Beyond the Funny Bone

Actions are the bridge between the sterile environment of your database and the messy world of human interaction. Depending on how many constituents you have, the size of your organization, and how tenaciously you document the telephone calls, meetings, lunch appointments, follow-up calls, letters, and other ways that you engage constituents, you can have quite a lot of balls in the air at one time.

While wallpapering your work area with post-its listing everything you need to keep track of is a viable option, The Raiser's Edge has an easier alternative: the Tickler Report (BB70833). This is handy as a to-do list to print for either a solicitor or notified user.

The Tickler Report keeps track of who is responsible for each action in The Raiser's Edge. This report can be organized based on either the solicitors or database users assigned to each action. The report also provides constituent/contact names, action start and end times, action types, the status of each action type, action priorities, and action progress. You can also include notes recorded on the Attributes/ Notes tab in the action record.

To run the report, select the Tickler Report in Action Reports. The General tab allows you to filter your actions by date range, priority (high, normal, low), progress (completed and not completed), and source (constituent, appeals, and events). Additional options are available on the Filters tab; filter by fields including action category, action type, action status, solicitor, and notified user. To determine if your report will be broken down by assigned solicitor or notified user, go to the Format tab, highlight Details on the left, and mark the option for one or the other.

The Tickler Report's scope can be as broad as the database (no filters), or you can focus on something as specific as one solicitor's high priority actions for this month that have not been completed. Additionally, you can include optional fields such as phone numbers, action notes, and action attributes in the report, giving you all the information you need at your fingertips.

The answer to the Brain Buster in this month's edition of The User's Edge is $55. The formula Robert Hernandez concocted was that he would give $5 for every letter in the fund name. That's how he came to give $35 to the Library Fund (7 letters), $40 to the Building Fund (8 letters), $30 to the Annual Fund (6 letters), and $50 to the Membership Fund (10 letters). Since the Acquisition Fund has 11 letters, Robert's gift was $55.