Raiser’s Edge Reports Spotlight: How Do You Use Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports to Effectively Track Activity?

 

Tracking pledges can be a time consuming task. Knowing how to setup the Pledge and Recurring Gift reports in The Raiser’s Edge (RE) to work to your advantage can reduce the time spent tracking this gift activity.

In this RE report spotlight we will setup a Pledge Status Report and an Activity Report for our pledges. These two reports can be used to see who needs to be contacted regarding their pledge or who has fulfilled their pledge promise and can be solicited again. These reports will help us measure the activity in regard to our constituent donors that are giving on a recurring basis as well as monitor any missed payments that we may need to reach out and follow up on with the constituent donor.

The pledge and recurring gift reports can be found within RE under Reports > Pledge and Recurring Gift Reports. 

The Pledge Status Report is used to report on pledge activity in a variety of formats for a defined date range. We can use a query to view a select group of records and set a date for the date after the pledge activity should be taking place. We can look at both a detailed or summary version of the report or both! Soft credit and matching gift information can also be added for viewing in this report. The view of the selections that we are making on the general tab can be seen here.

Next we will make selections on the “Filters” tab. The query that we filtered this report on that was shown on the general tab is only asking to see all gifts with a type of “Pledge” indicated. The filters tab of the report allows us to make further specification on the query of records we are viewing. We will use the “Fund” filter and choose to view pledges that have been made toward “Fund A” also shown here.

On the “Gift Types” tab we are offered the ability to include MG Pledge and Pledge as gift type. This is not critical as we are already using a query that is looking at the “Pledge” gift type specifically. We additionally have check box options to “exclude zero amount gifts,” “Include outstanding pledges only,” and to “Calculate gift balance based on date range, campaign, fund, and appeal.”  We are selecting all three of these checkboxes in the third screenshot shown here.

The Attributes tab allows “inclusion” and “exclusion” of specific records that contain certain attributes. This won’t be a part of our example. However, if this is something that is useful at your organization, you can make those selections now. “Columns” is our next tab and allows the user to make format changes or decisions on how the requested information is displayed. “Ind. Address” and “Org Address” are our next two available tabs. These tabs allow us to print crucial contact information with our report in the event you are handing this information off to a solicitor for follow up. The final tab presented is one that is available on all reports. It is the “Format” tab to control specific format settings for the report that we have created.

Select “Preview” to generate the report, and display it onscreen. Note how we are able to see the amounts of any pledges that have “Fund A” on the gift record. The total pledge amount, amounts written off, payments made, and the pledge balance is shown. This is our overview report preview that allows us to look at the fund amount itself. To get additional information on the pledges made toward Fund A, let’s hit the red ‘X’ in the top left corner to move to a view of the individual pledges. We are now able to see who made the pledge and when the pledge was made.

The “Activity Report” can also be used to view detailed information about pledges, and recurring gifts, during a specific range of time. The tabs in the report set-up will look familiar because they are the same tabs that we just used to format our Pledge Status Report. The Activity Report can be used in conjunction with the Pledge Status Report to facilitate better pledge management.

This is a sample of the Activity Report:

These reports can prove helpful when you are creating call lists. You can use the data in them to better focus your efforts. You will be able to determine who is giving, and how long they have been giving. You can also determine how well they have been giving. The comparison of these reports can increase the progress your organization is able to make towards its fundraising goals, and thereby further your mission – which is what it’s all about!

The Raiser’s Edge® is a registered trademark of Blackbaud, Inc.

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