Successive Fiscal Years Increasing Giving

Hello!

Essentially what I want to do is to create a list of patrons who have given three successive years in a row in increasing amounts.  E.g. any patron who gives $20 the first year, $30 the next, and $40 the last.  I figured that a pivot table in Analytics (which I could then save to a list) would be the way to start.  I can certainly create a table with the patron number, and total giving broken out by fiscal year, but I am having trouble figuring out how to limit to only those whose gifts increase.

Any thoughts welcome.

John A. Moskal II

Parents
  • Hi John,

    I think we can get a step closer, but maybe not all the way to a list. With a Value formula one could flag constituents that meet that criteria... and then filter where that value = 1

    IF(
      ([Total Amount] , [Campaign Fiscal Current Year Offset = -2]) > 0
      AND
      ([Total Amount] , [Campaign Fiscal Current Year Offset = -2]) < ([Total Amount] , [Campaign Fiscal Current Year Offset = -1])
      AND
      ([Total Amount] , [Campaign Fiscal Current Year Offset = -1]) < ([Total Amount] , [Campaign Fiscal Current Year Offset = 0])
      , 1
      , NULL
      )

    However, trying to set a jump to _Constituents on this widget doesn't translate a filtered formula like that through to the target dashboard, so the _Constituent dashboard won't be limited to just those flagged constituents.

    Another approach is a filter on Constituent ID using a Ranking type filter, however note that I only have 2 results instead of the 4 above. 

    This is due to known defect DEV-4454 Ranking filter produces incorrect results due to data security. This is a Sisense defect that we believe to be resolved in v16, but hasn't passed through QA yet. I will say that a quick test in my local v16 looks promising (slightly different data - only 3 qualifying constituents):

    And the approach with a filter on Constituent ID does transfer to the _Constituents dashboard.

    Best,
    Chris

  • Chris,

    I think I must be doing something incorrectly when I try to replicate your first results, as I am not able to make that work as is.  And yes, the inability to save that as a list is non-ideal, though yes, it certainly would be better than nothing at all.

    Regarding the second suggestion, with the defect, I am either doing something wrong there, or else that defect is causing me to have zero results.  I believe I am creating the formulae and everything correctly, but am unable to generate results (when a quick, obvious, manual inspection tells me there are at least 5 within account numbers less than 10,000, and our account numbers certainly go to a much larger number than that).  Quite possible I am still doing something wrong; I fully admit to being a non-expert still in Analytics.

    Any other thoughts or suggestions are welcome.  Maybe it would help for me to see more details of your widget set-up to see exactly either where I am going wrong or where the defect is impacting me.  I certainly have to believe that this is a question that many organizations would not mind having an answer to.  And, in terms of using Analytics to its fullest, this is certainly something where I would like to be able to tell staff "simply look at this dashboard" rather than having to code a specific report for this information.  I mean; I have plenty of experience by now writing reports for this sort of thing, I could easily create one.  BUT; if I have an Analytics solution, then it would be MUCH easier to change between the different options, which I believe is the whole intent of Analytics.  The "But what about every 4 years?  Or 5?  Or just 2?  Or what about donors with successive years DECREASING donations?"  Again, I could write one or more reports to do that.  I am still hoping there is a solution here.

    Thanks,

    John

  • Hi John,

    Here's an export of my dashboard. It won't get us to a List, which I expect to work in v16, but it should be quality front-end output:

    Best.

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