New User - How to set up a deal pipeline in sales hub

[Wanda_P]

Our nonprofit is new to Hubspot sales professional. We  selected this platform because we want to create a process for tracking our regranting process to member organizations (leads). We are having a challange with the termemology the deal pipeline uses for each stage. Would love to know if any nonprofits are using sales hub and have set up a deal pipeline that is not related to "sales"

[franksteiner79 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Wanda_P 

The naming of the pipeline & stages is fully customisable (see this article), meaning you can call them whatever you like to fit your process.

In addition you can create so called custom properties in order to capture the necessary information on the deal record.

What you can't change is the fact that object is called a "deal", this is a default. I have worked with customers who get grants and donations and we have set up the pipelines and processes to fit their needs.

My recommendation is:

• Map out the stages and information you need
• Define the process
• And then match this with HubSpot properties and features

Frank

[KSenette4 · Accepted solution]

@Wanda_P one of the biggest pieces of pushback we get from nonprofit clients is the lack of NPO specific language inside of HubSpot out of the box. Not to worry though, almost everything is customizable so that you can build your process as need in the CRM!

For a regranting process, you might consider making the stages of your pipeline something like this, assuming the grant is already secured by your team for sub granting:

1. Application submitted for sub grant
2. Application Reviewed
3. Application approved
4. Grant awarded
5. Grant denied

This is based on my best guess, as I of course don't know your process! But you might also might consider using the lead object and the prospecting workspace to keep track of your member organizations who you are nurturing before they go into the pipeline and apply for the sub grant.

There are tons of options and it completely depends on your process and needs, but I can confidently share that there are countless nonprofits managing these kinds of processes cleanly inside of HubSpot 🙂 

[twengler · Accepted solution]

Hi Wanda, I've got 100 501c3 - 501c6's using HubSpot.

We have templates that we apply to HubSpot which insta-customizes for non-profits.

Imagine it like this - you tell us what you want / need, we pull the templates from our library and drop them into your HubSpot account.  This gives you a starting point and the system then refined vs. being built from the ground up.

You can see our model (ie. the "end result") and that may give you ideas so that you can this on your own.

Importantly - there are a lot of non-profits that succeed with HubSpot - but the HubSpot onboarding should be avoided by most IMO.  HubSpot's team is not going to give you the end result - that work will have to be done by you / your team and you might want to think about hiring a consultant or a partner with a background helping organizations like yours.

You don't need a HubSpot expert.  You need a HubSpot AND a non-profit expert.

Good luck and all the best!

[KSenette4 · Accepted solution]

@Wanda_P one of the biggest pieces of pushback we get from nonprofit clients is the lack of NPO specific language inside of HubSpot out of the box. Not to worry though, almost everything is customizable so that you can build your process as need in the CRM!

For a regranting process, you might consider making the stages of your pipeline something like this, assuming the grant is already secured by your team for sub granting:

1. Application submitted for sub grant
2. Application Reviewed
3. Application approved
4. Grant awarded
5. Grant denied

This is based on my best guess, as I of course don't know your process! But you might also might consider using the lead object and the prospecting workspace to keep track of your member organizations who you are nurturing before they go into the pipeline and apply for the sub grant.

There are tons of options and it completely depends on your process and needs, but I can confidently share that there are countless nonprofits managing these kinds of processes cleanly inside of HubSpot 🙂 

[Wanda_P]

Thank you!

[franksteiner79 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Wanda_P 

The naming of the pipeline & stages is fully customisable (see this article), meaning you can call them whatever you like to fit your process.

In addition you can create so called custom properties in order to capture the necessary information on the deal record.

What you can't change is the fact that object is called a "deal", this is a default. I have worked with customers who get grants and donations and we have set up the pipelines and processes to fit their needs.

My recommendation is:

• Map out the stages and information you need
• Define the process
• And then match this with HubSpot properties and features

Frank

[Wanda_P]

Thank you for the reply. This is very helpful!