Important Overview of Appeals
The Appeals Tab, located in the Annual Fund Layer, is a reporting layer focused on analyzing the performance of your annual fund appeals. The reporting found in the Appeals tab can help you manage, track, and analyze your annual fund performance by evaluating the dollar and donor contributions by channel (i.e. direct mail, phone, etc.), discovering which channels are most effective at engaging certain donor types, and a variety of other helpful reports. In addition, the Appeals Tab also allows you to analyze individual appeal performance to track dollars and donors associated with each appeal, average gift, participation rate, and a variety of other insightful metrics that allow you to discover what is working and not working in your annual fund campaign.
There are two areas of reporting within the Appeals Tab. First, there is the Appeals Table, which displays information at the appeal level. The other area is similar to other Tabs within the Platform and contains a variety of viewports.
The scope of what is included in the Appeals Table and the Appeals Tab Viewports is controlled by the fiscal year drop down found on the top bar on the page. By default the reporting in the Appeals Table and Appeals Tab Viewports will be set to pull up information related to the current fiscal year you are in. The Appeals Tab provides you with the ability of going back and analyzing up to five years of appeals information. Select a previous fiscal year from the drop down found in the top bar of the Appeals Tab and that will limit the appeals information associated with the selected fiscal year. For the purpose of the Appeals Tab reporting the appeal is included in the selected fiscal year if the appeal was initiated in the selected fiscal year or if there is a gift transaction associated with appeal in the selected fiscal year.
Located at the top of the Appeals Tab, you will also a summary of how many appeal types (i.e. direct mail, phone, web, etc.) are missing on the appeals that we are receiving from the information your institution is providing to us. The vast majority of the reporting found in the viewports is dependent on having and appeal type associated with each appeal. Any appeals that do not have an appeal type will be highlighted in yellow. If you find that a high number of your appeals do not have appeal types associated with them then this will indicate that you shouldn't read too much into the reports until the appeals have been properly classified. This can be done in your system or within the Platform. This process is explained in greater detail under the Appeals Table section.
Also located on the top bar within the Appeals Tab is a navigation element that allows you to collapse or expand the Appeals Table. By default the Appeals Table is displayed, but if you wanted to collapse the Appeals Table, in order to pull the Viewports up higher on the page, the click on Hide Appeals. In order to view the Appeals Table then click on View Appeals.
Appeals Table
There are three key features that relate specifically to the Appeals Table:
- The Appeals Table. The Appeals Table is the main body of the table that displays the appeal code, name, key metrics and additional navigation elements.
- Edit Appeal. You can find the Edit Appeal dialogue box by clicking on the Appeal Code within the Appeals Table. This allows you to manage and track individual appeal information that your system does not track.
- Summary Report. The Summary Report provides summary statistics and visual reports on individual appeal performance. This can be found by clicking on the donor count links found in the Total Donors column of the Appeals Table or by clicking on the View Summary Report link located in the Edit Appeal's dialogue box.
Before further describing each of these features,it is important that you understand how the appeals data flows from your institution's system and into the Platform. Each night we receive a file from your institution with a variety of appeal information. This includes Appeal Code, Appeal Description, Appeal Type, Fiscal Year Initiated, Number Solicited, and Appeal Cost.
The data provided from your institution in the nightly file is the final source of record. If you don't track certain fields in your database, the Appeals Tab has been designed so that you can enter additional fields like cost and number solicited for the benefit of reporting. However, data you add in the Platform for Appeals does not flow back into your system. Since your institution's data is the final source of record we encourage you to track it in your system and provide it in the nightly file we receive with appeal information. Some examples to illustrate the flow of data are provided in the explanation of Edit Appeal.
Appeals Table
The Appeals Table displays key information about each annual fund appeal that was initiated or where the appeal related to a transaction in the selected fiscal year. On the top of the Appeals Table you will see navigation that allows you to view different pages of appeals and change the default number of appeals that are displayed in the Appeals Table. In addition, you will also see an Appeal Search box. This allows you to search for appeals within the selected fiscal year based on Appeal Code, Appeal Description, or Appeal Type. This search will filter the results in the Appeals Table, but does not impact any of the Viewports.
The columns of information in the Appeals Table include the following:
- Appeal Code. The appeal code is the unique identifier of the appeal that is provided in the information provided by your institution. This unique code allows the Platform to tie the giving information on the transactions to the appeal.
- Appeal Description. This is the name of the appeal that is provided by your institution.
- Appeal Type. The appeal type that is displayed is the standard appeal types available in the Reeher Platform for reporting purposes. During the implementation process your appeal type codes were mapped to these standard reporting values.
- Initiated Fiscal Year. Initiated fiscal year is a field that is provided to us from your institution. It should represent the fiscal year the appeal started. If this information is not included then the Platform will automatically create an Initiated Fiscal Year based on when the first gift transaction is associated with the appeal.
- Number Solicited. This is the number of records that were solicited for the appeal. There are three ways that this number can be defined. Your institution may be providing us with the number solicited or a User may enter this information in Edit Appeals. If your institution is providing us with detail on which records actually received the appeal then the Platform will calculate this number and display it as a link so that you can drill into the number and see the records that received the appeal. This is explained in more detail under the Edit Appeal section.
- Cost. This is the cost of the appeal. Your institution may be providing this number to us in the nightly files we receive or this information may have been entered by a User of the Platform. This is explained in more detail under Edit Appeal.
- Cash in FY. This is the sum of the cash generated by the appeal in the selected fiscal year. This is helpful in distinguishing dollars raised in the current fiscal year for appeals that generate cash for the annual fund over multiple periods. This is calculated by the Platform.
- Donors in FY. This is the number of constituent records that have been credited with a cash transaction related to each appeal within the selected fiscal year. This is calculated by the Platform.
- Total Cash. This is the sum of the cash generated by the appeal. It is calculated by the Platform.
- Total Donors. This is the number of constituent records that have been credited with a cash transaction related to each appeal. It is calculated by the Platform.
- Average Gift. Average gift is calculated based on taking the Total Cash and dividing it by Total Donors. It is calculated by the Platform.
- Participation Rate. Participation rate is the percent of solicited records that donated to the appeal. It is calculated by the Platform by dividing Total Donors by Number Solicited. If Number Solicited is not provided by your institution for the appeal or a User does not enter the number into the Platform then the calculation cannot be done and a NA will be displayed.
Edit Appeal
The Edit Appeal feature allows you edit appeal information from within the Platform. It will allow you to assign or re-classify appeal type, record the number solicited, enter the drop date and cost information, and select the fiscal year initiated. To edit an appeal's information you just need to click on the Appeal Code within the Appeal Table to display the Edit Appeal dialogue box.
All users do not have access to edit the appeal information within the Edit Appeal dialogue box. Please contact your System Administrator if you need access to edit annual fund appeals.
If your institution tracks this information then it can be provided in the Platform's nightly data feed and no data entry will be required in order to view the reports. Data supplied from your institution is the source of record. Data entered into the Edit Appeal dialogue box will not feed back into your system automatically. Several examples of the source data hierarchy are provided as the forms fields are described in further detail below.
The fields within the Edit Appeal form are defined and work as described below.
- Appeal Type. If you do not track appeal types or there is not an appeal type associated with the selected appeal then you can assign one of the standard appeal types within the Platform. If your institution tracks appeals and those are being provided in the nightly file the Platform receives then this field will display the Appeal Type that the appeal has been automatically mapped to. In that case you will not be able to edit the Appeal Type within the Platform. In order to change it, if necessary, you will have to update the appeal type in your institution's database which will then be passed to the Platform.
- Records Solicited. The number of records solicited can be entered into the Platform in four different ways. These are presented in their hierarchical order. First, if your institution provides us with a file that contains the constituent records solicited for each appeal then the Platform will automatically calculate this number based on that file. In that case you will not be able to edit the information from within the Platform. Similarly, your institution may not track which constituent records are solicited, but may track the number of constituent records solicited in your database. If the number solicited is provided from your system then this number will appear in the field and you will not be able to edit it within the Platform. If your institution doesn't track this information then you can either enter the number solicited in the field or if you have a list then you can upload the list and the Platform will calculate the number of records solicited.
- Drop Date. The drop date may be provided by your institution or you may enter it in the field provided. If your institution provides the Platform with this information then you will not be able to edit it within the Platform.
- Cost. The cost may be provided by your institution or you may enter it in the field provided. If your institution provides the Platform with this information then you will not be able to edit it within the Platform.
- Fiscal Year Initiated. The fiscal year initiated may be provided by your institution or you may select the fiscal year.
The following example is provided it further illustrate how the data hierarch works. Ruth Archer works for Western University with the Annual Fund team. She is working on an appeal called the Business School Fall Appeal, which is a piece of direct mail_. _ She would like to analyze how this appeal is doing, so she logs into the Platform and find the Business School Fall Appeal in the Appeals Table. She discovers that this appeal doesn't have cost information associated with it, which means it is not being provided in our nightly data file of appeal information from Western University. To complete her analysis she adds $5,400 in the cost field of the Edit Appeal dialogue box. By entering this information the Platform is able to calculate Cost to Raise $1, Cost Per Donor, and Cost Per Solicitation in the Summary Report. However, the next day one of her colleagues enters in the cost at $5,600 into Western's system. That night the new data is provided to the Platform and Ruth's entry of $5,400 is overridden with the new value of $5,600. Information provided from Western's system is the final source of reference within the Platform.
Hopefully, the above example illustrates how the information flows between the two systems. If you have additional questions please contact support@reeher.net and someone from our Customer Care team can answer any of your questions.
Summary Report
The Summary Report provides a Donor Summary view and a Donor List view that you can access by toggling between the two tabs located at the top of the screen. You can access the Summary Report by clicking on the View Summary Report link located on the Edit Appeals dialogue box or by clicking on the Total Donors link from the Appeals Table.
The Donor Summary tab provides a number of reports and key metrics related to the selected appeals performance.
The Donor List tab displays a list of constituent records that donated to the appeal along with some key information related to the donors.