Why Your Nonprofit Should Use Custom Raiser’s Edge™ Reports and Dashboards

The Power of Custom Raiser’s Edge™ Reports and Dashboards for Nonprofits

Custom reports in Raiser’s Edge™ take you beyond pre-designed templates to create insights that meet your unique needs. When your nonprofit focuses on actionable, personalized reports, you can harness your data to tell your story better, improve forecasting, and secure a more stable financial future.

Here’s how custom Raiser’s Edge™ reports and dashboards can help your nonprofit thrive:

Tell a Clearer Impact Story

Every nonprofit understands the need to communicate its mission and accomplishments effectively. Reporting plays a major role when it comes to telling your impact story. For donors, stakeholders, and beneficiaries to continue supporting your mission, they need a clear picture of the difference you’re making—and there’s no better way to do that than by connecting personal stories to hard data.

How Custom Reports Help Craft Your Impact Story

• Highlight KPIs That Matter Most: Every nonprofit has different priorities. Whether tracking major/planned gifts or grants secured, custom reports enable you to focus on metrics that align with your mission.
• Illustrate Trends Over Time: Custom reports allow you to create visualizations that clearly show progress—think year-over-year revenue growth or statistics about beneficiaries served. These charts and graphs make your impact easier to understand and communicate.
• Build Confidence Among Donors: When donors see measurable outcomes tied to their contributions, they feel more confident about providing ongoing support. Custom reports make that transparency and accountability easy to achieve.

For example, if your nonprofit provides scholarships, a custom report can track how many students graduated thanks to your efforts—and even include their testimonials. These tailored insights paint a picture that inspires donors to invest in your cause.

Generate Accurate and Mission-Specific Forecasting

Nonprofits operate in a unique landscape where limited resources and shifting funding can make future planning incredibly challenging. With custom Raiser’s Edge™ reports, you can generate forecasts tailored precisely to your mission, avoiding the risks of generic or incomplete data.

Benefits of Custom Forecasting

• Align With Your Goals: Whether your organization focuses on education, healthcare, or environmental efforts, custom reports allow you to predict resource and funding needs specific to your niche.
• Identify Seasonal Trends: By analyzing donation patterns, you can pinpoint times when revenue typically increases or decreases and plan campaigns accordingly.
• Understand Donor Retention Metrics: Custom reports help identify donor trends, such as frequency of giving or average gift size, and provide insights into which outreach methods improve retention.

For instance, a youth organization might identify that most donations come during back-to-school months. With a custom report, you can isolate these patterns and plan campaigns or events to capitalize on this seasonal giving behavior.

Identify Revenue-Wise Income Streams

One of the most significant challenges nonprofits face is financial stability and revenue diversification. By leveraging custom Raiser’s Edge™ reports, you can clearly identify your most reliable revenue streams and spot vulnerabilities before they become significant roadblocks.

Strengthen Your Financial Picture With Custom Reporting

• Track Individual Campaign Performance: Custom reports empower you to assess each campaign’s ROI, ensuring you maximize the use of your fundraising resources.
• Evaluate Donor Segments: Are corporate donations or individual giving driving revenue growth? Reports tailored to donor segmentation help you understand which groups are most engaged.
• Spot Areas of Decline Early: If one funding stream is shrinking or donors are at risk of lapsing, custom reports provide early warning signs so you can take corrective action.

Take, for example, a nonprofit running a gala event annually. A custom report could compare year-over-year attendance and revenue to show shifts in donor preferences. This insight might lead to adapting the event format, introducing a virtual component, or adding exclusive donor benefits.

Why Every Nonprofit Should Prioritize Data-Driven Decisions

Gone are the days when nonprofits could rely on simple spreadsheets and generic reporting for decision-making. By not utilizing the full capabilities of Raiser’s Edge™ custom reporting, organizations risk missing critical trends, inefficiently allocating resources, and ultimately falling short of their missions.

Custom Raiser’s Edge™ reports put actionable insights at your fingertips, enabling connected, data-informed strategies that maximize your nonprofit’s efforts. From personalized storytelling to robust forecasting and financial clarity, the benefits of custom reports can be a game-changer for nonprofits of all sizes.

Take the Next Step on Your Custom Reporting Journey

At Donor Database Experts, we specialize in helping nonprofits unlock the power of Raiser’s Edge™ to transform data into actionable insights. Whether you need help setting up reports or training your team to leverage custom features, we’re here to guide you every step of the way.

Don’t leave your decisions up to chance—start turning data into impact. Contact us today to learn more about building custom Raiser’s Edge™ reports tailored to your nonprofit’s needs.