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  • 1.  Designation setup (grouping/hierarchy)

    Posted 05-08-2023 03:28 PM

    Happy end-of-Monday, y'all!

    I'm curious if any of you are creating groupings of designations or a hierarchy of designations within your CRM (especially those of you on BBCRM)?  If so, what are you using: an attribute, a hierarchy function, a naming convention, or something else?

    I'll give you a couple of examples: 
        1. We have several designations for various study abroad programs, short-term programs in various settings within the US, etc. but would like to group them so we can easily pull a list of all designations related to cross-cultural experiences.
        2. We are undertaking some renovations of athletic facilities and donors are restricting their gift to a specific item/area of renovation which requires us to create separate designations but we need to be able to pull all designations related to the overall renovation project.

    We have some ideas but aren't particularly sold on any of them and hear how others may be tackling the situation.

    Thanks!
    Courtney



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    Courtney Sims
    Bucknell University
    courtney.sims@bucknell.edu
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  • 2.  RE: Designation setup (grouping/hierarchy)

    Posted 05-08-2023 03:59 PM
    Hi Courtney,

    This is a challenge, because designations/restrictions are fundamentally multidimensional. If you create an attribute, you can track many dimensions in total, but can only assign one to each designation, with no grouping. If you use a hierarchy, you're limited to one dimension, but you get to subdivide it as you wish. Naming conventions are a way to string together several dimensions in one attribute, but they can be fragile to enter and not user-friendly unless you really lock down the pick list. But if you do that, you wind up with a large number of permutations to select from - hundreds, very quickly. You also need to know whether a designation is an AND or an OR if there are multiple designations tracked for a fund. 

    In the end, the right answer is going to vary based on how robust your data tools are, and how extensive your knowledge management needs are. If you are tracking many funds with many granular conditions and dimensions, and you need to report on them fluidly, you'll need to build out a more extensive database. To be honest, even in endowment management systems, I haven't seen really robust functionality for this. Hopefully someone else can offer more wisdom on this question, because most of what I've seen is orgs satisficing and tracking 1-3 attributes, and the rest is in the notes. 


    Thank you,
    Isaac Shalev
    Data Strategy Expert
    Sage70, Inc.
    (917) 859-0151
    isaac@sage70.com

    Schedule a 30-minute consultation now:




    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Designation setup (grouping/hierarchy)

    Posted 05-08-2023 06:16 PM

    We use 6-digit designation numbers that begin with a 2-digit code that corresponds to one of our sites. For example, if our College of Arts and Sciences is site 42, one of their designations might be 421234.

     

     

    Kelli Crispin

    Business Analyst/Quality Assurance Specialist

    she/they

     

    The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 

    Office of University Development

    E  kelli.crispin@unc.edu

     

    signature_3134537346

     

    GIVE.UNC.EDU 

     

     

     




    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Designation setup (grouping/hierarchy)

    Posted 05-10-2023 11:19 AM

    It has been hectic the last few days, so I'm just getting to read your responses but I sincerely appreciate your input and thoughts on this.

    Thank you all for your help!
    Courtney



    ------------------------------
    Courtney Sims
    Bucknell University
    courtney.sims@bucknell.edu
    ------------------------------

    Original Message


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