Multi-year proposals

Renske Vugts

Is there anyone who can help us out with muli-year proposals? Our fundraisers often expect a 5 year pledge from the constituent, but until the gift is actually given, we track this in a proposal. But when doing that, the full amount of the 5 year pledge is calculated in the expected gift date (so not divided in 5 years, so that's not giving the proper amount per year). When we split the proposal in 5 separate proposals, updating the status is a lot of work (5 times updating the amount expected / status / rating / etc).

I have added an attribute with ‘duration in years’ but then the reporting is a lot of work with continuously having to deal with - per subtype - different durations (between 2 and 5 years).

Anyone a better idea for multi-year proposals?

thanks!

Heather MacKenzie

Tell us more about the reports you're having to pull from the proposals? (I'm wondering if tweaking your pledge entry timing and process might work better, so want more information)

Renske Vugts

it's not a specific report. I just want to see the expected gift amount per year, and not the complete pledge in the first year. Or to have to create 5 separate proposals to have the expected gift date split into 5 years. At this moment I just use a query which I am exporting.

Aldera Chisholm

Just to confirm I understand what you are asking, you are wanting to pull a report that will show you all Current Proposals (not linked to a gift) and you want to see what their value for each upcoming year would be?

In my org we “count” Proposals once they are linked to a gift (we put them in as a Pledge as soon as we have either a gift agreement or other written confirmation), otherwise, they are too soft for us to count for projected income. But, I'm thinking of something we did at a former org for scholarships that may work:

Instead of an attribute showing years in the projected gift, you could add standard Attributes of Year 1, Year 2 etc - and then put each years projected amount. If you do that for all proposals, it would be reasonably easy to see that in an Exported spreadsheet and tally them, with minimal math. I can't think of a Report that would do this, so I would just go to Export and then tidy it up for presentation.

Renske Vugts

Hi Aldera,

Thanks for your answer. Just one question: how to take care of changing gift amounts and / or changing ratings etc. You have to change all the attributes with the new amounts, in't it?

Aldera Chisholm

Hi Renske, I feel like the orgs I've worked with have used proposals very differently than you do - it's very rare for us to have big changes in amounts during process… usually we create the Proposal once our fundraiser is ready to start the ask process, they add the ask amount in once they have presented the opportunity to the donor, they add the rating of (Hi/Med/Low based on that conversation with the donor), the Deadline becomes when we expect to have movement on the Proposal, Amount Expected is entered when we get a more solid response from the donor (We asked $100K, the donor says, that's interesting, but I'm thinking closer to 20K) and then the Amount funded is put in when the Gift Agreement is signed, or the cheque arrives, whichever comes first. So, all our changes are tracked within the process itself, if that makes sense. Monthly, I am reporting to the team on number of proposals in Solicitation, vs Stewardship etc, and the total asked value modified by rating, and amount expected, etc. Based on that report, I ask fundraisers to review their outstanding proposals, and we may see adjustments to the rating but the dollar values tend not to adjust because we don't add them until very defined places in the ask journey. As soon as we get a gift agreement/cheque, the Proposal goes into Stewardship status, and all reporting will be based on the info on the Gift/Pledge. For future based reporting, my reports will show data like “In 2022 we have x number of proposals valued at x in asks” but it's very high level when it's not in the current fiscal.