How calculate percentages not in canned reports

@Ombretta di Massa

• Get data
  • manual export from database view
  • automate SKY API data collection (my method)
  • nightly backup from Blackbaud
• create custom report via reporting tool
  • Excel report building
  • Power BI (my method)
  • Tableau

@Ombretta di Massa, I use the same report as @Joe Moretti, but I also acknowledge that sometimes a person needs more depth or better filters than the canned reports offer. For example, when analyzing an A/B mailing, it's a big time investment for me to crunch the response rates of our constituencies because we need to weigh secondary conditional factors, such as

• Did alumni who are also monthly donors have better engagement than other alumni (multiple constituencies affecting response, since RE only considers a single hierarchical order)
• Do recent grade respond differently than seasoned alumni
• Do regional donors respond differently or in other mediums than national donors
• Did those with multi-channel communications respond at a higher rate than single-channel recipients
• What percentage of donors upgraded vs maintained or downgraded

…to name just a few considerations.

If your report is too complex for the canned reports, even with some data restructuring in your consituencies, and if it is in a stable format that you run frequently, then I would suggest @Alex Wong's method (which I have never tried). His method basically replaces the custom Crystal Reports we used to be able to operate in database view. Otherwise, if your reporting needs change each time depending on your current year's strategic targets, then like me you are probably stuck with exporting everything into excel and crunching it there.