Custom Fields
Philantro classifies custom fields into two categories - Contact Data Point and Transaction Data Point. The difference between the Contact and Transaction data point is the data's propensity for change. When doing reporting, you can incorporate contact data points into your queries and incorporate transaction data points into your transaction reports.
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For example, a custom field such as "How did you hear about us?" is an attribute assigned to the contact record and seldom changes because how many times can a donor first hear about your organization? Generally once. This type of question is best created as a contact data point.
| Setting | Description |
| Data Point Name | This is the name of the public name of the data point. |
| Field Type | Select from Text field, Text Box, Multiple Choice, Date field and Check box. |
| Helper Text | The public text that describes a respective data point. |
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For example, a custom field such as "Would you like to forego all benefits for your contribution?" - a donor might answer differently each transaction. This type of question is best created as a transaction data point.
| Setting | Description |
| Data Point Name | This is the name of the public name of the data point. |
| Field Type | Select from Text field, Text Box, Multiple Choice, Date field and Check box. |
| Helper Text | The public text that describes a respective data point. |
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A donation campaign is required to add your custom fields to a donation form.
Once you've created your custom data point, you can assign them to specific donation campaigns, change the order in which they appear and make them required as needed. You can assign one more custom questions to a given campaign via the respective campaign's settings.
| Setting | Description |
| Campaign | Which campaign(s) to associate the data point with. This is typically found in the campaign settings itself. |
| Required | An option that determines whether or not a field should be required when a donor completes a transaction. |
| Order | An option that determines the order in which multiple custom fields are displayed on the donation form for a give campaign. |
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The type of data point determines which report and search the data is assigned to. For example, if you wanted to find all donors who were referred to the organization by newspaper - you would use the contact report builder. However, if you wanted to find all transactions in which a donor has decided to forego all benefits, you would use the transaction report builder.
| Data Point Type | Description |
| Contact Data Point | Contact data points are assigned to the contact / donor record and are incorporated into contact reports and queries. |
| Transaction Data Point | Transaction data points are assigned to a given transaction and are incorporated into the transaction reports and queries |
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