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Track relationships with lifecycle stages

One dropdown on every contact records where they are in your customer or donor journey.

2 min read · Published Jul 4, 2026

Lifecycle stage is a single dropdown on every contact that tracks their relationship status with your organization.

Default stages

Tormano comes with seven built-in lifecycle stages:

  • Lead: a new contact, not yet qualified
  • Prospect: qualified and showing interest
  • Customer: has bought from you
  • Donor: has given
  • Lapsed: previously active, now quiet
  • Advocate: actively promotes your organization
  • Inactive: no longer engaged

On the Nonprofit edition, Lead and Customer are hidden (they’d duplicate Prospect and Donor) and the remaining stages carry donor-cycle labels.

Customizing your stages

The stages are not a locked list. At Settings > Lifecycle Stages you can add your own stages, rename or recolor any stage (including the built-ins), and drag to reorder them. Built-in stages can’t be deleted, but stages you create can be removed.

Why it matters

Lifecycle stage is one of the most useful filters in reporting. Common saved views (“Active donors”, “Inbound leads from this month”, “Board members”) use it as the primary filter.

Changing a contact’s stage

Set the stage on any contact from its detail page. Any user can move a contact between stages, and the change is logged.

Auto-progression

A workflow can move contacts between stages on its own: when a contact’s first deal is won, change their stage to Customer, for example. Build one under Automations with the Change lifecycle stage action.

Can’t find your answer?

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