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Author: Kristenson, Joel
Last Updated: 2017-01-04
Overview
This article walks through the steps to find ‘first time’ donors THIS year. It demonstrates how the AND/NOT SQL statements work in Trail Blazer, and how to save/load a search query that you use often. The last part shows how to add this query to your system dashboard for quick reporting purposes.
Tip: Learn another popular query called a LYBUNT (Donors Who Gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not Yet This Year) and learn advanced reporting techniques using SQL Wildcards.
Steps
Open the Contacts (Voters/Donors) list under the Application Menu.
Navigate to the Contribute tab, plug it in to activate it, enter the date range for ‘this year’ (could be different than a calendar year), and then click [Search]. In my example I searched for all donors who gave in the 2016 calendar year which provided 36 results.
To the right of the plug button there’s a blue-and-white Advanced Function button. Click on it to expand it and click the orange ampersand [&] button to add an SQL AND statement.
In the new sub-tab that opens, click on the little green plus [+] button to activate the NOT condition (it will turn into a red [x]) on the Advanced Functions tool strip.
Enter the end date, and click [search]. In my example below I set an end date of 12/31/16 telling the system that I want to remove any donor who HAS given prior or on that date. I ended up with 13 records.
To save the search so you don’t have to rebuild it each time, expand the top-most Advanced Functions tool strip (directly under the [Search] button), and click the blue floppy disk button.
Create a descriptive name and click [Save].
The saved search will display in the Favorites tab for all of your users. As the data changes in the system the query results will change accordingly.
To add the report to your Dashboard click on your dashboard link in the upper-left under the Application Menu. Once it’s open, click-and-drag an instance of the Contacts (Donors/Voters) list onto the dashboard canvass and release it.
Click the drop-down next to the [Refresh] button and select your new favorite search query from the list.
You can also modify the format that goes along with it. For instance instead of just the donor’s name/contact info you might want the last date/amount of their donation as well as their phone number and email.
The related resources below link to a variety of other useful articles and videos related to this topic.
Related Resources
Article: How to Create a Donor LYBUNT Search Query (Donors Who Gave Last Year But Unfortunately Not This Year) and How to Save and Load it as a Search Favorite
Article: SQL Wildcards
Article: Save and Load a Search Query as a (Dynamic) Search Favorite
Article: How to Use the NOT Attribute and Query for Records Tagged with It
Article: What Donors Have Increased Giving Over Last Year
Article: How to Delete or Rename a Saved Search Favorite (Query)
Article: Advanced Queries – the SQL Tab
Article: Querying by Email
Article: How to Use the New Dashboard Features – Adding Graphs and Metrics with Drag-and-Drop
Video: Getting Started 102 Beginning Queries - Nonprofit
Video: Favorites Deleting Saved Queries
Video: Getting Started 104 – Queries with wildcards [retired]
Video: Getting Started 105 – Queries with an AND condition
Video: Favorite – Update and Delete Favorite
Video: Reporting 102 – Quick Reports and Export
Video: Reporting 105 – Pivots – summary reporting
Video: Donor Retention Dashboard
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