This year we have decided to start showing donors that have given in consecutive years - I have figured out how to run this report.  My question is there a way with in Raiser's Edge to mark these people or is this going to be a manual process once I have exported the names to a word document.

Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.

You will be able to create a query.  In the consecutive years report on the general tab there is a checkbox towards the bottom which says create output query.  It will create a static constituent query which you could then use for whatever purpose you need. 

Charlotte

Thank you I got that far, but is there a way that I can take the consecutive years column from the report and globally add this to each constituents record in attributes. 

 Billy Jo Jayne

Hi Billy Jo, what are you trying to get in the end.  Technically the consecutive years giving is already on the record under the summary reports.  If you don't know where those are I can point you to how to get them, or if you tell me what your ultimate goal is (excel, word, just be able to pull it up on records or query on it, etc...) I might be able to help you out better.

We have decided that in our annual report of donors we want to recognize those that have given consecutively for 5 years or more by italicizing their names.  I have figured out how to run the report and have the report generate an output query - which I have been told I could then globally add this as an attribute on the attribute's tab and then export with excel, word and or a crystal report.  Ultimately I want the system to do the work for us and cut down on the manual process if not eliminate it all together.  I hope that I have explained myself - I am getting frusterated trying to get this system to do what I am sure is something really simple.

Once you have the query, exporting the information is the easy part.  Open the query and add to the Output tab the name of the constituent/addressee and the number of consecutive years donated from Summary information.  While we normally wouldn't recommend exporting directly from query in this case it would work for you.  Once you have added those two fields to the Output of your query you can then go to the File Menu on the query and choose to export to excel.

 As for adding the information to the constituent records you could do this through the import process, however, this creates alot of maintenance for you because you would have to either continually maintain this information (ie everytime someone gives a gift, see if they have now given 5 years consec and add the information) or at least annually you would have to go through and update so that the new constituents who hit 5 years get the information added to their records, those that didn't give this year get it removed from their records, or those who donated another year get the # of year's updated on their records.  Personally I think it would just be easier to create the report each time you need to know who has given 5+ years as opposed to having to maintain the information on the records.

 I hope that helps.  If you run into any issues or questions you might consider calling support on this one.