Everything You Need to Know About Developing Advancement Operations Procedures
We’ve all seen what happens when colleagues think the other followed up with a major donor — and then no one does. Without proper procedures in place, it can be difficult to organize complex programs and maintain efficiency.
When it comes to streamlining processes or developing operations procedures for your advancement team, there are a handful of key steps to success to follow. It’s equally as important to document procedures as it is to implement procedures in your department, so be sure to not only write the steps down but also share the new processes within your department and to external stakeholders to ensure alignment and buy-in.
Let’s unpack how to develop procedures that help your advancement operations go more smoothly, as well as the steps to implement the program in your institution.
How Developing Procedures Improves Productivity
Developing Advancement Operations procedures improves productivity by streamlining existing processes.
You see, standard operating procedures can help bring much-needed structure to any organization. This is especially true for institutions with limited budgets and resources. But by investing the time and effort into defining standard ways of working, you save time when amidst the execution of a high-profile event or impending deadline.
If these procedures are developed and implemented in advance, they will be well established (and quickly accessible) when needed most.
8 Must-Haves for Effective Procedure Documents
What exactly does an effective procedure document contain? When you’re compiling your procedure documents, make sure they have the eight key features listed below.
- Objective: Describe what will be accomplished by using this procedure.
- Background: Give the user some context about why this procedure was developed.
- For example, are you trying to comply with a regulatory or institutional policy?
- Additionally, are there any significant changes in this procedure that need to be identified upfront?
- Scope: Describe what this procedure will address. What need will it fill?
- Responsibilities: Provide a high-level overview of all participants and their role in the procedure.
- Definitions: Supply a list of business terms that will be used in the procedure.
- Process Overview: Provide a high-level description of the overall process that will be used for this procedure.
- Procedure Steps: Describe all the key procedure steps in detail.
- References: Create references to other related information, including policies, other procedures, forms, templates and other institutional systems.
Getting Buy-in From Stakeholders
To get buy-in on these procedural changes from your stakeholders, you’ll need to be transparent about what you’re trying to achieve. For instance, why are you implementing these changes now? What challenges will they solve? How will your organization improve due to the implementation of these advancement operations procedures?
If you’re able to answer these questions clearly and with confidence, you’re well on your way to creating an operations procedure that your stakeholders will encourage and embrace.
5 Steps to Implement Top-Notch Procedures in Your Organization
Now, let’s take a look at how to implement best-in-class procedures in your organization. To do so, you must take these five steps.
1. Educate Users on Best Practices
Best practices keep organizations in a position to be donor-focused and bogged down with operational challenges, so identify them early and reiterate them often. Once your users are equipped with deep knowledge of these best practices, they’ll thrive under your new procedures.
2. Standardize How Information Is Captured
When standardizing how the information you collect is captured, you’ll want to do two main things.
First of all, increase the speed of your data entry to maximize efficiency. Second, improve the accuracy of your data entry by making every extra effort to do so—without losing the speed gained from increased efficiency.
3. Decrease Ramp-Up Time for New Staff
By streamlining your training processes, you’ll decrease the ramp-up time required for new staff. Decreasing the time needed for onboarding and training is ideal at any point, but it’s especially critical when you want a new hire to dive into their workload right away.
4. Develop a Reference Library of Business Practices
Developing a reference library of business practices for all users will help you get everyone on the same page. As a bonus, it will also help you avoid receiving similar questions from different users down the line.
When developing your reference library, you’ll want to understand the use of reporting in procedures. This will ensure your reference library of business practices will remain relevant as the organization evolves.
5. Inform Users About How Data Entry Impacts Reporting
If users are informed about how data entry impacts reporting, they’ll be more likely to take pride (and extra care) in their data entry tasks. So, let them know the full extent of their impact.
Continuing the Success of Your Procedures
Continue the success of the new procedures you’ve implemented through optimized procedure management processes and robust procedure development services.
Procedure Management Processes
Your procedure management process should establish the procedure owner, along with any Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). This process should also educate business users on new and revised procedures.
Additionally, your procedure management process should establish a procedure review schedule, with a cadence that is quarterly, semi-annual or annual.
Lastly, procedure updates should be scheduled multiple times per year to ensure your procedures are being managed effectively.
Procedure Development Services
When developing your procedures, it’s good to have options. (Such as, a trusted advisor to counsel an organization on the critical selection and number of procedures to establish as an institutional foundation).
When developing these procedures, you’ll want to be mindful of the 8 Must Haves for Procedure Documentation. You should also hold regular procedure review workshops. Reviewing and validating recently developed procedures and workflow with key stakeholders.
Once any revisions have been made and final sign off achieved, you can then implement the new procedure through staff training. Being sure to measure user adoption across the institution.
Procedure Development Planning: Final Thoughts
To recap, your procedure documents must have an objective, background, scope, responsibilities, definitions, a process overview, procedure steps and references.
Everything You Need to Know About Developing Advancement Operations Procedures
Not forgetting these success factors in your organization, either. They include:
- Educating users on best practices
- Standardizing how information is captured
- Decreasing ramp-up time for new staff
- Developing a reference library of business practices for all users
- Informing users about how data entry impacts reporting
Once you develop and implement effective procedures, you’ll also want to manage and measure their success.
Procedure Development Made Easier with a Trusted Operations Partner
As a leader in higher education and/or healtchcare, it can be difficult to maintain service levels to demanding schedules and major donors. With proper standard operating procedures, your team can boost productivity while maintaining quality service.
Reach out for a customized consultation with Precision Partners, so you can focus on achieving your fundraising goals and maintaining excellent relationships with your donors.