4. Managing and revenue pipeline - a) Stage
The revenue pipeline is the ensemble of all future revenue opportunities that are currently being pursued at Tides Canada Foundation and tracked as opportunities in Salesforce. The donations pipeline is tool that allows us to forecast future revenue, make strategic decisions, and drive activity that will sustain and grow our revenue stream.
To maintain an accurate and effective donations pipeline, specific opportunity fields and key related records must be kept updated to reflect the latest information and interactions with a donor. These are described in detail in the following section.
Each Opportunity Lead is responsible for keeping their own pipeline of opportunities up to date on an ongoing basis.
The Senior TCF Coordinator will undertake a quarterly process in consultation with Opportunity Leads and Development Leads to ensure the ongoing accuracy of the pipeline by:
- Reviewing and updating all open opportunities to ensure they are accurate
- Identifying and entering renewals of opportunities received in the previous quarter
a) Stage
The Stage field tells us two crucial things about a donation: (1) the kind of actions that are underway to secure the donation and (2) the probability that the donation will be won by the close date.
Each record type has a different set of stages, reflecting the different process these opportunities go through. The tables below describe the stages and associated probabilities and actions for each record type.
i) Award Stages
| Stage | Default Probability | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | 10% | Prospect has been identified and is in the process of being researched, ranked and cleared. |
| Cultivation | 20% | Prospect has been cleared and initial discussions will be/have been initiated. Not yet known if an ask will be made. |
| Ask Planned | 40% | Internal decision has been made to solicit the prospect (e.g. to submit an LOI/proposal), but the solicitation has not yet been sent. |
| LOI Submitted | 40% | LOI has been submitted, but has not yet been approved/declined |
| Proposal Submitted | 50% | Proposal has been submitted, but has not yet been approved/declined. |
| Confirmed | 100% | Donor has confirmed their intention to make this gift either verbally(informally) or in writing. At this stage, negotiation and signing of a grant agreement may be underway. Opportunity remains at this stage until the first payment is received. |
| Closed Won | 100% | Signifies that one or more installments are paid. |
| LOI Declined |
0% | The prospect declined the LOI. |
| Proposal Declined | 0% | The prospect declined the proposal. |
| No Response Received | 0% | Signifies that a formal response was never received to the LOI or the proposal, and therefore the ask was deemed unsuccessful. |
| Not Submitted | 0% | Signifies opportunities that were previously in the “Ask Planned” stage, but a decision has been made not to submit a solicitation. |
ii) Major Gift Stages
| Stage | Default Probability | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | 10% | Prospect has been identified and is in the process of being researched, ranked and cleared. |
| Cultivation | 20% | Prospect has been cleared and initial discussions will be/have been initiated. Not yet known if an ask will be made. |
| Ask Planned | 40% | Internal decision has been made to solicit the prospect, but the solicitation has not yet been sent |
| Ask Out | 40% | Prospect has been solicited in some form (proposal, solicitation letter, verbal ask) |
| Confirmed | 90% | Donor has confirmed their intention to make this gift either verbally(informally) or in writing. As this stage, negotiation and signing of a grant agreement may underway. Opportunity remains at this stage until the first payment is received. |
| Closed Won | 100% | Signifies that one or more installments are paid. |
| Closed Lost | 0% | Signifies that we no longer have any expectation that the gift will be realized. |
iii) Fee for Service stages
| Stage | Default Probability | Definition |
|---|---|---|
| Qualification | 10% | Prospect has been identified and is in the process of being researched, ranked and cleared. |
| Consultation | 20% | Prospect has been cleared and initial discussion will be/have been initiated to identify/understand the clients' needs. Not yet known if a proposal will be submitted. |
| Ask Planned |
40% | Internal decision has been made to submit a proposal/quote. Proposal/quote is being prepared. |
| Proposal Submitted | 40% | Proposal/quote is or has been submitted to the client. |
| Confirmed | 60% | Client has confirmed their intention to purchase our services either verbally (informally) or in writing. At this stage, negotiation and signing of contract may underway. Opportunity remains at this stage until the first payment is received. |
| Closed Won | 100% | Signifies that one or more installments are paid. |
| Closed Lost | 0% | Signifies that we no longer have any expectation that this revenue will be realized. |
iv) Closed Lost stage
Closed Lost stages include “Closed Lost”, “Not Submitted”, “Proposal Declined”, and “LOI Declined.” These stages all signify that we no longer expect the revenue associated with this opportunity will be realized. When updating an opportunity to a Closed Lost stage, ensure to take the following steps:
- Before changing the stage to Closed Lost, you must first press the Delete Unpaid Payments button. If payments are not deleted prior to changing the stage to Closed Lost, an error message will result.
- Record a Prospect Note on the opportunity to explain why you no longer expect the opportunity will be won. This provides important context for future staff.