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Donor and Relationship Management

Sapling keeps households, individuals, organizations, DAFs, sponsors, advisors, tags, tasks, notes, recurring giving, and relationship history connected to one donor record.

Why it matters

One connected place for this work.

A fundraiser should not have to decide whether the truth lives on a person, household, company, foundation, payment record, task board, tag list, or spreadsheet. Sapling is designed around the donor record as the operating home for relationship work: who they are, who they are connected to, what they have done, what the team knows, and what should happen next.

Contact record preview

A donor record should carry the whole relationship.

Sapling is built so households, organizations, DAFs, tasks, gifts, tags, and communication history live close enough together that a fundraiser can understand the relationship without opening five tools.

Jennifer Lee Household

Major donor · DAF prospect · assigned to Aisha Bennett

High potential

Lifetime giving

$184,250

Household members

3

Open tasks

4

Active tags

12

Major gift received

$25,000 · Arts Access Fund

Recurring commitment active

$500 monthly · next expected Oct 1

Receipt and thank-you delivered

Tax receipt PDF emailed and stored

AI-managed tag updated

High capacity · event follow-up · DAF prospect

Individuals

Jennifer Lee · primary contact
Marcus Lee · spouse
Naomi Lee · daughter
Claire Donovan · assistant

The contact record is the workbench

Sapling donor records are meant to answer the fundraiser’s first question quickly: who is this, what is the full relationship, what happened, and what should we do next? The record can carry giving, people, organizations, notes, tasks, files, events, receipts, communication history, and report context without forcing staff to stitch together the story later.

  • At-a-glance profile
  • Gift and receipt history
  • Communication and event context
  • Files, notes, and activity
  • Report and segment context

Households and people are not flattened

Fundraising relationships often run through spouses, family members, assistants, trustees, advisors, and multiple people inside the same household. Sapling keeps individual context visible while preserving the household-level donor picture.

  • Multi-individual households
  • Spouse and family context
  • Formal and informal names
  • Mailing names
  • Person-specific tasks and notes

Organizations, DAFs, sponsors, and passthroughs stay distinct

A gift may come through a DAF sponsor, corporate provider, foundation, business, social fundraiser, or sponsor while the real relationship belongs somewhere else. Sapling is built to separate transaction routing from donor understanding.

  • DAF sponsor records
  • Corporate provider and passthrough entities
  • Private foundation and business records
  • Soft credit and matching context
  • Sponsor relationship context

Work can happen from the record

The contact page should be where cultivation becomes action. Staff can add tasks, assign ownership, review tags, track recurring giving, open gift history, and keep the next move visible next to the donor context.

  • Assigned officer ownership
  • Tasks and next steps
  • Team and personal tags
  • Contact-level recurring giving
  • Moves management notes

AI stays attached to the donor story

Orchid is most useful when it can reason from the actual CRM record: giving history, notes, events, imports, communication, tasks, and relationship context. The goal is not a disconnected chat answer; it is better donor work with the source still nearby.

  • Donor research prompts
  • AI-managed tags
  • Import cleanup context
  • Relationship review
  • Next-call preparation

Governance matters as the team grows

Sophisticated nonprofits need private records, permission-aware actions, auditability, data health, and exports without turning every workflow into an admin project. Sapling keeps operational controls close to the record instead of hidden in a separate system.

  • Private contact handling
  • Role-aware access
  • Audit history
  • Data cleanup support
  • Export and reporting context

Portfolio and caseload management

Sophisticated teams need to see who owns a relationship, where cultivation stands, and what next action belongs in the portfolio.

  • Major gift caseloads
  • Moves management context
  • Prospect research notes
  • Assigned staff and ownership
  • Next-step planning