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Monitor the Donor Relations Dashboard

Goal: Use the donor relations dashboard to take the program's pulse — total raised, donor counts, retention, recency — without piecing it together from individual reports.

What the dashboard shows​

The donor relations dashboard surfaces:

  • Total raised in the current period vs. prior period
  • Active donors and trend
  • New donor acquisitions
  • Lapsed donors (gave previously, haven't given in your defined window)
  • Recurring donor count and value
  • Top campaigns by raised
  • Recent gifts for at-a-glance review and acknowledgment

The dashboard updates as activity happens; it isn't a daily snapshot.

How to use it​

A few cadences that pay off:

  • Daily check — five minutes to spot anything that needs an immediate same-day touch (a major gift, a lapsed donor coming back)
  • Weekly retrospective — what trended this week? where are we vs. plan?
  • Monthly board snapshot — the dashboard is the headline answer to "how's fundraising going?"

What it doesn't tell you​

The dashboard is a summary. For digging in:

Common things to watch for​

  • A sharp drop in active donor count between periods — usually a list-hygiene issue (someone bulk-imported and the import shifted who counts as "active") or a real retention problem
  • Recurring donor churn — failed cards aren't being chased
  • New-donor acquisition trend going flat — you're stewarding well but not acquiring enough

When numbers look wrong​

Almost always one of:

  • Pending donations not yet marked completed (especially ACH that's still settling)
  • Refunded donations counted in the raw raised total but not in net
  • A Do Not Solicit flag on a donor whose recent gift came in through a different channel

Resolve the underlying record state — the dashboard refreshes on its next read.