Turning Reports into Dashboard Panels

Are you on a quest for the perfect fundraising dashboard? With ClearView CRM, you have a useful option of adding your own report-based, custom panels to the system’s standard list of dashboard panel choices.

ClearView CRM offers a range of panels already built into its Panel Library, from Action Reminders and Gifts by Geography, to Prospects Added in Past Month and numerous others. As luck (or software developers) would have it, you also can add panels that reflect reports you use frequently but that don’t appear on the built-in panel list. Technically, this is called “rendering” a report in a custom panel.

Adding a new custom panel to your available Panel Library list offers a few advantages:

• Efficiency: Report information that you use frequently is immediately available in the panel when you log in to your ClearView CRM dashboard.
• Effectiveness: An optimum panel configuration allows you to grasp quickly the import of what you see.
• Choice: You have more options with which to build exactly the dashboard(s) that supports your and your organization’s work.

Many interactive summary reports in the ClearView Reports Library are good candidates for a custom panel. Great examples are the Active Donor by Geography report and the Solicitor Activity Performance Summary report. Your ClearView CRM administrator will need to configure any new custom panels to display properly and with the right kind of information.  After you select the report you want in the custom panel, you’ll choose an appropriate visual layout. Once the panel is complete, it will show up in the Panel Library, and anyone can choose to include it in a dashboard.

If you don’t have support from an internal ClearView CRM administrator, ask for help to create your report-based custom panel from your account manager or anyone on the Client Services Team. They’ll be happy to help you produce a custom panel that can immediately show up on the fundraising dashboard of your dreams.

Do you have the dashboard you deserve?

One of the beauties of sophisticated fundraising software like ClearView CRM is the ability to provide meaningful, usable dashboards. But are you getting the dashboard you deserve? That is, does your dashboard offer you at-a-glance information that actually 1. lets you know if you're on target to meet your goals today, and/or 2. helps you set goals for tomorrow?

First, let's say what dashboards that might achieve one or both of those objectives are not. Dashboards are not portals. If your screen simply shows a group of applications in panels, you're not looking at a dashboard.

Dashboards, at their best, are virtual treasure troves of charts, reports, visual indicators and alerts arranged on one screen in a way that makes sense to you.

They give real-time information that can alert you to operational issues like the quality of information in your database or help you understand how your annual campaign is progressing against last year's results. At the heart of the best dashboard is strategic thinking about, among other issues, the overall goal of the dashboard, who will use it, what its panels should reveal and which data sources you need to tap to get the right information at the right time. 

Many ClearView CRM users are building custom dashboards for their organizations that show precisely the kinds of information they need to stay on top of their key performance indicators (KPIs) and long-term trends. One client has created dashboards for executives, chapters and donor services, each of which accomplishes different goals. The executive dashboard, for instance, features panels on fiscal year gift comparisons, donor count breakdowns and trends, membership alerts and other topics.

As all dashboard panels should be, these panels are interactive. Users can drill down into the data in panels to get at underlying detail immediately, or take action immediately, without leaving the dashboard.

The key to creating a dashboard--a dynamic, relevant work tool--instead of a portal ultimately comes down to your ability to distinguish among useful and productive data and interesting, but non-essential information. If you take the time to get the goals and strategy right ahead of time, you're well on your way to the fundraising dashboard you deserve.