The Top 5 Reports To Run In Your Donor Management Platform

One of the best things about using a donor management platform or nonprofit constituent relationship management (nonprofit CRM) software is that you can easily run reports. But with so many reporting options available, which types of reports should you run first?

Great question! The answer is that every nonprofit has unique needs. Maybe your board member wants to see data around a fundraising auction or maybe you just changed payment processors and you need to look at recurring donors who started giving to your organization before you made the switch.

That said, if you’re looking to start somewhere, here are five reports we believe will give valuable insights to you and your team. Keep reading for a full breakdown or scroll to the end for a video summary.

1. LYBUNT/SYBUNT
2. First-Time Givers
3. Recurring Givers
4. Major Givers
5. Volunteers

1. LYBUNT/SYBUNT

What is it?

LYBUNT/SYBUNT stands for Last Year (or Some Year) But Unfortunately Not This Year.

What’s the purpose of this report?

You can use this report to track which donors have lapsed. By doing so, you can target them with a new communication strategy and hopefully pick up engagement with this pool of people who have committed to your organization in the past.

What do I track?

With this report, you can track the lifetime giving history of a donor, their engagement with your organization, and LYBUNT year over year. If your LYBUNT number is trending down, that’s a good thing! If it’s trending up, that means it’s time to reevaluate some things.

Who should I share this report with?

Share this report with your internal development team and your marketing or communication team.

2. First-Time Givers

What is it?

This is a report that lists people who have donated to your organization for the first time. This report could also be further segmented into people who made their gift via online versus offline methods.

What’s the purpose of this report?

This report will help you figure out which new donors you need to onboard. It will also enable you to reach out and give each donor contact a personal touch.

What do I track?

This one is pretty straightforward: You’re just tracking a donation from a donor who has never made a gift to your nonprofit before.

Who should I share this report with?

You should share this report with your internal development team. You can also share the report with board members if they’d like to write personalized thank you notes or make phone calls expressing their gratitude.

3. Recurring Givers

What is it?

This report shows which donors have given on a regular giving schedule.

What’s the purpose of this report?

It will help you make sure you reach out to your donors in a consistent and thoughtful manner. This is also a great report to pull when you’re putting together a peer-to-peer fundraising team; these are some of your more engaged donors, and they may look forward to taking on a more active fundraising goal.

What do I track?

“Recurring” is a bit of a catch-all term. We recommend tracking people who have made more than three gifts in a year. If you’re pulling a report over several years, you can also use the data to track the retention rate of these donors.

Who should I share this report with?

Share this report with your internal development team and your board members. Make sure you point out trends you see, including the overall retention rate of your recurring givers.

4. Major Givers

What is it?

This report shows which donors have made the largest gifts to your nonprofit organization. You can pull reports that look at a particular year or over the lifetime of your nonprofit.

What’s the purpose of this report?

It will show you which donors you can turn to when you need to make an ask for major needs or projects. Given that they are donating a significant amount of money at one time, you don’t want to lump them in with campaigns asking people for smaller, one-off donations so consider this a list of people you should reach out to sparingly.

What do I track?

You should track people who made large one-off donations and those who gave a lot of money over the course of the lifetime of your nonprofit. By tracking personal information, you’ll have more opportunity to make sure they feel valued when you check in on them.

Who should I share this report with?

These are people who need attention and care. If you work with donors, these are people you should know personally. You should also ask board members to reach out if your organization is making a big ask of one of these donors. This will help reinforce how valued the donor is to the nonprofit.

5. Volunteers

What is it?

This report shows the people who are involved and hands-on with your organization.

What’s the purpose of this report?

This list will show who you should reach out to and thank for donating their time, energy, or resources to your cause. This is especially important after your organization has held an event or done something that required volunteer help.

You can also look at this report as a list of people who are highly motivated to donate.

Research shows that two-thirds of volunteers will make a donation. On top of that, two-thirds of volunteers who donate are shown to give ten times more money when making their donations.

What do I track?

You can track things like how often someone volunteers, as well as their history of volunteering for and donating to your organization.

Who should I share this report with?

Share this report with your organization’s Volunteer Coordinator. They can use this list to search for lapsed donors they may want to engage again and to encourage volunteers to become donors.

As we mentioned, these are only five of the many reports you can run with your donor management platform. Amazing how much data just these few reports can yield, isn’t it? Now that you have a great jumping-off point, pull these reports, get the data to the appropriate team members, and start working on making 2020 your best fundraising year yet.

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