constituency automation

sabrina tande

Hello, does anyone know if it is possible to ‘upgrade’ automatically donors when they donate over a certain amount? E.g. if a high value donor donates 5K, can the donation itself trigger for the constituency to end the ‘high value donor’ and start instead the ‘major donor’ constituency? Thanks!

Alex Wong

@sabrina tande
This automation is not possible with RE or RE NXT directly, it does not have such functionality

However, if you willing to dive into SKY API, this can be accomplished relatively easily.

Karen Diener

@sabrina tande
I would also give a lot of thought to that policy in general. Every single database I've audited that has a constituency code like “Major Donor”, “High Value Donor”, or even “Donor” has instances where that is out of sync with their giving. For example, a major donor who hasn't donated in 3+ years, or a donor who hasn't given at all. The reverse is always true too - someone who is giving at a major donor level but does not have the constituent code.

If you have processes in place to carefully monitor and keep this in line it may not be a problem. But you are adding extra work, so it might be worth evaluating the need for the constituent code.

Karen

Alex Wong

@sabrina tande
I concur with @Karen Diener about this, if you do not have good process, then automation is meaningless. If you have good process, then automation is about automating that process itself, which remove the need for human manually doing something and avoid human error that bound to happen.

if not automating, it is also questionable if you should have “tag” for donor category, exactly b/c manual work. You can achieve the similar thing by having good donor category report, the con is, it requires running said report on the donor(s) in question to see their category, pro is no need for additional tag that need maintaining. WIth a tag, the pro is you can open a donor record and easily tell what category the donor is in without any report, con, well the maintenance of the tag.

if you ultimately decided to do tag, automation can take care of the situation @Karen Diener mentioned, again as long as you have good process definition. You can automate a nightly run (or every 12 or 6 hours if you want to have the tag updated more often), which update the tag with the correct donor category.

Joe Moretti

@sabrina tande I will add what others say, stay away from constituency codes of “Major Donor”, Major Donor Prospect" High Giver, etc, anything that deals with giving. There is not reason for that type of code since it is based off of giving history. Your Organizations just need to define what level a major donor starts and then find those folks through a giving query. I have since this type of coding before and I always eliminate when I come aboard since it is useless, never gets updated and you can find this information through a Giving Summary query.

Carrie Powell

@sabrina tande, our organization does use donor and major donor constituent codes, unlike what others have said. However, as has been mentioned, there is a need to stay on top of it to ensure people are moved to (or removed from) major donor. We run a quarterly query that includes the cumulative amount given in the time period – for us, it's 5 years. Unfortunately, it's not automatic.

sabrina tande

@Alex Wong Thanks for your input!

sabrina tande

@Karen DienerThanks for your input!

sabrina tande

@Joe MorettiThanks for your input!

sabrina tande

@Carrie Powell
Thanks for your input!

sabrina tande

@Carrie Powell
Thanks Carrie - good to see how you handle it

Faith Murray

@sabrina tande, I agree with the consensus not to have a “Constituency” for major donors, just because a Constituency should reflect their relationship with your org (eg, Alumnus, Board Member, etc.). However, on a more practical level, every org needs to keep a list of major donors beyond a dynamic giving query, especially of you have any type of annual giving, legacy, or major giving society. For that reason, I suggest keeping a dynamic query/list based on giving (Gifts in last year > $1K OR Lifetime Gifts >$20K, or some such). Then you must create a schedule for data upkeep and review, to manually remove or add names to your societies.

You really do not want an automation to do this for you. Major donors especially need the flexibility of personal review. What about the $5K annual donor who has given 10 years in a row but forgets to make his usual gift? You don't want him/her removed from your society stewardship mailing because they lost a tag. Instead, you want a dynamic list or an at-risk tag on their portfolio tiles so that your MGO can reach out. Likewise, a memorial donor who gives a one-time gift of $1K may not be a good long-term portfolio prospect. Instead of being automatically added as a society member, you need a dynamic prospecting list to bring them to the attention of your MGO for exploration. And if it's just for the convenience of pulling an annual report list – just use the giving query, no permanent tag needed.

Stephanie Crawley

@sabrina tande At my organization, I started using Prospect Classification field to rank donors into categories. We plan on updating that annually, but you could update more often if you prefer. But like others have said, it's not automatic.