Recording asks and working the pipeline

Fundraising is a series of asks. The Profile Center keeps score: what each person was asked for, what happened, and where everyone stands in the pipeline — so no ask falls through the cracks and no one gets asked twice by two different callers.

The suggested ask

Every person with giving data carries a Suggested Ask — an amount computed from their history: projecting growth for rising donors, a bump above last year for steady ones, or a rebuild amount for returning donors. The profile explains the reasoning in plain words under the amount, and asks are rounded up to natural gift levels.

If a suggestion looks off, you have two levers. Set a custom ask on the profile and your number replaces the suggestion everywhere it's used — queues, the pipeline, expected totals — until you clear it and hand control back to the automatic amount. Or fix the source: the suggestion recalculates from whatever giving history you've added, so correcting the data corrects the number. And when you record an ask, you can always confirm a different amount than either.

Recording an ask and its outcome

1. Open a person's profile from the people rail.
2. In the Ask & Pipeline section, click Record Ask, confirm the amount, and save.

The ask sits as pending until you record what happened, with four outcome buttons:

• Pledged — they committed to an amount. You'll be asked how much and by when, and a pledge is created automatically.
• Gave — they donated on the spot.
• Follow Up — not a no; try again later.
• Declined — a no for this campaign.

Every ask is kept in a history list on the profile — amount, when, and outcome — so the story of the relationship is visible to whoever calls next.

The pipeline stages

Each person has a stage, shown as a chip on their profile and as columns in the Board view:

• To Ask — nobody has asked yet.
• Asked — an ask has been recorded.
• Pledged — they have an open pledge.
• Paid — they gave this year (or fulfilled a pledge).
• Not Now — deliberately parked; they're excluded from calling queues.

Stages move automatically from your activity: record an ask and the person becomes Asked; log a pledge and they become Pledged; when a donation arrives, Paid. You can also set a stage manually from the profile's stage selector — useful for parking someone in Not Now — and switch back to Automatic (from activity) whenever you want the system to take over again.

The Board view

Open Board from its card on the Home tab to see the pipeline as columns, each with its people, headcount, and total expected dollars. Drag a card from one column to another to set that person's stage manually — handy for triaging after an event. Click any card to open the full profile.

Why this matters beyond bookkeeping

The pipeline feeds everything else: the Call Next queue skips people marked Paid or Not Now, the War Room adds up unasked expected amounts as untapped potential, and segments can filter by stage. Recording asks isn't paperwork — it's what makes the rest of the machine smart.

Tip: After every calling session, spend two minutes resolving pending asks. A pipeline where "Asked" reflects reality is what lets a second caller pick up exactly where the first left off.