Categories on Campaigns, Appeals & Funds?

Options
Heather MacKenzie
Heather MacKenzie ✭
Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
in Blackbaud Raiser's Edge NXT®: General Discussion
Hi there,


I am working in a new database which really needs campaign, appeal and fund cleanup.  If you use the category fields in campaigns, appeals, and funds, what do you put in there?  We are considering using the campaign category as an even higher up over-arching piece of info, and the fund category will be capital vs. endowment, etc.


Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

Campaign category:  Annual Fund

Campaign:  Mailings

Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

Fund: Library Operations

Fund Category:  Programs & Services


I'd love input for what you use the category field(s) for as well as critiquing my proposed structure in the example.  The campaign category would be used for however long it takes to make the bridge between what exists now and our future state more than anything, but it might be decided to keep that forever.  I don't know that yet.


Thanks!
Tagged:

Comments

  • Amy Plourde
    Amy Plourde ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1

    Heather MacKenzie:

    Hi there,


    I am working in a new database which really needs campaign, appeal and fund cleanup.  If you use the category fields in campaigns, appeals, and funds, what do you put in there?  We are considering using the campaign category as an even higher up over-arching piece of info, and the fund category will be capital vs. endowment, etc.


    Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

    Campaign category:  Annual Fund

    Campaign:  Mailings

    Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

    Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

    Fund: Library Operations

    Fund Category:  Programs & Services


    I'd love input for what you use the category field(s) for as well as critiquing my proposed structure in the example.  The campaign category would be used for however long it takes to make the bridge between what exists now and our future state more than anything, but it might be decided to keep that forever.  I don't know that yet.


    Thanks!

    Hi Heather, 


    I'm very new to RE but also trying to do a big cleanup in our database right now. They aren't all set up yet but here are the categories that I have in mind for Appeals & Funds:

    -  Appeals: Mail, Online, Event & Fee

    -  Funds: Programs & Services, General Operations, Special Projects/Development


    I probably won't set any up for Campaigns because we pretty much just group everything under Annual Campaign for the moment. I have taken the approach of identifying "Mailings" as an appeal category rather than separating them as a Campaign but other than that I would agree with your proposed structure :)


    Good luck with everything!


    Amy

  • Steven Cinquegrana 2
    Steven Cinquegrana 2 ✭
    Ninth Anniversary Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Hi Heather,


    I agree with Joanne that your structure looks good. I'd only add that I think consideration should also be given to where Actions fit in with the other three. I often feel that they are the "poor cousin"!


    There're also some good KB resources on the "Holy Trinity" (Campaigns, Funds and Appeals*), for example this one (see the section Campaigns, Funds, and Appeals: How Do They Work Together?).


    Cheers,

    Steve Cinquegrana | CEO and Principal Developer | Protégé Solutions


    * I guess Packages should also go in there to make it the "Holy Quartet" - which sounds a whole lot jazzier!
  • Rebecca Timberlake 2
    Rebecca Timberlake 2 ✭
    Eighth Anniversary Facilitator 1 Photogenic

    Looking at your structure, I would question why you are using "Mailings" as a campaign.  Traditionally, Campaigns has been used to indicate the fundraising umbrella that your funds are all falling under.  We have mirrored ours after our accounting setup - Annual Fund, Capital Campaign & Special Events.  Those are our three largest fundraising "buckets" that we would want to be able to easily report on both internally and to our board of trustees.


    Here's what our structure looks like:
    Campaign category: Annual Fund, Capital Campaign, or Special Events
    Campaign: Annual Fund FY2016, Annual Fund FY2017, Capital Campaign FY2016, Capital Campaign FY2017, Special Events FY2016, Special Events FY2017, etc.
    Funds: Specific funds that line up with our GL funds. (Annual Fund, Infant and Women's Pavillion, Book Nook, Mary Awards 2017, etc
    Appeal: The way we asked for the gift: Spring Newsletter 2017, LYBUNT Spring 2017, etc
    Package: If we have segmented our appeal in any way then we would use this field to indicate that.  For example, on our event mailings we will send something different to our past sponsors than we send to regular invitees. 


    Here is a great image that BB uses in their training that might help.

    35aee7ce3a261088742bfd72fb307500-huge-ca


    One thing that always helps me is to think about how you are going to report on the information that you are using. By doing that, you can back into how to properly set up your database.


    Hope that helps!

    Rebecca


     

    Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

    Campaign category:  Annual Fund

    Campaign:  Mailings

    Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

    Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

    Fund: Library Operations

    Fund Category:  Programs & Services

     

  • Karen Stuhlfeier
    Karen Stuhlfeier ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 3 Name Dropper Photogenic

     I like Chrisitne's description of the campaign, fund and appeal structure and this is how the 3 RE databases that I''ve managed have been structured. I think that Bill Connors book makes a very good case for this and is a very worthwhile read: https://www.amazon.com/Fundraising-Raisers-Edge-Non-Technical-Guide/dp/0470560568/ref=mt_paperback?_encoding=UTF8&me=

  • Jen Claudy
    Jen Claudy ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic
    I highly recommend starting with not only how you need to report out, but also how you would utilize RE data & structure to reconcile with Finance or any other department/situation that applies.  I usually find myself mirroring Finance codes/systems in Campaign & Fund structures, then Appeal & Package are how the gifts were made/solicited.  And I definitely use the CFA Category & Type fields to group various options together in a way that assists reporting.  So much easier to grab all of the Campaigns with the Category of "Non Budget Relieving" (mostly GIK, but we had a lot of that at my last org) rather than individually select them all every time...to either include or exclude.
  • Mara Johnson
    Mara Johnson ✭
    Seventh Anniversary First Reply

    Amy Plourde:

    Heather MacKenzie:

    Hi there,


    I am working in a new database which really needs campaign, appeal and fund cleanup.  If you use the category fields in campaigns, appeals, and funds, what do you put in there?  We are considering using the campaign category as an even higher up over-arching piece of info, and the fund category will be capital vs. endowment, etc.


    Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

    Campaign category:  Annual Fund

    Campaign:  Mailings

    Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

    Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

    Fund: Library Operations

    Fund Category:  Programs & Services


    I'd love input for what you use the category field(s) for as well as critiquing my proposed structure in the example.  The campaign category would be used for however long it takes to make the bridge between what exists now and our future state more than anything, but it might be decided to keep that forever.  I don't know that yet.


    Thanks!

    Hi Heather, 


    I'm very new to RE but also trying to do a big cleanup in our database right now. They aren't all set up yet but here are the categories that I have in mind for Appeals & Funds:

    -  Appeals: Mail, Online, Event & Fee

    -  Funds: Programs & Services, General Operations, Special Projects/Development


    I probably won't set any up for Campaigns because we pretty much just group everything under Annual Campaign for the moment. I have taken the approach of identifying "Mailings" as an appeal category rather than separating them as a Campaign but other than that I would agree with your proposed structure :)


    Good luck with everything!


    Amy

     

    We are working on cleaning up our system as well and we are wanting to convert some of our current appeals into packages instead (whoever structured our system before did not follow the above stated structure) but we are concerned about losing data.  How have you effectively cleaned up your system and made the necessary changes without altering past data?


    Thank you,


    Mara

  • Heather MacKenzie
    Heather MacKenzie ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Mara Cosgrove:

     

    Amy Plourde:

    Heather MacKenzie:

    Hi there,


    I am working in a new database which really needs campaign, appeal and fund cleanup.  If you use the category fields in campaigns, appeals, and funds, what do you put in there?  We are considering using the campaign category as an even higher up over-arching piece of info, and the fund category will be capital vs. endowment, etc.


    Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

    Campaign category:  Annual Fund

    Campaign:  Mailings

    Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

    Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

    Fund: Library Operations

    Fund Category:  Programs & Services


    I'd love input for what you use the category field(s) for as well as critiquing my proposed structure in the example.  The campaign category would be used for however long it takes to make the bridge between what exists now and our future state more than anything, but it might be decided to keep that forever.  I don't know that yet.


    Thanks!

    Hi Heather, 


    I'm very new to RE but also trying to do a big cleanup in our database right now. They aren't all set up yet but here are the categories that I have in mind for Appeals & Funds:

    -  Appeals: Mail, Online, Event & Fee

    -  Funds: Programs & Services, General Operations, Special Projects/Development


    I probably won't set any up for Campaigns because we pretty much just group everything under Annual Campaign for the moment. I have taken the approach of identifying "Mailings" as an appeal category rather than separating them as a Campaign but other than that I would agree with your proposed structure :)


    Good luck with everything!


    Amy

     

    We are working on cleaning up our system as well and we are wanting to convert some of our current appeals into packages instead (whoever structured our system before did not follow the above stated structure) but we are concerned about losing data.  How have you effectively cleaned up your system and made the necessary changes without altering past data?


    Thank you,


    Mara

     

    Mara,


    We didn't change anything with the fund field, which is the only field that anyone outside the office cared about knowing about changing.  Everything else was up to us to change/adapt/update.  So, the gift in my example would have been potentially coded in many different ways before, with Spring 2017 Newsletter being absent, in the campaign field, or in the appeal field.  The cleanup we did was mostly about standardizing that the Appeal on all those gifts was Spring 2017 Newsletter and the Campaign was Mailings.  So, there really was no "loss" of data for us in my case.  There was only cleanup and improvement of data that now allows for better reporting.

  • Mark Guncheon 2
    Mark Guncheon 2 ✭
    Tenth Anniversary Facilitator 2 Name Dropper Photogenic
    Because we have multiple foundations using one database, we use Categories in Campaigns to help delineate which campaign  belongs to which foundation.
  • Christine Cooke 2
    Christine Cooke 2 ✭
    Ancient Membership Facilitator 4 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Heather MacKenzie:

    Hi there,


    I am working in a new database which really needs campaign, appeal and fund cleanup.  If you use the category fields in campaigns, appeals, and funds, what do you put in there?  We are considering using the campaign category as an even higher up over-arching piece of info, and the fund category will be capital vs. endowment, etc.


    Here's an example of what I'm thinking of proposing:

    Campaign category:  Annual Fund

    Campaign:  Mailings

    Appeal:  Spring 2017 Newsletter

    Package:  Probably not going to be used at this time - super tiny office, low gift volume, and new employees

    Fund: Library Operations

    Fund Category:  Programs & Services


    I'd love input for what you use the category field(s) for as well as critiquing my proposed structure in the example.  The campaign category would be used for however long it takes to make the bridge between what exists now and our future state more than anything, but it might be decided to keep that forever.  I don't know that yet.


    Thanks!

    For any of you newbies that are trying to get familiar and understand how RE is designed to work I highly suggest reading Bill Connors' book "Fundraising with the Raiser's Edge: a non-technical guide".  It will save you a lot of wondering and re-doing
  • Lily Barger
    Lily Barger ✭
    Seventh Anniversary Facilitator 1 Name Dropper Photogenic

    Hello!  This is what we use: 


    Brochure

    Crowdfunding

    Direct Mail

    E-mails

    Engagement Event

    Fundraising Event

    Magazine

    Newspaper

    Other

    Personal Ask

    Radio

    Telefund

    Television

    Web

Categories