Need to build a report but don't know where to start?

What type of report do you need?

Reporting is central to fundraising work. It helps provide a clear view into your fundraising activities so your organization can make informed decisions and focus efforts.

LGL offers robust reporting options, including:

Dashboard widgets
Onscreen fundraising reports
Fundraising views
Pre-built reports
Custom reports

But building a report can feel daunting if you don’t know which type of report you need or how to get started creating it.

The infographic below lays out the different types of reports that are available in LGL, categorized by how each is typically used. Read the section titles to find which type best fits your needs, and find the section later in this article to see more information and link to further instructions.

Types of reports and how to get started creating each one

This section delves into descriptions of each report type and provides links to more information and instructions on how to create each.

Dashboard widgets

Dashboard widgets provide quick snapshot summaries of your account data. Many of the widgets let you toggle between a chart or table version, both of which can be downloaded as a report. The widgets can also be customized to each user’s profile, and many display clickable values that link to the search results used to generate those values.

Dashboard reports are useful when you are looking for:

Summary LGL account data in a chart or graphical format that can be exported
Basic information, such as a numeric value (i.e., annual retention rate or number of first-time donors this year)

Learn more in The LGL Dashboard.

Onscreen fundraising reports

Onscreen fundraising reports provide snapshots into your fundraising performance. In addition to an onscreen gift breakdown, the Appeals page can capture data on the number of appeal responses that resulted in a donation, total cost, average gift, and net raised. The Events page can capture invitation, RSVP, and attendance data in addition to funds raised.

Here's an example of an onscreen fundraising report, in this case, for appeals:

Onscreen fundraising reports are useful when you’re looking for:

Total amount raised by campaign, fund, appeal, or event
A summary of the breakdown of the total amount raised by gift type and number of constituents by specific campaign, fund, appeal, or event
Total raised compared to a set goal
Appeal status summary statistics
Summary event RSVP and attendance statistics

Fundraising views

By navigating to Fundraising > Giving, you can create a search for the gift records you would like to report on. By changing the View menu from the All Giving default selection, you can transform the result from a list of gifts into a chart format that can be exported. Commonly used fundraising views include “Giving by Fund”, “Giving by Appeal”, and “Giving by Month”.

Here's where you can find and set the different Fundraising "Views" options:

You can also click into the chart data to see the specific gifts that are summarized in each column, which can be useful for reviewing and validating your data entry.

Fundraising views are useful when you need:

Summary gift data, such as total raised over a specific time period by fund, appeal, month, event, category, payment type, steward, or gifts by tier
Summary gift data in a formatted and exportable CSV or PDF chart
To review your gift data for accurate coding

Learn more in Quick searching and reporting with fundraising views.

Pre-built reports

LGL provides a variety of pre-built reports encompassing multiple record types. You can edit pre-built reports in cases where the exported file is an Excel or CSV file.

Pre-built reports are available when you navigate to Home > Reports, and select the type of report you want from the left column. Then you can browse through the available options and make your selection.

NOTE: We recommend copying any pre-built report you want to make edits to with a new name rather than saving over the original pre-built report provided by Little Green Light. (Overwriting the original causes it to no longer be available for future use.)

It is also possible to create your own re-usable reports if the provided pre-built reports do not meet your needs.

Pre-built reports are useful when you:

Are looking for a formatted report of commonly needed data
Will need to run the same report frequently

The help article Common reports and how to create them contains instructions for creating many of the pre-built reports that are offered by default in your account.

Custom reports

The best way to create a custom report is to use the Advanced Search functionality from the Constituents or Fundraising tabs or within the Activity tab in the Contact Reports, Tasks, Volunteering, or Notes subnavigation pages.

Below you can see the Advanced Search area in the Constituents page:

Using an advanced search allows you to identify and pull together the records containing data that will populate your report. You can review the results for accuracy and then export them into the report builder, where you can select and customize templates and fields as needed.

Custom reports are typically useful when you need a spreadsheet-based report that requires a custom search and customized data columns.

Learn more here: