Where to place notes

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Sylvia Galen
Sylvia Galen
Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
in Blackbaud Award Management™ & Blackbaud Stewardship Management™ Discussions
We have notes about our opportunities, particularly about who to contact within the university at the various schools if there are any questions. We think that those notes should go on the portfolio level rather than the opportunity level because they would then carry over after cycle management. The documentation about notes is sparse, and there is nothing in the documentation about how cycle management handles notes. Do you all have specific processes for notes that you add to the portfolio level vs. the opportunity vs. the application?

"To add comments to opportunities, portfolios, and applications for other admins: Go to any opportunity, portfolio, or application record. At the top right, select Notes."


Thanks for your help!
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  • Trish Reimer
    Trish Reimer
    Fifth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Facilitator 1
    Sylvia,

    Thanks for your post. I work for a community foundation and we have over 90 scholarship fund (portfolios) that have been set up by donors using their desired criteria (qualifiers). The challenge is that some of these scholarships are for specific graduates of high schools across our state. We also have some scholarships that are specific to a type of trade or field of study. As I monitor our applicant pool, I find that I frequently need to reach out to different constituencies to promote the scholarship, i.e. Welding Society for someone in welding; counselors at specific high schools; local artists for an art scholarship; the list goes on... I find that putting my notes in the Portfolio about whom to contact to promote the scholarship is very helpful because it will carry forward through cycle management. Enter a note at the portfolio level by going to Opportunities>Portfolio>All. This will show you the list of your portfolios. Click on Portfolio Details under the name of the portfolio. This will open up a window with the Notes button in the upper right hand corner where you can then compose your Note. You can then download a report of portfolio notes notes by going to Site>Files>System Reports. Go to the Notes section and request a report for Portfolio Notes. This will give you a csv file than you can manipulate to show the notes that have been added to all your portfolios. Hope this is kind of what you were asking about and is helpful.

    Trish Reimer
  • Sylvia Galen
    Sylvia Galen
    Fourth Anniversary Facilitator 1
    That's a great tip about the reports. I have not gotten that far. It came up because the notes at the opportunity level are "on the screen" in the Opportunity Reviewer Note field. My concern was that they would then disappear with cycle management, so I appreciate hearing that if we do them at the portfolio level they will carry through.

    Thank you!

    Sylvia
  • Mallorie Fonseca
    Mallorie Fonseca
    Sixth Anniversary Kudos 1 Name Dropper Participant
    Hi Sylvia, We don't have a formal process for where to put notes but myself and our Opportunity Admins are the only ones who often use the Note Feature. I tell them to put a note in an Opportunity if they are awarding without reviewer input, so that myself and the Stewardship team can see that information. I would also place notes there if there was something worthy of noting just for that one year but doesn't need retained in the Portfolio's history. For example, a temporary change to the qualifications due to COVID may not be something that needs noted in opportunities for next year. Or if I were to cancel an award due to the student not being enrolled. Those are things that may not need retained in it's history. But if I were making a permanent change to the application, the scholarship name, etc. Then I would definitely place it in the Portfolios.

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