Strategy Planning Toolkit Preparation Guide and Template

Use this guide and template to empower MGOs to focus more time on tailoring their strategy rather than re-building the basic components of a donor journey.

42%

Increase in job openings for major gift officers in North America

Advancement leaders are expanding their major gift teams more than ever. Over the last two years, job openings for major gift officers (MGOs) increased by more than 42% across North America. To ensure leaders maximize the benefits of their growing teams, they need to increase focus on MGO efficiency.

An acute need to increase productivity

Cultivation often starts with a promising launch. MGOs have a concrete plan in place, with one or two introductory visits, interesting talking points, and clear next steps. However, progress stalls when strategies lack detail past the preliminary visits.

During the Advancement Forum’s research on fundraiser efficiency, one of the biggest pain points expressed by chief advancement officers was that MGOs are spending too much time reinventing their cultivation strategy for each donor.  

MGOs struggle to identify clear reasons to meet, ways to move the conversation forward, and tangible next steps. When MGOs re-create the strategy for every prospect, it often requires customized one-time-use collateral at each point in the process.

Create your own prospect strategy journey

Fundraising managers can use the Strategy Planning Toolkit Preparation Guide and Template to create a plug-and-play prospect strategy for MGOs. Fill in critical questions, collateral, pivotal moments, tough scenarios, and next steps for each phase of the cultivation process so that MGOs can double-down on personalization.

Sample Toolkit Components for Cultivation

Agenda-Setting Questions

• Is my plan right for the donor?
• Is my ask at the right level?
• Is now the right time for an ask?
• Do I know what my next steps will be?

Action Steps

• Meet with a scholarship recipient
• Visit financial aid office
• Attend donor appreciation event
• Attend day of gratitude

Tough Scenarios

• Financial condition impacts ability to give
• Donor writes a check for a different amount than discussed
• Academic leader shares priorities but doesn’t mention scholarship

A plug-and-play prospect strategy

To move the needle on fundraiser efficiency, advancement leaders need to provide a clear path for MGOs to take with donors. Best-practice shops provide direct steps from qualification to gift, instead of relying on MGOs to determine next steps throughout the process. This allows MGOs to focus more of their time on tailoring their strategy rather than re-building the basic components of a donor journey.

Clemson University created the turnkey donor journey, which takes MGO decisions about baseline strategy out of cultivation planning. Plug-and-play resources are mapped to each phase of the cultivation process, allowing MGOs to focus more time on personalized touches during the planning process.  

For example, when an MGO moves into discovery with a prospect, they could open the toolkit for phase 2, discovery, and find agenda-setting questions, collateral, and actionable next steps needed to move the prospect forward.  With the basic components of the strategy in place–MGOs only need to focus on personal touches.