donor_pipeline_management v1.0.0

name: donor_pipeline_management description: "Manage a donor pipeline with moves management: stage definitions with entry and exit tests from identification to stewardship, next step discipline for every active record, weekly and monthly review meetings that clear stuck donors, and reports that show movement, aging, and a weighted forecast instead of totals only. Ships a tested pipeline checker and review generator, a worked 12 record example with overdue and stuck cases flagged, and reference guides for stages and moves, review meetings, and metrics. Use when building or fixing a donor or prospect pipeline, running a portfolio review, forecasting major gifts, or reporting pipeline health to a board or team lead."

Donor Pipeline Management

Purpose

Run a donor pipeline as a set of relationships with a next step, not as a list of names with dollar figures attached. Moves management is the discipline behind it: plan one purposeful action at a time for each donor, log what happened, and advance the stage only when the work for that stage is done.

This skill gives a team the stage definitions, the record rules, the meeting rhythm, and the report format. It ships a working tool, scripts/pipeline.py, that checks a pipeline CSV for missing owners, missing next steps, overdue steps, and stuck records, and writes the monthly review file. One worked example ships in assets/, a fictional 12 record pipeline as of 2026-06-30, with its review output, so every number in the references can be rechecked.

Workflow

1. Set the stages and write the exit tests first. Adopt the six working stages in references/stages-and-moves.md: identification, qualification, cultivation, solicitation, negotiation, and stewardship, plus closed won and closed lost as reporting states. A donor advances when the exit test for the stage is met. Time in stage and hope are not exit tests.

1. Put every active record in the pipeline sheet. Use the columns of assets/example-pipeline.csv: donor, owner, stage, ask amount, expected close, stage entered, next step, next step due, and last contact. The sheet can live in a CRM export or a spreadsheet. The format matters less than the rule: no active record without an owner, a next step, and a due date.

1. Qualify with evidence, not screening alone. For each prospect, confirm capacity, affinity, and interest as three separate checks. A screening result is a capacity hint. Giving history, event attendance, internal connections, and a discovery conversation supply the rest. A discovery visit is not a solicitation, and treating it as one ruins both. Detail is in references/stages-and-moves.md.

1. Write one next step per record, with a purpose. A next step names an action, an owner, and a date: deliver the written proposal in person on July 2, not follow up soon. Tie cultivation moves to what discovery taught you about that donor. Three to six planned moves per donor is a workable starting pattern for a major gift strategy. If you cannot name the next step, the record goes to the next review meeting with that stated plainly.

1. Run the checker before every review. Run python3 scripts/pipeline.py validate assets/example-pipeline.csv --as-of 2026-06-30 on your own file. Fix missing owners, missing next steps, and bad dates. Then run python3 scripts/pipeline.py summary assets/example-pipeline.csv --as-of 2026-06-30 for stage counts, ask totals, and the weighted forecast, and python3 scripts/pipeline.py review assets/example-pipeline.csv --as-of 2026-06-30 --out review.md for the meeting file. The shipped example returns one data problem on purpose: a 60,000 dollar cultivation record with no next step, plus two overdue steps and one stuck record. A real file should end a review cycle with zero data problems.

1. Hold the weekly portfolio check. Thirty to sixty minutes per owner: overdue steps first, new early stage records second, solicitations waiting on a decision date third. End with the three most important moves for the week. The full agenda is in references/review-meetings.md.

1. Hold the monthly pipeline review. Work from the generated review file and last month file side by side. Read movement before totals: entered, advanced, moved back, parked, closed won, closed lost. Then clear the stuck list record by record, with one of five recorded outcomes per record: advance, new move, move back, park in batch cultivation, or close lost with a reason code. Then check the 90 day weighted forecast against the goal for that window, and name any gap in dollars and in records.

1. Steward every gift on a clock. Thank the donor promptly, send the written acknowledgment, deliver recognition as promised, and report impact in specific terms that name what the gift did. In the US, a donor needs a contemporaneous written acknowledgment from the charity for a single contribution of 250 dollars or more to claim a deduction, under IRS substantiation rules in 26 USC 170 and Publication 1771. The acknowledgment states the amount or a description of property given, and whether goods or services were provided in return, with a description and good faith estimate if they were. Set the next contact date before the file is closed.

1. Report movement, then totals. Use the monthly report order in references/metrics-and-forecast.md: movement table, stage table, aging list, next step health, 90 day forecast, stewardship list. Quote active ask, active weighted, and all stages totals as three separate numbers, with the scope stated. Counting a closed won gift or a stewardship record inside a forecast overstates what is still to come.

1. Calibrate once a quarter. Compare the records that sat in solicitation and negotiation at the start of the quarter with what actually closed. Adjust stage probabilities or tighten stage entry tests based on your own close rates. The shipped probabilities, identification 5 percent through negotiation 80 percent, are the published defaults in Bonterra Development action plans. They are starting points with a source, not facts about your donors.

Output Contract

• The pipeline sheet as a CSV in the format of assets/example-pipeline.csv, one row per donor, with every active row carrying an owner, a next step, and a due date.
• Validator output for the file, ending in RESULT PASS, or a fix list naming each record that fails and why.
• The monthly review file from the tool: stage table with counts and weighted values, overdue list, stuck list with days in stage, data problems, and the decisions recorded for each stuck record.
• A movement report for the month: entered, advanced, moved back, parked, closed won, and closed lost, compared with last month, reported before any dollar totals.
• A 90 day forecast: weighted total for records expected to close in the window, the unweighted total beside it, the goal for the window, and the gap stated in dollars and in solicitations still needed.
• A stewardship list for gifts received in the period: thank you status, written acknowledgment status, recognition owed, impact report owed, and next contact date per gift.
• Once a year, the retention calculation: donors who gave in both years divided by donors in the prior year, times 100, run for all donors and separately for first time and repeat donors.

Operating Rules

• A stage advances on its exit test, never to improve a forecast, never because a quarter is ending, and never because a donor has sat in the stage a long time.
• No next step means stuck, whatever the stage total says. The review meeting exists to clear those records, and it does not end while an active record has no step and no date.
• Donor and prospect information belongs to the organization, stays confidential, and is shared on a need to know basis only. Capacity estimates are planning notes, never a figure quoted to a donor as an expectation.
• Gifts are used for the purposes they were given for, donors get explicit consent asked before the terms of a gift are changed, and stewardship reports state what actually happened with the money. Those duties sit in the AFP Code of Ethical Standards.
• No fundraiser or consultant is paid a percentage of contributions, and no finder fees or contingent fees are paid or accepted. The AFP code bars percentage based compensation for its members. Pay a salary or a fixed fee, agreed in writing before work starts.
• A no is a result, not a failure to hide. Close the record lost the day the answer arrives, record the reason as the donor stated it, and keep the pipeline honest for the next forecast.
• Cold donors get the cold protocol in references/stages-and-moves.md: a change of channel, a bounded set of attempts, then batch cultivation with a recheck date. Unresponsive donors never stay in an active stage to make the pipeline look larger.
• Probabilities, thresholds, and benchmarks are dated and sourced or they do not go in a report. The retention figures in the references are Fundraising Effectiveness Project reporting for 2024. Present them as context for your own number, not as a target.