Activity -> meetings -> dollars. Contact 100% of your portfolio by FYE.

Lillian Bicchieri
05/30/2022

For many of you, the end of the fiscal year is approaching. Ultimately, you’ve got big dollar goals to meet. And as we love to shout from the rooftops of EverTrue:

More activity leads to more meetings which lead to more dollars. Full stop.

Between now and the end of the fiscal year, one thing you have total control over is how much activity you’re generating. So, lean into the lingering deadline. This is the perfect time for you to have at least one touchpoint with every single prospect in your portfolio.

Really? I’m supposed to talk to every single person in my portfolio?

We looked at portfolios across our EverTrue database and found that on average, gift officers log interactions with less than half of the assigned prospects in their portfolio every year.

That news makes us upset. Across the board, less than 3% of alumni are assigned to a gift officer portfolio. So, shouldn’t all those prospects who “make the portfolio cut” hear from their assigned 1-1 liaison at least once each year?

Yes. And here’s how to do it – sustainably.

We took ideas from the most productive gift officers in the game and summed up these easy, creative, and effective ways to deepen relationships with every prospect in your portfolio: the super-engaged ones, the hard-to-reach ones, the inherited ones, and the slow-burning ones.

Each tip has simple steps for how to connect with all the folks in your portfolio by year-end with the help of EverTrue. And if you don’t have EverTrue, the tips are a bit more manual, but we suggested work-arounds.

Put simply, reaching 100% of the prospects in your portfolio is just the right thing to do – and you’ve got a deadline to use as motivation.

Does 100% porftolio coverage matter?

If your donors don’t hear from their assigned gift officer, they’re probably not hearing from their alma mater at all. So yes, it matters. Here’s why.

Tip #1: Be a confident creator.

Broad market marketing isn’t what inspires people into action anymore. Providing personalized content at scale is a skill that we all need to sharpen, no matter what we do in the future. Learn more.

Tip #2: What to talk to prospects about - and when.

Here are a few ways to consistently talk to your prospects about things they care about through cadence outreach fueled by digital engagement insights. Check it out.

Tip #3: How to be more organized.

With a big portfolio and big number goals, time is of the essence. There are two easy ways to make the most of each week: Lean into noteworthy occasions, and rely more on your teammates. Here’s how.

Tip #4: Deliver value. Every time.

The best way to build trust with donors is to bring value to them in every interaction. A few simple ways to do that? Build their personal and professional networks. And connect the dots of their historic relationship with your institution.

Tip #5: Lean into the breakup.

We’re not too big to admit that, in love and in fundraising, there comes a time when we must move on and make room for something new. We wrote a prospect breakup letter for you. It’ll get responses.

Building 1-1 relationships with donors is imperative for major gift pipeline. For donor experience. For the future of your institution. And for the bottom line.

And, because most prospects in major gift portfolio are purposefully removed from your institution’s mass appeals, news, and invitations, if you (their assigned gift officer) aren’t reaching out, that means no one is.

You are your assigned prospects’ main conduit to your institution. So it’s should be a non-negotiable for you to reach everyone in your portfolio.

The whole EverCrew is rooting for you as you wrap up the fiscal year! Good luck!

Wanna learn more about EverTrue? Book a demo to see it in action.

Endowment Spending & Growth Calculator

Enter your fund's current value and adjust the return, spending, and inflation sliders to see how its value in today's dollars changes over time.

Starting fund value

Expected investment return 6.0%

0%12%

Spending rate 4.0%

2%7%

Inflation rate 3.0%

0%8%

Duration (years) 10

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Value in 10 years

In today's dollars

4. Continue to Steward Donors

Your relationship with the donors who give to your endowment doesn’t end when you secure their gifts. Because your endowment exists to make a difference in the long term, your supporters will want you to keep in touch about its progress. Ongoing stewardship means keeping donors updated about your endowment’s performance and impact. A report that strengthens your relationship with donors should cover:

The fund’s balance at the start and end of the year
Spending amounts and allocations
How the fund’s returns compare to your investment targets
A short narrative detailing the specific impacts the endowment achieved

Create a report for each endowment rather than sending an identical document to everyone. A donor who endowed a scholarship wants to hear about the students it supported, while a donor who endowed a building fund wants updates on construction projects.

5. Upgrade Your Endowment Management Tools

Your endowment management tools should make applying your spending policy across every fund easy. Investing in dedicated software is especially useful as your endowment grows. Handling unitization in spreadsheets might work for a few funds, but as you begin to manage dozens or hundreds of gifts, dedicated software can save your team time spent manually calculating gains and losses for each one.

Why Nonprofits Need Dedicated Endowment Management Software

Dedicated endowment software brings accuracy and consistency to every part of the management process, from tracking individual funds to improving security. See how these solutions compare to a spreadsheet-based approach:

nfographic table outlining the information below.

How These Methods Compare:

In managing your endowment with traditional spreadsheets, you may see:

High administrative burden: Manual entry across disconnected systems
Limited security and audit footprints: Reduced version control and audit trail visibility
Difficulty with donor transparency: Spreadsheets provide only static data that is difficult to turn into custom results.

By using dedicated software, you are likely to find the following improvements:

Lower administrative burden: Automated fund tracking and calculated allocations
Enhanced security and audit footprint: Audit-ready reconciliation with clear tracking
Greater donor transparency: Connects with reporting platforms

Dedicated endowment management software keeps your organization compliant while freeing up the time your team once spent manually managing spreadsheets.

Secure Your Endowment with Balance by EverTrue

Effective endowment management begins with excellent accounting. Balance by EverTrue handles unitization, applies spending rules, and produces audit-ready reports, so your team can spend more time on the donor relationships that built the fund in the first place.

Turn your data into a clear picture of long-term impact. Combine accurate fund accounting with donor reporting that showcases impact.
Connect with the tools you already use. Pair Balance with Impact by EverTrue and ODDER by EverTrue to create and deliver compelling digital endowment reports that you can send to donors with ease.
Know where every fund stands in real time. Check market values, gift history, and available spending for any fund. Then, share view-only versions with your team, so everyone stays informed.

With Balance, your team can stop spending all your time on manual management and instead add balance to your endowment workflow.

Additional Resources

To learn more about managing your endowment and other ways that technology can help your organization, check out these additional resources:

Webinar: Building a Seamless Relationship Between Endowment Finance and Advancement. In this webinar, we cover the keys to un-complicating your institution’s financial endowment reporting process. Explore how building a connection between your finance and advancement teams can lead to happier donors and happier staff.
The Best Alumni Management Software Solutions in 2026. Alumni management software allows your university to maintain an active community that supports your school in a number of ways. Review top software solutions.
Donor Segmentation: How Organizing Donors Boosts Retention. What is donor segmentation, and how can you use it to boost retention? Learn the need-to-know information in this guide from EverTrue’s fundraising experts.

Less stress, higher endowment funds. Discover how Balance provides the organization, security, and accuracy your endowment needs. Request a demo.

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