Donor Leveling Overview
Getting Started
Donor Leveling is part of Bonterra Development's Development Standard, Development Pro, and F&E Enterprise packages. Setting up Donor Level requires a professional services project through your Account Manager or Client Services team. Once implemented, the system automatically updates each supporter's donor status daily based on your organization's custom criteria.
Feature Details
Donor Leveling allows organizations with large fundraising programs to establish a hierarchy of giving levels to track major, mid-level, sustainer, and low-dollar donors. The system uses multiple criteria to classify donors based on their giving patterns and engagement. Each level can display a badge at the top of the donor's record for quick identification. Organizations can implement multiple sets of criteria to create parallel donor leveling programs, allowing you to track donors across different programs simultaneously (such as separate leveling schemes for membership, planned giving, or major gifts).
Donor levels are typically mutually exclusive within a single donor group (a donor can't be both a Blue member and a Gold member simultaneously), but donors can have levels in multiple groups. The criteria can include any field available in Create a List and can be combined to create complex leveling systems. In certain cases, levels can be made "sticky," meaning donors remain at that level indefinitely regardless of subsequent giving patterns.
Feature Navigation
- How do I include or exclude donors in a Search?
- How do I get a summary of Donors in each level?
- How do I add Donor Levels to contribution reports or exports?
Tracking Your Success
Once Donor Leveling has been implemented and activated, every supporter's donor level appears in the Targets section of their Contact Record. Contacts in levels with associated badges will display these badges prominently at the top of their contact record, allowing you to quickly identify your most important donors as you navigate through your database.
Next Steps
Review the articles below to learn how to effectively utilize Donor Level information in your fundraising efforts and reporting.
