How do I view and report on referral data?

Overview

Comprehensive reporting on referral data helps you understand sharing patterns, measure word-of-mouth effectiveness, and identify your most valuable volunteer recruiters. 

Step 1: View referrals on individual contact records 

1. Navigate to a contact's record 

2. Go to the All Details page 

3. Locate the Online Forms section 

4. Scroll right or click More to see: 

   • Referred By: Shows who shared the form with this contact 

   • Shared on FB: Shows "Yes" if the contact shared on Facebook 

   • Shared on TW: Shows "Yes" if the contact shared on Twitter 

5. This gives you an individual-level view of referral activity 

Step 2: Create a custom referral report 

1. Navigate to your reporting section 

2. Access either the Online Forms Custom Questions Report or the Online Activity Report 

3. Click Edit Columns to customize the report 

Step 3: Add referral-related columns 

1. Under Form Submission Details, add these columns: 

   • Clicked Share on Facebook: Shows which contacts shared on Facebook 

   • Clicked Share on Twitter: Shows which contacts shared on Twitter 

   • Referred By: Displays the name of the referring supporter 

   • Referrer's VANID: Shows the unique ID of the referring supporter 

   • Referred Through: Indicates which sharing method was used (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) 

2. Add any other columns needed for your analysis 

Step 4: Group and filter your report 

1. Use Group By features to organize your data: 

   • Group by Referred By to see one parent row for each referrer with a count of actions they generated 

   • This helps identify your most successful referrers 

2. Use filters to focus on specific segments:

   • Filter by date range to analyze time-based trends 

   • Filter by form name to analyze sharing patterns for specific campaigns 

   • Filter by sharing method to compare effectiveness across channels 

Step 5: Export and analyze your data 

1. Run your report with the selected columns and filters 

2. Export the data if needed for deeper analysis 

3. Use insights to refine your sharing strategy and recognize top performers