top of the web page) and type in either the full name/business name or the last name of ... With Peak NFP you can easily
An Introduction to Peak NFP Peak NFP is a comprehensive donor management solution. It not only allows you and your organization to track your donors and their giving histories but also uses the power of Microsoft Dynamics CRM to track your activities with your donors. We all know that a non-profit organization is nothing without a passionate donor base. That passion comes from the way your donors feel about your cause and your organization. With Peak NFP, you are able to recognize collected gifts and pledge installments for promised future gifts. This helps you work in tandem with your donors to give them a rewarding giving experience and assists you in furthering your mission. Your donors have the ability to view and control their donation history through the Peak Engagement portal. They can log in and view their past gifts as well as complete a new donation, view and choose volunteer opportunities, and register for events. The experience is intuitive and easy to use for both you and your donors making giving a joyful experience! Peak NFP is an intuitive software that works in much the same way you would work when entering donations. The steps to complete gift entry are uncomplicated and begin with finding your donor in the database. Read on to learn more about the specifics of the Peak NFP product.
Types of donor records Microsoft Dynamics CRM separates the donor record types into two categories. The Accounts entity is where you will find businesses, organizations and households. This entity records groups of people. The Contact entity is where you will find the individuals associated with your organizations. These records aren’t necessarily all donors. They may represent volunteers, supporters, or sponsors as well.
Finding donors in your database To find a donor in the database, simply go to the top of the navigation pane (the solid colored bar at the top of the web page) and type in either the full name/business name or the last name of the record you are trying to find. Example: To find Jim Glynn or the Glynn household record, type “Glynn” into the search box.
Like other Microsoft software, CRM offers a “wildcard” for searching. Beginning a search of text with an asterisk (*) will return any records with that section of text in the name of the record. Example: To find all of the records associated with Jim Glynn or the Glynn household, type “*Glynn” into the search box.
As you can see, all of the records associated with Jim Glynn or Glynn Household are now showing.
Gift history and creating new gifts With Peak NFP you can easily track gifting history and create new gifts. Here’s how! Now that you have the donor record you need, double click on it to open it. Once the record is open, click on the three horizontal bars next to the record name and choose “Gifts.”
This will immediately take you to the area on the Contact or Account record where you can see all of the previous gifts and where you can also create a new gift record. To create a new gift record, click on the “+” plus sign and this will open a new gift record.
Enter all of the data for that gift and then click “Save & Close.”
Creating pledges for your donor Creating Pledges in the system works much the same way. Using the Donor record, click on the three horizontal lines next to the record name and choose “Pledges.”
Click the “+” plus sign to create a new pledge record. A new Pledge record will open with the donor already in place.
The Pledge entity is designed to accommodate many different giving schedules. The donor can dictate nearly any configuration they choose. Once the configuration is set and the pledge is saved, the system creates all of the installments that correspond to the schedule.
Contacts as volunteers Contacts can also be categorized as Volunteers.
Individuals can request to be contacted if there is a specific type of volunteer work in which they are interested. Individuals and respond to a volunteer need that may or may not be associated with an event or campaign. Once the volunteer task has been completed, a volunteer instance record can be added that will track the date of the work, number of hours, if it was associated with a campaign, etc.
Tracking funds In addition to tracking donors and donations, you can also track Funds. The system is designed to allow you to track donations towards a specific fund or project. Funds can be added as needed into the environment very easily. You can simply add the funds that you need to have access to by going to “Settings” and then clicking on the “Funds” tile. This will show you a list of available funds as well as give you the option to add a fund from this screen.
Data Mining and Advanced Find Data Mining with Peak NFP is referred to as “Advanced Find.” The Advanced Find tool gives the user the power to mine their data, create ad hoc reports and views that can be exported. These reports and views are used in daily Peak NFP practice and are used typically to create Dashboards. An Advanced Find is, at its core, a query. Starting with a Record Entity (Account, Contact, Campaign, Gift, Pledge, etc.) you impose criteria that draw ever-shrinking circles around records until the results of the query provides you the required data. In addition to finding the records, you can manipulate the view of the results output.
Example of Data Mining and Advanced Find Let’s try an easy one: Scenario: You have an event coming up in the near future. You would like to invite donors in the local area to this event so you’ll need a list of those donors with their mailing and email addresses.
How to get started? 1. Find the binoculars
2. Find the record entity that you want to “Look for,” in this case “Contacts.”
3. Let’s say you want to send invites to “Active Contacts” in the Sioux Falls, South Dakota area. Your search criteria should look like this.
4. The Results can be found by clicking on the exclamation point.
5. You will see something that looks like this:
You’ll notice that we have the full name and the email address, but then we also have some columns that we don’t really need for this particular goal. The next step is to modify the columns so you have only the information you need. 6. Back on the “Advanced Find” tab look for “Edit Columns” in the ribbon bar.
7. You will see something that looks like this:
This form will allow you to remove the columns you don’t need (one at a time) and add the needed columns all at once. When the columns have been added you can move them into the order desired using the green arrows at the top the “Common Tasks” pane.
In order to manipulate the columns (delete or move) you need only click on the column label and a green box will appear around the column label showing that column is now “active.”
8. To add the columns, click on “Add Columns.” This will allow you to add any field from the Contact entity into your view.
Click “OK” and the fields you choose are added to the view. Move them into place by “activating” the column header as described in step #7 and then click “OK” to lock the view in place. 9. Click on “Results” again and your view should look something like this:
Now, not only do you have the name and email but you also have the physical address. Now you can export these records, save the view and/or add them to a marketing list right from the Advanced Find ribbon bar.
10. To save the view for future use, click the “Save As” icon.
This view can then be seen in your list of views under (in this case) contacts and can be shared with others. To share your views with others click on “Saved Views” and click once on the view you want to share.
11. To add the records to a marketing list or export them to Excel, click on results, then click on either “Add to Marketing List” or “Export Contacts.”
Now that you know how to create queries using the Advanced Find tool you can mine you data as much as you want.
Get started with Peak NFP Peak NFP donor management provides an affordable and powerful fundraising solution to engage your constituents and enhance your development efforts. Learn more about Peak NFP and request a free demo.
