Prospect plans

What a prospect plan is

A gift pyramid tells you how many prospects you need at each gift level. The prospect plan is where you write down who they are: for each level, the constituents your team means to ask, the gift officer responsible for each one, and how far along each relationship is.

Every gift pyramid has exactly one prospect plan, and so does every priority of a campaign. The plan always follows the pyramid's current scenario, the scenario tab that's selected on the gift pyramid page. Constituents appear by constituent ID only, as everywhere in TruePyramids, so no names or contact details are ever stored on a plan.

Note: The plan is your team's working list. It's separate from the gift pyramid's Prospects identified column, which TruePyramids counts from your file. Adding someone to the plan, or removing them, doesn't change those counts. See Prospects identified.

Opening the plan

On any gift pyramid, choose Prospect plan in the row of buttons beside the pyramid's name. The plan opens at its own address, /app/gift-pyramids/<pyramid number>/prospects, so you can bookmark it. To go back, choose Gift pyramid at the top of the plan, or use the breadcrumb: Pyramids, then the campaign's name for a campaign priority, then the pyramid's name.

What's on the page

The header

The pyramid's name and a summary line such as “$2,500,000 goal · 12 of 297 prospects assigned”. For a campaign priority it also names the funds the priority is seeded from, for example “seeded from the Building Fund”.

Gift officer capacity

Each teammate with how many prospects are assigned to them, against their portfolio size. See Portfolio capacity.

Where prospects are

How many of this plan's prospects are at each stage. See Moves stages.

Prospects by level

One expandable row per level of the pyramid, with the prospects on the plan at that level, suggestions, and a box to add more. The first two levels are open when the page loads; select any level's heading to open or close it.

Each level's heading shows the level the same way the gift pyramid does, for example “1 gift of $500,000” and “2 prospects needed at x2”, then how many prospects are on the plan at that level (“1 assigned · short 1”) and a small bar split by stage.

Adding prospects

A new plan is empty. Nothing is added for you: you choose who goes on it, one constituent at a time, either from the suggestions or by typing an ID. A new prospect starts at the first stage (Identified, unless your owner has renamed it) with no gift officer.

Suggestions from your file

When the pyramid is built from a gift file, each level shows up to three Suggested constituents beside its add box, for example + C-004410 · rated $800,000 or + C-001872 · gave $30,000. Choose one to add it to that level.

• Who is suggested: the constituents the pyramid's prospect rule counts at that level, the same people behind the gift pyramid's Prospects identified. Each constituent is suggested once, at the highest level the rule qualifies them for.
• Which three: the highest capacity rating first, then the most money received over the last 5 years, then by constituent ID.
• The label: “rated” with their capacity rating when the rating is at or above the level's gift; otherwise “gave” with the money they gave over the last 5 years.
• Who is left out: anyone already on this plan, at any level, and anyone who only reaches a level with planned gifts (the gift pyramid lists those in its Planned column).
• Campaign priorities: only donors the campaign lets this priority count, that is donors to its linked funds and anyone with a capacity rating, less anyone counted in another priority. See Prospect plans for campaign priorities.

The line under Prospects by level says where suggestions come from. With the standard rule it reads “Suggestions come from your file: rated at or above the level, or gave at least 10% of it over 5 years.” With a rule you've edited, it reads “Suggestions come from your file, by this pyramid's prospect rule.” When the pyramid has no gift file, it says there are no suggestions and you add constituent IDs yourself.

Adding someone by constituent ID

1. Open the level the prospect belongs to.
2. Type their ID into the Add by constituentid box, for example C-004410.
3. Choose Add.

A constituent ID can use letters, numbers and the characters - _ . / # :, must start with a letter or a number, and can be up to 40 characters long. We trim spaces and store it in capital letters, so c-004410 is saved as C-004410. Anything else, a name or an email address for example, is refused with “Enter a constituent ID: letters, numbers and - _ . / # : only, up to 40 characters.” That's deliberate: it keeps personal information off the plan.

You can add someone who isn't in the pyramid's file, such as a new prospect your researcher found. Their Capacity and Gave, 5 years show “—”.

Each constituent can be on a plan once. If they're already there, you'll see a message such as “C-004410 is already on this plan, at the $500,000 level.” and nothing changes. If an ID can't be added, it stays in the box so you can fix it.

Removing a prospect

Choose Remove on the prospect's row. It happens straight away, without a confirmation, and their gift officer and stage go with them. If you add them again, they start over at the first stage with no gift officer. Removing someone from the plan doesn't change the gift pyramid's counts.

Which level a prospect shows under

A prospect remembers the gift amount of the level you added them to, not the level's position. They show under the level whose gift is nearest that amount. That keeps your plan steady when the pyramid changes:

• Small goal changes move every standard level a little, and everyone stays at their level. A prospect added at the $500,000 lead gift of a $2,500,000 pyramid still shows at the lead gift ($520,000) when the goal becomes $2,600,000.
• Edited or removed levels: each prospect moves to the nearest level that's left.
• Another scenario: the plan shows each prospect under the nearest level of the scenario you've selected. Switch back, and they're where they were. Nothing is lost.

To move a prospect to a different level on purpose, choose Remove, then add them again at the new level. Note their gift officer and stage first, because they start over.

Order, finding people and sorting

Levels appear in the pyramid's own order, largest gift first in the standard chart. Within a level, prospects are listed in the order they were added. The page has no search, filter or sort; to sort or filter the whole plan, export it to Excel, where every column has a filter.

Assigning gift officers

Every prospect can have one gift officer, the person on your team responsible for that relationship.

Who can be a gift officer

Everyone on your organization's team, owners and members alike. The Gift officer list shows each person's name (or their email address if they haven't set a name), owners first, then everyone else in the order they joined. To add someone to the list, invite them to your team; they appear once they've joined.

Assigning, reassigning and unassigning

• Assign: on the prospect's row, pick a name in the Gift officer list. It saves as soon as you pick; the level redraws with the change and the capacity card updates.
• Reassign: pick a different name. The prospect moves from one person's portfolio count to the other's.
• Unassign: pick Unassigned.

If your browser has JavaScript turned off, each row has a Save button instead.

Note: On this page, “assigned” in the header (“12 of 297 prospects assigned”) and on each level (“3 assigned · short 9”) counts everyone on the plan, whether or not they have a gift officer yet. The line at the bottom of the Gift officer capacity card tells you how many have no gift officer, for example “4 assigned prospects have no gift officer yet.”

Tip: A common pattern is to give the top levels to your most senior officers and spread the larger, lower levels across the team. Watch the capacity card as you go: it counts each person's prospects on every plan, not just this one.

Moves stages

Each prospect is at one of five stages. Out of the box they are:

What each stage means is up to your team; TruePyramids just keeps count.

Changing a prospect's stage

Pick a stage in the Stage list on the prospect's row. It saves as soon as you pick. You can move a prospect to any stage, forward or back; there's no required order.

Where prospects are

The Where prospects are card shows how many of this plan's prospects are at each stage, across every level, shaded from light green (the first stage) to dark green (the last). Each level's heading has a bar in the same colors, split by how that level's prospects are spread across the stages, so you can see at a glance which levels are still mostly at the start.

Renaming the stages

The stage names are set for your whole organization in Settings › Pyramid defaults, under Prospect stages. Only the owner can change them; members see them there but can't edit them.

1. Go to Settings › Pyramid defaults.
2. Type new names into Stage 1 to Stage 5.
3. Choose Save defaults.

Every stage needs a name (“Give every stage a name.”), each name can be up to 40 characters (“Keep each stage name to 40 characters.”), and no two stages can share a name, ignoring capital letters (“Give each stage a different name.”).

Renaming a stage renames it everywhere at once: on every prospect plan in your organization, in the Where prospects are card and in exports. No one moves. Stages are kept by position, so a prospect at stage 4 stays at stage 4 whatever it's called. There are always exactly five stages; you can rename them but not add or remove them.

Portfolio capacity

A portfolio size is how many prospects one person can manage at once. With sizes set, the plan shows how full each gift officer is and warns you before anyone takes on too much.

Setting portfolio sizes

The owner sets them in Settings › Team, in the Portfolio column beside each person. (The Set capacity link on the plan goes there.)

• Enter a whole number of prospects from 1 to 10,000. Commas are fine.
• Leave it blank for no size. That person is still a gift officer; they just never get a warning.
• It saves when you leave the box or press Enter, and “Saved” appears under the team list.

Anything else shows a message such as “Enter Dev Patel's portfolio as a whole number of prospects from 1 to 10,000, or leave it blank.” Members can see everyone's portfolio size but only the owner can change it. See what owners and members can do.

Reading the Gift officer capacity card

The card lists everyone on your team:

• With a portfolio size: “54 of 100 portfolio spots” and a bar showing how full they are.
• Without one: “14 assigned · no portfolio size set”, and no bar.

The number assigned is everyone with that person as gift officer on every prospect plan in your organization, not only this one. A portfolio is someone's whole caseload, so the same count appears on every plan.

The sentence under the list sums up the plan in three parts:

1. Gift officers on this plan: “No prospects are on this plan yet.”, “Every assigned prospect has a gift officer.” or “4 assigned prospects have no gift officer yet.”
2. What's needed: “Prospects needed for this pyramid: 297”, or for a campaign priority, “Prospects needed across the campaign: 891”, every priority's needs added together.
3. What your team can hold: “officers can carry 325.”, every portfolio size added together, or “no portfolio sizes are set yet.”

Put the last two side by side for a quick capacity check: if your officers can carry fewer prospects than the pyramid needs, the plan can't be fully staffed at the sizes you've set.

Nearly full and over capacity

A portfolio that's exactly full reads “nearly full”; “over capacity” starts with the first prospect past it. The warnings never stop you from assigning more; they're there so you notice. To clear one, reassign some of that person's prospects or ask your owner to raise their portfolio size.

Exporting the plan

Choose Export Excel at the top of the plan. You get a workbook named after the pyramid, for example New building - Prospect plan.xlsx, with one sheet called Prospect plan:

• Rows 1 to 3: the title (“New building prospect plan”), your organization's name (and the campaign's, for a priority), and a line with the scenario, the export date and the data file, for example “Scenario: Current · Exported Oct 27, 2026 · Data: gifts-2026.csv”.
• Row 5: the column headings, with a filter on each.
• Then one row per prospect, level by level in the pyramid's order, and within a level in the order they were added.
• A note under the last row saying where capacity and giving come from.

The heading row is frozen and repeats at the top of each printed page, and the sheet prints landscape, one page wide. The export covers the current scenario only. There's no CSV export; if you need one, save the workbook as CSV from Excel. The gift pyramid's own chart has a separate export, described in Excel export.

Prospect plans for campaign priorities

Each priority of a campaign is a gift pyramid with its own prospect plan. On a priority's plan:

• The breadcrumb includes the campaign, and the header names the funds the priority is seeded from.
• The capacity sentence says “Prospects needed across the campaign”, the prospects every priority needs added together (each from its current scenario), so you can compare it with what your whole team can carry.
• Suggestions only come from the priority's own pool: donors to its linked funds and anyone with a capacity rating, less anyone the campaign counts in another priority. See Donors who fit more than one priority.

Note: Typed IDs aren't checked against other priorities, so you can put the same constituent on two priorities' plans. If you do, they count twice toward their gift officer's portfolio.

Who can do what

When your data or team changes

New gift data (a CRM refresh or another file)

Everyone on the plan stays. Capacity, Gave, 5 years and the suggestions are read from the pyramid's current file each time you open the plan, so they reflect the newest data. Someone the file no longer has shows “—”. See refreshing from your CRM.

The goal, levels or scenario change

Prospects stay at the nearest level, as described in Which level a prospect shows under.

A teammate is removed from the team

Their prospects stay on every plan, with no gift officer, and they disappear from the Gift officer lists and the capacity card. If they rejoin later, assign their prospects to them again.

The gift pyramid is deleted

Its prospect plan is deleted with it.

The pyramid's upload is deleted

Deleting an upload deletes every pyramid built from it, and their prospect plans with them. See Deleting uploads and pyramids.

Careful: Deleting a gift pyramid or its upload deletes its prospect plan permanently, including every gift officer and stage on it. Export the plan first if you might want it later.

Worked example: three gift officers and a $2.5 million campaign

Advanced: exact rules

How the level is chosen

Each prospect stores the gift amount of the level they were added at. On every page load, they show under the level whose gift is nearest that amount in proportion: the distance from a level is |ln(level gift ÷ stored amount)|, and the smallest distance wins. $1,000,000 is as far from $500,000 as $500,000 is from $250,000.

• A tie goes to the smaller gift. A prospect stored at $200,000, with levels of $400,000 and $100,000, is twice as far from each and shows at $100,000.
• Above every level means the largest level; below every level, or a stored amount of $0, means the smallest.
• Nearest in proportion is why small goal changes don't move anyone: every standard level scales by the same factor. Large changes can. A prospect added at the $500,000 lead gift of a $2,500,000 pyramid shows at the $500,000 level (2 gifts) when the goal is raised to $5,000,000, because the lead gift is then $1,000,000.
• When you add someone, the plan uses the level nearest the amount of the level you added them from, so a page that's out of date (say, a teammate just changed the levels) still adds them where you meant.

How capacity is counted

• Assigned for a gift officer = the number of prospects, on every prospect plan in the organization, whose gift officer is that person. A constituent who is on two plans with the same officer counts twice.
• Share = assigned ÷ portfolio size. Nearly full when the share is 0.9 or more; over capacity when it's more than 1. The bar shows the share as a percentage, rounded to one decimal place and capped at 100%.
• Officers can carry = the sum of every portfolio size that's set. It's shown once at least one size is set, and it isn't reduced by prospects on other plans.
• Prospects needed = the sum, over the current scenario's levels, of gifts × prospects per gift. For a campaign priority, “across the campaign” adds that up for every priority, each from its own current scenario.

How stage and level counts work

• Where prospects are counts this plan's prospects at each stage, across all its levels in the current scenario.
• A level's bar is split by the share of that level's prospects at each stage.
• Short on a level = prospects needed at that level minus prospects on the plan at that level, never below zero. Extra prospects at one level don't make up for a shortfall at another.
• Stages are stored by position (1 to 5), which is why renaming never moves anyone.

Where Capacity and Gave come from

• Capacity is the constituent's capacity rating from the pyramid's file (the optional capacity column; the latest value per constituent). See Capacity ratings.
• Gave, 5 years is money received (one-time, recurring, pledge payments and in-kind) in the 5 years up to the latest gift date in the file. Open pledges and planned gifts aren't included.
• IDs are matched to the file ignoring capital letters.

How suggestions are chosen

1. Take everyone in the pyramid's file and apply its current scenario's prospect rule, as the gift pyramid does, placing each constituent at the highest level they qualify for.
2. For a campaign priority, keep only its pool (donors to its linked funds, plus anyone with a capacity rating) and drop anyone the campaign counted in another priority at its last count.
3. Drop anyone already on this plan and anyone who qualifies only with planned gifts.
4. At each level, sort by capacity rating (highest first; no rating counts as $0), then money given over 5 years (highest first), then constituent ID, and show the first three.

Edge cases

• A scenario with no levels shows “This scenario has no levels yet. Add them with Edit levels on the gift pyramid.” and you can't add anyone. Prospects already on the plan are kept and reappear when the scenario has levels again.
• A goal-only pyramid (no gift file) has no suggestions, and every prospect's Capacity and Gave show “—”.
• Two people at once: each change saves on its own and the page then shows the plan as it now stands. If two people add the same constituent at the same moment, the second sees “… is already on this plan.”
• A suggestion is added exactly as your file spells the ID; a typed ID is stored in capital letters.

Questions

Why isn't a donor I expected in the suggestions?

Each level shows only its top three. Beyond that, the donor may already be on the plan, the prospect rule may not count them at that level (it places each person at the highest level they qualify for), they may qualify only through planned gifts, or, on a campaign priority, they may be counted in another priority. You can always add them by typing their ID.

Can I add someone who isn't in our gift file?

Yes. Type their constituent ID and choose Add. Their Capacity and Gave, 5 years show “—”.

Why can't I type a prospect's name?

TruePyramids never stores names or contact details. The add box only accepts characters constituent IDs are made of, so a name or email address can't end up on a plan. Look names up in your CRM by ID.

Does adding someone to the plan change the gift pyramid's Prospects identified?

No. Prospects identified is counted from your file by the prospect rule. The plan is your team's own list and doesn't feed back into the counts.

How do I move a prospect to a different level?

Remove them, then add them at the level you want. Their gift officer and stage reset, so set them again.

Why does an officer show more prospects than they have on this plan?

A portfolio is a person's whole caseload, so the capacity card counts their prospects on every prospect plan in your organization.

Why does a full portfolio say “nearly full” and not “over capacity”?

“Nearly full” runs from 90% up to and including 100%. “Over capacity” starts past 100%, with the first prospect beyond the portfolio size.

Why can't I change portfolio sizes or stage names?

Only your organization's owner can. Members see them read-only in Settings. Ask your owner, or see what owners and members can do.

Can we have more or fewer than five stages?

No. There are always five. Your owner can rename them to match your moves-management process.

A colleague isn't in the Gift officer list. Why?

Only people on your organization's team appear. Ask your owner to invite them; once they've signed in and joined, they're listed on every plan.

What happens to a gift officer's prospects when they leave the team?

When the owner removes them, their prospects stay on every plan with no gift officer. Reassign them to someone else.

We switched scenarios and prospects moved to different levels. Did we lose anything?

No. The plan shows each prospect under the nearest level of the selected scenario. Switch back and they're where they were.

Can I export the plan as CSV?

The plan exports to Excel only. Open the workbook and save it as CSV if you need one.

Does the plan update our CRM?

No. TruePyramids only reads gifts from your CRM; it never writes to it. Use Export Excel to bring the plan into your CRM or share it.

Can two of us work on the plan at the same time?

Yes. Each change saves on its own. Reload the page to see a teammate's latest changes.

Can I get a deleted plan back?

No. Deleting a gift pyramid, or the upload it's built from, deletes its prospect plan for good. Export it first if you might need it.