Read campaign analytics
A campaign’s analytics tab counts a donation on the date its record was created in DonorCARE, not on the date the money actually arrived — the opposite of the org-wide dashboard, and worth knowing before you trust a daily chart.
Why it works this way
Section titled “Why it works this way”Your organisation’s main dashboard buckets money on the cash date — the date the donation was actually paid — so a donation you key in today for a gift received last month is counted back in that month. A campaign’s own analytics tab doesn’t do this: its daily and cumulative charts, and its “Today”/“This Week” figures, all group donations by the date the record was created. Enter an offline donation today for money that came in weeks ago, and this tab shows it under today’s date, not the date the gift was actually received.
The all-time totals — Total Raised, Total Donations, Progress, Average Donation, Conversion — aren’t affected by this, because they’re simple running totals with no date grouping at all.
The terms
Section titled “The terms”Total Raised / Total Donations / Average Donation — running totals from every completed donation on the campaign, regardless of when it was recorded.
Progress — Total Raised as a percentage of the campaign’s Collection Goal.
Conversion — completed donations as a percentage of every donation attempt (including ones that never finished paying).
Donation Trend / Cumulative Progress — daily charts grouped by the date each donation’s record was created, not the date it was paid.
Donor Retention — the split between donors giving to your organisation for the first time and donors who’ve given before, across any campaign.
Campaign Complete summary — shown once a campaign’s status is Completed. Its Total Raised and Donations figures can be manually overridden (for historical or imported campaigns) — an overridden figure is labelled with the actual computed number underneath it, so you can always see both.
What this means in practice
Section titled “What this means in practice”Do
- Treat the all-time totals (Total Raised, Donations, Progress) as reliable regardless of when donations were entered.
- Check whether a Campaign Complete figure is overridden before quoting it in a report.
Don’t
- Don’t read the daily Donation Trend chart as “money received that day” — it’s “donations recorded that day”, which can differ when you’re entering offline gifts after the fact.
- Don’t compare this tab’s daily figures directly against your organisation’s dashboard totals, which count on a different date.
Worked example
Section titled “Worked example”You record an offline bank transfer on 15 March for a donation received on 2 February. Your organisation’s dashboard files it under February. This campaign’s Donation Trend chart shows it on 15 March instead — the Total Raised figure at the top of the page is unaffected either way, since it’s a running total.
Related
Section titled “Related”Screenshots use sample data. Every screen on this page is captured against a demo organisation seeded with generated donors, amounts, receipt numbers and campaigns. Any resemblance to a real person or organisation is coincidental.