Overview
There are a series of articles covering Sales Opportunity Tracking pipelines here which you may find helpful to review. This article covers making changes to the three fundraising pipelines that are available in Civi "out of the box"
Major Donor
Trusts and Foundation Grant
Legacy
These pipelines come pre-configured with a standard set of statuses and roles. However, every organisation's fundraising process is slightly different. This article explains how your CiviPlus administrator can adjust the pipelines to better match how your team actually works, specifically by modifying statuses (the stages a prospect moves through) and roles (who is involved in managing an opportunity).
Note: The changes described below require CiviPlus administrator access. If you're not sure whether you have the right permissions, check with your system administrator before trying to making changes.
Understanding Statuses
Statuses are the stages that define your pipeline workflow. Each pipeline comes with a default set, but you can add, rename, or reorder them to reflect your actual process.
Default statuses by pipeline type
Default statuses by pipeline type
Major Donor:
Identification
Qualification
Cultivation
Solicitation
Negotiation
Close
Stewardship
Lost
Trusts & Foundation Grant:
Identification
Eligibility Check
Application Drafting
Internal Approval
Submission
Awaiting Decision
Awarded/Declined
Contracting
Monitoring & Reporting
Stewardship
Lost
Legacy:
Cultivation
Solicitation
Committed Pledge
Stewardship
Estate Settlement
Close
Lost
How to add a new status
If your process includes a stage that isn't listed - for example, you might want a "Board Approval" step in your Major Donor pipeline - you can create a new status and assign it to the relevant pipeline.
When adding a status, you need to decide whether it should be open or closed:
Open statuses represent active work - the prospect is still being progressed.
Closed statuses mean the opportunity has reached an endpoint. By default, Close/Stewardship and Lost are closed statuses.
This distinction matters because the pipeline reports and smart groups use it to determine which prospects are "active". Contacts linked to a closed status won't appear in the prospect list smart groups (e.g. "Major Donor Prospect List").
Renaming or reordering statuses
You can rename statuses to match your organisation's terminology. For example, if your grants team calls the "Eligibility Check" stage "Initial Assessment", you can rename it. The order of statuses can also be adjusted to match the sequence your team follows.
Removing a status
If a default status doesn't apply to your process, it can be disabled. However, be cautious - if any existing prospects are currently sitting at that status, you'll need to move them to a different status first.
Note
The detailed step by step approach to managing stauses in CiviPlus can be found here.
Understanding Roles
Roles define who is involved in managing a fundraising opportunity. Each pipeline comes with a default role, but you can add more to reflect how your team collaborates.
Note:
In Civi, Case Roles and Contact Relationships are actually the same thing. So if you create or change a Case Role you are also changing the underlying relationship type.
Default roles by pipeline
All pipeline opportunities have at least one Client role - this is automatically created when you save the new opportunity. In addition, each pipeline type has the following roles configured by default.
Major Donor:
Owner - the person responsible for managing this prospect. Automatically assigned to whoever creates the opportunity.
Trusts & Foundation Grant:
Owner - same as above.
Legacy:
Owner - same as above.
Executor - represents the executor of the estate. This is unique to the Legacy pipeline and lets you record and track the legal contact responsible for administering the bequest.
How to add a new role
If your process involves other people - for example, a "Relationship Manager" who supports the Owner, or a "Finance Contact" who handles contracting - you can create additional roles and assign them to the relevant pipeline.
When creating a role, consider:
Role name - use a name that clearly describes the person's responsibility (e.g. "Grant Writer", "Stewardship Lead", "Solicitor Contact").
Is Manager - if ticked, this role has broader visibility over the case. The Owner role is typically set as the manager. Additional roles usually don't need this.
Assign to Creator - if ticked, whoever creates the opportunity is automatically given this role. This is usually only appropriate for the Owner role.
Practical examples
Here are some roles you might consider adding depending on your needs:
Pipeline | Possible Additional Role | Purpose |
Major Donor | Relationship Manager | A second fundraiser supporting cultivation or stewardship |
Major Donor | Research Lead | Someone responsible for prospect research and wealth screening |
Trusts & Foundation Grant | Grant Writer | The person drafting the application |
Trusts & Foundation Grant | Finance Contact | Someone involved in budgeting or contracting |
Legacy | Solicitor Contact | The pledger's legal representative |
Legacy | Stewardship Lead | Someone managing ongoing relationship with the pledger |
Removing a role
If a default role isn't relevant, it can be removed from the pipeline.
Note
The detailed step by step approach to managing Pipeline Roles in CiviPlus can be found here.
Things to Keep in Mind
Changes affect everyone - modifying statuses and roles changes the pipeline for all users, not just you. Coordinate with your team before making changes.
Test with a dummy prospect first - after making a change, create a test opportunity and walk it through the pipeline to make sure everything behaves as expected.
Reports may need updating - depending on the changes you make to Pipeline Statuses and Roles the relevant report may need updating.
Smart groups use status logic - the prospect list smart groups exclude contacts whose opportunities are at a closed status. If you add a new status, make sure it's correctly marked as open or closed depending on its purpose.
Lost Reasons are per-pipeline - each pipeline has its own set of reasons for losing an opportunity. If you've added a custom status, consider whether the existing lost reasons still cover all scenarios, and ask your administrator to add new ones if needed.
Permissions are role-based - each pipeline has its own Drupal role (e.g. "CiviCRM User (Major Donor Fundraiser)"). If you add a new pipeline role, check that the relevant users have been granted the corresponding Drupal permissions so they can actually access and update the cases they're assigned to.