The Vault / Tools

Solicitation
Cycle Planner

Turn a portfolio's gift history into a month-by-month solicitation calendar with a recommended ask for every donor.

Load an export from your database, set how you like to plan, and download the full plan in Excel. Your data never leaves your browser.

Start with your data

Example donor cycle

CultivateAskSteward

Step 01

Pull your gift history.

The planner reads one row per gift. Run a gift query or report on your portfolio and export it to CSV or Excel.

How much data to provide

Time spanEvery gift from the first day of the fiscal year five years ago through today. Three full fiscal years is the minimum; five lets the planner spot each donor's usual giving month and trend.
DonorsOne portfolio at a time works best, typically 75 to 250 donors. A team file works too if it includes a solicitor column; you can plan one gift officer at a time.
RowsOne row per gift, not one row per donor. Files up to about 100,000 rows run comfortably.
Gift typesInclude cash, pledge payments, stock, and recurring gift payments. Leave out pledge commitments (their payments are already counted), soft credits, and matching gifts credited to a company.

Columns to include

Column		Used for
Donor ID	Required	Groups gifts by donor. Constituent ID, account ID, or any unique donor number.
Gift date	Required	Places each gift in a fiscal year and month. MM/DD/YYYY or YYYY-MM-DD.
Gift amount	Required	Builds yearly totals, trends, and the ask.
Donor name	Recommended	Makes the plan readable. Without it, the plan shows IDs.
Rated capacity	Optional	A dollar amount or range from wealth screening, such as "$25,000 - $49,999." Keeps asks in line with capacity and flags stretch opportunities.
Solicitor	Optional	Lets you plan one gift officer's portfolio from a team file.

Step-by-step for your database

Raiser's Edge (database view)

Go to Query, then New Query, and choose a Gift query (dynamic).
Criteria: Gift Date between and today. Gift Type one of Cash, Pay-Cash, Stock/Property, Stock/Property (Sold), Recurring Gift Pay-Cash.
Portfolio criteria: Constituent Information, Solicitors, Name equals the gift officer (skip this to pull the whole team). Add Deceased equals No.
Output: Constituent ID, Name, Gift Date, Gift Amount. Optional: your capacity rating from Prospect, Ratings and Solicitors, Name.
Run the query and export it to CSV.

Raiser's Edge NXT (web view)

Open Lists, then Gifts.
Filter Gift date on or after and Gift type to cash, pledge payments, stock, and recurring gift payments.
Filter Fundraiser to the gift officer, or leave it open for the whole team.
Columns: Constituent lookup ID, Constituent name, Gift date, Gift amount, and optionally Fundraiser and a capacity rating.
Export the list to CSV.

Salesforce, Bloomerang, Virtuous, or another CRM

Build a gift, donation, or Opportunity report with received or Closed Won gifts only.
Date filter: gift or close date on or after .
Filter to the portfolio owner or relationship manager.
Columns: Account or constituent ID, Account name, Gift or close date, Amount, and optionally Owner and a capacity field.
Export as CSV, details only, no subtotals.

Step 02

Load your file.

Your file is read inside this browser window. Nothing is uploaded or stored on a server.

Drop a CSV or Excel file here

.csv / .xlsx / .xls

Choose file

Step 03

Set your planning assumptions.

These defaults reflect common major and mid-level gift practice. Adjust them to fit your shop; the planner remembers your choices on this device.

Fiscal year

Which year to plan and where scheduling begins.

Fiscal year starts in Name fiscal years by Plan for Start scheduling in Earlier months count as complete. Gifts already received there still count. Plan title Gift officer Available when your file has a solicitor column.

Ask amounts

Each ask starts from the donor's giving history, then grows by the upgrade set for their giving pattern.

Start the ask from Years in the average Minimum ask Round asks to Clean amounts follow a gift ladder: $1,000, $1,250, $1,500, $2,000, $2,500 and so on.

Upgrade by giving pattern

Growing donors Gave at least 10% more last year Steady donors Gave about the same Declining donors Gave 20% or more below the year before New donors First gift came last year or this year Lapsed donors, ask for Share of their last annual total (gave two years ago, not last year) Long-lapsed donors, ask for Share of their last annual total (last gave three to five years ago)

Capacity

Use rated capacity when the file includes it Annual ask ceiling, share of rated capacity 20% treats a screening figure as five-year capacity. Asks never drop below what a donor already gives.

Tiers and cycle length

Tiers are set by ask size. Larger gifts get more cultivation before the ask and more stewardship after.

Tier name	Asks of at least	Cultivation touches before	Stewardship touches after

Months between touches

Calendar

Give each month an emphasis from 0 to 3. Higher months draw more asks; 0 keeps a month free of asks while cultivation and stewardship continue.

Ask in each donor's usual giving month when their history shows one Add emphasis to the last month of the fiscal year Most asks in one month 0 spreads the workload automatically.

Forecast

Likelihood that an ask closes this fiscal year. Weighted projections multiply each remaining ask by its likelihood.

Growing Steady Declining New Lapsed Long lapsed Portfolio goal for the year Schedule asks for long-lapsed donors

Step 04

Build the plan.

Load a file in step 2 to build your plan.

Month by month

Received so farWeighted projection from asks

Largest asks

Six tabs: summary, monthly plan, monthly to-do list, cycle calendar, donor-by-donor asks, and the assumptions used. Totals are live formulas, so any ask you change in Excel flows through.

Ask amounts are starting points for your judgment, not a substitute for knowing your donors.