This playbook is a collection of best practices, resources, and general recommendations specifically designed for a typical Development or fundraising nonprofit employee. This guide will provide a high-level overview of the key tools available in Virtuous CRM to help you get started. Because Virtuous is a customizable platform, each organization can adapt settings to meet their unique needs, ensuring a tailored and impactful experience. Use this playbook as a roadmap to navigate the platform’s core features that may be relevant to your role.
Table of Contents
- Relationship Management
- Campaigns and Projects
- Grants
- Communications; Email, Direct Mail, and SMS
- Online Forms
- Tags, Custom Fields, Custom Collections, and Organization Groups
- Gift Ask Pipeline
- Accessing and Reviewing Data
- Dashboards and Widgets
- Adapting Automation Workflow Best Practice Templates for Development Processes
- Resources and Support
Relationship Management
Relationships are the cornerstone of a successful and sustainable fundraising strategy. There are a handful of features available in Virtuous that will make tracking and staying engaged with your supporters more streamlined. This selection of features are outlined below along with some key callouts as to how each can be from a development perspective.
Contacts
The selection of people, groups, businesses, and more that you regularly interact with will be stored in a Contact record with one or more Individuals within. This structure of Contact and Individual is central to tracking the different layers of relationships. Simply put, Contacts represent a tax entity and Individuals represent actual people.
Relationships
Documenting and tracking important details and milestones that make up a Donor’s relationship with your organization will provide a wealth of information when it comes to continued cultivation. Using Relationships, you can track connections that your supporters may have with each other. Perhaps they’re siblings, friends, or coworkers.
To learn more about working with Relationships in Virtuous, check out this Support Article.
Just as with Contact Types, there is a selection of Relationship Types readily available to use in Virtuous but you are not limited to those as your only options. You can create Custom Relationship Types to better track the nature of connections in your organization’s community.
To learn more about creating Custom Relationship Types in Virtuous, check out this Support Article.
Bulk Actions and the Contact Queue
Executing many updates at once can be accomplished using the Bulk Actions feature available in the Query Tool. The Query Type and criteria to use will depend on the exact update to be completed. The selection of Bulk Actions available will vary depending on the Query Type being used.
To learn more about executing Bulk Actions, check out this Support Article.
There may be situations when you need to modify a group of Contacts without a set of easily searchable criteria. The Contact Queue allows you to build a custom list of Contact records, which you can access from the row of icons visible at the top right of almost any screen in Virtuous. Bulk Actions can then be executed on the selection of Contact records in the Contact Queue.
To learn more about working with the Contact Queue, check out this Support Article.
Notes and Tasks
Notes and Tasks go hand-in-hand to track various Donor touchpoints. Notes keep track of all your historical interactions with a Contact while Tasks keep track of upcoming interactions. There are a few tips to lean on while using Notes and Tasks to better organize your data for ease of access. With an entire Query type dedicated to Contact Notes, this means you can use this touchpoint data (or lack of data) as a trigger for Automation and Tasks to be generated in response.
To further tailor Virtuous to fit your specific processes, you can create Custom Note Types and Custom Task Types to define categories of actions.
For guidance on creating a Custom Note Type, check out this Support Article.
For guidance on creating a Custom Task Type, check out this Support Article.
Campaigns and Projects
The most important question you may be asking yourself is “how do I keep track of all my different fundraising efforts?” The short answer is "Campaigns and Projects!”
Virtuous Campaigns allow you to structure and track all the various fundraising activities, including emails, events, mailers, and more, you can develop a comprehensive view of your Marketing and Development strategy and its impact. In addition, your reporting can equip you with valuable metrics to inform future initiatives..
The other side of the donation journey is tracking how incoming donations are being used. In Virtuous, the Project structure is used to track and define specific initiatives needing funding. If your organization has a generally simple fund structure you may only need one or two Projects to track incoming donations. If your organization has a complex set of fundraising needs, your Project structure may require a strategic approach to benefit donors and Virtuous users alike.
For further guidance on working with Campaigns, check out this collection of Support Articles.
For further guidance on working with Projects, check out this collection of Support Articles.
Grants
Most granting organizations require a specific project plan and budget as part of the application process, and money awarded is typically restricted to only those uses laid out in the application. The Grant module in Virtuous allows you to track Grant applications, manage deadlines, upcoming Tasks, and store related documents for easy access.
To review the full selection of Grant content, check out this collection of Support Articles.
Communications: Email, Direct Mail, and SMS
Your organization can send and track a variety of marketing communications directly in the Virtuous app! This means you can deliver branded and personalized content that reflects different aspects of a Donors’ relationship with your organization. Whether it’s delivering regular Newsletters or referencing the date and amount of a recipient's last Gift while sending a solicitation email, the opportunity to pack Responsive value into each touchpoint is nearly endless!
- Leaning on Email Marketing to supplement your strategy and deliver tailored messaging from the Virtuous platform is a versatile tool for any Development user.
- Using a Personalized Email Template with our Email Sync feature can give you a starting point for the personalized emails you send directly to your supporters, which can then be tracked in the database.
- Delivering a Direct Mail piece can be an important part of a high impact multi-channel marketing strategy.
- The third general channel of messaging available via the Virtuous platform is SMS messaging, otherwise known as text messaging. For an SMS to be successfully delivered, an Individual must have a Mobile Phone Number on file that has opted-in to receiving text communications.
Online Forms
The ability to accept online donations is integral. Using Virtuous, you can create a selection of different types of Forms beyond a Giving Form.
There are six different types of Forms available. Each is listed below with a general description and example of when to use each type.
- Giving Form: Accept online donations
- Lead Form: Accept online submissions of a Contact or Individual’s information
- Pledge Form: Accept an online commitment from a donor to give a specific sum of money over a set period of time.
- Membership Form: Accept online submissions of community members joining Memberships. You can use the Memberships functionality in Virtuous to create multiple types and levels of membership, define the expiration, and track payments of membership dues.
- Event Form: Accept online RSVP submissions from Event Attendees
- Volunteer Form: Accept online submissions from a volunteer to join an Opportunity and track those willing to serve your organization.
Tags, Custom Fields, Custom Collections, and Organization Groups
There is a high likelihood that custom data has already been created by your Database Administrator to define these fields in your database. Being prescriptive in why, how, and when you use different types of custom data on a Contact record can be the key in creating strategic and responsive processes for your team to manage different initiatives. Below is a collection of example use cases to better illustrate the best use of each type of data.
- Tag - Tags are tracked on the Contact level. As a Development User, being able to reference a Tag titled “Sponsor Organization” can make it quick and easy to create a list of business owners to speak with about supporting your upcoming events season.
- Custom Field - Custom Fields can exist across most of Virtuous and are not limited to Contacts or Individuals. As a Development User, being able to reference an Individual Custom Field named “Volunteer Coordinator” can make it easy to identify a list of Individuals at supporting Organizations that act in the role of Volunteer Coordinator while preparing for upcoming Volunteer Opportunities.
- Custom Collection - A Custom Collection is a group of fields that allows multiple entries to be stored and referenced. For example, being able to reference a Custom Collection named “2025 Survey Data” can be beneficial when getting to know your donors based on, of course, information they submitted in a survey.
- Organization Group - An Organization Group is a group of Contact records; this is often used for managing portfolios.
Gift Ask Pipeline
The Gift Ask Pipeline is a tool many Development teams use to track major gift asks. The Gift Ask Pipeline is a drag-and-drop board that provides a high-level view of specific Gift Asks broken down by status, or pipeline stage, with weighted and actual totals for each group. Depending on your organization’s exact process needs, you may need to customize the default Pipeline Status definitions to best supplement your organization’s process.
As a note, “Moves Management” and the “Gift Ask Pipeline” are separate processes. The Gift Ask Pipeline can supplement a greater Moves Management process that combines multiple features in Virtuous, including Automation Workflows, Organization Groups, and My Portfolio. The Gift Ask Pipeline’s role in Moves Management is keeping track of the individual or recurring asks made to donors.
Accessing and Reviewing Data
There is a wide selection of Reports and Widgets readily available that provide a detailed look into many areas of your organization. You can also create Custom Reports that allow for greater flexibility in what data is included and how it is being displayed. As a Development User, ease of access and useability of the data you are referencing is crucial to assessing your team’s progress, fundraising gaps, and other trends that may influence your development strategy.
Filters and Queries
You can find the Filter function available on the left-hand side of many pages across the platform. Filters are great for pulling a quick list of one data type for single-use; however, for lists that draw from multiple data types and/or may need to be pulled repeatedly, consider Queries below.
To review the full selection of Query content, check out this selection of Support Articles.
Standard Reports
Standard Reports are available and serve an array of purposes. A few Standard Reports that typically apply to a Development role are outlined below.
- Campaign Giving Report - This report includes detailed information that breaks down dollars raised by each Campaign Communication and Segment.
- Gifts by Giving Tier Report - This report provides insight into all recent Gifts, broken down into six categories, or tiers, by Gift Amount.
- Organization Group Report - This report output allows for a high-level summary or detailed listings of Gifts, Contact Notes, and Contact counts per Organization Group (which may reflect portfolios in many cases).
Custom Reports
Though the selection of Standard Reports available provides a quick manner of reporting, you may find your reporting needs call for a Custom Report. Beyond the flexibility of defining more specific attributes, a Custom Report can also be scheduled to be delivered to Team Members’ email inboxes on a recurring basis.
To learn more about creating a Custom Report, check out this Support Article.
For guidance on running and managing Custom Reports, check out this Support Article.
Virtuous BI
Beyond the native Reporting functionality readily available in-app, Virtuous BI is a business intelligence tool. This premium feature can equip your team with more flexible and deeper insight into your existing data.
To review articles covering the Virtuous BI module, check out this section of the Support Center.
Dashboards and Widgets
The last category of information to reference are Dashboards and Widgets, which appear on your home screen when you log in to the app. There are three different Dashboards pre-set to provide a wide selection of insight without much effort needed.
CRM Dashboard
This Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of information from across the CRM. With five categories of prebuilt Widgets including “Donor Insights” and “Pipeline”, there are many plug-and-play options to tailor a selection of Widgets to fit your reporting needs. This Dashboard also gives you access to turning a Custom Report into a Custom Widget, further expanding the possible value of information available.
Marketing Dashboard
This Dashboard has a selection of Widgets covering content like Email Marketing, Online Giving, and more. The data presented here is already digested and displayed in easy to digest nuggets of information like “Email Click Comparison”, “Online Giving by Form”, and “New Online Recurring Giving.”
Responsive Dashboard
This Dashboard displays a selection of fundraising metrics that can be directly impacted by the adoption of specific Responsive Fundraising strategies. A few of the high value Widgets like “Retention”, “Donor Lifetime Value”, and “Lapsed vs New” can be integral in keeping a close eye on key metrics while assessing and developing your fundraising strategies.
Best Calls to Make and Thank You Calls List
The main purpose of these two lists is to be a responsive fundraiser by offering the information you need to reach out to a Contact with confidence, whether that's to make a specific ask or thank them for a generous contribution they've made recently.
To learn more about the Best Calls to Make and Thank You Calls list, check out this Support Article.
Adapting Automation Workflow Best Practice Templates for Development Processes
At the surface, an Automation Workflow is a collection of Actions that the Virtuous app can execute on your behalf. Automation can be used to manage data within the application, like adding or removing a Tag, but it can also be used to deliver external messaging via Virtuous Marketing or Task Assignment. This doesn’t take the heart out of your messaging, but rather, it maximizes the power of Automation handling smaller “management” items so your team can spend more time cultivating relationships and delivering high value touch points.
From a Development perspective, Automation can enable your team to structure specific workflows that handle the different stages of your Moves Management process. Setting up workflows that deliver reminders, populate footprints of important milestones, manage donor stages and categorizations, and more will allow your team to focus on the action items rather than the manual admin work of identifying who and what needs your attention and when they need it. You can incorporate all sorts of data like Volunteer history, Event attendance, and Custom Fields.
To review the full selection of Automation content, check out this collection of Support Articles.
Resources and Support
As you work in Virtuous, you may need additional guidance beyond this playbook. You have a handful of options to access further training and knowledge!
Support Center
The Virtuous Support Center is the central hub for all instructional documentation regarding how the platform functions, when to use each feature available, and a collection of best practices to lean on. When searching for content in the Support Center, it’s best to structure your inquiry as a question. Most articles are titled in question format, such as “How Do I Enter a Gift?”.
Virtuous Training Academy
The Virtuous Training Academy is your one-stop shop for instructional videos structured in chronological order.
Chatting with Virtuous Tech Support
After reviewing the content available in the Support Center and Training Academy, you may need additional support on your specific use case. You can reach out to the Virtuous Tech Support team for one-on-one guidance.
For guidance on submitting a quality Support Ticket, check out this Support Article.
For directions on how to review your open Support Tickets, check out this Support Article.
Professional Services
Need hands-on help cleaning up your data? Virtuous Professional Services offers solutions to optimize your CRM data and improve data hygiene through deduplication, Pledge & Recurring Gift clean up, and data appends. These services are geared to improve your Donor Segmentation, streamline your marketing Campaigns, and ensure accurate reporting. Click here to learn more about our Professional Services offerings, or contact your Customer Success Manager to get started!