Soapbox Engage Blog

Attracting and retaining donors, volunteers, and other supporters takes consistent outreach and donor stewardship. But moving donors toward new giving levels--that takes some serious strategy! And yet, retaining donors and helping them increase their giving is one of the most profitable places to spend your time and energy.

This is where Moves Management comes in! This is a master organizing tool that helps you organize and manage the nebulous process of moving a prospective donor through the entire life donation cycle. The overall goal of Moves Management is to increase your donor's awareness, interest, and commitment to your cause, so they ultimately make a gift or increase their giving.

If this tool is new to you, have no fear! This blog will help you understand the basics of Moves Management and how to implement it in your own nonprofit fundraising and donor care strategies.

Table of Contents

• Moves management basics
• Implementing moves management into your nonprofit
• How NPSP and Salesforce help with moves management

Moves Management Basics

Moves Management is the process your nonprofit uses to identify and "group" donors so you can "move" them to higher giving levels or other kinds of engagement. Some parts of the Moves Management process also fall into familiar categories like donor stewardship and strategic communication.

Really, how well you move donors through the "giving life cycle" plays a significant role in your donor retention and donor engagement work. The better you move donors through the "giving life cycle," the more engaged your donors are likely to remain and the higher your donor retention rate.

Moves Management relies on a detailed process or method that you map out and follow. It's a systematic way of cultivating donors.

Implementing Moves Management Into Your Nonprofit

Because Moves Management is a very organization-specific tool, there are loads of ways to build and customize the system for your nonprofit. However, there are some general steps and components that make up the framework of Moves Management.

Identify prospective donors

Obviously, the first step is to identify your target audience. If your goal is to ask donors to increase their giving amounts, then your target audience is current donors with the capacity and interest to give more. If you're hoping to get more first-time donors, then your focus should be on people who are connected with your organization but haven't yet made a donation or new contacts.

Rate your prospect's giving interest and potential

Take as much time as necessary to rate each prospect's interest level and giving capacity. A little research can go a long way to determine the financial capacity for many major donor prospects.

Some indicators that can help you determine giving potential include donation history, wealth data, event attendance, volunteering, and other types of engagement with your nonprofit. Other factors to consider are how often they're currently giving and their average gift amount. It's also helpful to know their philanthropic interests, so you can determine the best program fit for them.

Group your prospects by activity and interest levels

Once you've rated all your prospects, group them based on how close you believe they are to making a donation. Your top prospects are those closest to making a gift and will receive the most attention as you prepare them for an ask.

Your next group will be those who are very interested and actively engaged but not quite ready to make a donation. Some organizations add a third group for individuals who show a lot of interest and potential but need more time to get closer to giving.

Your last group is for prospects you want to get to know. They show a lot of promise on the surface, but you're still learning about them, building trust, and assessing their giving potential.

Create your strategy for connecting with each group of prospects

Now that you've got your prospects organized into groups, it's time to create an action plan for each group. How will you get a donor to become a major donor? What strategies will you use to entice annual donors to join your monthly giving program? Whatever methods you choose, it should be a measurable and trackable process.

A great Moves Management strategy also includes action items you want to complete regularly--like weekly, monthly, or quarterly.

For example, you might plan to interact with your top ten to fifteen prospects once a month in a personal way and your next 20 prospects every other month. You might decide you'll get to the people in your last list as you're able.

Develop individual action plans for your top prospects

Now it's time to create specific, actionable steps you can take to move your top prospects toward donating or increasing their giving levels. This can include all kinds of donor care and communication strategies. And, of course, don't forget to actually make the ask when the time is right!

Overall, the goal of all your actions should be to educate prospects about your cause and cultivate a stronger relationship, so they move toward donating or increasing their gifts.

Review and update the plan and reorganize your list monthly

As prospects move toward giving (or increase their giving), it's critical to review those plans and lists regularly to update things and make necessary adjustments. Otherwise, you risk leaving highly qualified donors behind by not recognizing and responding to those changes.

Continue to steward and cultivate each prospective donor to help them move to the next giving level or first-time gift.

Throughout the Moves Management process, everyone on your team must stay in the loop, especially people who work or communicate directly with donors. There's bound to be some overlap in communications, and it's best to keep people on the same page. This is where data tracking, documenting all interactions with donors, and keeping an updated CRM system can make all the difference!

How NPSP and Salesforce Help With Moves Management

The great news is that you can incorporate your Moves Management strategy into your Nonprofit Success Pack (part of the Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud). The tools can simplify some of the processes for your team!

To start, the NPSP Solicitation Hack lets you determine how much to ask for in an automated and data-driven manner. With the "Last Gift Amount" field, you can create a formula to generate the amount you should ask for. For example, if you're asking for a first increase, you might decide to multiply their average gift amount by 1.5 percent and 2 percent at the second increase ask, and so on.

Because this is a highly individualized strategy, there's no "one-size-fits-all" solution or strategy here. But, once you choose the method that fits your nonprofit best, the "Last Gift Amount" field can make your job a lot easier.

You can also create reports to identify all donors who haven't given in a while or have given for a certain amount of time. This tool will help you hone in on your target audience in your Moves Management strategy. Once you identify everyone in your group, the NPSP tool allows you to create a custom campaign to monitor all the donors and track progress.

In summary, Moves Management is about relationships and processes. It's about offering the right engagement to each donor at the right time to influence their involvement in your cause. When done correctly, Moves Management can be a powerful tool to boost your donor retention and engagement and increase the overall giving.

Here are three more resources to help boost your fundraising strategies.

• How to Write the Perfect Nonprofit Mission Statement: A mission statement has both an internal and external purpose. It's meant to tell people what you do and who or what you serve. Unfortunately, many nonprofits overlook or minimize the value of a strong mission statement. This blog will help you write a powerful mission statement for your nonprofit.
• Event Management Software: What Your Nonprofit Needs to Know: Planning fundraising events of any size can be overwhelming at best. Event management software can help organize and handle many parts of the event planning process. This blog is packed with tips and insights that will help you choose the right event management software for your nonprofit!
• Boost Volunteer Recruitment and Retention for Your Nonprofit: Many nonprofits rely on volunteers to accomplish a wide range of tasks. But how do you find stellar volunteers that fit your organization and eagerly give their time and talents? We gathered some resources and insights to help you fill your directory with high-quality volunteers that match your unique needs.