MIT Advance Cheat Sheet

The downloadable PDF is at this link.

The following document aims to help in the first steps in working with MIT’s resource development database “Advance”. More details can be found on MIT Advance training here and on the MISTI Knowledge Base here.

• Before accessing Advance or the training you must get approval from your supervisor and David
• To get access and training or to get a refresher session email pm-training@mit.edu.
• In order to access Advance you will need to have VPN set up on your computer. If needed, reach out to Fatih for help.
• Once set up you will need to connect to VPN- to the Advancement Gateway:

• Link to Advance: https://advance.mit.edu/
• As part of the training you will set up your password. Requests for Advance password resets would go to rditrequests@mit.edu
• Introductory refresher  on most aspects of using Advance can be accessed here: http://rd-media-app-1/rd-media/vod/rd-training/advance_an_introduction/index.html#/
• Having a hard time connecting? Disable popups- see below
• Can’t remember how to fill in contact/touch report? See below.

Enabling Pop-Ups

Entering a Contact Report in Advance Web

From the AW entity record of the individual you met with, click on PM Web form:

From the PM Web form page, click on the form “Add Contact Report“:

Fill out the following sections of the contact report web form:

• Contact manager:  select your name from the list
• Staff and Volunteer Credit:  leave blank
• Leave the rest of the fields blank until….
• Type of Visit:  select personal visit or event
• Purpose of Visit:  cultivate
• Date: date of meeting
• Meeting Location: Was it at the company or elsewhere? What city and country?
• Brief Description: Who, what, why
• Critical Outcomes:  Meeting with MISTI Staff
• Discussion Summary:  What did you talk about at the meeting that would be of interest to the fundraising staff?  Did you learn more about the person’s career, family, education, philanthropy or hobbies/interests?
• Click submit. This sends the form to the Advance data entry team who will enter the contact report in Advance. You will get an email receipt upon submitting and when the report has been entered into the database.  The day after the contact report has been entered in Advance, it is automatically distributed by email to the relevant Resource Development staff.

Questions about the data entry?  Please email adonis@mit.edu

Entering a “Touch” in Advance Web

A Touch is any form of direct interaction with a prospect that is significant enough to record but does not reach the level of a planned one-on-one visit or personalized campus visit, which should be entered as a contact report.

• Examples of touches
• Correspondence, including handwritten personal notes on thank you notes or invitations.
• A phone call encouraging prospect to attend an event.
• Correspondence (email/mail) with information on a topic, which has relevance to the alumnus/a prospect.

From the Advance Web entity record of the individual, click on PM Web form:

From the Prospect Management page, click on the form for “Record a Touch Task”. Fill out and submit this form.  The task is added instantly to the prospect record.

Questions about the data entry?  Please email adonis@mit.edu