Overview
In any university development program with a comprehensive, university-wide constituent
orientation, management of prospects is the most essential management function driving the
development and campaign process.
The goal of the university’s prospect assignment procedure shall be to make decisions in a
collaborative and collegial environment, fostering accountability and trust in the overall process.
Active fundraising will reflect awareness and promotion of the university’s institutional and
academic priorities. The donor’s philanthropic desires are to be the principal guide and are to be
primary in decision-making..
To serve that end, the following prospect management principles and procedures have been created.
Specifically, the procedures make provision for:
- Definitiveness in prospect manager assignments and proposal record assignments to a
development officer whose charge it is to obtain gifts through the use of Case Western
Reserve University volunteer and senior academic personnel resources. - Regular review of prospects’ financial capacities to make a gift to the university at a level
that will serve to fulfill the philanthropic needs identified by the institution. - The assignment of a prospect to a school or program of the prospect’s potential interest by
taking into account the affiliation of the prospect with a particular school or program. - School deans and development officers have the right to review prospect assignment
requests, with the latitude of the Vice President for Development and/or her designee to
affirm prospect assignments or reallocate prospects to units with the aim of funding
university priority needs and/or donor-centered interests. - The development management team is to set in place plans for moving prospects from the
status of identified prospects through solicitation and ultimately into stewardship. - Regular meetings will be initiated by the relevant development leadership to examine and
review relationships and strategies for key major, leadership, and principal gift prospects.
Prospect group meetings for prospects rated under $1M will be held at the school level.
Prospect group meetings for prospects rated over $1M will be facilitated centrally by the
Vice President of Development or her designee.
Principles
- There are two main types of prospect manager assignments on Special ($10,000 - $99,999),
Major ($100,000-$999,999), Leadership ($1 million - $5 million), Principal ($5 million-
$10 million), and Concierge Principal ($10 million+) gift prospects: Prospect Manager
(primary assignment) and Assistant Prospect Manager(s) (secondary assignments). Only one
prospect manager assignment is possible in Advance, however, multiple assistant prospect
managers may be assigned. There are also three types of proposal level assignments, of
which fundraisers are capable of assigning themselves and others: Soliciting Development
Officer, Collaborating Development Officer, and Volunteer. - Requesting assignment as prospect manager may be done at any time. The requester must
obtain written permission from his or her supervisor. This permission must be sent,
along with the request, to the Associate Director of Prospect Management, who will
then obtain final approval from the Vice President of Development. Development
Officers must make sure that they keep their Prospect Manager assignments under the
maximum allowed by their position level (Director: 200; Senior Director: 150;
Assistant and Associate Dean/Executive Director: 100; Associate Vice President/Vice
Dean/Vice President/Senior Vice President: 50). - The prospect manager will be responsible for coordinating all contacts of a philanthropic
nature with the university. The time period of active assignment will be determined on a
case by case basis as long as the prospect manager can show advancement in the
relationship. In acknowledgement of multiple programs with which a prospect may affiliate,
a fundraiser, dean, other university official, or volunteer may continue cultivation efforts
with prospects assigned to a different officer at the prospect manager level, as long as
those cultivation contacts are coordinated through that prospect manager and the relevant
supervisors. These cultivation efforts will be assigned as assistant prospect managers. A
requestor for an assistant prospect manager assignment must obtain written permission
from his or her supervisor, AND written permission from the prospect manager. These
permissions will then be sent to the Associate Director of Prospect Management, who will
obtain final approval from the Vice President of Development. - Requesting assignment as prospect manager indicates an intention to solicit a special, major,
leadership, or principal gift from the assigned prospect. Once a prospect is assigned to a
prospect manager, other claimants must abstain from solicitation without permission of the
prospect manager. - Given the sometimes delicate nature of solicitations and gift discussions, all development
staff, deans and volunteers must respect the decisions and judgments of the prospect
manager. Assignments will be reviewed at regular intervals (see review procedures
below) to determine if suitable progress has been made. Prospects may be eligible for
reassignment after a chosen period if there has been no solicitation made or progress
toward solicitation demonstrated. Prospect managers may present a case for continued
assignment. - Communication and shared information are critical components of an active fundraising
agenda, and a single repository and source of information on prospects and donors is vital to
success. Development personnel involved in cultivating and soliciting prospects must enter
contact reports into Advance to document their fundraising activities within five business
days since they have had contact with a prospect. Development officers are also
responsible for documenting the activities of volunteers, deans, and other university
personnel that they utilize. Contact report policies may be reviewed in the training
manual. - Development officers should exercise appropriate diligence before initiating any activity
with a prospect. Advance should be checked for assignments, recent contact reports, and
proposals before initiating contact. An updated research profile should also be requested
if the prospect’s wealth, demographic data, or other information has changed significantly.
When appropriate, development officers should also seek information from staff or
volunteers with existing relationships to support their work.
Review Procedures
- In the event a development officer departs the University, prospect management will
emphasize the reassignment of principal gift prospects, followed by leadership, major gift,
then special gift prospects in that development officer’s portfolio. Prospects with an
identified cultivation or solicitation strategy will be reassigned, if appropriate, by the
development officer’s supervisor. Prospects with no defined strategy or relationship will
be either returned to the prospect pool or directed to the appropriate assignment by a
fundraising executive either centrally or at a school. - The Associate Director of Prospect Management will meet individually with development
officers on a regular basis to review their portfolios for accuracy and currency. The goal
will be to accurately reflect their work on the Fundraiser Summary Report and the
Fundraiser Performance Reports. - School-centered and/or department-centered prospect meetings should be coordinated with
central development and take place on a regular basis. The goals of these meetings should
be to review special and major gift prospects regarding strategy and other issues as needed.
Conflict Resolution
Prospects in contention for assignment within a school: arbitration is by the Chief Development Officer at that school.
- Prospects in contention for assignment within a school: arbitration is by the Chief
Development Officer at that school. - Prospects in contention between or among schools: arbitration will follow the chain of
command of the University Development Office as defined by the Vice President of
Development. - Development officers who wish to make a case for prospect manager assignment or
permission for solicitation should have a detailed solicitation plan documented in
Advance with the appropriate back-up, proposal records, and contact reports.
Supporting Notes
In order for development officers to receive due credit for their work; contacts, collaboration, and
solicitation of prospects will be recorded on fundraiser performance reports. These reports are
driven by proposal record assignments (Soliciting Development Officer and Collaborating
Development Officer), not prospect manager or assistant prospect manager assignments.
Information from Contact Reports and Prospect Tasks are also reviewed for performance purposes.
Any member of University Relations and Development who has an interaction with an alum or
other outside constituent of the University must input the relevant information into Ellucian
Advance within five business days of the interaction.
The prospect management policies and principles here are intended to support a process that
provides openness, collaboration, accountability, and trust. All interested parties should note that
the process as it pertains to prospect management is a fluid situation and should the needs and
emphasis of the development program change, these procedures may be revisited and changed
As of 10/26/2021