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Policy

VIP Prospects: Policy


Fundraising,
Legal and Policy Requirements,
Stewarding Donors
| 5 minutes to read
Last Updated: 04-20-2023

Summary

This policy’s goal is to improve coordination, communication, and management of VIP prospects for major gifts to the university. Further, we hope to maximize the philanthropic investment with UW–Madison through active collaboration of WFAA staff and campus partners.


Guiding Principles: UW–Madison’s most important prospects benefit from strong coordination. It is important that development leadership be aware and knowledgeable of cultivation milestones, as leadership is in frequent communication with these VIPs.

Coordination: WFAA’s principal gift prospect manager program seeks to improve coordination and strategy for these prospects by designating one individual who is responsible for coordinating the execution of that strategy across all fundraising units (including central and medical development). The overarching goal is to increase philanthropic support of the university’s top funding priorities, including those of schools/colleges and the health system.

The Prospect Manager will act as the point of contact when requesting plans or solicitations for these constituents. Individual plan managers will work closely with the Prospect Manager to execute a strong comprehensive development strategy. If a prospect does not have a Prospect Manager, development directors should still coordinate and collaborate with colleagues.

Visibility: A label (prospect status) will display on the prospect page of a constituent to alert staff that this individual is a member of one of these VIP groups. Spouses and associated family foundations and/or companies will all have the same prospect status and Prospect Manager.

The name of the designated Prospect Manager responsible for strategy and coordination is visible on the prospect page.

VIP groups:

VIP-Principal Gift: Prospects whom we are most likely to solicit for gifts of $5 million or more within the next 5 years, and/or prospects who have already committed $5 million or more.

VIP-Other: Prospect who constitute our principal gifts pipeline.