategy suggestion — between meetings, before an unexpected call, or when you're planning your week. Building the habit of reaching for Chat instead of manually searching records saves time and keeps you focused on the relationship rather than the research.

Common scenarios

• A donor calls unexpectedly: Open Chat and ask "Summarize this constituent's recent activity in 3 bullet points." Within seconds, you have context for the conversation.

• You need a thank-you email after a gift: Ask Chat to "Draft a brief thank-you email acknowledging their recent gift and connecting it to the impact of the fund they gave to."

• You're thinking about strategy: Ask "What's a good approach for re-engaging a lapsed major donor who gave consistently for 5 years but stopped 18 months ago?"

• You're preparing for a board meeting: Ask Chat to "Summarize the status of my top 5 opportunities by expected close date."

• You need to brief a colleague: Ask "Give me a 2-paragraph summary of this constituent's relationship with our organization, including their giving history and current opportunities."

Tips for effective prompting

• Be specific about what you want. "Summarize this constituent in 3 bullet points" works better than "Tell me about this person."

• Include context about why. "I'm preparing for a cultivation lunch" helps Chat tailor the response differently than "I need to send a thank-you note."

• Iterate. If the first response isn't quite right, refine: "Make it more personal," "Shorten it to 2 sentences," or "Focus on their event attendance rather than giving."

• Clear the conversation when switching topics. Select the trash icon to start fresh. This prevents previous context from confusing the response.

• Always verify critical details before using them in donor communications.

For details, see Chat for Blackbaud AI Quick Start Guide.

Manage your pipeline weekly

Your prospect pipeline isn't static. Donors give, opportunities close, new prospects enter your portfolio, and capacity changes over time. A weekly check-in keeps your Undergiving queue focused on the prospects who genuinely need your attention now — not donors who've already reached their target or opportunities that have gone stale.

1. Return to Portfolio, Prospect insights, Undergiving at the start of each week.

2. Remove prospects who've reached their target. If a donor has closed a gift or reached their target gift range since your last review, select Finish review, then Permanently remove from this queue. Record the outcome — this keeps your queue focused and your data clean.

3. Check for new prospects. New donors may have entered the queue since last week — their giving capacity increased, they were assigned to your portfolio, or their previous opportunity closed. Treat these the same as your initial review: assess whether they need an opportunity, an updated ask, or an action plan.

4. Re-evaluate stalled opportunities. If you have prospects with action plans that have gone quiet — actions overdue, no recent interactions — decide whether to revise the approach or pause the cultivation. Open Chat and ask for suggestions: "I have an opportunity that's stalled after the second touchpoint. What are some ways to re-engage?"

5. For new prospects, start the cycle. Create an opportunity (Step: Set the right ask amount), build an action plan (Step: Build a cultivation sequence), and let the daily prepare-reach out-complete rhythm take over from there.

Tip: Keep your weekly review focused. You're not re-evaluating your entire portfolio every week — you're triaging what's new, removing what's resolved, and flagging what's stuck. Most of your portfolio should be in the daily prepare-and-complete cycle, handled through Work Center.

Summary

Once you've completed the steps above for the first time, the workflow becomes a rhythm:

• Every morning (15–20 minutes): Open Work Center. Review strategies for today's actions. Generate content. Reach out. Complete actions after each conversation.

• Every week (30–60 minutes): Review the Undergiving queue. Remove closed prospects. Onboard new ones with opportunities and action plans. Re-evaluate anything that's stalled.

• Throughout the day (as needed): Open Chat for quick research, communication drafts, or strategy advice whenever a question comes up between planned actions.

The first week requires more time as you build your initial pipeline and create action plans. After that, the daily rhythm takes over — each morning, your Work Center queue tells you exactly who needs your attention, and Action Strategies ensures you're prepared for every conversation.

Checklist

Use this checklist as a reminder once you're comfortable with the workflow:

Daily

Open Work Center → Prepare for actions

Review strategy and recommendation for each action

Generate talking points, agenda, or email draft

Reach out to donor

Complete action and add notes

Use Chat for ad-hoc research between actions

Weekly

Review Undergiving queue with Optimization status filter

Remove prospects who reached their target

Create opportunities for new prospects

Build action plans for new opportunities

Re-evaluate stalled opportunities

As needed

Ask Chat for constituent summaries before unexpected calls

Draft thank-you emails and follow-up notes

Adjust action plan timing when circumstances change

Get strategy advice for complex donor situations