One of the first tasks of soliciting donations is to identify your prospective donors. A "prospective donor" is anyone who hasn't been a donor to your organization, or possibly is a lapsed donor that you want to bring back into the organization.

A prospective donor's name may come from discussions at a Development or Staff meeting, or noticing a donor on another venue's Donor Wall that isn't in your current donor list. it might also be for the purpose of Planned Giving

As soon as you identify a prospective donor, you should start a Prospect Donation in Theatre Manager. This way, you can track the progress of moving the potential donor towards an actual gift.

A Prospect Gift or Soft Pledge will not affect your financials in any way. Entering a Prospect Gift is simply a way of tracking a potential gift without creating any Receivables.

Entering a Prospect Donation

1. Start by opening the Patron Record of the prospective donor. For details on locating a Patron Record click here.
2. Click the Donation tab.

   

3. Click the New button. The Donation Detail window opens.

Alternatively, refer to Enter Donations on the Order Window when already within an order.

The Donation Detail window opens.



4. On the left-hand side of the Donation Detail window, you will see a drop down for:
   • Prospect
   • Soft Pledge
   • Hard Pledge
   • Donation (gift)
Select "Prospect"

You will also note a change in the blue text to the right of the field. It now says:
Long term prospect who may give if nurtured appropriately. Receivables/accounting entries ARE NOT created until this is converted to a gift.

5. Complete the remainder of the fields for the prospective gift.
6. Click the SAVE button at the top of the Donation Detail window.

The gift will now appear in magenta on the prospective donor's DONOR tab on their Patron Record. You can now use this donation to track the progress of cultivating this donor towards an actual gift. Continue to use this donation entry, updating it with any Tasks you may have regarding this gift, and moving it through the process from Prospect to Soft Pledge to Hard Pledge to Donation (gift). Alternatively, you may be moving the donor directly from a Prospect to a Donation (gift), depending on the actions the Donor takes. Either way, the history will be maintained within this record for future reference. There is no need to create a new Donation record as the cultivation process progresses.

Some prospect gifts will remain as prospect gifts for a long time - perhaps even forever. They will always be recorded in the Patron Record so you can see what work has been done with this particular Donor.