Smoke and Mirrors: Demystifying eTapestry's Standard Reports

This morning, as I walked out the door on my way Blackbaud’s Indianapolis office, I noticed that there was a distinct crispness to the air. My coffee felt a little warmer and the first-fallen leaves crunched under my feet. I love the Midwest in the fall, not just because everything is suddenly pumpkin flavored and apples are abundant, but also because the leaves and crisp air mean it’s time for my favorite holiday, Halloween! I’m a sucker for a good ghost story or haunted house. I know that haunted houses are really just smoke and mirrors, but half the fun is getting to the end of the maze and feeling accomplished and brave.
 
As an eTapestry support analyst, I frequently hear customers tell me that they need clarification on the eTapestry Standard Reports. Unlike the haunted houses and corn mazes that pop up during this time of year, the Standard Reports are not smoke and mirrors. We can use them to analyze data and trends to help us prepare for my next favorite season, the holiday giving season!
 
This post was largely inspired because of an article that was recently posted on npENGAGE, which indicates that now is the time to "mine the data." By that, they mean that we need to be digging into the giving trends from the last three years to compare how the organization has performed this year. The article also goes into detail about identifying and engaging your top tier donors as we approach the end of the year. You can use eTapestry’s Standard Reports to generate this information and make informed, effective decisions as you head into the most important fundraising time of year.
 
Let's start by discussing one of the most common/most useful Standard Reports, the Giving Dynamics Report. This report shows us a snapshot comparison between two date ranges. Generally, we’ll run this report using the Base/All Constituents query so that our snapshot captures information for the entire database. The final report frames each donor as new, lapsed, recaptured, downgraded, and upgraded. The report even includes a key to help you understand what each of these terms mean and three graphs to help you visually compare the designations. Use these designations as a snapshot of the existing data so you can plan your Giving Tuesday and holiday season fundraising strategy.
 
I also find the Top Donor Report to be very relevant as we head into Giving Tuesday. This Standard Report shows us who has given the most to the organization (we can even create a query to only look for donations within a time frame if you only want to see donors from a certain time period). You can use this report to identify a unique way of engaging these donors- maybe you want to send a personalized appeal asking for a year-end donation, maybe you’d like to encourage these people to ask their friends to donate, or you might consider inviting them to a holiday party to thank them for being so involved in the organization. Whatever you decide to do, this report will help you identify the people who are most engaged your organization’s success.
 
The last report I would like to draw your attention to is the Cash Projection Report. This report will show us the projected income from pledges and recurring gifts, which is a great way to identify how much your organization should expect to raise during the holiday season. The Cash Projection Report breaks down the projected income by Fund so you can easily identify where you have surpluses and where you’d like to focus your fundraising efforts for the season.
 
All of the Standard Reports were created to generate results that we cannot find with a custom report (almost like Halloween magic, but again, I promise it’s not smoke and mirrors). We can use the results to make informed, data-driven decisions about how to fundraise for the remaining months of the year and how to approach overall fundraising strategies. I hope you all have a fantastic rest of your fall (enjoy your pumpkin spice everything!) and a happy, successful Giving Tuesday!