Scenes from an Imaginary Nonprofit

Taking a cue from Sarah McBride and her affection for alliteration, I intended to inject some personality into my first blog post through the application of repeated consonant sounds. I pondered and planned a plethora of possible posts - the top topics entitled, "Better Batches", "Glorious Global Changes", and "Find the Fun with Funds!"

Unfortunately, Sarah beat me to the punch, and I was reduced to posting a blog tragically bereft of alliteration.

To make amends, the blog that begins below commences with a cacophony of consecutive consonants.

Dialing Down Date Drama Concerning Constituency Codes

Last week at Nice Things Are Good, Debbie Data was catching up on some data entry. First, she added Connie Constituent's $1000 December donation on the Gift tab. After that, she went to the Bio 2 tab to update Connie's constituency codes. Connie had been elected to the Nice Things Are Good Board at the beginning of the year, so Debbie added the constituency code of Board Member and entered 1/1/08 in the Date From field.

Later that day, Reggie Report ran the Gift Detail report to present to the Board. He wanted to know how much money each Board Member had given in 2007, so he selected Last Year for the Gift Date and filtered on the Constituency Code of Board Member. Much to Reggie's chagrin, when he printed the report, Connie Constituent and her $1000 gift were nowhere to be found.

Reggie turned to Tommy Troubleshooter, his friend who sat one desk over, and explained his predicament.

"I don't understand," Reggie told Tommy, "I can see Connie's gift as plain as day, and when I look at her Bio 2 tab, she's a Board Member all right. Why doesn't she come up in my report?"

Tommy nodded thoughtfully and rubbed his chin. "Tell you what, Reggie," he said, "What happens if you Include one record - Connie's - on the General tab, and get rid of that Constituency Code filter. Does the gift show up then?"

There was a pause while Reggie carried out his instructions. After a few moments of waiting, the report filled Reggie's screen. The gift was there.

"She's there now," Reggie said, "but I don't understand what made the difference - is something wrong with the Constituency Code?"

"Let's take a look at that Bio 2 tab again," Tommy said.

Reggie opened Connie's record, and almost at once Tommy began jabbing his finger excitedly at the screen.

"There it is!" Tommy said. "It's the Date From field - there's your culprit. When you ran the report before, The Raiser's Edge was looking for constituents who had given gifts in 2007 and who were Board Members at the time of the gift! Since Connie didn't become a Board Member until January 1, 2008, the report didn't even consider her!"

Tommy leaned back triumphantly and folded his hands behind his head. This triumph proved to be short-lived.

"Well, that certainly explains what's happening in my report, but how do I fix it?" Reggie asked.

Tommy thought this over awhile and then called to Debbie.

"Hey Debbie," he said, "do all our current Board Members have a Date From of 1/1/2008 on their Constituency Code?"

"All the new ones do," Debbie said, "but the holdovers - well, it depends on when they started. Not all of our Board Members started at the same time."

"So querying on the Date From field is out," Reggie said.

"I'm afraid so," replied Debbie.

"What about the Date To Field?" Tommy asked. "Do you use that?"

"Sure," Debbie said. "Once somebody leaves the Board, I enter the date. If they're still active, that field's blank."

"That's it!" Reggie said. "Instead of using the report filters, I'll just create a Constituent query with the Criteria Constituency Code equals Board Member and Date To is blank."

Reggie created the query and re-ran the report. Connie, the rest of the Board, and all their gifts were accounted for. Now Reggie didn't have to worry about upsetting Connie by presenting a report to the Board that ignored her generous donation.

The elastic nature of The Raiser's Edge allows for numerous variables in the way data is entered and reported on. Because organizations have unique needs, it cannot be said that one process is always better than another. What is universal is a need for consistency in data entry and reporting, so that both aspects of the work complement each other.

This is a simple enough concept in theory, but it can become more slippery in practice. Had Debbie not used the Date From and Date To fields in her Data Entry, Roger would not have had to adjust his report. Now that Roger understands how the data he is working with is entered, he can be sure to request it in the correct manner.

Later on, Tommy would find troubleshooting steps for this situation in Knowledgebase, in solution BB119027.