Calculate Giving from New Donors vs. Previous Donors Last Giving Season in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack

As you gear up for #GivingTuesday and the entire end-of-year giving season, context can be critical in goal setting and fundraising strategy. With this step-by-step recipe, you can easily Report on year-end giving from those who gave for the first time last end-of-year seasons vs. previous donors who gave during that same period. This can help you craft goals for overall end-of-year giving as well as specific targets for new donor acquisition.

For other last minute #GivingTuesday tips, watch our webinar, #GivingTuesday Fundraising for Procrastinators.

Watch the Webinar

Objective

Create a custom Report in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack that shows gifts from new donors vs. previous donors during last year's giving season

Estimated Time

20 - 30 minutes

Requirements

Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack
Use of the Donations (aka Opportunities) objects to track donations
Rudimentary familiarity with creating custom fields and Reports in Salesforce
Is First Gift Ever custom field outlined in Step One of Chart New Donor Acquisition Cumulatively by Month during the Last 5 Years Salesforce how-to recipe

Desired Outcomes

Chart gifts from new donors vs. previous donors during last year's giving season which will be defined as starting with #GivingTuesday and concluding December 31st
Calculate the average gift amount, largest gift amount, smallest gift amount, and total gifts for gifts during last year's giving season and aggregate by new donors and previous donors

The End Result

New Donors vs. Previous Donors Last Giving Season in the Salesforce Nonprofit Success Pack

The above chart is from a custom Report on Opportunities and shows the breakdown of gifts by new donors vs. previous donors during last year's giving season, where "new donor" is defined as someone who gave for the first time ever during that holiday giving season. Totals, averages, minimums and maximums are shown for all donations during last year's end-of-year giving season at the top of the chart with the Report having these metrics for new vs. previous donors.

Step One: Create a custom Report

With our Is First Gift Ever custom Opportunity field created in this earlier recipe, we can create our Report:

Go to the Reports tab
Click New Report
For Select Report Type, choose Opportunities
Click Create
For Show, confirm "All Opportunities" is selected
For Date Field > Range, select "Custom"
For From, enter 11/29/2016 which was #GivingTuesday in 2016. This date can be updated for future year's reporting.

1/5/2018 NOTE: #GivingTuesday in 2017 was 11/28/2017.
For To, enter 12/31/2016, updating the year for any future year you are reporting on
Click Filter > Add
In the new Filter form that appears:
- Next, choose "Won" from the field drop down
- Select "equals" for the operator
- Enter "true" in the text field
- Click OK
Click Save and enter in the following values in the popup window and click Save:
- Report Name: New v Previous Donors Last Giving Season
- Report Unique Name: New_v_Previous_Donors_Last_Giving_Season
- Report Description: Donations from New v Previous Donors During Last Giving Season
- For Report Folder, select the folder of your choice
- Click Save

Step Two: Change your Report to a Summary Report and Create a Bucket

Next to the Preview header, click Tabular Format and select Summary
In the Fields left column, double-click Add Bucket Field
In the popup for Source Column, select Is First Gift Ever
For Bucket Name Field, enter "New vs. Previous" without the quotes
In the search field to the right, enter "true" without the quotes and click Search
Tick the checkbox for "True" in the results view
Click the down arrow next to Move To
For the Create New Bucket field, enter "Donations from New Donors" without the quotes
Click Enter
In the search field to the right, enter "false" without the quotes and click Search
Tick the checkbox for "True" in the results view
Click the down arrow next to Move To
For the Create New Bucket field, enter "Donations from Previous Donors" without the quotes
Click Enter
Drag and drop your new New vs. Previous bucket field where it says "Drop a field here to create a grouping."
Hover over the Amount column heading and click the down arrow
Click Summarize this field...
Tick off all of the summary options
Click Apply
Save your report

Step Three: Modify the Report's chart

To create the chart noted above in Lightning, edit the default chart as follows:

Display As: Donut Chart
Chart Title: New v Previous Donors 2016 Giving Season
Label Groups: Values
Cumulative: check
Add: Group
Save your Report

Clarification

This Report is structured such that, if a new donor during last year-end giving season donated multiple times during that giving season, their first gift will be included in the "Donations from New Donors" cohort and their subsequent gifts in the "Donations from Previous Donors" cohort.

Next Steps