This has been a bit frustrating....trying to get at basic information, based on segment, on what the philanthropic giving level(s) spreads are.
Am I the only one who has a use for true "giving" level report? That is, to combine giving and membership levels, and spit out a report based on the levels?
shouldn't the "Giving Level Report" be renamed to "Membership Level Report", if this in fact what it does? This would have saved me oodles of time, if I had known it doesn't really report out giving levels....I guess I assumed a lose definition of giving...philanthropic dollars from whomever, whether membership or straight gifts.
And, does anyone have any suggestions on how I can get at the same information, but combining memberships and giving?
Many thanks!!
--
Cecily Clemons
Development Director
Predator Conservation Alliance
[EMAIL PROTECTED]g
406.587.3389
406.587.3178 (fax)
Shopping for holiday gifts? Choose from Predator Conservation Alliance's gift ideas at http://www.predatorconservation.org/merchandise.html and feel good about saving a place for America's predators.
From: Carl Paulsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: New Hampshire Rivers Council
Reply-To: "TechRocks Support" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 12:34:30 -0500
To: "TechRocks Support" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: [support] Re: member Level---
Cecily,
Bear in mind, in all your questions, that member level on the Home
screen is based on dues payments only. Note that the Level field is
calculated for all payments entered (check it out for payments marked
contribution - the Level calculation is based on the field <<Amount>>,
which exists for _all_ payments entered), but the DUES relationship
somehow restricts the use of anything but Dues payments in the MBR Level
fast find field in the Names file. (I haven't figured out just how this
works yet...)
Now, you should typically enter only one dues payment per year (that's a
membership management issue), and if someone gives a $25 dues payment
but a $250 additional contribution each year, their "member level" will
be based on the $25 contribution. You could change the lookup and
calculation for "member level" to reflect either the biggest
contribution in any one fiscal year or to the total of all contributions
for the year, but that would take some customization work.
You can change the format of the Level field (using Layout mode in FMP)
to allow entry into the field. Beware, though, that the Level field is
not defined as "prohibit modification" so anyone entering data could
mess with the values.
Your odd variations on the "Member Level" field have to do with changes
made in that field over time. Payments entered under old member levels
(e.g. the "factory" settings under the setup wizard) will remain as
those levels unless manually updated using the Update Level button. As
you note, this allows only updating single records at a time. I suspect
you could create a new script to update the level for a found set, but
haven't really looked into what that would entail. If I get around to
it, I'd be happy to share it with the list...
As for the sort problem, I think you've got the gist of the problem. As
Dave mentions, it is done via ASCII alpha numerics. Thus, sorts start
with the first character, sort accordingly (e.g. numbers before
letters), then sub-sort on the second character in the same way, etc.
If you have two categories for $25-49.99 and $25.00-49.99, these will be
sorted based on the fourth character (dash in one case, period/decimal
point in the other). To take care of this problem, I name my payment
categories in the Setup Wizard as:
1. Student/Senior
2. Individual/Family
3. Partner
4. Steward
Etc.
Once you have the system set up properly, you shouldn't have a problem
with this confusing reporting mess after a year or so (as all future
payments will be based on this logically sorted scheme). In the
interim, the Update Level option is the only way to go.
Here's an off the cuff idea for perhaps an easier fix to updating the
Level field. Backup your database first in case things get messed up.
Clean up your Setup Wizard payment levels. Then, go into the payments
file and go into Layout mode. Select the Level field and select Field
Format. Make sure it is set to a pop-up field using Member Level List
AND is set to "allow entry into field." Now, still in the payments
file, go into File->Define->Value Lists. Select the Member Level List
and make sure it is set to "Use values from" and specify the Setup file
and the LevelsList field. This will give you a pop-up list of the level
codes you've set in the setup wizard any time you enter the Level
field. Now, carefully execute queries on that field to find specific
sets of payments. Be sure to omit payments you don't want to change
(for instance, if you had old levels that don't correspond to current
levels, you may not want to update them b/c you don't want to call an
old "Steward" payment a "Partner" payment). Now, with this found set,
do a FMP replace with the proper value from the value list, and those
payments should all be updated. Repeat for all the levels you want to
change. You'll be updating specific payment entries. When done, I'd
recommend setting the Level field back to not allowing entry.
HTH,
Carl
--
Carl Paulsen
New Hampshire Rivers Council
54 Portsmouth Street
Concord, NH 03301
603-228-6472
603-228-0423 Fax
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------
Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to
http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
---------------------------------------------------------------------
ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org
---------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------ Reminder to each recipient: To change your list account preferences, go to http://email.sparklist.com/scripts/lyris.pl?enter=support and enter the email address you used to subscribe to the ebase support list:: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------- ebase - Relationship Management for Nonprofits, http://www.ebase.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------
