We are just starting to recognize cumulative giving donors of $100,000 or more at special events and in our annual reports.  How can we make it easier to track these donors in Raiser's Edge?  Right now we use the donor category report and include soft credit gifts but some donors don't show up so we do queries to make sure we don't miss anyone.  We then mark the person's record with an attribute showing which gift club the donor is in.  I was hoping I could hear about how others are tracking this type of info and how to keep it updated on an ongoing basis.  Thanks!

 Linda Hulten

AVP Advancement Services and Annual Giving

Seattle University

hultenl@seattleu.edu

Just doing our donor walls for 2008 and was hoping to find a quicker way (took about 2 weeks).  Now that things are set up, next year will be a breeze

1.  run donor category report with new end date for cummulative giving - this pulls from a query called "donor wall - for recognition"

"donor wall - for recognition"  query is based on all records, excludes those with attribute of donor wall - do not recognize (credit to another account, old record error etc.) and anonymous coding

2.  compare #1 to query "donor wall - confirmation" - this pulls gift info (including soft credits - see tools/query options/gift processing/both) with output of total giving

this finds all special cases where donor X owns 5 companies but wants all recognition to "The X Family" (which is under add/sal type donor recognition )

3.  enter attribute of Donor Wall/level/date/Donor Wall (year) to track increase

this could be done globally using an import of #1+#2 with notes (ensure your output includes ID# and key indicator - I reviewed each account individually this year to ensure we started with right links/codes

Time Challenge - coding all linked companies to show who gets the recognition, with soft credits to primary account, I also put an annotation in that says "soft credit all gifts to XX account for recognition purposes" and attribute of donor wall/do not recognize/see XX account.

 I'll be doing a procedure shortly (before I forget the steps).  Let me know if you'd like a copy.  bonnie.pearce@vch.ca

Hi Elizabeth,

Thank you for your posting, right now I am working in the cumulative donor wall and we are getting there. And your posting has been a great help.

Rosalby Kelly

Ashbury College

Ottawa, Canada

Sorry for the delay - you know how daily tasks can get hold of you !

I'm still working on this and will send it out to those who requested it shortly.  It'll also be offered to BB for posting in client docs.  Thanks for your patience !

Bonnie

We use attributes to track each of our Giving levels or Giving Groups. I use queries that I check on a weekly basis to make sure they are up to date in case someone was missed during data entry. By using Attributes, you are not restricted to using only donor categories - this allows us to grandfather in folks who were told 30 years ago they were perpetual members, etc even though they aren't currently giving, etc.

When we do actual recognition (walls, plaques, campaigns) I use the notes fields to track where, what, the exact wording (because it can change over the years), etc.

Hey Bonnie,

Are you still working on that document?  I'm sure people would love to see it!  Let me know if you need any help attaching the document when the document is finished.