Ops Insights #032 Philanthropy Operations Areas
December 1, 2023 | Read Time: 6 minutes | Written by Jenny Kleintop
Philanthropy operations is an essential functional area that takes ownership of data, CRM, and processes, and effectively partners cross-functionally to propel an organization's fundraising forward. Often leaders think of philanthropy operations as only CRM database management, but it goes beyond this and primarily consists of eight key areas.
Data Management
One key area is how your team handles data from intake, maintenance, and outtake perspectives. For example, when you get a new prospective donor, how do you collect that information, put it into your CRM database, and perform all the activities to maintain that information? It’s also how you push the information out, such as which pipeline it is pushed to. Will the name go to your major gifts team, mid-level team, or annual giving team? Interacting with potential or existing donors on the right terms is important to provide the best engagement.
In summary, it is making sure all the data you house inside or outside the CRM database is the best it can be in order to position yourself for all your fundraising efforts.
CRM Utilization
The biggest one is the CRM database, and CRM stands for Constituent Relationship Management. These are all the activities that go into using the CRM database, such as how it’s set up and configured to allow for capturing, tracking, and measuring all your fundraising efforts. It’s important to ensure everything flows through the CRM database in the most effective and efficient way possible.
It is important to be mindful of setting up and structuring the CRM database from a simplicity standpoint because we want the team members who are using it to use it. This means we want it to be simple to understand, easy to use, and intuitive to navigate. Many databases are not set up this way, but you can bring in users during testing features and functionality. For example, just because you have 40 fields doesn't mean you have to fill out the 40 fields. We want to think about the end user, who may be as technical-minded as us, to get them in and out as quickly as possible.
Gift Processing
Another big area is the gift entry, acknowledgments, and receipting. When you receive donations, you want to adhere to IRS regulations regarding tax receipting but also process from a donor-centric fundraising perspective to thank and steward those donors. For example, just because someone gave through their donor-advised fund doesn’t mean you put the gift on the donor-advised fund record. You do not tax-receipt the individual (as the DAF is the actual donor), but you can put the gift on the individual’s record and tag it as a DAF gift, as you will follow up and interact with the individual, not the DAF. More on DAFs in this Insights edition.
In summary, you can process gifts to make sure our friends in finance get what they need but also process from a fundraising perspective to make sure you can do the best next step in the best way possible.
Dashboards and Reporting
These are tools to see how your fundraising efforts are going. For example, to view how your fundraising progress is doing, what prospects you have in the pipeline, and how your mailing efforts are doing. It’s all the visuals and the reporting you can tangibly take to leaders or anyone else to show how you are doing in your efforts.
In summary, it’s what you use to say how your fundraising progress is doing, what your goals are, how close to your goals you are, and what names are surfacing to the top of the pipeline.
Prospect Development
This area includes prospect research and prospect management, which have similarities but often require different skill sets. If you are a smaller shop, you likely do not have a dedicated person or team for this area.
Prospect research is taking names in your top-tier programs and diving into the public domain to gather more information on these names. Plenty of companies offer outsourced resources if you do not have the team internally to do this. As a start, this Insights edition talks about some basics of research profiles.
Prospect management is all around setting up your processes regarding moves, as in how you move prospects through the prospect lifecycle. Here’s more on the prospect lifecycle. For example, it’s filing pipelines, such as who are your top 25 prospects to give major gifts, who are your mid-level folks, and what work can you do for a personalized touch.
In summary, it’s setting up all your processes around performing research and implementing moves management.
CRM User Engagement
This area goes together with utilization, and in larger shops, a dedicated CRM database trainer typically covers this area. This is helping and supporting every single user that utilizes the CRM database. It’s the education, training, and support for staff and ensuring they know how to use it from an easy, simple, and intuitive perspective.
We want users in and out of the CRM database because philanthropy operation’s team members can be in the database all day long, but usually, our counterparts on the front end want to be in and out as quickly as possible.
Data Mining and Analytics
Many shops either do not have the staff or expertise to do this and often will outsource this area. It’s combing through all the names you house and surfacing names of priority to pay attention to.
One task that may be done is taking your whole constituent base and doing a wealth screening on them to see how wealthy your constituent base is in the public domain and then layering on a likely-to-give score showing how likely they are to give to you. This way, you can prioritize your outreach efforts.
Process Optimization
This area connects all the areas as it ensures you have the workflows and processes in place to succeed. It’s building out flow charts, such as how you will handle all the various data streams coming into your organization and optimizing those streams for efficiency and effectiveness.
A ton of documentation goes into this area and hundreds of pages come out of this area. The important element is to remember to show the “how-to” do something and why you are doing what you are doing. This provides clarity for existing and future team members.
Take Action
If you are in philanthropy operations, take a minute to pat yourself on the back… look at all you do. Then go find a way to advocate for more support and resources.
If you are a fundraising leader, note all the areas that fall in philanthropy operations. Then, find a way to bring in more support and resources.
In terms of staffing, think about it similar to having multiple team members who do major gifts, annual giving, events, corporate giving, and so on. If you are not able to bring in more staff, there are other ways to bring in resources.
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