Sometimes there is a need to track major donors and contributions better. This post summarizes what some groups have done to do this.
Collecting Information about the Contribution:
Campaign - is basic way that the donations can be organized. Create a campaign, and associate it with each contribution.
Source Code - is already used by PowerBase, so you can't do much with that. It's updated automatically when a contribution is received online and when some offline contributions or memberships are updated.
Also, some groups add a solicitation code or appeal that can either be a controlled list or accept free form text.
Others also record whether the contribution came in via postal mail or Phone bank. Online contributions are automatically tracked by PowerBase and they also use the source code field.
Collecting Information About the Donor:
Donors can be managed with a custom field group. We have a model set of fields that we demonstrate in our fundraising training but you can track whatever you like. These fields are added as a field group for all contacts.
Donor Tracking Fields
Donor Solicit? Yes or No – used to limit the set of people to include in donor management searches.
Donor Current Level - a general classification in dollars of what this person is giving at now. Average annual donation in the summary field is a good substitute.
Donor Ask Level - What dollar level do we want them to give at?
Donor Category - Current donor, family member, close ally, anonymous, young activist or whatever
Donor Allegiance – how closely aligned are they to the mission of the organization? This might drive messages to them.
Donor Notes – general free form comments
Donor Objective - new, increase, maintain, recover, sustainer. Civicrm makes it difficult to positively identify sustainers. This is a good place to record that category.
Donor Solicitor - the staff person or board member who is responsible for reaching out to them.
Public Donor? - Yes or No - Can this person be listed on public donor lists.