Our school just cut over to RE. Regarding the "Moves Management" of a prospect, it appears the Prospect module works best for relatively small constituent number campaigns--like a capital campaign where the targeted number is low-- and for very select major donors. The required Actions can be created within the Prospect module at the constituent level. For large, broad appeals--such as Annual Alumni Giving--it appears that creating an Action Track and assigning it to the Appeal works better. I am interested in hearing from folks that have the Prospect module and can share their advice on the following:

1) How do you manage prospects (Moves Management) using the Prospect module versus Action Tracks; or any other ways you use RE for Moves Management?
2) For the "Notes" tab of the Constituent Record, how frequently do your end users add notes--like after most contacts with the constituent, end of the day, etc.? Would be interested in knowing how you manage the notes in the Constituent Record only--NOT all the other Notes fields in the system.

We are in the middle of a campaign and are using RE7.6. We weren't convinced that purchasing the prospect module was the right thing early in our campaign since it wasn't as good as it is now and had limited reports. My fix was to create attributes, use targets, solictors, some action tracks and notes. By creating several custom crystal reports to pull the data - prospect by target, prospect by solicitor then target, solicitor list of prospects in target order, and cash flow projection report showing current gifts and pledges/gifts out 10 years we are able to manage our campaign. The only problem has been some of the reports get glitches every time we upgrade.
As far as moving prospects, we do that on paper and then change targets, notes accordingly. I've assigned a dummy solicitor for prospects that need research so that they'll come onto one list, then a diffferent dummy solicitor or a active solicitor for our working list. As we get more info we move them to the working list by assigning them a solictor or giving them the working list dummy solicitor. It sounds complicated but it works.
Our constituent's notes come into the reports - I've narrowed it down to one note "pertinent info" which is used over and over again. After each meeting (every 3 mos) the notes are updated.
I'd love to hear how others have worked around not having the prospect module.

--- Edited at 9/24/2003 1:48:38 PM by [Email Removed]

We have the prospect module and though it allows us to record and store the information we need, the ability to report on the information is lacking. Almost all the reports we use I have had to design in Crystal. My report pulls information from the prospect tab, action tab, gift records and various other fields. I still needed to use a constituent attribute to code the prospects who belong on the report, so that I can pull just the pertain ones. Usually right before a meeting or right after a meeting, I get information to update the records. That's the hardest part of my job, actually getting people to give me their updates. Since I have created the report(s) to my VP's specfications, there have not been any problems with that aspect. I am still on 7.3 and wary of upgrading because of possible glitches this will cause to my custom reports but will cross that bridge when I come to it. Denise Stengl All Saints Healthcare Foundation Racine, WI 262.687.2208 [Email Removed]