Appeal Records

Appeals are the solicitations used to bring in gifts, such as through direct mailings, online donation pages, phonathons, auctions, or events. To view detailed information about an appeal, select its description — such as on a record or list — to open its record. From an appeal's record, you can view and manage detailed information about the appeal.

At the top of the record, you can view pertinent information about the appeal, including its description, ID, dates, and more. For details, see Appeal Overview.

Under Appeal summary, you can view pertinent statistics about the giving received in response to the appeal, including how much it raised, how many gifts it received, and the average gift amount. For more information, see Appeal Summary.

Under Attachments, system admins can manage files related to the appeal, such as a mailing brochure or pictures from a fundraising event. For more information, see Attachments.

Note: In a future release, system admins will be able to set which users can manage these files.

Under Custom fields, you can view and manage specialized information your organization tracks — regardless of the filters you select to analyze the overall performance — about the appeal. For each field, you can view its name — or “category” — and value. You can also view when the field was added and comments about its information. For details, see Custom Fields.

To determine the type of donor the appeal resonates with, such as a handful of major donors who contribute large amounts or many donors with small, one-time gifts, you can view a breakdown of how much each donor gave in response to the appeal over the past five years under Donors by giving level on its record. For more information, see Giving Level Analysis for Campaigns, Funds, or Appeals.

Under Expenses, you can view the costs incurred to solicit gifts through the appeal. For each expense, you can view the solicitation package it’s associated with, how much you planned to spend and then actually spent (and when), and any related comments.

  • Select Add to create an expense. Use Copy from to import existing data.

  • Use the context menu to edit or delete expenses.

Under Fundraisers, you can view who is assigned to solicit gifts through the appeal and how much they should raise. For more information, see Fundraisers.

Tip: By default, only active fundraisers appear under Fundraisers. To also view those who no longer actively solicit gifts, select Include inactive.

To help identify which generations of donors the appeal resonates with, you can view a breakdown of its gifts over the past five years by the donor's age group. For more information, see Demographics Analysis for Campaigns, Funds, or Appeals.

For context of why donors give, we recommend you track their primary affiliation with your organization — such as Board member or Volunteer — as constituent codes. Under Gifts by constituent code, you can compare giving given in response to the appeal by the donors' constituent codes to identify who's engaged. For more information, see Constituent Code Analysis for Campaigns, Funds, or Appeals.

To help identify whether the appeal resonates with mostly women or men (or unknown), you can view a breakdown of its gifts over the past five years by the donor's gender. For more information, see Demographics Analysis for Campaigns, Funds, or Appeals.

To determine the size of gift the appeal acquires, such as whether its giving skews toward mostly larger or smaller amounts, you can view a breakdown of the gifts received over the past five years by their amount range under Gifts by giving level on its record. For more information, see Giving Level Analysis for Campaigns, Funds, or Appeals.

To help direct gifts toward an initiative, such as for a new building, you can use appeals to acquire gifts toward the campaign. For more information, see Campaigns.

  • To link a campaign, select Add campaign.

  • To bring in linked campaigns from another fund or appeal, select Copy from.

  • Select Limit the data entry to only the campaigns associated with appeal to specify that only associated records can be entered on gifts. For example, if you enter the appeal on a gift record and search for a campaign to add, you'll only see campaigns linked to that appeal.

  • Select Delete from a campaign’s context menu to remove the link.

  • From a campaign’s context menu, you can also Mark as default or Remove default.

To help direct gifts toward funds, such as for the construction and landscaping of a new building, you can use appeals to acquire gifts toward the causes. For more information, see Funds.

  • To link a fund, select Add fund.

  • To bring in linked funds from another campaign or appeal, select Copy from.

  • Select Limit the data entry to only the funds associated with appeal to specify that only associated records can be entered on gifts. For example, if you enter the appeal on a gift record and search for a fund to add, you'll only see funds linked to that appeal.

  • Select Delete from a fund’s context menu to remove the link.

  • From a fund’s context menu, you can also Mark as default or Remove default.

An appeal can contain multiple packages, which are the different versions of content and items it includes. Under Packages, you can view these versions — such as an introductory letter for new constituents and a high quality glossy brochure for prospective major donors — and track how the recipients respond to the appeal. For each package, you can view its name, description, how many people were solicited, and how much you expect to raise.

Tip: By default, only active packages appear under Packages. To also view those that are no longer actively used to solicit gifts, select Include inactive.

Tip: In the database view, you can manage the packages for an appeal on the Packages tab of its record.

To help direct gifts toward an initiative, such as for a new building, you can use appeals to acquire gifts toward the campaign.

  • Under Top campaigns, you can view details about the ten top-grossing campaigns that the fund supports, including how much each raised through the fund compared to its goal amount. For more information, see Top Campaigns Analysis for a Fund or Appeal.

To identify specific appeal recipients to thank for their giving, you can view the top respondents under Top donors. For each donor, you can view how much — and how many gifts — they gave in response to the appeal. For more information, see Top Donors Analysis for a Campaign, Fund, or Appeal.

To help direct gifts toward funds, such as for the construction and landscaping of a new building, you can use appeals to acquire gifts toward the causes.

  • Under Top funds, you can view details about the top-grossing funds that the appeal supports, including how much each received through the appeal compared to its goal amount. For more information, see Top Funds Analysis for a Campaign or Appeal.

By default, the metrics include all cash-in-hand giving acquired through the appeal. To instead analyze giving committed through pledges and matching gifts or from a specific time frame, select Filters to include only gifts that meet specific criteria. For more information, see Campaign, Fund, or Appeal Filters.

Tip: To view a list of records included in the number-crunching, select the total or metric. For further analysis, select Create list to open the list, where you can apply additional filters, choose columns, and save for future reuse. For more information, see Lists.

Note:  In the database view, you can manage an appeal's details from its record under Records.