Actions in RE and Tracking Gifts of Appreciation to Donors

Ann Marie Engstrom

I am new to RE, although have 17 years experience with another Development database. My question concerns using the Actions tab and tracking gifts given to donors/constituents.


In my previous experience, Actions were used solely for tracking fundraiser activity and tasks. Is that how it typically works in RE? Do you mostly use the Actions in that way? I am asking because in my new role, tracking various gifts to alumni and parents, such as luggage tags, posters, cutting boards, etc. have been tracked in Actions. I'm not sure if that is the best place. I am more inclined to track them in the Notes tab. In what section of RE do you typically track "gifts of appreciation" to your donors/constituents? Thank you!

Dariel Dixon 2

I don't think you should ever put anything in notes that you may want to search for indexed.  You can query by actions, but not notes.  Obviously, actions would be for any interactions with the constituent, so I think that that would be appropriate here.  The actions also have a notepad where more in depth information can be stored.  I'm actually very hesitant to store anything in notes unless it's more of an FYI type of thing (ie. Loves Roses, favorite color is blue, is 3 degrees from Kevin Bacon)

Ann Marie Engstrom

Thank you Dariel. That's very helpful!

Karen Diener 2

I think you need to consider how much information about the gift you need to track, and then decide where in RE you should keep it.  The most important thing is consistency and making sure everyone knows where to enter it, access it, and what it all means.


I have tracked this in Actions before, and used a specific action type just for that purpose.  If you needed to be able to query on "luggage tag" you could add an Action Attribute where category might be "gift given" and the description would contain the possible gifts.  It is still an interaction with a donor, so I feel like it makes sense.


You might also consider a constituent attribute.  Again, the category could be "gift given" and the description would contain drop-down values of the items your organization gives.  The attribute date should be the date it was given, and then you have comments available if needed.


There certainly might be other options, but these are the first two that come to mind.


Karen