Appeal Report MUST begin to include online contributions tagged as sales orders!

Laura Chaney

My Development Committee members continuously ask for a break down of donor profiles, including appeal results.  It takes hours trying to figure out online donation origins unless one finds a way to code each online contribution in attributes - this is SSSSSOOOOOOO time intensive, especially as most organizations are encouraging donors to give online and to set up recurring gifts.  PLEASE find a programmer who understands the need to attach online contributions to appeals so we can run reports efficiently in answer to our board of directors. Thank you. 

Tina Edwards

I second this! We need to be able to apply online donations to not only appeals but to pledges as well.

Ray Bergman

Hi Laura & Tina,


Just curious, has this been suggested on the Altru Ideas Bank yet?

https://community.blackbaud.com/products/altru/ideas

Kelly Olson

I agree.  This has been asked for many times.  https://altru.ideas.aha.io/ideas/ALTRU-I-55  is dated Jan 2016 and has 531 votes.  

Dawn DeFrank

I've got an idea - can you all help me work through it to see if it would actually work? 

We can add attributes to revenue payments that happen online, so could a revenue attribute be created where it would have the same name as the appeal(s) we want to track, then have an open entry "comments" field to enter the dollar amount of the transaction? Can Altru's revenue attributes be set up like this? 


It would require the attribute to be added by hand, but honestly, I review all of my online transactions, so that really doesn't add much time or work. Then that attribute and the comments field with the dollar amounts could be exported and added up. This would only be for the online transactions, so you could add this together with the appeal mailing page that is tracking the appeal from all of the other payment methods. 


Does this sound like it would work? 


 

Regina Holten

I'll read this more closely tomorrow (when I'm in the office), but short answer from me is that I already track these responses by the Yes, No response....can you see this? it is more of an example of where i put the yes, no, how, action...


 

Regina Holten

I WIILL look into your way though, thanks - it really is frustrating!!!!!

Dawn DeFrank

With your method, Regina, how do you get the amount paid? 


I figured by being able to enter the dollar amount as part of the attribute, we could query on the attribute and be able to get a count and dollar amount in just the one step. Take these numbers and add them to the appeal metrics that Altru does track and there are your totals...?

 

Tamara Christensen

Hi Laura, I absolutely agree, we really need to be able to add the appeal to online orders! It just really makes sense. 

In addition to the "canned" reports, we also use queries using designations. For example, if it is an Annual Appeal, we have a designation that is Annual Appeal (like TO-GO- AA) and then use that in combination with the dates.  This is not perfect and still more time consuming, but it helps with reporting. If someone donates to our general fund online during that time, then I edit the designation, but we can also make webforms directly  with the appropriate designation. I'm not sure, maybe you are doing something different with the attributes or looking for different results?  

All this being said, we are getting so many more online donations so being able to add an appeal would be optimal.

- Tamara

Regina Holten

For my membership program there are not any deductions.  It is a dues based program and we rarely have if ever discounts on these dues.  So amount paid is always (almost) the same for every different level in the program.  I dearly love the membership mailing metrics but it rarely gives me a completely accurate total, leaving out any renewals coming in via online.  Back when we mailed only our renewals I'd use finder numbers to great, more accurate results.  Now all my renewals are done online, so this way of capturing their response has been really helpful.  I also use a query suggested in KB to track an appeal's performance.  This helps too.  I'm at work onsite today and will look at your suggestion more closely.  thanks

Dawn DeFrank

So, I should also mention that I'm pretty new to Altru - about 1.5 years in, so I am still trying to understand some of Altru on a higher operating level. I'm super grateful for feedback and the opportunities to see things from different perspectives!


Unfortunately, I don't think either method described above will work for us. I feel like the fundraising hierarchy needs to remain as streamlined as possible - for a lot of reasons, but I think it would add a lot of confusion for my co-workers - we converted from Raiser's Edge where Fund was king and it's pretty ingrained into them. Making more designations -in their minds-would be like making more funds and, confusion (for the few of them who are able to pull queries and reports). I've also had a lot of challenges getting my donors to use the appropriate links for different designations - regardless of how clear the information on the webpages are made, people still use the donations link and call later wondering why they aren't active members. 


For the other method - we do issue complimentary memberships pretty often and are currently in the middle of a membership push where we're offering discounts...so the counts and amounts wouldn't add up correctly. 


Thanks for the suggestions! I think I might just give a revenue attribute a try for one appeal and see what happens. 

 

Joshua Kalin

I would also like to be able to add appeals to online donations. It's weird that it's not a thing already from the get-go. 

Tamara Christensen

Hi Joshua, 

I agree!

I've written in this thread about this before, but now with the rising numbers of online donations, reporting is even more difficult. It is so hard to keep track of which appeal they are for. In the past, we just had a handful, but now it is probably up to about 25%? 

I wish we could get this fixed. We pretty much talk about it every day in the office.

I think the idea has a lot of votes too, right?

Thanks for bringing this up again.

Tamara