Get Started with Opportunities

Understand What Opportunity Types Are

Opportunity types can be defined by the goal or outcome you are looking to accomplish. They serve as containers for the activities you wish to track, and should be named using language that is relevant to your organization and team. 

Common Opportunity Type examples include:

• Bequest Expectancy - Track donor commitments from initial conversations through formal documentation, including wills, trusts, life insurance policies, and other planned gift arrangements.
• New Fund Solicitation - Track the process of establishing a new fund from initial donor interest through a signed fund agreement and receipt of an opening gift.
• Board Member Recruitment - Coordinate the process of identifying, vetting, and onboarding new board or committee members.

Name each Opportunity Type after the goal you want to track. The type then acts as a bucket, grouping all opportunities that share that goal.

For example: If you track planned gift or bequest activities, create an opportunity type called "Bequest Expectancy". This gives you a container to track any donor conversation related to planned gifts, wills, or estate documentation.
 

For more information about Opportunities as a whole, see Opportunities Overview.

For detailed examples of each opportunity type including suggested stages, tasks, and configuration tips, see Example Opportunities with Stages and Tasks.

Start with Current State 

Document an Existing Process
If you have an existing way to track planned giving, donor cultivation, or other moves management activities, even informally, consider documenting that process in a workflow diagram or outline of how it currently functions. Have conversations about pain points or gaps in that process and think about how structuring an opportunity type and its stages and tasks can help address those issues. 

If you currently track activities in spreadsheets, the opportunity type you create may correlate to the name of the spreadsheet itself or a tab within it. 

Build from Scratch
If you are starting out fresh and do not currently have moves management activities, this is a perfect time to think about the process you would like to have and design the opportunity type to fit. 

Start Simple
When in doubt, start simple with just one or two opportunity types and limited number of stages. Additional opportunity types, stages, tasks, and more can always be added later. 

Consider What You Are Already Tracking in CommunitySuite

Before building out opportunity types, it is worth reviewing what is already being tracked about your constituents in other areas of CommunitySuite. Several functional areas can inform when and why to create an opportunity, and in some cases can be used to identify groups of profiles for bulk opportunity creation.

Profile Types - Can be used to identify and segment constituents by a shared characteristic. For example, filtering for profiles tagged as prospective professional advisors to create opportunities in bulk for that group. 

Philanthropic Interest Areas - Capture what causes or areas a donor cares about, which can inform topics to discuss with prospective donors and what a new fund might support. 

Campaign Engagement History - Shows how actively a constituent has participated in your organization's events or communications, which can signal they are open to a conversation about being more directly involved with your organization. 

Engagement Strategies - Allow you to segment and tier profiles by factors such as likelihood to give or estimated wealth level, helping prioritize which constituents to approach with an opportunity.

Each of these areas contributes to a more complete picture of a person's relationship with your organization and can help inform the type, timing, and structure of opportunities you create as a whole.

Before building anything in CommunitySuite, it is recommended to document your opportunity structure including the stages, tasks, and note types that will support your organization's workflow and reporting needs. For guidance on creating and editing opportunity types and stages, see Create and Edit Opportunity Types.

Define Each Stage Clearly 

Stages are the milestones or phases in your process, while tasks capture the individual actions needed to complete each stage. Structuring stages to reflect the key phases of your process will provide more meaningful reporting and a cleaner view of where each relationship stands.

Because opportunities allow for multiple stages, you can see at a glance where a donor is in the evolution of the conversation based on their current stage. An opportunity can only be in one stage at a time.

 

For each opportunity stage, define what it means for your organization, what activities and tasks it encompasses, and what criteria must be met before advancing to the next stage. This ensures consistent use across your team and supports accurate reporting.

It is recommended to start simple with fewer stages that reflect your reporting needs or operational workflow.
 

Convert an Existing Spreadsheet

If you currently track donor cultivation activity in a spreadsheet, those column headers may translate well into opportunity stages. 

Consider what activities you actually report on to your team, committees, or board. If only three of eight columns in the spreadsheet are consistently filled out and used for reporting, this may be a chance to simplify what needs to be tracked. 

Opportunities can also be imported into CommunitySuite with an import template.
 

Consider Timelines for Each Stage

Think about the expected duration of each stage. While stages themselves do not have a set timeline, this can inform how task due dates are structured within them. For example, if formal documentation is typically received within 30 days of an initial conversation, tasks within that stage can be set with due dates that reflect that expectation.
 

Account for Cross-Team Involvement

Some opportunity types may span multiple teams, with different stages owned by different departments. When mapping out stages, consider which team is responsible for the work within each stage. 

For example, in a new fund opportunity type, finance or accounting teams may own the stage focused on fund record creation, while donor development staff manage stages related to setting up the opportunity, refining fund agreement language, and setting up the fund advisor designation.
 

Align Tasks With Team Roles 

Assign Tasks by Role
Create opportunity tasks that align with your current process. Consider which team members would be assigned tasks within each stage, and use recurring tasks for quarterly or semi-annual check-ins after initial donor commitments.

Use Opportunity Tasks for Reportable Activity
When capturing activity that you will need to report on like calls, visits, or other touchpoints use opportunity tasks rather than notes. Opportunity tasks, when marked complete, convert into a note record.
 

Decide Where Information Will Live

Notes, files, and tasks each store and display differently in CommunitySuite depending on where they are created and what type of record they are associated with. Understanding these differences can help inform where to record information:

• Notes created for the opportunity will roll up to the connected profile record by default. 
• Files attached to an opportunity will display within that opportunity and do not roll up. 
• Opportunity tasks are retained on the record when an opportunity is closed, preserving activity history.
• Standalone system tasks are not retained when an opportunity is closed. 

Consider which profiles to connect to the opportunity, as a single opportunity can be linked to multiple profiles including household members, professional advisors, advisor firms, and beneficiaries.

The decisions for where to record information, like notes and tasks, should also be informed by reporting availability and functionality of those fields and data. 
 

Consider If Pledges or Promises Are Used

Pledges and Promises are separate object areas in CommunitySuite that can be linked to an opportunity record. When linked, they will display on the opportunity and impact the balance as donations are received. 

Pledge vs. Promise
Pledges and promises both allow you to document a commitment from a donor to fulfill an obligation over a period of time. You can establish payment schedules and build templates for reminder letters about upcoming payments. Pledges impact your general ledger, and promises do not. 

Pledge vs. Promise vs. Opportunity provides more guidance.

Account for Pledges and Promises in Reporting
If your organization plans to use pledges or promises as part of opportunity workflows, it is recommended to test the reporting implications of tracking activity across these two areas in CommunitySuite.

Reporting on opportunities, tasks, and notes works best when the structure of your opportunity types is built with reporting in mind from the start. 

Identify Your Reporting Requirements

Consider your reporting requirements as part of the planning process. Think about what you currently report on and what you want to be able to report on in the future. For example, if tracking outreach activity is important to your organization or board, structure your task types to capture meetings, phone calls, or touchpoints. 
 

Report on Touchpoints

If your organization wants to report on the return on investment of staff activity, such as the number of contacts made by each team member or by action type, structure your task types with that goal in mind from the start.
 

Test Reporting in Your Sandbox Site First

Before building out opportunities in your Live site, it is recommended to work through the following items in your Sandbox site to confirm your design for opportunities supports the reporting you need:

• Build out opportunity types, stages, and task and note types.
• Create opportunity records, complete tasks, add notes, and advance stages.
• Link donations, pledges, or promises and test how commitment and balance amounts change.
• Add connected profiles, professional advisor profiles, and beneficiary profiles.
• Assign tasks to different users on the same opportunity record.
• Build custom reports for opportunities, tasks, and notes.
• Use the filtered reporting available within Opportunities across all buckets.

Review existing reports or spreadsheets you currently use, and then replicate them in CommunitySuite to confirm the data you need is available and structured the way you expect. Gaps or surprises discovered during this testing phase may inform changes to your opportunity type design.

Opportunities offer several ways to capture and configure activity beyond the standard fields on an opportunity record. 

Task and Note Types 

Task and note types are configured in Task/Note Types within the Opportunity Types area in CommunitySuite. Even though you create the list here, they apply broadly across CommunitySuite wherever you create a note, add a standalone task, or add an Opp Task. Opp Tasks are a specific task record created within an opportunity record and behave differently than standalone tasks.
 

When building out your opportunity types, consider what activity types your organization needs to track and report on. If your board requires reporting on the number of calls, visits, or solicitations made by your development team, structure your task and note types with those reporting needs in mind from the start.
 

Opportunity Tasks

Opportunity tasks are created directly on an opportunity record and are used to track actions taken as part of a relationship or cultivation effort. They are created by clicking the Add Opp Task option in the left-side menu on a opportunity record. 

Opportunity tasks display on the opportunity record, within the Tasks object area, and at the top of a record once overdue. 

An open opportunity task's due date will also display on the Engagement tab of the related profile in the Followup column.
 

When an opportunity task is marked complete, it creates a related note record and remains on the opportunity.
 

The related note also rolls up to the Notes tab on the profile record.
 

Standalone Tasks

Standalone system tasks can be created from many areas of CommunitySuite and are used for internal administrative actions that can be unrelated to donor relationship management. For example, a task to clean up duplicate profiles or complete a data entry project. 

Standalone tasks display in the Tasks object area and at the top of records once overdue. They do not display on an opportunity record. 

When a standalone task is marked complete, it is removed from the active task list. The option to create a note record upon task completion is provided.
 

Which Should I Use: Opportunity or Standalone Tasks?

The key distinction is whether the action needs to be retained as part of a relationship or cultivation history for an opportunity. If the record of an action needs to be preserved as a note on the opportunity and remain reportable over time, an opportunity task is the appropriate choice. If the action is a one-time internal task, a standalone task may be sufficient.

Sometimes important information has to be captured beyond what standard fields provide. Custom fields can be used to accommodate these needs.

Opportunity Custom Fields 

Custom fields can be added to opportunity records to track information that is not already available within standard opportunity fields, notes, or on the profile record. When evaluating whether custom fields are needed, consider what information your organization will need to reference or report on as the opportunity develops. 

Example Opportunity Custom Fields
Common custom field examples include: 

• Prospective Fund Type - A dropdown field type that aligns with the fund types your organization works with.
• Prospective New Fund Name - A text field to track the name of the fund and use when drafting fund agreements.
• Funding Source - A dropdown or multi-select field type for tracking types of expected gift sources, like of IRA distributions, charitable remainder trusts, or securities.

Custom Field Types
For custom fields that will be used primarily to aid in reporting, dropdown or multi-select checkbox field types are recommended over open text fields to ensure data consistency and can be filtered on or segmented more easily.

 

Custom Fields Display Across All Opportunity Types
It is important to note that opportunity custom fields are not tied to a specific opportunity type. Once created, a custom field will be available as an option on all opportunity records. 

For example, a prospective fund type custom field created for new fund opportunities will also appear on board recruitment, conflict of interest, or any other opportunity type in use.
 

Note Custom Fields 

Custom fields can be added to notes in CommunitySuite to capture more specific, reportable information about a note. 

Note Custom Fields Help Filter Notes In or Out of Reports
These fields are useful in two ways: they can add detail that makes notes more meaningful in reports. For example, tagging a note with a reportable topic. Note custom fields can also be used to filter certain notes out of reports when that information is not relevant to the output. 

For instance, you may record notes documenting a staff change at a grantee organization or conversations about a capital campaign. If those notes should not appear alongside donor cultivation notes in a custom report and you do not have an existing task/note type that provides a way to filter them, a custom field can provide the means to exclude them.

Note Custom Fields vs. Opportunity Reporting
When deciding whether to use note custom fields versus capturing information within an opportunity or opportunity task, consider your reporting needs. Reporting options are generally more robust within opportunities than within notes reporting, so if detailed filtering or segmentation is a priority, structuring that information at the opportunity or task type level may be more effective.

The following tips can help reduce administrative setup time and support consistent use of Opportunities across your team.

Build Opportunity Templates for Each Type

Because relationship strategies vary by opportunity type, it is recommended to build a template opportunity for the most frequently used opportunity types your organization manages. Use the Copy function to create new opportunities with consistent stages and tasks already in place, reducing administrative setup time.

Assign the Opportunity Template to a Dedicated Profile
It is recommended to assign the opportunity template to your organization's profile or a designated staff member's profile. All tasks built into the template can be copied along with it, which significantly reduces setup time.

Update Task Due Dates When Copying
When copying a template opportunity with tasks, task due dates are copied over from the template and will need to be updated to reflect the current timeline. Adjusting task dates is recommended as part of the administrative setup, so that task due dates and reminder intervals are accurate for reporting purposes.

Include the Opportunity ID in Task Descriptions
When adding a task, it is recommended to include the Op ID, the ID number of the opportunity record, in the task description as part of standard workflow documentation. This way opportunity tasks are easily identifiable when viewed outside of the opportunity record, like in the Tasks area or on a profile record, where it may not be immediately clear whether a task is tied to an opportunity or is a standalone system task.
 

Leverage Opportunity Letters

Once an opportunity letter template has been loaded in Templates, it can be added to the opportunity and used to generate letters individually or in batch. 

When emailing letters, check the Auto-Attach Document box to automatically attach a copy of the letter to the opportunity record. This keeps a complete record of all communications sent as part of the opportunity without requiring a separate file upload. 

See Opportunity Letters for guidance on setting up and processing letters.