Mastering Moves Management
Successful fundraising requires building solid relationships with potential donors. Therefore, your nonprofit needs a strategic approach to do this effectively. Many nonprofits use a moves management process to motivate potential donors.
What is Moves Management?
Moves management is a systematic strategy used to identify potential donors and cultivate long-term relationships with them. In this strategy, “moves” refers to the actions you take as an organization in this process. This process takes potential donors and turns them into long term major donors. Let’s see how this is done.
Moves Management Steps
1. Identify
The first step in a moves management system is to identify your goal and your audience. This step also involves identifying potential donors who align with your organization’s values. Potential donors may be found within your existing database or elsewhere. The use of existing networks, referrals and thorough research is needed to identify your pool of potential donors. You should also create your organization’s plan for each step of this process.
2. Qualify
The next step of moves management is qualification. This step involves assessing the willingness and ability of potential donors to support your cause. The goals of this step should be to identify prospects and gauge their potential of becoming a major donor. This step will also require research to determine the potential donor’s capacity for giving.
3. Cultivate
Cultivating relationships with potential donors is the most important step of the moves management strategy. It is also the most time consuming. Proper cultivation will lay the groundwork for successful solicitation later on. Share your organization’s story, keep them informed about events, and tailor your communication to resonate with their interests. Your communication must be thoughtful and personal to have success.
4. Solicit
Now it is finally time to ask for a donation. Personalize your asks based on the plan your organization has. Make your request personal using information you have gathered about the potential donor while you were cultivating the relationship. Emphasize points that you now know matter to them to be more compelling. If all goes well, your potential donor will now become a major donor.
5. Stewardship
In order to turn your major donor into a long term major donor, you will need to continue to cultivate the relationship. This should include personalized thank-you messages. It may be appropriate to publicly recognize the donor for their contribution on your website or social media. Make sure your donor feels appreciated and that their gift is put to good use. Let them know what their gift helped your organization to accomplish. Communicating with major donors in this way will keep them engaged and build stronger relationships. This will motivate them to continue to make donations to your organization.
Moves Management Tips
There are many ways to build an effective moves management strategy. Your organization will need to determine the right path forward for your goals. However, there are some best practice tips that we can share with you.
Personalize Communication
To be motivated to give, donors need to feel a personal attachment to your organization. You can facilitate this in the way you communicate with them.
Engage Donors Effectively
You need to create meaningful opportunities for donors to connect with your organization if you want to build strong relationships.
Keep Your Data Organized
Each step in this process must be deliberate. You must stay organized to take the proper step forward with each potential donor.
There are many tools available to help you successfully implement a moves management strategy within your organization. One great tool is the “Major Moves” feature within Donor Wrangler. This feature allows your team to effectively organize potential major donors within a donor profile. You may rate each potential donor based on their ability to give, their interest in giving and how they are already linked to your organization. This will help you to identify and qualify your donors. The donors you choose to cultivate can also be assigned a status so that all on the fundraising team knows which step you are on with each donor. You can learn more about how to use this feature by checking out his help article.
Check out these great tools today and get started on your path to successful moves management!