tracking the source on monthly donors

Patricia Coty

What's the best way to track the source of monthly donors? When someone signs up, the appeal code that is used is the monthly giving program - regardless of where they came from (mailing, phone, web). Is there a field where the source can be tracked - other than attributes? I would like to use the mailing appeal code when that applies, but I don't want to create an attribute with a long list. Suggestions?

 

Melissa Graves 2

Patricia Coty:

What's the best way to track the source of monthly donors? When someone signs up, the appeal code that is used is the monthly giving program - regardless of where they came from (mailing, phone, web). Is there a field where the source can be tracked - other than attributes? I would like to use the mailing appeal code when that applies, but I don't want to create an attribute with a long list. Suggestions?

 

Why use appeal of monthly giving? You can tell it is a mothly gift by the fact that it is a recurring gift-pay cash type. Appeal should be the source of the gift.

Shameless plug - I am presenting at BBCON on appeals and thanks for adding one more thing to my presentation!

JoAnn Strommen

Melissa Graves:

Why use appeal of monthly giving? You can tell it is a mothly gift by the fact that it is a recurring gift-pay cash type. Appeal should be the source of the gift.

Shameless plug - I am presenting at BBCON on appeals and thanks for adding one more thing to my presentation!

I wouldn't use appeal of monthly giving either.  As Melissa pointed out, for us the 'appeal' is the source of the gift, not payment plan.

If for some reason the powers that be insist on using appeal of monthly giving, another option for tracking if you aren't using the field for something already might be the Gift Code field (on the Miscellaneous tab of gift record and can be a batch field)  Not the best solution but an opton.  Just a thought...

Liz Shafer

Patricia Coty:

What's the best way to track the source of monthly donors? When someone signs up, the appeal code that is used is the monthly giving program - regardless of where they came from (mailing, phone, web). Is there a field where the source can be tracked - other than attributes? I would like to use the mailing appeal code when that applies, but I don't want to create an attribute with a long list. Suggestions?

 

Why not use a package on your "monthly giving" appeal to track the original source of the donation?

We are also required to use an Appeal of "Recurring" for these gifts -- our Finance Department hasn't done what's required for us to actually use the recurring gift option in RE, so this is our only way to easily track recurring gifts.

 Maybe this isn't a "lot" easier, but the Appeal Performance Report groups donations by Package, so you can get a quick glance at where the donations originated.

Melissa Graves 2

Elizabeth Shafer:

Why not use a package on your "monthly giving" appeal to track the original source of the donation?

We are also required to use an Appeal of "Recurring" for these gifts -- our Finance Department hasn't done what's required for us to actually use the recurring gift option in RE, so this is our only way to easily track recurring gifts.

 Maybe this isn't a "lot" easier, but the Appeal Performance Report groups donations by Package, so you can get a quick glance at where the donations originated.

What does your finance office need to do to use recurring gifts? It is such a standard feature and something you really shouldn't do without if you have a sustainer program.

Using a package on the monthly giving appeal would not help in your analysis - only in documentation. If you did this then whenver you were analyzing how much was raised from that appeal (among other things) you would have to do some squirrely gymnastics querying to get these gifts included. I do not recommend it. I would instead recommend using the actual appeal and using some kind of other code (not package) to track that it is a monthly gift, gift code or attributes come to mind.

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE

Melissa Graves:

What does your finance office need to do to use recurring gifts? It is such a standard feature and something you really shouldn't do without if you have a sustainer program.

Using a package on the monthly giving appeal would not help in your analysis - only in documentation. If you did this then whenver you were analyzing how much was raised from that appeal (among other things) you would have to do some squirrely gymnastics querying to get these gifts included. I do not recommend it. I would instead recommend using the actual appeal and using some kind of other code (not package) to track that it is a monthly gift, gift code or attributes come to mind.

When we run our monthly donors, RE pulls the appeal from the original "recurring gift" transaction.  If we inactivate the appeal on that transaction, the gift will not process because the appeal is inactive, so we need to either change the appeal on the recurring gift payment in the batch, or reactivate the appeal.  We have monthly donors that have been giving for many years (some five years or more) and we do not want to keep appeals active for that long.

How would you handle this if you are using the appeal from the original recurring gift pledge?

Thanks.

 

Melissa Graves 2

Josh Bekerman:

When we run our monthly donors, RE pulls the appeal from the original "recurring gift" transaction.  If we inactivate the appeal on that transaction, the gift will not process because the appeal is inactive, so we need to either change the appeal on the recurring gift payment in the batch, or reactivate the appeal.  We have monthly donors that have been giving for many years (some five years or more) and we do not want to keep appeals active for that long.

How would you handle this if you are using the appeal from the original recurring gift pledge?

Thanks.

 

Why the adversity to keeping the appeal active?

I change it if the person responds to a request to increase the monthly gift and apply that new appeal - that is the only time I change it. Otherwise I recommend keeping it open - it was the true and real source of the gift.

Joshua Bekerman bCLO bCRE

Melissa Graves:

Why the adversity to keeping the appeal active?

I change it if the person responds to a request to increase the monthly gift and apply that new appeal - that is the only time I change it. Otherwise I recommend keeping it open - it was the true and real source of the gift.

 We have at least 30 new appeal codes a year, and they are very similar to each other.  Keeping that many appeals active year after year would, as one reason, increase our chances of mistakes (A0112 instead of A0113 for example).  Another reason is gift entry speed (on letter or number, instead of having to type the entire appeal code). 

 

Melissa Graves 2

Josh Bekerman:

 We have at least 30 new appeal codes a year, and they are very similar to each other.  Keeping that many appeals active year after year would, as one reason, increase our chances of mistakes (A0112 instead of A0113 for example).  Another reason is gift entry speed (on letter or number, instead of having to type the entire appeal code). 

 

This is why I chose to use the first two digits of my appeal codes as the 2 digit year. All of my 2013 appeal codes start with 13 so if you get those two right you get only the most current appeals.

Also - does every one of your appeals result in a recurring gift? I am suggesting keeping only those open. For us that means we can close out a good 80-90% of our appeals after 12 months.

Melissa Graves 2

Melissa Graves:

This is why I chose to use the first two digits of my appeal codes as the 2 digit year. All of my 2013 appeal codes start with 13 so if you get those two right you get only the most current appeals.

Also - does every one of your appeals result in a recurring gift? I am suggesting keeping only those open. For us that means we can close out a good 80-90% of our appeals after 12 months.

Also - I highly recommend using barcodes for such accuracy as well.

JoAnn Strommen

Elizabeth Shafer:

Why not use a package on your "monthly giving" appeal to track the original source of the donation?

We are also required to use an Appeal of "Recurring" for these gifts -- our Finance Department hasn't done what's required for us to actually use the recurring gift option in RE, so this is our only way to easily track recurring gifts.

 Maybe this isn't a "lot" easier, but the Appeal Performance Report groups donations by Package, so you can get a quick glance at where the donations originated.

Liz,

Can't underatand why your finance department wouldn't accomodate recurring gifts.  All I believe that is needed is on your fund record to include GL # for gift type of 'Recurring Gift- Pay Cash'.  We pretty much automatically include that gift type for all our funds when they are established.  For us GL# is the same as a cash gift - goes to same GL#. 

It sounds like they are making more work for you and themselves by trying to track it another way. 

Patricia Coty

Josh Bekerman:

When we run our monthly donors, RE pulls the appeal from the original "recurring gift" transaction.  If we inactivate the appeal on that transaction, the gift will not process because the appeal is inactive, so we need to either change the appeal on the recurring gift payment in the batch, or reactivate the appeal.  We have monthly donors that have been giving for many years (some five years or more) and we do not want to keep appeals active for that long.

How would you handle this if you are using the appeal from the original recurring gift pledge?

Thanks.

 

 I don't have the option of using the appeal code for recurring monthly gifts (sigh!), so I'm looking for an alternative. I could use a monthly source attribute, but I was wondering if anyone uses anything else.

Thanks for all the information!

 

Melissa Graves 2

Patricia Coty:

 I don't have the option of using the appeal code for recurring monthly gifts (sigh!), so I'm looking for an alternative. I could use a monthly source attribute, but I was wondering if anyone uses anything else.

Thanks for all the information!

 

Patricia - Why can't you use the gift type of recurring gift and recurring gift pay-cash? This is the way RE is designed to track monthly gifts.

Patricia Coty

Melissa Graves:
Patricia - Why can't you use the gift type of recurring gift and recurring gift pay-cash? This is the way RE is designed to track monthly gifts.

You're absolutely right, Melissa - that is how I can track the monthly. I also want to track where they came from. Because the appeal is the monthly program, there is no way to track what the source of the monthly donor is. There wasn't a need before, but since I came we have started some new acquisition of monthly donors, and I want to track the sources.

In a previous organization, we would track the source by the appeal that acquired the monthly donor for 12 months (the revenue was tracked to that appeal) then the appeal was changed to the monthly program. That way there is no need for additional coding for tracking the source. But the appeal codes had to be changed 12 months later.

What other way can we track the source? Constituent attribute, category =  monthly source, description = appeal, and date. Is there a field in the recurring gift record that would be better? I want to make sure it can be reported easily.

Thank you!

Melissa Graves 2

Patricia Coty:

You're absolutely right, Melissa - that is how I can track the monthly. I also want to track where they came from. Because the appeal is the monthly program, there is no way to track what the source of the monthly donor is. There wasn't a need before, but since I came we have started some new acquisition of monthly donors, and I want to track the sources.

In a previous organization, we would track the source by the appeal that acquired the monthly donor for 12 months (the revenue was tracked to that appeal) then the appeal was changed to the monthly program. That way there is no need for additional coding for tracking the source. But the appeal codes had to be changed 12 months later.

What other way can we track the source? Constituent attribute, category =  monthly source, description = appeal, and date. Is there a field in the recurring gift record that would be better? I want to make sure it can be reported easily.

Thank you!

I am suggestiong NOT using appeal of monthly and use the original source as the appeal. The gift type alone can tell you they are a monthly donor! No other need to use any other field. I also do not advocate changing the appeal after 12 months. I leave mine as it is until the sustainer replies to an appeal to increase or change their monthly gift.