Moves Management: A Julep Guide

Moves management is a term used to describe the plan your organization sets in place to “move” an individual through the donor life cycle. In donor cycle fundraising there are broadly four stages in the donor life cycle: Identification, Cultivation, Solicitation, and Stewardship.

As your donor is cultivated through moves management fundraising, you will develop a stronger relationship with your donor and learn why they give. Each stage can be broken out into smaller stages depending on the size of a gift officer’s portfolio as well as the time and resources available to the organization. By establishing proper donor moves management, you can work with a large portfolio of donors and provide each donor with the feeling of a personalized giving experience.

Moves Management and the Donor Life Cycle

Identification: First in your moves management plan should be the identification stage. At this stage, you are identifying prospective donors who have the ability and interest in giving to your organization. Research is important to the donor development cycle. You can look at past giving to other similar organizations or campaigns, get an idea of what they care about through research on their social media profiles or other publications, or identify natural partners that already have a relationship with your organization. They can help you learn more about the donor and provide introduction to the work you do to the prospective donor.

Cultivation: Next in the moves management process is the cultivation stage. It may take the longest, but it is the most important to establish a repour with your prospective donor. At this stage you know an individual is a great fit for your organization. It is now the stage where you are showing the effectiveness of your organization and how the mission aligns with your prospective donor’s values. Setting up meetings, going out to lunch, or inviting them to an event are all ways to cultivate a donor.  

Solicitation: The obvious critical moves management stage is solicitation. If you don’t ask, they won’t give! It is important to directly ask your prospective donor for a specific gift amount. By the solicitation stage, most prospective donors know what is coming, but without an ask, they won’t write a check. Effective ‘Asks’ make sure the donor sees the alignment in values and what their gift will do for the organization.  

Stewardship: Finally, at the end of the donor development cycle is stewardship. The goal of your organization should be to develop a relationship beyond the donor making a gift. Stewardship is an intentional plan set to thank your donors for their contribution to your mission. It is important to thank your donors early, often and in unique ways. These efforts can lead to donors wanting to give again and again.

Moves Management Best Practices

Whether you are a Major Gift Officer managing a portfolio of donors or a Development Director who needs an overhead view of all donor programs, you need a moves management system to keep track of all your moves. Once way to do so is a moves management software. Effective moves management comes down to establishing a plan and keeping organized nonprofit donor lifecycle organized. We’ve modeled the Moves Management module with the donor life cycle in mind. The Julep Moves Management dashboard feature allows for Major Gift Officers to manage their pipeline with efficiency in mind. What to learn more? Sign up for a Julep demo today!