The funnel is where you track the organisations and people you’re getting to know as potential funders, from a name on a list to a prospect worth writing a bid for. Open it from the sidebar under Fundraising Pipeline → Funnel.

Before you start

To do this You need
See the funnel pipeline:read:funnel
Add, edit, move, park, qualify or un-qualify entries, and add contacts pipeline:write:funnel
Log a touchpoint pipeline:write:funnel and relationships:write:touchpoints
Set a next action pipeline:write:funnel and tasks:write:tasks, because a next action is a task
Create an opportunity when you qualify pipeline:write:funnel, pipeline:write:opportunities and pipeline:read:opportunities

See the permission catalogue. The organisation or person you’re cultivating must already exist in your contacts.

The stages

Stage Means
Identified A name on a list. No work done yet
Researching Checking fit, funding priorities, deadlines and existing connections
Approached You’ve made contact. No reply yet, or a holding reply
In conversation A genuine two-way dialogue is happening
Qualified Worth committing bid-writing time to. The final column

Entries can also be Parked: set aside, with a reason and an optional date to resurface.

Add a prospect

  1. Choose Add to the funnel.
  2. Under What are you cultivating?, choose An organisation or A person, then pick the Organisation or Contact.
  3. Choose a Starting stage and Owner.
  4. Add an Indicative value, Decision window, Tags, Source and Opportunity type if they’re useful. The decision window is the funder’s own timetable: a date, or a note such as “board meets in March”. The indicative value is an estimate, not income received.
  5. Choose Add to funnel. It appears on the board a moment later.

Move prospects through cultivation

On Board, drag a card to another column to move it. Dragging a card into the final column opens the qualify dialog. Each card shows how recently you were in touch: touched in the last two weeks, no touchpoint for two weeks, no touchpoint for 30 days or more, or no touchpoint recorded.

Select a card to open it. You’ll see Details, Contacts involved, the Cultivation timeline and the Next action. From there:

  • Contacts involved: choose Add a contact, then a Role (Main contact, Decision maker, Champion, Gatekeeper, Influencer or Introducer) and an optional Note. When you’re cultivating a person, they’re listed as the Subject and can’t be removed.
  • Log touchpoint: choose What happened? (such as Research note, Approach made, Cultivation meeting or Pitch delivered), When, and Notes of up to 10,000 characters. Under Who was involved, choose up to 50 contacts. Only the contacts you choose get it on their timeline.
  • Set next action: enter What needs doing?, a Due date and who it’s for, then Create the task. This creates a real task in Tasks. An entry can have one open next action at a time, so complete or cancel the current one before setting another.
  • Complete, under an open next action, marks its task complete in Tasks without leaving the funnel. It shows Completing… until the action clears, which takes a moment. View task opens the task in Tasks. Complete needs both tasks:read:tasks and tasks:write:tasks; View task needs tasks:read:tasks. If the task was already completed, cancelled or deleted in Tasks, nothing is changed and the action clears shortly.

If a touchpoint or a next action can’t be confirmed (for example, the connection drops), the form keeps what you entered and offers Try again. Trying again sends the same request, so nobody gets a touchpoint twice and no second task is created. Closing the form instead asks you to confirm first, because entering it again later sends a new request.

If Complete reports that the task can’t be completed from here, Tasks has refused it, usually because its assignee has left or one of its links is no longer valid. Choose View task to fix it in Tasks.

Park a prospect

Choose Park, enter Why are you parking it? and, if you like, a Resurface on date. Leave the date blank to park it indefinitely.

Parked entries are hidden until you turn on Show parked, which adds a Parked column; dragging a card there also opens the park dialog. To bring one back, choose Unpark, or drag its card anywhere on the board. It returns to the stage it was in; then move it on from there.

Qualify a prospect

  1. Open the entry and choose Qualify, or drag its card into the final column.
  2. Leave Also create an opportunity in the pipeline switched on to start work on a bid straight away. Check the Opportunity name, the Ask amount (filled in from the indicative value) and the Contacts to bring across (at most 50; each keeps its role).
  3. Choose Qualify.

A funnel entry becomes one opportunity only. Without the opportunity permissions, qualifying records the status and date only. See Manage opportunities.

A qualified entry can’t be changed. To change it, choose Un-qualify. It becomes active again but stays in the final column until you move it; any opportunity created from it is kept.

Plan follow-up

Filter by owner (Mine or Everyone’s) and by Tag. The numbers above the board are In funnel, No next action, Gone cold (no touchpoint for 30 days or more, or none ever) and Qualified this quarter (a calendar quarter). Select a number to show only those entries; select it again to show everything.

Update several entries at once

Switch to Table, tick the entries, then choose Reassign owner, Move stage, Add tag, Set next action or Park. Set next action creates one task for each entry, all with the same title, date and assignee; entries that already have an open next action are skipped. If some of the tasks can’t be confirmed, the form stays open and Try again resends only those, so none is created twice.

If only some entries update, you’ll see “Updated 3 of 5 entries. The rest were refused — check them individually.” Check the remaining entries one by one before trying again.