Every prospect record should answer: What happens next?

Nonprofit moves management works when every active prospect has two things: a current stage supported by something your team observed, and one next move with an owner and due date. If either is missing, the record is not ready for the active portfolio. Clarify it or park it.

That rule keeps a lean team focused on relationships it can actually move forward. It also prevents a pipeline from becoming a long list of hopeful names and stale labels.

Keep the stage and the move separate

A stage describes where a prospect currently sits in the relationship. A move is a specific action intended to advance that relationship. Current guides from LiveImpact and Kindsight make this distinction explicitly.

Your organization may use stages such as identified, qualifying, cultivating, asking, and stewarding. The labels can differ. The operating distinction stays useful:

• Stage: what the available evidence says about the relationship now.
• Move: what one person will do next, for a stated purpose, by a date.

“Cultivating” is a stage. “Maya will invite Jordan to the September 18 program tour by September 4” is a move. Logging an email without its purpose or outcome records activity, but it does not tell the next operator what should happen.

Give every active prospect six fields

Keep the working record smaller than a general contact profile. An active prospect needs six fields:

1. Prospect and owner: one stable contact or organization ID and one accountable staff or board owner.
2. Current stage: the team's agreed label, using a short controlled list.
3. Stage evidence: the observed fact that supports that label, with its date and source.
4. Last meaningful outcome: what the donor said, decided, requested, or completed during the latest relevant interaction.
5. Next move: one concrete action, its purpose, owner, and due date.
6. Portfolio status: active, parked until a review date, closed after a clear outcome, or handed off.

Blackbaud's current moves-management guidance similarly recommends defined stage criteria, consistent interaction recording, clear next steps, assigned portfolios, and recurring reviews. The six-field record is CharityStack's lean version of that discipline. It is small enough to run in a CRM, a structured spreadsheet, or a connected task view.

Do not copy every contact detail into the portfolio. Keep identity and household relationships in the donor system. If your contact structure is unclear, first decide what belongs to the individual and what belongs to the household.

Change stages only when the evidence changes

An action does not automatically prove progress. Sending an introduction email does not qualify a prospect. Holding a meeting does not automatically make someone ready for an ask.

Before changing a stage, write the observed evidence in plain language. Useful evidence might include:

• the prospect accepted a discovery meeting and named the program they want to understand;
• the prospect confirmed that the proposed purpose and timing fit their interests;
• the prospect invited a proposal with a stated decision process;
• the donor completed a gift and agreed on the next stewardship contact.

Avoid speculative labels such as “seems wealthy,” “probably interested,” or “ready soon.” Those statements are hard for another teammate to verify and easy to mistake for permission to act. Record what happened, then let your written stage criteria determine the label.

Run the review from due moves

Start a portfolio review with the work that needs a decision, not with every name in the database. Pull three queues:

1. next moves due before the following review;
2. overdue moves that need a new owner, date, or decision;
3. active prospects with no next move.

For each record, ask four questions: What changed? Does the current stage still fit? What is the next move? Who owns it by when?

A CompassPoint training workbook asks the same practical question: what is your next action with this person?

Keep the meeting short by deciding outside it which names qualify for active attention. A segment can help surface possible prospects, but the list still needs an operating rule. Use entry, exit, action, and suppression rules before moving anyone into a relationship portfolio.

Park records that cannot move now

Parking a prospect is a useful decision. It preserves the history without pretending the relationship has an active plan.

Park the record when the next action depends on an unknown event, the owner lacks a credible reason to contact the person, the donor asked for space, or higher-priority relationships need the team's limited time. Add a review date and the condition that would justify reactivation.

Do not invent a courtesy task just to keep a name active. A vague “check in” creates work without explaining why the contact would help the donor or the organization.

Close a record when the prospect declines, becomes ineligible under your written criteria, completes the intended handoff, or should no longer be pursued. Preserve the outcome and source. Closing the portfolio item should not erase the contact or giving history.

End each contact report with the next move

After a meaningful conversation, record the purpose, the donor's relevant response, any commitment made by either side, and the agreed next action. Keep interpretation separate from observed facts.

The final line should be executable: owner, action, purpose, and date. If the conversation produced no credible next move, say so and decide whether to park the record. That honest gap is more useful than another stage label.