I’ll admit it. I’m a tech geek. But I still believe in backing up your donor information on good old-fashioned paper or, at the very least, as a PDF on an external drive.
Once all the year-end gifts are entered and the thank-you letters are in the mail, I do a quick pass through my data. I’m looking for duplicates and the little anomalies that always seem to creep in during the year-end rush. Then I run a “donor profile report” for everyone who gave more than, say, $500. I print it double-sided on three-hole paper, punch it, and drop it in a binder. Or drop that drive in your top drawer.
So what is this report?
Some CRM and database programs include a built-in version. The trouble is, they usually print one donor per page. Even a medium-sized list will eat through a ream of paper before you know it.
Here’s what I do instead. Build your own in Word and merge it with an Excel export of your donors. And promise me one thing. Delete that spreadsheet the moment the merge is complete. Loose spreadsheets full of donor data are a liability you don’t need.
Your report only needs the basics:
| Full Name | Last Gift Amount |
| All Salutations | Last Gift Date |
| Complete Address | Last Gift Appeal |
| Phone | First Gift Amount |
| First Gift Date | |
| Company Name | First Gift Appeal |
| Spouse Info | Attributes |
| Constituency Code | Notes |
| Total Giving |
I picked these fields because they’re what you’d need to rebuild your database if something went sideways. They also make a handy quick reference.
This report has saved me many times. Maybe I just need one piece of archived information, or the internet is down, and I can’t wait. There it is, in the binder, in the PDF on the external drive. It comes in handy.
One warning. This is a snapshot of your donors at a single moment in time. It is not a document for day-to-day use. Enter your changes in your database, not on paper or in a PDF, and please, please stay away from spreadsheets; they are bad juju.