Track interactions with donors via the 'User Activity' tab on the donor profile. Supported activities include emails, phone calls, meetings, notes, gifts, pledges, recurring gifts and tasks. Activity is displayed chronologically (by year) with the most recent activity at the top. The current year's activities are organized by month. The activity type and date are display for each activity.
Filtering the activity timeline
The options above the timeline narrow it to one kind of activity:
Option | Shows |
All | Everything on the record, in date order |
Gifts | Gifts activity |
Communications | Emails and other messages |
Events | Event activity |
Tasks | Tasks logged against this donor |
All is selected by default.
Use these when you want a single view of one thread of the relationship, for example every gift without the surrounding email traffic, or every communication before a meeting. For finding something specific rather than narrowing by type, use the search box on the left instead.
Opening an activity for full detail
Every entry on the timeline has a chevron at its right edge. Click it to expand the entry in place, without leaving the Activity tab. Click it again to collapse.
An expanded entry shows the full record and lets you edit it. For a gift, that includes:
Details, covering amount, type, date, campaign, fund, subject, gift custom fields, notes, etc.
Receipts, Documents, and Soft Credits on their own sub-tabs
Fields marked with an asterisk are required. Anything not yet filled in reads Not set.
Make your changes and click Save. Dismiss closes the entry without saving, so if you have edited a field and changed your mind, use Dismiss rather than collapsing the entry.
Two further actions sit at the bottom right:
Reassign moves this activity to a different donor, which is what you want when a gift or interaction was recorded against the wrong record
Delete removes the activity entirely
Adding an Activity
Click Add New on the Activity tab to record something on this donor's history.
Choose the type of activity you want to log:
Type | Use it to |
Record a message you sent or received manually | |
Phone Call | Record a call |
Meeting | Log a meeting |
Note | Jot down a note |
Gift | Record a donation |
Pledge | Record a commitment to give |
Recurring Gift | Set up a repeating gift |
Task | Create a to-do |
Required fields
Fields marked with an asterisk must be completed before you can save. Which fields are required depends on the type of activity you're logging, so a gift asks for different information than a phone call.
Subject is required for most activity types. It's the short description of what the activity was, and it's what appears on the Activity tab before you expand the entry. Treat it as the line a colleague will read when scanning the donor's history, so "Coffee with Sterling re: endowment" is more useful than "Meeting."
Once you save, some activity types offer further options, so the first save records the essentials and you can add detail afterwards by expanding the entry.
Choosing between similar types
Gift, Pledge, or Recurring Gift. Use Gift for money already given. Use Pledge when a donor has committed to give but has not yet paid. Use Recurring Gift to set up a gift that repeats on a schedule rather than logging each payment by hand.
Note or Research Notes. Use Note for something that happened, dated and sitting in the timeline alongside calls and meetings. Use the Research Notes card on the Profile tab for standing background about the donor that is not tied to a particular moment.
Task. A task logged here is linked to this donor and appears on the Task Board with your other work, so you do not need to create it in both places.