How to Segment Organization Constituent Accounts in Bloomerang

In Bloomerang you can automatically segment your constituent accounts into two groups: individuals and organizations. Constituent account types allow you to segment constituents in reports, letters, and emails. However, it may be necessary to segment your constituents even further than these two categories. This post will describe how to segment “Organization” constituent accounts ever further and use segmentation to inform your fundraising strategy, planning, and performance improvement.

Constituent Segmentation by Entity Type

Individuals versus Organizations

Individuals and organizations are exactly the same in every way except an organization has an additional name field that identifies the name of the organization separately from the name of the primary contact for that organization. You may have noticed the difference between the two types of constituent accounts because you are required to select one of these two types when creating a new account.

Bloomerang allows you to filter reports, letters, and emails to include individuals, organizations, or both. In this post we are going to focus specifically on reports.

If the “Individual” or “Organization” distinction is all you need to segment constituents, then you can use the “Type” filter or column in reports. The “Type” filter will allow you to include or exclude “Individuals” or “Organizations” from your report. The “Type” report column will identify the type of constituent account in the report.

Segmenting Organizations Further

Your constituents segmentation needs may be more complex than just these two categories. You may need to further refine your segmentation in Bloomerang to filter and report on other “entity” or “account” types. This may be a necessity of your strategic planning, fundraising performance measurement, or forecasting efforts. For the most part, “Individuals” don’t need further refinement. However, “Organizations” may need to be broken down into smaller groups. For example, you may want to know total giving this year for foundations and businesses. To do this we need an additional field to segment “Organization” accounts by entity type. Additional entity types might include: business, foundation, organization, religious, government, hospital, and school among others.

Using this Information

Before we explore how to segment “Organization” constituent accounts by entity type, let’s explore the strategic value of segmenting these accounts. Here are three reasons you might consider further segmenting “Organization” constituent accounts by entity type.

  • You can segment organization constituents by entity type for different types of solicitations, appeals, approaches, and fundraising efforts.
  • You can run giving reports based on organization entity type in addition to “Individual” account type to see total giving by different entity types.
  • You can use information gathered from these segments to target fundraising efforts based on classifications that yield high returns on your time and fundraising dollars.

Creating the Custom Field

In order to segment “Organization” constituent accounts by entity type we need to create a custom field in Bloomerang. Follow these steps to create a custom field for “Organization Type.”

  • Select the gear icon on the left hand side of the screen.
  • Select “Constituent” from the settings pop-out menu (if you aren’t an administrator you won’t be able to access this area).
  • You can add this custom field to an existing category of custom fields or you may add a new category.
  • Within the category where you want your field to appear select “New Field.”
  • Enter “Organization Type” in the “Name” field.
  • Select “Text” for the “What Kind of Data Goes In This Field?” field.
  • Select “Pick 1 Value From a List” for the “How Do You Enter Date In This Field?” field.
  • Select “New Value” and add a value for your field. Then select “Save.”
  • Add as many values as needed for the field. Values might include: business, foundation, organization, religious, government, hospital, and school among others (an organization could be a nonprofit or other non-business organization type).
  • When done adding field values, click “Save.”
  • Now navigate to any constituent account to see your field and validate that it was created successfully.

Entering Data for “Organization Type”

Since you added the “Organization Type” field to the constituent profile, this field will show up on every account regardless of type. It will show up on “Individual” accounts as well as “Organization” accounts. As a result, you shouldn’t make this field required. If it is required, you won’t be able to save newly entered “Individual” accounts. This field will only be used to identify “Organization” accounts in Bloomerang. You can provide users with a user guide or other resource to help them with this adjustment or you can run data quality reports on a monthly basis to make sure that no “Individual” accounts are flagged with an “Organization Type” field value. As you will see in the following examples, it is also important that every “Organization” account be flagged with an “Organization Type.” This will help you produce clean and clear reports.

Creating the Report

Now that we have this field, we can create reports to show total giving by both account type and organization type. The reports you run can either be an aggregation of “Individual” accounts and “Organization” accounts with “Organization Type” or you can run two separate reports, one for “Individual” accounts and then one for “Organization” accounts broken down by “Organization Type.” We will review both options and show the slight modification you can make to your filters.

The types of reports in this example are most valuable when used as strategic planning and performance measurement tools. We can leverage these fields by doing three things.

  1. Create a fundraising strategic plan that sets goals for total giving by constituent “Type” and “Organization Type.”
  2. Run monthly giving reports by constituent “Type” and “Organization Type” to see total contributions by the different entity classes.
  3. Track monthly giving by constituent “Type” and “Organization Type” and total giving for the fiscal or calendar year to date for “Type” and “Organization Type” and measure performance against your goals.

Giving by “Organization Type” Report

To show how the “Organization Type” custom field and constituent “Type” can be used in reports, we will define steps to build two different reports. First we will build a giving report by “Organization Type” and exclude “Individual” constituent accounts.

  • Select the pie chart icon.
  • Select “Go To Reports List.”
  • Select “New”
  • Select “Build a report from scratch.”
  • Select “Transactions List.”
  • Name your report.
  • Select the green button to “Add” an “Include” filter. Select “Date” and choose a date range applicable to your report needs. For this scenario we will select “Last Year.” Select the green button again and choose the “Revenue” filter for at least “$0.01.” This gives us all donations, recurring donations, and pledge payments last year (i.e. received money).
  • Select the blue button to “Add” an “Exclude” filter. Select “Type” and select “Individual”.
  • Go to “Report.”
  • Remove all columns except for “Amount.”
  • Select “Add Column” and select “Organization Type.”
  • Select the arrow next to “Organization Type” and select “Group by This Field.”
  • Select “Grouping Options” and choose “Collapse Group to One Row.”
  • Select “Save And.”

This report shows total amounts for all transactions received as revenue to your organization “Last Year” (or whatever date range you select) grouped by “Organization Type” and collapsed into one row by “Organization Type.” This report shows total giving for “Organizations” only, not “Individuals.” You can customize this report as needed based on the specifications of your reporting needs.

Giving by “Organization Type” with Individuals Report

However, let’s say you want to see “Individual” giving in the same report with our “Organization Type” segments. Follow these steps to build a single report with both account types.

  • Go back to the same report you just ran.
  • Go to “Filter.”
  • Remove the “Type – Individuals” exclusion filter from your filter set.
  • Select “Save And.”
  • The blank row in your report will be all “Individuals.”
  • You can export to Excel and add “Individuals” to the blank cell to identify the blank row in the report.

It is important to note that the second report requires that no “Individual” accounts are flagged with an “Organization Type” field value. It also is contingent on the fact that all “Organization” accounts are flagged with an “Organization” field value. If you do these two things then this report will show total giving for your filter set based on entity type. With clear data entry standards this report can be extremely valuable.

The “Organization Type” field can help you segment “Organization” constituent accounts on a deeper level. In addition, it can provide depth, density, and dimension to your reports. One simple custom field added to your Bloomerang constituent profile can open up new ways for you to slice, dice, and analyze data.

Free Download

Bloomerang
Automation
Playbook

  • 5 automation use cases that save time
  • Integration ideas for top apps like Eventbrite, Mailchimp, and Gmail
  • New ways to think about your Bloomerang experience

Join the Bloomerang users that already got their playbook!

DOWNLOAD NOW