Charity Overview

Dashboard in Apteco Orbit · 3 tabs · 26 insights

What does each tab of Charity Overview tell you, and which tile do you read first? When every number has a known home, the board meeting stops being a hunt and starts being a conversation.

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SummaryA board would use it as a quick health check of the whole organisation.FundraisingA fundraiser would use it to spot where income is down and which donors could give more.EngagementA fundraiser would use it to see who is getting closer to the cause and who is drifting away.

Charity Overview · Summary, in Apteco Orbit: The Summary tab, with headline cards across the top, then charts of giving by year, donor status, donor stages and campaign income. — **Charity Overview · Summary** The Summary tab, with headline cards across the top, then charts of giving by year, donor status, donor stages and campaign income. A board reads it as a quick health check of the whole charity before a meeting.

Charity Overview · Fundraising, in Apteco Orbit: The Fundraising tab, with cards comparing this year's income with last year's, then charts of income by month, a Capacity Signal and income by donor group. — **Charity Overview · Fundraising** The Fundraising tab, with cards comparing this year's income with last year's, then charts of income by month, a Capacity Signal and income by donor group. A fundraiser spots where income is down and which donors could give more.

Charity Overview · Engagement, in Apteco Orbit: The Engagement tab, with cards on new donors, volunteers and loyal givers, then charts of donor stages, giving trends and volunteer activity by quarter. — **Charity Overview · Engagement** The Engagement tab, with cards on new donors, volunteers and loyal givers, then charts of donor stages, giving trends and volunteer activity by quarter. A fundraiser sees who is getting closer to the cause and who is drifting away.

Sample charity: the people and numbers in these screens are made up, so the picture shows the tool, not a result.

What it answers

Charity Overview has three tabs. Each starts with a row of number cards, then charts.

tabs, each with its own cards and charts

insights Orbit works out for it

tables it reads: Campaigns, Donations, Grants, Participants, Volunteers

pathway uses it

What it is built from

Every insight is worked out by Orbit for every supporter. Click one to read it in the Field Guide.

Insights

Lifetime ValueAdds up all donation amounts across all of the supporter's donations. Group your donors by total giving to prioritize stewardship. Identify your top 10% of lifetime givers for personal thank-you calls or major gift cultivation.
First Donation DateLooks up the date of the supporter's very first donation. Compare retention rates between donors who started giving in different years. See which campaigns brought in the most loyal supporters over time.
Latest Donation DateTakes the most recent all donation dates across all of the supporter's donations. Quickly see who has given recently and who has gone quiet. Separate active donors from lapsed donors in any campaign list.
Latest Donation ValueTakes the most recent all donation amounts across all of the supporter's donations. Compare a donor's most recent gift to their history. Use alongside Giving Trend to spot donors whose giving is climbing or declining.
Number Of Lifetime DonationsCounts the number of records across all of the supporter's donations. Group by engagement depth. Donors with 1 gift need a different retention strategy than donors with 10+. Build different stewardship journeys for each group.
Average Lifetime Donation ValueAverages all donation amounts across all of the supporter's donations. Set personalized ask strings in appeals. A donor averaging $250 should see different suggested amounts than a donor averaging $50.
No. Of Events AttendedCounts every participant record the supporter has: each registration counts, whether or not they came. Measure breadth of event engagement. It counts registrations, so pair it with Attendance Status when you need the events someone actually came to.
Lifetime Value BandedPlaces each supporter into a value tier based on their total lifetime giving. Use in any module to compare retention, engagement, and giving patterns across value groups.
Days Since Last DonationCounts the number of days between Latest Donation Date and today. The core recency metric. Use to trigger automated re-engagement sequences at 365, 545, and 730 days, or to prioritize phone outreach to recent lapsers.
Donor StatusCategorizes supporters based on days since their last gift. Active = within 1 year, Lapsing = 1-2 years, Lapsed = 2-3 years, Deeply Lapsed = 3+ years, Never Given = no donation on record. Sort any report by Active, Lapsing, Lapsed, or Deeply Lapsed. The starting point for year-end appeals or re-engagement campaigns.
Donor Development StageLooks at three things: whether the donor has ever given, how many times they have given, and how recently. Based on those answers, places them into a stage: Non Donor, New Donor, Lapsed First Gift, Developing, Established, or Loyal. Build lifecycle-specific journeys. New donors get a welcome series, Developing donors get deepening asks, Loyal donors get recognition and legacy giving conversations.
Giving TrendCompares the supporter's most recent gift to their lifetime average. If the latest gift is 25%+ above average, they're Trending Up. Within 25% either way is Stable. Below 75% of average is Downgraded. Spot donors trending up for upgrade conversations. Spot donors trending down for stewardship calls before they lapse.
Giving ConsistencyLooks at how many times a supporter has given relative to how long they have been on file. Someone who has given 10 times over 3 years is more consistent than someone who has given 3 times over 10 years. Placed into groups: Highly Consistent, Consistent, Occasional, or Infrequent. Identify your most reliable givers for sustainer conversion asks. Highly Consistent donors are your best candidates for monthly giving programs.
Capacity SignalCompares the supporter's largest ever gift to their most recent gift. If the largest is more than double the latest, they are marked as having demonstrated higher capacity. Find donors giving below their demonstrated capacity. A High Capacity signal means they've proven they can give more. Build a targeted upgrade appeal around these supporters.
Returning Donor FlagChecks whether the supporter has given more than once. Split reports between first-time and returning donors to measure retention separately from acquisition. Use in board reporting to show the health of your donor base.
Donor RetentionUses Returning Donor Flag: one gift ever goes in New Supporters, two or more in Returning Supporters. Split one-time donors from repeat donors in any chart, like New vs Returning Donors on Campaign Performance. For the share of last year's donors who gave again this year, use the Retained donors audience divided by Gave last year.
Volunteer FlagReturns 1 if the supporter has at least one volunteer timesheet record, 0 if not. Identify supporters who have volunteered at least once. Build volunteer-specific communications and appeals.
Donations Year Before LastCounts donations made two years ago. The comparison baseline for Donor Movement. Pair with Donations Last Year to build year-over-year donor movement waterfall charts.
Donor MovementCompares each supporter's number of gifts last year with the year before. New and Re-engaged both gave last year after a year with no gifts; the split between them uses today's date (see What it tells you). Build a donor movement waterfall for your board: how many supporters are new, re-engaged, increased, unchanged, decreased, or lost. Read New and Re-engaged together: between them they hold everyone who gave last year after a year off, including last year's first-time donors.
Gave last yearA list Orbit keeps up to date by itself. Every dashboard tile that counts this list shows the same number, because they all read the same list. The bottom of the retention sum: donor retention divides by this audience.
Retained donorsA list Orbit keeps up to date by itself. Every dashboard tile that counts this list shows the same number, because they all read the same list. Donor retention is this audience divided by Gave last year. Divide by last year's donors, not this year's.
New donors this yearA list Orbit keeps up to date by itself. Every dashboard tile that counts this list shows the same number, because they all read the same list. Welcome them. Chart them by the month of their first gift, so each new donor counts once.
Volunteered this yearA list Orbit keeps up to date by itself. Every dashboard tile that counts this list shows the same number, because they all read the same list. Your volunteers this year, counted as people. Someone with ten shifts counts once.
Giving last yearOrbit adds up each supporter's gifts dated last calendar year. See where last year's money came from. Take away Giving year before last to see who gave more and who gave less, the way the Donor Movement chart does.
Giving year before lastOrbit adds up each supporter's gifts dated in the calendar year before last. The baseline for Giving last year. The gap between the two is each supporter's change in giving.
Volunteer HoursMeasures the time between the start and end of each volunteer timesheet entry, in hours. The building block behind Total Volunteer Hours. Use it at timesheet level to see where volunteer time is going, shift by shift.

Fields from your data

Which CRMs can feed it

The Field Guide maps every insight to the fields each CRM keeps. This is how many of this dashboard's insights each one can build.

Filter the Field Guide by your CRM

Pathways that use it

Each pathway reads this dashboard's numbers, then acts on them.

Learn to use it

Read Summary first, top row only, and note what moved against last year. Then open the tab that explains the move: a money question goes to Fundraising, a people question to Engagement. Anything you want to act on, you take to an audience in Part 4. Share it with the board as Viewers, and export the tabs you need as PDF for the minutes.

Learn Mission: Charity Overview, tab by tab

Watch the lesson · about a minute

Questions people ask

What does the Charity Overview dashboard show?

Charity Overview has three tabs. Each starts with a row of number cards, then charts.

Which data does it need?

Campaign Name, Donation Amount, Donation Date, Event Start Date, Event Type, Amount Granted, Grant Amount Total, Grant Application Received Date, Grant Decision Date, Grant Money Transfer Date, Attendance Status, Event Fee, Role at Event, Timesheet Date Worked.

Which CRMs does it work with?

How many of its 26 insights each CRM's data can build, by the Field Guide's mapping: Raiser's Edge NXT: 23 of 26; Salesforce NPSP: 23 of 26; Salesforce Nonprofit Cloud: 25 of 26; DonorPerfect: 22 of 26; Bloomerang: 22 of 26; Little Green Light: 25 of 26; CiviCRM: 26 of 26; HubSpot: 23 of 26; Givebutter: 22 of 26.

How do I use it?

How do I get the Charity Overview dashboard?

Send a request with the form on this page. An Apteco Architect gets in touch to set it up with you. To learn it first, open the course stop.

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