Tracking Prospective Trustees

Paul AllenWebber

Any thoughts on the best way to track prospective trustees? I was thinking to use the Prospect tab in RE but there doesn't seem to be any chronology kept and we would like to see where they are in the pipeline. Initially, we had created Constituency Codes of Prospective Trustee and Former Prospective Trustee but Bill Connors advised against that in his RE “bible”. Thoughts/experiences appreciated!

Dariel Dixon

Is there a certain status or gift amount they have to hit before being asked to be a trustee? It's worth considering if they are being asked to hold a leadership role because of their giving to the institution, or for another reason. I don't know if it best to have this tracked in your giving database, because the decision may be based off of something else completely. Especially if there are only a select number of vacancies available.

Paul AllenWebber

There is a minimum annual gift requirement for board members but even if they leave the pipeline for some reason, we would want that history in RE - maybe there names surfaces again later on, either as a trustee prospect, advisory board member, or some other involvement. We would want to have easy access to the prior conversations - especially if they didn't go well!

Mary Boechat

We captured this on our organization's record in RE as a relationship type of “Board Candidate.” This allowed us to add a “date from” and any notes about the prospective candidate.

Dariel Dixon

Paul AllenWebber:

There is a minimum annual gift requirement for board members but even if they leave the pipeline for some reason, we would want that history in RE - maybe there names surfaces again later on, either as a trustee prospect, advisory board member, or some other involvement. We would want to have easy access to the prior conversations - especially if they didn't go well!

I think that is a different proposition. Recording those interactions under actions is possible and warranted. Adding a relationship like @Mary Boechat suggested is a good idea.

In regards to minimum annual gift requirement, it's hard to determine before they get on the board. Often, you will find that the board membership may be the catalyst toward higher giving, or at least to reach the minimum. You or a prospect researcher would have to determine if the constituent has the capacity to reach the annual minimum before asking, even if they have given at that level in the past, because wealth does fluctuate.

Paul AllenWebber

I only brought the giving requirement into play because it was asked. We have a way for tracking those proposals so I am only trying to determine the best way to mark records as being prospective trustees. I like Mary's idea though!

Madeleine Holdsworth

We have an attribute for Trustee Prospect. It's just a yes/no attribute. We use Actions for any contact with the prospect.