The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part III - Drill-Down Analysis

In our last post about the "Big Picture" on the Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard we looked at the details on the main dashboard.  However, the dashboard and reporting application also has more than the one dashboard.  In this episode we will look at the drill-down capabilites of the application.

After the Tucamino Solutions Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard opens, displaying the Main Dashboard with the charts, graphs, and data tables, the user can drill-down to get at more detail with most of the dashboard components. 

At the right is the first example.  When reviewing the 12 Month Period Comparison, the end-user may want to get more detail for a specific period.  When the user right-clicks with their mouse on a specific cell or header in the grid, they are presented with a menu of options.  As shown at the right, the end-user can view a list of gifts for the specific time period or a summary dashboard for that time period.

The Gift List, shown at the left, is an example of a drill-down report available in the Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard. It provides a list of gifts for the end-user to view.  Most dashboard components with the dashboard application allow drill-down to a list of gifts.  This can be for a specific campaign, fund, time period, or other specific filters.  This drill-down report also provides summary statistics at the bottom of the report.  These gifts can be sorted by clicking on the column headers.


Once on the gift list report, there is further drill-down capabilities into data for the Raiser's Edge dashboard.  When the user right-clicks on a gift row, a menu is presented that allows the user to go to the gift or the constituent the gift is recorded under.  What is cool about this is that these menu options will open the forms from The Raiser's Edge, giving the end-user access to built-in Raiser's Edge functionality.  These forms will only be accessible when the user selects to sign-in to The Raiser's Edge via the RE:API module.  When SQL Server authentication is chosen, these menu options are not available. There is a benefit to each authentication method, such as not using an expensive RE concurrent license when chosing the SQL Server authentication.

As seen at the left, drill-down capabilities are available on the charts and graphs in the dashboard as well. For example, the user can drill down into a campaign and see the campaign details in the default Raiser's Edge campaign form via the RE:API integration.  In addition, further dashboards and reports are available via the other menu options, including the previously discussed gift list option.  If you like what the dashboard presents but want further drill-down capabilities, we can customize that and add these additional drill-down features.

One of the options for the drill-down capabilities for campaigns is to see an Active Campaign Summary dashboard.  This report and dashboard shows various summary statistics including how much has been raised, what % that is of the total goal, how much is expected due (pledge installments recorded in RE), and how much of the goal is forecasted, or committed (when adding total raised plus total expected from pledge installments).
In addition, there is a visual breakdown of how much has been raised per month over the last 12 months to see which ones may be trending in a positive or negative direction.

This post begins to highlight the power of a dashboard application.  Drill-down reports and dashboards can be created to give more detail and potentially give more information targeted at a specific role or individual to allow them to be more productive in their responsibilities.  In addition, we get an introduction to the integration possibilities with the RE:API and the custom dashboard application by being able to bring up campaigns, funds, constituents, and gifts in the out-of-the-box Raiser's Edge application-based forms.

If you want to get more information about the Tucamino Solution's Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard application, go to the product page on our website.  You can find more products listed on our website as well..  You can request a download of the product, and many more, from our website.

Check out the other posts in our series at:
The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part I - The Overview
The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part II - The Big Picture
The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part III - Drill-Down Analysis
The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part IV - True Integration with The Raiser's Edge
The Raiser's Edge Financial Dashboard Part V - How to Extend It Further