Common reports and how to create them

In this article:

Giving history

Retention and attrition

Pledge-specific reports

Other reports

Comprehensive export

Overview

Multiple reporting options are available in Little Green Light. To find out which most closely matches your needs, refer to the list below, find one you want to create, and follow the instructions to build it.

This article is intended to help you quickly find a report to create and give you basic how-to information. If you need more details about reporting or detailed step-by-step instructions for creating reports, read Before you create a report, Generating reports from the Constituents or Fundraising tab, and Build, customize, and schedule reports.

Important notes about reports and your data

  1. To ensure you get the report that you want, carefully consider what types of data you’ll need and make sure the data in your LGL account is structured in a way that will meet your reporting requirements. (For example, if you want to know who attended your last three events, you’ll need to have captured attendance information for each event.)
  2. With regard to gift dates and your organization's fiscal year, keep in mind that searching on fiscal year dates relies on the "Fiscal Year" setting in your LGL subscription settings. Whatever fiscal year start date your account currently has selected will determine the gift dates that are pulled into your gift date search and any report you create. You can verify or update the fiscal year start date by navigating to Settings > Subscription settings and scrolling till you see the "Fiscal Year" setting.
  3. Constituent reports and fundraising (gift) reports are different from one another; a constituent report contains data about one constituent in each row, and a gift report contains data about one gift in each row. 

Excluding specific constituents from a giving history

The best way to exclude constituents from your search results (for example, anyone who gave to last year’s summer appeal last fiscal year) is to add an additional query to your search and set the search operator to “and not”, as shown here:

In order to exclude the constituents for a pre-built report, click the Edit button for that report, click the 1. Search button to amend the search it is using by adding the additional query, and then refresh the results, as shown in the following two screenshots.

What is our gift total year to date?

NOTE: This is just a single number, so there’s no need to run a whole report.

The Dashboard provides a quick, real-time look at total giving by current month and current year, and allows you to link to the gifts by clicking the number of gifts or the amounts.

How many donors did we have last year?

NOTE: This is just a single number, so there’s no need to run a whole report.

Using the Advanced Search box at the top of the Constituents > All constituents page, create a search for the date range you want and click the Search button. This provides you with a de-duplicated list and is an easy way to see the number of donors.

What was our total giving, by constituent, last fiscal year?

To find total giving amounts for your constituents from last fiscal year, begin by searching on "Gift dates" for "Last fiscal year" from the Constituents tab. Then export your results. Select the columns you need from among the available fields, and to see your total giving amounts select the "Total giving (last fiscal)" field, as shown here:

This field creates a total giving column in your report. The custom options for the field are set to look at gifts from the last fiscal year, as shown below:

You can add additional total giving (custom) fields and customize them for other purposes, such as other fiscal years or custom time periods (add as many as you need by clicking this same link), as shown here:

IMPORTANT NOTE: Always make sure the custom options for any Total Giving field are set to the dates and other parameters for the gift data you want to bring into the report column. Keep in mind that adding restrictions (including or excluding other gift attributes) will prevent any gifts that don't exactly match these restrictions from being included in the Total Giving column.

Who were our new donors last year?

  1. Run a search in the Constituents tab, setting “First gift date” to the time frame you want.
  2. View or export the search result list by clicking the Export results button in the upper right of the page.
  3. If exporting the results, you’ll be taken to the Customize tab of the report builder. Choose the fields you want to see in your report from among the available fields, which are viewable by category in the navigation element on the left side of the screen.

  4. Click Preview to view how your report will look. If you need changes, go back to the Customize tab of the report builder. Or, if the report looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save it in case you want to find it in the future.

How much did we raise, by appeal, last fiscal year?

  1. In the Fundraising tab, set the date range to “Last fiscal". Then, from the View by dropdown menu at the top of the page, choose to view Giving by appeal.
  2. Choose how you'll export the report, either as a CSV or PDF file:

A PDF report showing gifts by fund for the current month

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select Gift/Pledge Reports from the menu on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you locate the “Deposits/Gifts by Fund - this month” report template.

  2. Click Export to save the most up-to-date report with pre-defined fields.

Our top 100 all-time donors and how much each has given in each of the last five years (sorted from high to low)

  1. In the Constituents tab, click on the pre-built filter for “Top 100 Donor” (you may need to set this to 100 if you have previously set it to another number).

  2. Click the sort option (the down arrow icon) under Giving summary to sort total giving in descending order.

  3. Click Export results, which takes you into the report builder.

  4. In the Report Template dropdown menu on the Customize tab, choose the “Total Gifts By Year (xlsx/csv)” template.

  5. Complete the report (save and export).

Our donors for our last three annual gala events, and how much they gave to each event

  1. In the Constituents tab, search for "Events (giving)" for the three events you want. Then click the Export results button.
  2. On the Customize tab, select the data fields you want, including name information. Add multiple “Total Giving” fields (click "Add another" in the upper right of the window to add the second total giving field, and then click it again to add the third). Then customize each one to represent each of the three events.
  3. As always, you can click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports). If it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

Our annual report of constituents who have given in the current fiscal year, showing their total contributions for this year and last

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select the Constituent Reports menu on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you locate the “Annual Report Info (Current Year)” report template. Then click Export to save the most up-to-date report with pre-defined fields.

  2. Click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports). If it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

A deposit report for this month, including the constituent name, gift amount, date, and fund

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select the Gifts/Pledges Report tab on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you locate the “Deposits/Gifts by Fund - this month" report template. Click Export to save the most up-to-date report with pre-defined fields.

  2. Click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports), and if it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

A report of tribute gifts and who they were given in honor/memory of

  1. To create a tribute report showing who gave the tribute, the date of the tribute, who the tribute is for, and whether the tribute is in honor or memory, create this search in the Fundraising tab:
  2. Click Export results, and then select the columns you want to use:

  3. Preview the report and if it looks good, proceed to the next step to name and save it, using a name you'll remember and recognize.
  1. Search on your gift dates from the Fundraising tab, and then click Export results:

  2. Select columns for the name and any contact information you need. Then select Related Gifts, and add the custom options you want to include as additional columns. You can pull in name and other information about the constituents who gave the related gifts here.

    3. NOTE: To see more than one related gift, adjust the count of gifts at the bottom of the Related Gifts custom options by clicking the Count down arrow.

  3. Click Preview to view how your report will look, make any changes to the columns that you need, and then go to the Save Export tab to save the report. 

A full export of all main gift fields and types, including constituent name and contact information, for the current fiscal year

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select Gift/Pledge Reports from the menu on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you locate the “Full Export -- CSV” report template. 
  2. Click Export to save the most up-to-date report with pre-defined fields.

  3. Click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports), and if it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

LYBUNT report (donors who gave last year but not this year)

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select Constituent reports from the menu on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you find the “LYBUNT” report. Click Export to save the most up-to-date listing with pre-defined fields.

  2. Click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports), and if it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

NOTE: To re-create a LYBUNT search, you can set up your constituent search criteria as shown here:

SYBUNT report (donors who gave some year but not this year)

  1. Go to Home > Reports and select Constituent reports from the menu on the left. Scroll through the report templates until you find the “SYBUNT” report. Click Export to save the most up-to-date listing with pre-defined fields.

  2. Click Preview to view how your report will look (for CSV reports). If it looks good, go to the Save Export tab and save the report with a name you will recognize.

NOTE: To re-create a SYBUNT search, you can set up your constituent search criteria as shown here:

A report showing pledges with open balances

  1. Go to Fundraising > Giving and run a search in the Advanced search box at the top of the page, setting gift types to Pledge and Is completed? to No. Then click the Export results button to go to the report builder.
  2. In the Report Template dropdown in the Customize tab, choose one of the available Pledge Reports.

  3. Clicking the Preview tab will show you what the columns in the report contain for the first 100 records (note the Pledge and Installment columns). You can go back to the Customize tab if you want to add or subtract any fields. Once you're happy with the preview, click the Save Export button to save and run the report (to produce an Excel spreadsheet).

Pledges (with balance due) and gifts given to our annual fund

  1. In the Constituents tab, run a search to find the constituents who meet your criteria. In the example here, we are looking for anyone who gave a gift or pledge to the Annual Giving campaign last fiscal year or this fiscal year.

    2. Once you've set your criteria, click Search and then click Export results to begin building your report.

  2. In the Customize tab, select the fields to identify the donor and then select the field Gifts, which you'll use to return pledge data.
  3. You can now customize the Gifts field so it produces the pledge information you're looking for. Looking at the graphic below, notice there are three areas of customization:
  4. Which columns you want: Make sure to include the pledge amount and balance
  5. Which gifts should be included: Restrict the type to Pledge, and restrict the campaign and time frame according to the campaign you are interested in and the time frame (gift dates)
  6. How many such gifts should be returned: If you think any one donor might have given up to three pledges, then set the count to three (3). The report will return the three most recent gifts that meet your criteria (i.e., annual giving pledges from last and this fiscal year)

  7. You now also need to include actual gifts (versus pledges) in your report. To do this, it's easiest to use the Total Giving columns and restrict the gifts to be summed in here to gift type of Gift and for the specific time period you are looking at. In our example, we have one column for total giving from last fiscal.

    8. Note that you are not able to use these Total Giving fields for your pledges because they won't return a pledge balance, which is why we used the Gifts field for the pledges.

  8. In the Preview tab, you can see what the first 100 rows of data will look like in your report. 

Call sheets for our phonathon

  1. Go to the Constituents tab, search for the constituents you are targeting in your phonathon, and click Search. Then click Export results.
  2. Select one of the phonathon call sheet templates from the Report Template dropdown menu.
  3. PDF reports are not previewable, so click on Save Export and then save your export. You'll be taken to a screen where you can view or download it.

How can I find donors who have given $5,000 or more for my 990?

  1. Run a search on the Constituents page, setting “Total Giving Amt.” to greater than/equal to 5000, and setting “Gift dates” to the time frame you need, such as last fiscal year. Set the “Gift types” to include gifts only, since for the purpose of your 990 you don’t want to include pledges or soft credits, just actual gifts received directly from the constituent.

    2. View or export the search result list by clicking the  Export results button in the upper right of the page.

  2. After clicking Export results, you’ll be taken to the Customize tab of the report builder. Choose the fields you want to see in your report from among the available fields, which are viewable by category in the navigation element on the left side of the screen. For your 990, you will likely need the name, preferred address, and total giving amount (last fiscal) for these donors.
  3. The “Total Giving (last fiscal)” field is listed among the Gift/Pledge/Goal fields. Select this field to include it in your report. To include each constituent's total giving for the prior fiscal year, you can choose the “Total Giving (last fiscal)” field. This field also needs to be restricted by Gift Type (Gift) so the total giving amount is only calculated by gift amounts (not soft credits or pledge commitments).

    4. Click  Preview to view how your report will look. If you need to make changes, go back to the Customize tab of the report builder. Or, if the report looks good, proceed to the Save Export tab and complete your export.

    Which gift tiers do my donors fall into?

    To find which gift tiers your donors fall into, you'll first want to make sure your gift tiers are set up correctly and that none leaves any amount out or overlaps another gift tier. 

    Once you are sure the gift tiers are ready to use, you can run a Constituent report and include a Total Giving field, which you can customize to include the person's Gift Tier. 

    First run your constituent report. Then select your Total Giving field and check the "Tier" box:

    Your report will contain a column that shows each constituent's gift tier.

    Click  Preview to view how your report will look. If you need to make changes, go back to the Customize tab of the report builder. Or, if the report looks good, proceed to the Save Export tab and complete your export.

    A comprehensive export of the data in my account

    Read how to create a comprehensive export of your data.

Related Articles