Opportunity Overview & Creation

Creating an Opportunity

An Opportunity represents a single fundraising ask — one constituent, one Pipeline, one gift conversation. It holds everything related to that ask in one place: the amount you're requesting, your projected outcome, the timeline, who's responsible, and a full log of every Action taken along the way.

This article walks you through creating a new Opportunity within a Pipeline.

Before You Start

To create an Opportunity, you'll need:

• An existing Pipeline to add it to. If you haven't created one yet, see: Creating a Pipeline.

• An existing Constituent to create the Opportunity for. You cannot create an Opportunity for a constituent that does not yet exist in your Humanitru database.

How to Create an Opportunity

Step 1: Open the Pipeline

Navigate to the Pipeline you want to add the Opportunity to.

Step 2: Click Add an Opportunity

Click the green Add an Opportunity button. The Opportunity creation modal will open.

Step 3: Select a stage

Choose the Pipeline stage that best reflects where this Opportunity currently sits in the gift conversation. The stage will default to the first stage in your Pipeline, but you can change it to any stage that applies.

You can update the stage at any time after saving.

Step 4: Fill out required fields

• In the Constituent field, start typing the name of the donor or prospect. Select the correct constituent from the suggestions that appear. IMPORTANT: Once the opportunity is saved, the constituent cannot be changed — so make sure you have the right person selected before moving on.

• Enter the amount you're requesting from the constituent in the Ask Amount field. The ask amount represents what you're asking for — not what you expect to receive or what has actually come in. Those are tracked separately (see Projected Amount and Actual Amount below). You can change this amount later.

• Enter the date the ask is being made, or is planned to be made, in the Ask Date field. You can change this date later.

Step 5: Fill out optional fields

• Enter the date you expect to receive the Opportunity gift in the Expected Date field. This is optional, but filling it in helps your team track Pipeline timing and gives leadership a view of when gifts are anticipated.

• Enter your best estimate of what this Opportunity will actually yield in the Projected Amount field. This is your professional judgment — it can be the same as the ask amount, or lower if you expect a partial gift.

• Use the Assigned User field to assign responsibility for this Opportunity to a specific team member. Start typing their name and select from the suggestions.

• Use the Additional Notes field to capture any relevant context about this Opportunity — background on the constituent, details of previous conversations, anything that will help the assigned gift officer pick up the relationship quickly.

• Attach any relevant documents to the Opportunity using the File Attachments field. This could include briefing notes, correspondence, pledge forms, or research.

Step 6: Add a scheduled action

At least one Action is required to save an Opportunity. Scroll down to the Scheduled Actions section and click Add Action to log the first touchpoint.

Step 13: Save

Click Save. If there are any validation errors, they'll be highlighted in red with a message explaining what needs to be corrected. The form will preserve everything you've entered.

When the Opportunity saves successfully, you'll see a confirmation toast and be redirected to the Pipeline's Opportunities tab, where your new Opportunity will appear in the list.

Understanding the Three Amount Fields

Opportunities track amounts in three distinct ways, and it's worth understanding the difference:

Actual Amount updates automatically as Donation Actions are verified. You cannot type into it directly.

Tips

• The constituent can't be changed after saving. Double-check you have the right person selected before you save. If you realize you've attached an Opportunity to the wrong constituent, you'll need to create a new Opportunity — the original cannot be reassigned.

• Add as much context as you can up front. Notes, attachments, and a clear ask amount make handoffs between team members much smoother, especially on longer-running gift conversations.

• Stage is easy to update later. Don't overthink the initial stage selection — you can move an Opportunity to a different stage at any time from the Pipeline table without opening the full edit modal.

• Projected amount is your forecasting tool. Keep it updated as the conversation develops. Leadership and finance teams use projected amounts to build fundraising forecasts, so an accurate projection is more useful than a stale one.

• You can't delete an Opportunity. If an ask doesn't move forward, move the Opportunity to the Declined stage rather than trying to remove it. This keeps your Pipeline history accurate and your reporting clean.