Anonymous donors in Donor Category Report

Rita Reilly

In creating a donor recognition list for a particular campaign, I use the Donor Category Report, selecting to have anonymous donors appear as “Anonymous.” As described in KB 57131, when a donor has made one or more anonymous gift(s), but others not anonymous, the entire total for that donor appears as “Anonymous.”

A question has arisen as to whether we should manually adjust the list so that these donors will appear by name in the lower category that matches their “non-anonymous” total.

Has the way the system works (KB 57131) created issues for anyone else? How have you handled it?

Karen Diener

@Rita Reilly I've never personally used the donor category report, but typically Query and Export this kind of data. I always included the “Is Anonymous” checkbox in output, but also the total amount that the donor has given anonymously. As you've pointed out, there are sometimes discrepancies.

In those situations, either a major gift officer or another front-line fundraiser reaches out to the donor and asks how they would like us to handle the situation. We never felt that it was our decision to make.

Karen

Elizabeth Johnson

@Rita Reilly We use Addressee/Salutations to handle this. If they are always anonymous I have an option for Anonymous. If they are sometimes anonymous or more often for us don't want their name listed with their amount (a practice we no longer do for anyone). I will pick the proper recognition name for the options. Then I mark it as editable add a colon after the name and follow with the note. I keep these consistent so for example, a few common ones for us have been (we are a school):

• Jane Smith ‘45: Never list name with amount
• Elizabeth Johnson ’88: Only list with class.

I could build those into the configuration and haven't.

As always I'm interested in what others do.

Rita Reilly

Thank you, Elizabeth and Karen. Excellent advice!

Christine Cooke

@Rita Reilly
In the handful of places I've been they have always opted to just list them as Anonymous no matter the gift. And if they are an alum then it's Anonymous '83. Even in the class lists, they remain Anonymous.

Hasn't been an issue.

Established a Name for Publication Add/Sal and one of the choices is Anonymous. That way everyone who is supposed to be will not accidentally be listed. Since that is more of concern that trying to list an actual name for someone who is Anonymous on some but on other gifts.