Membership Reporting Issue

Courtney Klein 2

I am having trouble figuring this out. 

My director wants a list of all current members at a specific time period. So for an example, if he asked for all current members on March 1, I would run a query that of members that expire greater than or equal to April 1. 



At the same time, I run numbers for "new members" "lapsed members" and "renewals" for each month. He wants to see the growth month to month. The trouble is here and below is the example.

Total members on March 1: 4,476

Renewals during month of March: 186

New Members during month of March: 38

Lapsed Members during month of March: 25



With that being said, I would think Total members on April 1 would be 4,451 (I am subtracting the lapsed members) but instead Total members on April 1is 4,389.



Can anyone help? What am I doing wrong or am I misunderstanding something?



Much appreciated. Courtney

JoAnn Strommen

"all current members on March 1, I would run a query that of members that expire greater than or equal to April 1."



Do you mean greater than or equal to March 1?  If you are using April 1, I think that's part of the problem.  We don't have membership module to deal with the others.

JoAnn Strommen

Just looked at the #s again.  Sorry - not following the math. 



If 3/1 you have A members, during March B members join new and during March C members drop.  To me it would be A + B - C.  The renewals would have had memberships 3/1 and already be counted, correct?  Using that logic 4/1 membership would be 4489.  Still doesn't match the #s in your post.

 

Courtney Klein 2

Yes, I apologize I meant to write "if he asked for all current members on March 1, I would run a query that of members that expire greater than or equal to March 1. 



Yes - exactly the #'s aren't making sense. I feel like there is something I am missing. 

JoAnn Strommen

Courtney, maybe I'm missing something in your question.  If you need current members as of March 1,  why isn't the query giving you what you need:  the number of members 3/1 and greater.   



The renewals, drops, adds come into play only if you're reporting on those or change in membership from 3/1 to 4/1. 

Courtney Klein 2

Joann,

I just thought the numbers would be related. Like if I have X members on March 1, then renewed people, lost peopele (lapsed) and gained new members that the X members on April 1 one would be some addition and subtration of what was brought in or lost during March. Does that make better sense?

John Heizer

Just a quick observation ... if you're trying to get a snapshot of how things were on March 1 it will get REALLY complicated because the status of many of those folks may have changed since then.  Members have been added, lapsed, renewed since that date.  This could be why your numbers don't add up trying to do this via queries today.

Olga Gonzalez Nichols

I find membership tracking as a big blind spot in the Raiser's Edge. It is practically impossible to get the numbers to match on your reports. I have resorted to querying, exporting and manipulating the data on my own. I have the same issue as you, with the added problem that my boss wants to compare current membership with membership a year ago this same time. RE completely disregards lapsed status, or more like, it does not track it. So if Jane Doe's membership was actually lapsed a year today, but she later renewed, RE will report Jane Doe as a member a year ago. My suggestion, grab your data on query, export, and find out yourself who is current and was a member when

I find it absolutely indefensible that BB does not address this issue. It has been one for years!

Gina Gerhard

It seems like you're asking the system:  What was this member's status during year a, year b, year c.

• Could you set up attributes for each year?  Year A member status, Year B member status, etc.
• Then at the end of each year, globally populate the attribute with their status.

Essentially this would 'time-stamp' the status for each constituent.

• If it's by year maybe this would work. But if you want to get more granular perhaps it would be too cumbersome?

Then perhaps querying/exporting based on these status attributes would be easier to deal with - getting these 'snapshot' in time requests?

Olga Gonzalez Nichols

It would be something to try, but it is manual procedure and one that can only be implemented going forward; therefore, you still have to figure something out for your member history. It also seems to me that the amount of attributes you will end up with for people who lapse and renew would be enormous because memberships are rolling, expiring at the end of the month a year after joining or renewing. So Jane's membership is lapsed today, but might be renewed next month. 



This is a system flaw that needs to be addressed by BB, a very basic one at that. Who does not want to know how many more or less members you have as of today/this month compared to this same date/month last year or the year before?



Thanks for the suggestion, Gina. I will try it out on our sample data to see how it would work.

John Heizer

Olga Gonzalez Nichols:

It would be something to try, but it is manual procedure and one that can only be implemented going forward; therefore, you still have to figure something out for your member history. It also seems to me that the amount of attributes you will end up with for people who lapse and renew would be enormous because memberships are rolling, expiring at the end of the month a year after joining or renewing. So Jane's membership is lapsed today, but might be renewed next month. 



This is a system flaw that needs to be addressed by BB, a very basic one at that. Who does not want to know how many more or less members you have as of today/this month compared to this same date/month last year or the year before?



Thanks for the suggestion, Gina. I will try it out on our sample data to see how it would work.

It looks like this might be covered on the Discovery site as http://rediscovery.uservoice.com/forums/137015-raiser-s-edge-discovery-topics/suggestions/6808273-i-would-like-to-get-a-snap-shot-of-each-month-in-p.  Folks should add their "votes" in the hope that Blackbaud will address the issue.  If that isn't what you're looking for then add a new suggestion.

Susan Ross

Hi Courtney –



Susan here from Blackbaud :-)



Just to confirm – Are you running Membership Queries or Constituent Queries?  It is probably best to run Membership Queries – which you might already be doing.   



Without seeing the exact Queries, it is a little hard to tell exactly what is going on.  Are all the numbers you are pulling from the Query area?  Like some other commenters mentioned, it might be a little tricky in Query to get membership numbers as of a specific day, because there are always members adding/renewing/lapsing.   



Have you tried using the Report area?  I would recommend comparing what you are getting in Query to Reports.  Some of the Reports might do a better job of Reporting on Membership numbers “As Of” a certain day. 



One report that might be helpful is the “Membership List/Directory” from the Membership section of reports.  This report will let you report on Active/Lapsed Memberships As Of a certain day, so you can have the Raiser’s Edge do the calculations for you As Of the end of the month, or whatever date you want.



To run this report, first, on the General Tab select your “Memberships As Of” date.  On the Filters tab you will need to adjust the report to display, “All Standings”.  By default it only includes Active Members.  On the Format Tab > Sort/Break, you want to Sort by Current Standing.  Then check the box to Break Report By > Sort Field (which will put a break between each of the Standings), and lastly check the box to “Print Count of Records.”  In the Optional Columns section I like to add columns for “Current Standing” and “Expires On.”  What you should get is a list of Active and Lapsed Members, and then at the bottom of each standing a count of total Members and total Memberships.  That way you can get your counts, and see the details. 



Other Reports that might be helpful are the New Member Report and the Renewals Report. 



I hope this helps.  If you have any trouble running the reports please let me know!



Those are a few of my thoughts… anyone else have ideas to add?



Thank you!

Susan

 

Amelia Ketzle

Can I ask how you're defining “new members”? We are trying to identify people who have joined for the first time within a certain period of time, and are having difficulty because when we drop one membership and start another, the system thinks that is a “new membership" even though the person was previously a member. Any ideas?