Solicitor Performance Analysis Report and Board Give/Gets

Daniel Noga 2

I was just tipped off to the Solicitor Performance Analysis Report (we usually avoid the canned reports and get what we need through Query/Export, but this is one area that Query doesn't seem to be handling too well) and would like to start using it to track Board Give/Gets. The report has a couple of limitations that I'm bumping up against, and I'm wondering if anyone else who uses it might have some tips.


In order for the report to accurately report on Solicited gifts, my understanding is that the Solicitor in question needs to be linked to the donor record itself as an Assigned Solicitor. It's not sufficient to link the Solicitor to the gift alone. If the Solicitor is linked to a gift without being assigned to the donor, the name of the donor will appear in the report, but the Gift Amount will be reported as zero.


For the most part, this is okay, but there are cases when we don't necessarily want a Solicitor to be fully assigned to a donor although they may have had a hand in a gift. One example that is particularly relevant at the moment relates to our annual Dinner: If a board member (or an organization solicited by one) buys a table, that board member is credited with all of the day-of donations that come from individuals at said table as part of their "Get"--after all, they wouldn't have been there to make the donation if it weren't for those solicitation efforts. That doesn't mean we want to count every donation made by those as Gets. Some of them may have donated in the past, so it wouldn't be appropriate to say they have a relationship with us on the basis of the board member's Dinner solicitation.


Any thoughts on the best way to include these one-time Gets in the Solicitor Performance Analysis Report? I do have some ideas:

• Can I assign the board member as a Solicitor to those donors, but specifically for the Campaign in question?
• Would it be feasible to use date ranges to limit the Assigned Solicitor relationship so that future gifts from said donors don't count toward the Get?

JoAnn Strommen

Daniel, I use the Solicitor Perf Analysis a lot.  I have never gotten $0 for a solicitor that is only on the gift.  While most solicitor assignments are linked to donor record, there are a number of cases where I do not credit that solicitor on the actual gift but just enter a different solicitor. I do not add that solicitor to the gift record.  Donor and $ amount pulls in the listing for the "temporary/this gift only".  I do have to have that "temporary/this gift only" solicitor listed as a solicitor for that fund.


Not sure what date ranges will get you - date range on solicitor assignment record is not a criteria considered when selecting the solicitor or reporting if that solicitor is on the gift record.


But yes, you can definitely link solicitor only to that gift.


Note: when previewing the SPA or printing that report, watch for bottom line of pages to be dropped.  Ran a 17 page report, all names/gifts listed. Same day ran another section of campaigners, 11 pages and was missing name/$ from bottom of 5 pages.  Name and $ is counted in total and is on an export to excel, just not on report.  (Have a case with BB - has been an issue for years.)

Daniel Noga 2

JoAnn Strommen:

Daniel, I use the Solicitor Perf Analysis a lot.  I have never gotten $0 for a solicitor that is only on the gift.  While most solicitor assignments are linked to donor record, there are a number of cases where I do not credit that solicitor on the actual gift but just enter a different solicitor. I do not add that solicitor to the gift record.  Donor and $ amount pulls in the listing for the "temporary/this gift only".  I do have to have that "temporary/this gift only" solicitor listed as a solicitor for that fund.


Not sure what date ranges will get you - date range on solicitor assignment record is not a criteria considered when selecting the solicitor or reporting if that solicitor is on the gift record.


But yes, you can definitely link solicitor only to that gift.


Note: when previewing the SPA or printing that report, watch for bottom line of pages to be dropped.  Ran a 17 page report, all names/gifts listed. Same day ran another section of campaigners, 11 pages and was missing name/$ from bottom of 5 pages.  Name and $ is counted in total and is on an export to excel, just not on report.  (Have a case with BB - has been an issue for years.)

Thanks, JoAnn--that was extremely helpful! I'll use your tips to experiment with our Solicitors and see where I get.


Thanks for the heads-up about printing, too--that is definitely not the kind of thing I'd want to find out about the hard way (i.e. when someone comes back to me and asks me why gifts are missing).

Melissa S Graves

JoAnn Strommen:

Daniel, I use the Solicitor Perf Analysis a lot.  I have never gotten $0 for a solicitor that is only on the gift.  While most solicitor assignments are linked to donor record, there are a number of cases where I do not credit that solicitor on the actual gift but just enter a different solicitor. I do not add that solicitor to the gift record.  Donor and $ amount pulls in the listing for the "temporary/this gift only".  I do have to have that "temporary/this gift only" solicitor listed as a solicitor for that fund.


Not sure what date ranges will get you - date range on solicitor assignment record is not a criteria considered when selecting the solicitor or reporting if that solicitor is on the gift record.


But yes, you can definitely link solicitor only to that gift.


Note: when previewing the SPA or printing that report, watch for bottom line of pages to be dropped.  Ran a 17 page report, all names/gifts listed. Same day ran another section of campaigners, 11 pages and was missing name/$ from bottom of 5 pages.  Name and $ is counted in total and is on an export to excel, just not on report.  (Have a case with BB - has been an issue for years.)

Have you tried printing to another printer? Different reports print differently for me on different printers and it may not be an issue on a different printer.

JoAnn Strommen

Can try running on some other ones on the network but over the years have had several printers. Have had problem on more than printer. Line is missing from preview, too.

Just seems dumb that report is fine for one solicitor division of a fund and loses lines for another division of same fund run two minutes later. All that changed was which solicitors were selected.

Daniel Noga 2

JoAnn Strommen:

Daniel, I use the Solicitor Perf Analysis a lot.  I have never gotten $0 for a solicitor that is only on the gift.  While most solicitor assignments are linked to donor record, there are a number of cases where I do not credit that solicitor on the actual gift but just enter a different solicitor. I do not add that solicitor to the gift record.  Donor and $ amount pulls in the listing for the "temporary/this gift only".  I do have to have that "temporary/this gift only" solicitor listed as a solicitor for that fund.


Not sure what date ranges will get you - date range on solicitor assignment record is not a criteria considered when selecting the solicitor or reporting if that solicitor is on the gift record.


But yes, you can definitely link solicitor only to that gift.


Note: when previewing the SPA or printing that report, watch for bottom line of pages to be dropped.  Ran a 17 page report, all names/gifts listed. Same day ran another section of campaigners, 11 pages and was missing name/$ from bottom of 5 pages.  Name and $ is counted in total and is on an export to excel, just not on report.  (Have a case with BB - has been an issue for years.)

I'm still getting some results with zero dollar amounts when I know otherwise, and I'm thinking something else must be going on. For these gifts, there's also a note that says "No Gifts to List."  BS! There's a $10,000 gift causing the solicitee to show up on the report in the first place--why is the amount coming out as zero? In this case, the Solicitor has been assigned to the donor and I've even included the Fund as you mentioned, and I am still getting $0.00 and "No Gifts to List." I've checked the Gift Types tab and there's no discrepancy there, either.


So stumped.


 

Daniel Noga 2

Daniel Noga:

I'm still getting some results with zero dollar amounts when I know otherwise, and I'm thinking something else must be going on. For these gifts, there's also a note that says "No Gifts to List."  BS! There's a $10,000 gift causing the solicitee to show up on the report in the first place--why is the amount coming out as zero? In this case, the Solicitor has been assigned to the donor and I've even included the Fund as you mentioned, and I am still getting $0.00 and "No Gifts to List." I've checked the Gift Types tab and there's no discrepancy there, either.


So stumped.


 

 

There's also someone being listed (with a zero dollar amount) who hasn't made a gift since 2016, despite the fact that I've set the date range to This Calendar Year on the General tab. I tried using Specific Range and setting it manually from 1/1/17 - 12/31/17.


I hope whatever I'm missing isn't something totally obvious...

JoAnn Strommen

Daniel, On that $10K gift record look at the solicitor field, open it so you can see amount credited.  Maybe just that amount there is $0.  Has happened to  me.


As to names showing up, that may depend on how you enter data and are pulling your SPA report.  They could show up if solicitor is on record and other criteria doesn't exclude them.  I assign solicitor specific to the fund and then on the SPA solicitor tab I use third option - base on fund goal so pulls in all my solicitors for that fund.

Daniel Noga 2

JoAnn Strommen:

Daniel, On that $10K gift record look at the solicitor field, open it so you can see amount credited.  Maybe just that amount there is $0.  Has happened to  me.


As to names showing up, that may depend on how you enter data and are pulling your SPA report.  They could show up if solicitor is on record and other criteria doesn't exclude them.  I assign solicitor specific to the fund and then on the SPA solicitor tab I use third option - base on fund goal so pulls in all my solicitors for that fund.

I'm starting to get my head around how this report is pulling. Checking again for the date ranges of the gifts involved, the report was pulling any donor with gifts solicited by the Solicitor in question, and showing zero amounts if the Gift Date falls outside the range I specified. Now that I understand what I'm looking at, it makes more sense.