Planned Giving: ‘How Old Are You and Did 
You Know You Could … ?’

Record not only the facts that you have learned and the information that was gathered, but also your assessment. Don’t forget to input a next step or strategy if you are going to cultivate this prospect.

There is no “bright line” that defines when you move from assessment to cultivation, and in reality the donor continuum has no end point. You begin with identification, then assessment (usually one or two meetings, although you might assess the prospect at different times for different reasons), then cultivation (usually the longest stage and where you discover the most information about the prospect), then pre-solicitation (where you determine, often with the prospect, what the prospect is going to fund, for how much, when and with which assets), then solicitation (this is “the ask” — the essence of being a fundraiser), then stewardship (an often overlooked phase, and one that can be synonymous with cultivation if done properly).