Hello!
We are beginning to use Activities more frequently now; in particular for our special donor appreciation events and receptions. One thing that we haven't nailed down yet is the best way to use the "Performance" field.
Originally, we were thinking to use that to describe the actual performance that the donor event revolved around. Now we're thinking that it might be more useful to describe what type of donor event it is (ex. for our sustaining pledgers or major donors or a specific segment of our donors).
The problem we've run into with that plan is the 20 character limit on that performance box. :)
So we are wondering how other organizations have been using this performance field (in particular for their donor events). What kinds of naming conventions have you put into place? Or do you use it in a unique way that we probably haven't considered?
Any and all feedback is greatly appreciated!Thanks,Beth
Hi Beth,
We use activities to track all of our non-ticketed events, board meetings, trips, and raffle ticket purchases. Our activity types are pretty generic and used over and over again, so we use the performance name to give more information about the activity. Though we don't have a specific naming convention for most activity types, there are some guidelines we follow.
For instance, we use "board meeting" activity type for any board meeting. The performance name for this activity type does have a standard, and we use: Full Board, Executive Committee, Annual Business, etc.
We know that there is a character limitation, so we always put the most important information first. An example of this is an education event we put on every summer called Summer at the Center. For this, there are only two performance names used: SATC YYYY or SATC VIP YYYY (SATC 2011, SATC 2012, etc.). (Since the name is short, we've put the year last, though I would suggest year first.) This helps us sort out our VIP's from the general admission for registration.
Each of our president dinners has a different performance name, and for that we use the actual name of the performance: Wicked, Stephen Sondheim, Alvin Ailey, etc.
For our activity type "raffle," the performance name is the name of the event for which the raffle was executed. The notes section then indicates their raffle ticket numbers.
We started an annual "announcement event" for our season preview, and that performance name follows the naming convention YY-YY Season Preview. We accept that "preview" will be cut-off, but collect the most important data at the front - 11-12 Season Preview, 12-13 Season Preview, etc.
We have many benefit events, cast parties, tours, behind the scenes... so on, that each have their own activity type and again the name of the performance is the name of the performer.
It's not always perfect, but believe it or not, we've remained surprisingly consistent despite the fact that we let most of the development staff promote activities.
If you'd like more specifics on exactly what we have used in the past, please feel free to contact me directly. Activities are a great, quick way to track a ton of information! Best of luck!
Amber NewsomeSegerstrom Center for the Arts(714) 556-2122 ext. 4259ANewsome@SCFTA.org
Thanks Amber!