FundRaiser Blog
3 Tips for Evaluating Small Gift Donors
You know that there are strong reasons to send thank you letters to all donors, regardless of the size of the gifts. I want to give you some ways to help evaluate small gift donors, in order to see if you can increase giving rates and/or amounts.
1. Use Groupings to identify "small" gift donors
It's true that some people will give multiple gifts, of varying amounts, and in order to insure that you are looking at "small" gift donors only, you'll need to create a grouping. You'll want to base the grouping on gift size, of course, but just how can you get those who have given ONLY small gifts? Well, first, when you start the grouping criteria, choose the Common Pattern of "All Donors" (date range optional). Then, to isolate it to just those who have only small gifts, click the "Finish Criteria" button, use the "AND" separator, and start a new criteria line. In this line, choose the Gifts tab, and select an "Amount Given" range (in Details tab) of a dollar more than your "small" gift limit (i.e., $21 if you consider $20 or less a small gift) through "blank", and select "Any Single Gift". This sounds counter-intuitive, since it's asking for anyone who has given a $21.00 or greater gift, but hold on. Click the "Finish Criteria" button again, and, this time, apply the "NOT" qualifier to the line. Now your criteria should read (more of less): select everyone who is a donor AND who has NOT given a gift of $21 or more. This eliminates both non-donors and those who have given gifts over $20. Now you can use this grouping with various reports.
2. Use Groupings to find those who have increased their giving
Create a grouping similar to the above example for a particular date range (like last year, or the previous year), limiting all gifts being considered to just those date ranges. Then, create another grouping without any amount limits for the next date range in question (like this year, or last year). In other words, I might create the first grouping for 2014, and the second for 2015, the first having gift amount limits, the second without gift amount limits. Then we can find out what name records are in both groupings. If you have FundRaiser Professional, this is easily done through the Grouping menu choice of "Combine/Subtract", where you can start with the first grouping and see who "is in common with" the second grouping. With Select, simply open the first grouping, and use the Grouping menu choice of "Assign Category Code to All" to give everyone in the grouping a temporary, throw-away code, like "XXX". Then do the same with the second grouping, but using a different throw-away code, like "AAA". Finally, create a third grouping, using only those two category codes as the criteria, making sure you mark the "Must Have All These Codes" selection. That way, your final grouping will only have records that in common with both the original groupings, and they will all be donors who originally gave only small gifts, but have since given larger gifts.
3. Use the "Donor Period Comparison" Analysis Report
This report can show you what a person (or group of donors) gave during different time periods of a single date range, or over two different date ranges. It can show if they gave more or less and can show the amount of difference, as well as the percentage of change. You'll get a better idea if your latest appeals to small gifts donors have sparked increased giving or not. Try several of the variations of the report to see which one gives you the most beneficial view. Keep in mind that if your layout has too many columns you'll see that listed in red ink. Otherwise, the number of columns will be listed in green ink.
As always, if you have any questions, feel free to call at 800-543-4131 or email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., and to take advantage of the training tools found in the Customer Portal section of our website. This article is revised from the original by Larry Weaver, originally published 10/23/2013
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