In this weeks' blog by Tony Poderis, entitled "Going Where Your Donors Are", there is a hint of the types of extra information your may want to keep on your major donors. In past blogs, I have tried to help explain some of the ways you can keep, and retrieve, various information about your donors, but it might be helpful to give you a more well-defined view. Please keep in mind: there is no single answer. These are just my suggestions.
Keep general information in the fields provided, so much as possible. The idea is to minimize the amount and type of data stared in "odd" locations, so that it is less likely to be overlooked when needed.
If something uniquely identifies the donor (hobbies, interests, organizations they work with, etc.) then use a Category Code. Chances are you'll be able to use the same codes for other mafor donors, too, and there is no practical limit to the number of codes you can create.
If you need to keep track of multiple addresses where a major donor might be at any given time, consider using Alternate Addresses. Just mark them Inactive, so they won't be used for mailing, and consider coding them to indicate that they are just for reference.
For information that just doesn't fit elsewhere, there are a couple of options, like Spare FIelds or Donor Notes, but, for major donors, I suggest that the Tickle section of the name record is the place to go. With tickles, you might have (for a Major Donor) one that contains your running record of face-to-face activity, so that you can quickly review what was discussed at your last meeting, or your first, for that matter. In another tickle for that same donor you might record any odd information that might be used in future solicitations, such as other areas of philanthropic interest or personal concern, or civic participation, etc.
You can pull a Grouping of your Major Donors, then run a Tickle report for those donors, and you'll have all the pertinent but odd information you need for strategizing your next moves. Of course, there are different methods that will work, but the important point is to figure out what works well for you, and try your best to apply your methods consistently.
For more help with using the program, view our training videos in the Customer Portal section of our website.