Phase 1 Platform Build
Your Donor Circle Operating System
🎯 What We're Building
Connect To Give Phase 1 is the foundation of your donor circle platform. A web-based application that allows schools to:
- 📊Create and manage donor giving circles
- 💰Track pledges and donations over multiple years
- 👥Equip circle leaders with recruitment tools
- 🔗Connect to school's existing Blackbaud system
📐 Platform Architecture Concept
Blackbaud
Official Records
Connect To Give
Engagement Layer
Schools
Any Blackbaud User
Blackbaud = official records | Connect To Give = engagement layer where circles happen
$65K-$75K
Total Investment
12
Weeks to Deploy
3
Build Phases
1
Pilot School
📦What You'll Get
Donors join through a simple email invitation and get their own dashboard:
- 📧Join via simple email invitation
- 📊Personal dashboard showing circle progress toward goal
- 💳Set pledge commitment (amount, schedule, number of years)
- 📜Track personal giving history within the circle
- 🔒Control privacy settings (name/amount visibility)
- 🏦Secure Blackbaud payment form integration
Key Point: No separate accounts. No new payment systems. School's existing Blackbaud handles transactions.
Circle leaders are the heart of the model. They get a dedicated workspace:
👥 Roster Management
- •View who accepted invitations
- •Track pending responses
- •See completed pledge commitments
📣 Outreach Tools
- •Pre-written message templates
- •Track outreach status per prospect
- •Notes on each conversation
🎯 Prospect Lists
- •Pool of potential donors from school data
- •Simple score explaining why selected
- •Prioritization based on affinity indicators
📈 Progress Tracking
- •Visual progress bars
- •Pledged vs. received tracking
- •Year-by-year commitment view
Administrators get a dashboard showing everything across campaigns and circles:
- 📊Total pledges vs. actual donations received
- 🔄Circle-by-circle progress
- 👥Donor participation rates
- 📥Export data in spreadsheet format
- ⚙️Create campaigns, set up circles, assign leaders
- ✅Data quality view - readiness check before launch
Your operational command center:
- 🌐Master admin console - see every institution, circle, metric
- 🏛️Manage institutions across the platform
- 💚Monitor system health
- ⚠️View exceptions (donation mismatches, sync errors)
- 📋Audit logs tracking every significant action
How It Connects to Blackbaud
Connect To Give works alongside Blackbaud, not replace it. Schools already use Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT for fundraising operations.
🔄 Integration Data Flow
Donor Info Pull
Profiles, contact info, giving history, wealth scores, graduation details
Payment Processing
Secure Blackbaud payment form appears on page. Results flow back automatically.
Record Sync
Changes in either system notify the other. Circle membership tagged in Blackbaud.
SKY API Connection
- • Official Blackbaud integration tools
- • School controls what data is shared
- • Secure, authenticated access
Fallback: Data Import
- • Manual spreadsheet import option
- • For schools needing setup time
- • No pilot launch delays
How We Build It
Organized into three phases, each tied to a payment milestone. At each phase end, you receive a working, testable version for review and feedback.
Phase A: Foundation
Weeks 1-4 | Core Engine
35%
Payment
- 🔐Secure login (email-based, no passwords)
- 🏫Institution setup (name, logo, settings)
- 👁️Role-based access (admin, leader, donor)
- 🎯Campaign & circle creation
- ✉️Invitation system with secure links
- 📝Pledge management setup
- 📊Basic donor & leader dashboards
What You'll See: A real working app where you can create a school, set up a campaign/circle, invite people, and have them log in and set pledges.
Phase B: Engagement & Integration
Weeks 5-8 | Intelligence & Connectivity
35%
Payment
- 📣Leader outreach tools
- 🎯Prospect lists & status tracking
- ⭐Prospect scoring (explainable)
- 📈Visual progress tracking
- 🔗Blackbaud connection (profiles, history)
- 💳Payment integration (end-to-end)
- 📥Data export (spreadsheet format)
What You'll See: Real donor data, leaders managing outreach pipeline, progress bars updating with donations, full payment flow. The Spelman model comes to life digitally.
Phase C: Polish & Launch Prep
Weeks 9-12 | Production Ready
30%
Payment
- 🔧Full admin consoles (platform + school)
- 📋Audit logging (governance)
- ✅Data quality dashboard
- ⚠️Exception handling & alerts
- 🧪Testing with your team
- 🚀Documentation & deployment
What You'll See: Complete platform ready for pilot. You'll test every workflow yourself. Issues resolved before launch. Product ready for your first school.
Investment
Platform Build
Fixed-price engagement including all Blackbaud discovery & setup
$65K - $75K
Total Investment
Range depends on complexity during Blackbaud integration and any scope adjustments during build.
💳 Payment Milestones
35%
Foundation Complete
$22,750 - $26,250
35%
Engagement & Integration
$22,750 - $26,250
30%
Polish & Launch Prep
$19,500 - $22,500
📅 Ongoing Monthly Costs
~$500/month
- • Secure cloud hosting
- • Database management
- • Email delivery
- • Error monitoring
- • Analytics
- • Scales with users
🏫 New School Onboarding
One-time onboarding engagement
$2,000 - $5,000
- • Connect to school's Blackbaud system
- • Verify data access & quality
- • Configure settings, campaigns, circles
- • Consult with advancement team on workflow
- • End-to-end integration testing
Cost factors: Blackbaud setup complexity, data condition, consulting time needed. Clean data = lower end.
🔧 Ongoing Maintenance
After Phase 1 deployment, the platform needs ongoing care: monitoring, security updates, bug fixes, performance optimization, and improvements based on pilot learnings.
Maintenance Includes:
- • Keeping platform running smoothly
- • Software dependency updates
- • Technical issue response
- • Minor adjustments
Does NOT Include:
- • New school onboarding (separate cost)
- • New features (scoped separately)
Billed hourly or monthly retainer - discussed near end of Phase 1
📋What Your Pilot School Needs to Provide
Not a heavy lift, but essential for pilot success. The goal: make this as easy as possible for the school.
Executive Sponsor
Advancement leader who supports the initiative
Blackbaud Admin
Can authorize Connect To Give system access
Point Person
Gift officer or coordinator as contact during setup
Circle Leader
Alumni champion to recruit members & drive circle
Data Sharing
Willingness to share relevant donor data via integration
Testing Availability
Participate in Phase C testing & provide feedback
Simple adoption path: Sign up → Authorize Blackbaud → Identify circle leader → Let platform do the rest. Less manual work = higher long-term adoption.
Timeline
Full Phase 1 build: 12 weeks from contract start to deployment. Includes buffer for Blackbaud unknowns. Could finish sooner if things go smoothly.
👤 Your Role During the Build
At Each Milestone
- • Review deliverables presented
- • Test features as a user
- • Provide feedback on gaps
- • Approve to proceed
During Phase C Testing
- • Dedicate time for thorough testing
- • Walk through every workflow
- • Document issues/confusion
- • Test with pilot school if available
Throughout Build
- • Available for questions (minimal)
- • Keep pilot school engaged & ready
🔮What Comes After Phase 1
🚀 Immediate Next
- • Launch pilot with first school
- • Learn from real usage
- • Gather feedback from school, leader, donors
- • Real-world data guides priorities
📈 Phase 2 & Beyond
- • Automated pledge reminders
- • Richer reporting & analytics
- • Advanced leader tools
- • SMS notifications
- • Donor matching & prediction
- • Mobile app (when justified)
🏫 Scaling to More Schools
- • Configuration, not rebuild
- • Multi-school support from day one
- • Per-school onboarding cost decreases
- • Repeatable processes develop
The platform you funded at Spelman worked because of relationships and the model.
Phase 1 digitizes and scales that model so it works at any school, with any circle, without requiring you to be in the room for every conversation.
Next Steps
Review and approve this proposal
Go through details, ask questions, provide feedback
Execute the engagement agreement
Formal contract to kick off the project
Submit Milestone A payment (35%)
Deposit to begin Phase A: Foundation
We begin building within one week
Development starts within 7 days of payment
We've spent meaningful time together understanding your vision, your model, and the technical landscape.
The platform we're building isn't a generic tool — it's the digital expression of what you already proved works at Spelman.
Let's build it.