Action Types

Amy Babcox

Under Action types we have the typical choices, i.e. cultivation, solicitation, Discovery. But I would like to have a type for a casual meeting that wasn't planned. For example if you happen to see and speak with a major donor at an event that isn't related to your charity. Does anyone have a good name for this action type? Thank you.

Dan Snyder

@Amy Babcox I would think this would fit under cultivation since you are cultivating the relationship, but not sure how you define cultivation. Also, what is the use case for needing to report on these casual meetings separately?

Amy Babcox

@Dan Snyder I am reporting weekly to our fundraisers with actions that have been preformed the previous week. But I think you are right I could just use the cultivation type of action and then explain in the notes section that it was a casual meeting. I think the only reason for adding a type would be that the fundraising group could see that there wasn't a scheduled meeting. We have a new head of school this year so some meetings are just an introduction, this donor may also have another fundraiser assigned to them. Basically trying to make sure that donors aren't being reached out to in the same manner multiple times by different people.

Amy Babcox

@Dan Snyder Not really a need to report on the casual meetings seperately trying to make the report as quick and easy to read as possible. Didn't want the fundraisers to skim through them and see Meeting - Cultivation as the type and think they can check that one off their list since it was just a casual meeting and not planned. Trying to think of ways to make it as user friendly as possible. But I guess if they can't take the time to read into the action a little more closely they will be missing details of the unplanned meeting.

Dan Snyder

@Amy Babcox Thanks for that additional information and you mean to say people don't read carefully??

We had a similar request as we were coming out of the pandemic asking to breakdown in person vs. virtual meetings and we added values to the location area in the action record. However, the accurate entry of that information was mediocre at best. Maye asking for something in the summary field to say Informal: Met at so and so event?

Dariel Dixon

@Amy Babcox I think I'm with @Dan Snyder on this one. No matter how easy you make it, there's no substitute for reading it thoroughly. I think you could call it “Casual” or “Informal” or whatever, it really won't change the content. All of the the important information is in the content, and if they can't take the time to read the report, then they will always miss out on the details. I don't know if changing the type of action will encourage them to read it more thoroughly.

Has anyone actually complained about it? I'd be very careful to create a new action type when the problem exists outside the database.