The Plan Templates Page in GC GO School Settings

Welcome! If your gift officers run the same play again and again, you shouldn’t have to rebuild it prospect by prospect. Plan Templates let you define that play once: a plan type, a starting stage, and a timed set of Plan Moves. When a gift officer starts a new solicitation plan and picks your template, GC GO builds out all the moves for them, with due dates calculated from the plan’s start date.

This guide walks through the whole page: what a plan template is, how to build one (basics first, then Plan Moves), how to publish it so your team can use it, how to archive and restore, and what actually happens when a gift officer applies a template to a plan.

What plan templates are

A plan template is a reusable blueprint for a solicitation plan. Each template has two layers:

1. The basics — a name, the Plan Type it’s for, and an optional Starting Stage.
2. Plan Moves — the sequence of tasks that make up the plan, each with a title, a stage, and a due date expressed in days from the plan’s start date.

When a gift officer creates a plan from your template, GC GO generates a real task (a Plan Move) for each one in the template, spacing them out automatically based on those day offsets. It’s how you turn a proven process into a one-click starting point — consistent for everyone, and far faster than building from scratch.

Plan Types and Stages come from the Plans page. A template’s Plan Type and the Stages you assign to Plan Moves are drawn from the lists on the Plans settings page. Set those up first so the right options are available here.

Where the page lives

From the GC GO menu, open School Settings and click Plan Templates. 

• A New Plan Template button (top right).
• Two tabs: Active Templates and Archived Templates.
• A table of your templates with Template Name, Type, and Created By, plus edit and archive actions on each row.

Building a template: a two-step flow

Creating a template happens in two stages — first the basics, then the moves.

Step 1: Create the basics

1. Click New Plan Template. You’ll land on the Plan Template Basics form.
2. Fill in:
   • Plan Template Name (required) — what your team will see when picking a template.
   • Select Type (required) — the Plan Type this template is for (from your Plans settings).
   • Select Starting Stage (optional) — the stage a plan should begin in when built from this template. Leave it blank to use your first selectable stage.
3. Click Save & Add Plan Move Templates. You’ll see “Plan template created successfully” and land on the template’s detail page, ready to add moves.

Step 2: Add Plan Moves

On the template detail page (headed Plan Template), you’ll see the All Plan Moves In Template section.

1. Click Add Plan Move. A window opens titled Create Plan Move For Template.
2. Fill in:
   • Title (required) — the move’s name (up to 100 characters), e.g. “Send intro email.”
   • Stage (required) — which Plan Stage this move belongs to.
   • Due date (required) — a number of days from start date. Enter 0 for the plan’s start day, 5 for five days in, and so on (0–365).
   • Description (optional) — any detail or instructions for the move.
3. (Optional) Check Notify me about this Task to set a reminder, then fill in Remind me [ ] days before Due Date.
4. Click Save. You’ll see “Plan Move created successfully!” and it joins the list, showing its Plan Move Title, Due Date (as “Day X”), and Stage.

Repeat for every move in your sequence. Order them by their day offsets to map out the whole play.

How “days from start date” works: The number isn’t a calendar date — it’s an offset. A move set to Day 14 becomes due 14 days after whatever start date the gift officer chooses for their plan. That’s what lets one template fit every prospect’s timeline.

Publishing a template

A template isn’t available to your team until you publish it. On the template detail page:

• Click Publish Template to make it selectable when gift officers create plans.
• Once published, the button becomes Unpublish Template — click it to pull the template out of circulation (without deleting it) while you make changes.

Build and refine in the unpublished state; publish when it’s ready for prime time.

Editing a template

• Edit the basics: on the detail page, click Edit Plan Details in Template to change the name, type, or starting stage. Save with Save Plan Template — you’ll see “Plan template updated successfully.”
• Edit a Plan Move: click into a move to open Edit Plan Move For Template, adjust any field, and Save (“Plan Move updated successfully!”).

Consider unpublishing while you make bigger changes, then republishing when you’re done.

Archiving and restoring

To retire a template, archive it rather than losing it:

1. On the Active Templates tab, click the archive icon on the template’s row.
2. Confirm at the prompt: “Are you sure you want to archive this plan template?”
3. You’ll see “Plan template archived successfully” and it moves to the Archived Templates tab.

To bring one back, go to Archived Templates and click the restore (archive-box) icon — you’ll see “Plan template restored successfully.” Archiving is a soft delete, so nothing is permanently lost.

How gift officers use a template

When a gift officer creates a new solicitation plan, they’ll see a Template section with a Select Template dropdown (a link lets them preview templates before selecting one). A few things to know:

• Only published templates appear in that dropdown, listed by name.
• Picking a template auto-fills the Plan Type to match the template.
• On save, GC GO builds the plan out: the plan starts in the template’s starting stage, and every Plan Move becomes a real task with its due date set to the plan’s start date plus the move’s day offset, in its assigned stage, with any reminder you configured. The officer sees “Plan created successfully.”

The result: a fully scaffolded plan, correctly sequenced, in one step.

Who can manage plan templates

• Full management (create, edit, publish, archive) requires the GC GO school-settings permission — typically the GC Gift Officer Admin role.
• View-only access is possible for users with the plan-template view-only permission: they can open and preview templates but won’t see the New Plan Template or editing controls.

A few tips

• Set up Plan Types and Stages first. Templates draw on them — get the Plans page in order before building templates.
• Think in offsets, not dates. Space your Plan Moves by “days from start date” so the template works no matter when a plan begins.
• Keep it unpublished while you build. Publish only when the full sequence of moves is in place and correct.
• Name templates for the play. “Major Gift — 90-day qualification” tells a gift officer exactly what they’re getting.
• Archive, don’t fear deleting. Retiring a template is reversible — archive it and restore later if you need it again.
• Add reminders to the moves that matter. A reminder a few days before a key move’s due date keeps the plan on track.