A Lead/Opportunity is a prospective consumer of your products and/or services or a potential supporter of your nonprofit organization. A Lead/Opportunity is created when an individual or organization shows interest and provides contact information. Your organization may acquire a Lead/Opportunity through advertising, trade shows, direct mailings or any other marketing efforts.
Your team works the lead/opportunity until the prospect either definitively lets you know they're not interested (a lost opportunity) or until they take a desired action (a won opportunity). The desired action is specified in the "Lead/Opportunity Type" field. For example, if you would like the Lead to make a donation, you may choose "Potential Donor" as the Lead/Opportunity Type. If you'd like the Lead to attend an event, you may designated them as "Potential Event Guest".
If you're team is successful at converting an opportunity into an action, you'll want to close and convert your Lead/Opportunity appropriately. There are two ways to convert a Lead/Opportunity. The first is to assign it to a Constituent Affiliation. For example, if a Lead makes a donation they become a Donor. In this case you would convert the Lead to a Donor.
The second way is to convert it to a won opportunity. You should only do this if there is no corresponding affiliation for the Lead. For example, if your lead type is "Potential Volunteer" you would convert the Lead to a Volunteer. If the lead type is "Potential Event Guest", you would add the Constituent to an event guest list, then convert the Lead/Opportunity to a won opportunity.
Following are the steps for converting a Lead/Opportunity along with a description of what happens with each conversion type. To access Leads/Opportunities, choose Sales and Marketing > Leads/Opportunities - from the main menu on the left side of the screen.
This will bring you to the Leads/Opportunities List which initially displays all your
Active Leads/Opportunities. Open the record
you wish to convert by selecting the corresponding open icon 
.
This opens that Lead/Opportunity's Workspace. This is where you'll find all related information for the Lead/Opportunity. To convert a Lead/Opportunity, click the "Convert Lead" button.
This will open the Convert Leads screen...
From this screen you can select the appropriate conversion from the drop down list. Once you make a selection click the "Convert This Lead" button. Here's what happens depending on what choice you make...
Choosing Other will...
- Keep the lead, and mark it as Successfully Converted.
- Close the lead so it no longer shows up in the list as active.
- Add the Lead/Opportunity to the Lead Conversions Page.
- Count the Lead/Opportunity as a conversion or won opportunity.
Choosing
an Affiliation will...
- Remove the Lead/Opportunity completely.
- Add the lead to the Lead Conversions Page.
- Create a new record in the affiliate bucket you chose (eg: Donors or Volunteers)
- Transfer all important information like notes, files, contact log and history to the new affiliate record.
- Close the Lead/Opportunity Record and take you back to the Lead/Opportunity List.
This completes the steps necessary to successfully convert a Lead/Opportunity.