Reporting on Household Giving
Organizations that maintain separate Individual records for family members can enable Roll Up Household Member Giving. When enabled, DonorDock calculates the Household's statistics using information recorded on the Household plus information recorded on the Individual contacts connected as Household members.
This allows you to maintain each person's individual history while also using the Household as a family-level reporting record.
Enable Household Giving Roll-Up
To enable this feature, an Admin can:
Open the Settings menu (grid icon top right).
Select Settings.
On the navigation pane on the left, select Features.
Scroll down to the toggle for Roll Up Household Member Giving.
Click Save.
When you change the setting, DonorDock recalculates Household records. For organizations with a large database, updated totals may take a few minutes to appear.
Only Household records are recalculated. Individual and Organization contact statistics are not changed by this setting.
If you later turn the setting off, DonorDock recalculates Household records so their statistics reflect only information recorded directly on the Household. No gifts or other records are deleted when you turn the setting on or off.
What Information Is Rolled Up?
Enabling Roll Up Household Member Giving does not add new reporting fields. Instead, it changes how the Household's existing contact statistics are calculated.
When enabled, Household statistics can include the Household's own information plus applicable information from its members.
Report Column Field | Examples of Household Fields Affected |
|---|---|
Lifetime Giving | Total Lifetime Giving Amount, Total Lifetime Gift Count, Membership and Event Ticket Counts and Amounts |
Current and Previous Periods | Year-to-Date Gifts and Amounts, Last-Year Gifts and Amounts, Fiscal Year-to-Date Gifts and Amounts, Last Fiscal Year Gifts and Amounts |
Giving Milestones | First Gift, Second Gift, Last Gift, Largest Gift, including related dates and amounts |
Memberships | First Membership Start, Last Membership Start, Membership End, Membership Type |
Pledges | Total Pledged, including applicable outstanding pledge balances from Household members |
Soft Credits | Total Soft Credit Amount, Year-to-Date Soft Credits, Last-Year Soft Credits |
Volunteering | Lifetime Volunteer Hours |
Because these are existing contact fields, the updated Household values are available anywhere those fields already appear.
Reporting Area | Household Roll-Up Values Available? |
Contact Reports | Yes |
Report Filters | Yes |
Saved List Views | Yes |
Column Selectors | Yes |
Exports | Yes |
Household giving roll-up changes whose information is included, not which transaction types are included.
For example, if your organization's donor statistics are configured to count only Donation gift types, enabling Household giving roll-up does not cause other excluded gift types to begin counting.
Reporting on Individuals vs. Households
When Household giving roll-up is enabled, first decide whether you want your report to answer a person-level or family-level question.
Reporting Goal | Contact Type to Use |
See giving by individual donor | Individual |
See combined giving by family | Household |
For example, if Alex gives $500 and Morgan gives $250 and both contacts belong to the Smith Household, their Individual records continue to show their own giving.
With Household roll-up enabled, the Smith Household can also reflect the combined $750.
The gifts themselves remain recorded on Alex and Morgan's Individual records. DonorDock does not move or duplicate the underlying gift records.
Avoid Double Counting in Contact Reports
When Household giving roll-up is enabled, a member's gift contributes to both:
The Individual member's giving statistics
The Household's rolled-up giving statistics
This means a report that totals giving statistics across both Individual and Household contact records can appear inflated.
For example:
Contact | Total Revenue |
Alex Smith, Individual | $500 |
Smith Household | $500 |
The Household's $500 represents Alex's gift as part of the family total. It is not a second gift.
To prevent double counting when totaling contact statistics, filter the report by the contact type that matches what you are trying to measure.
Use Individual contacts for per-person reporting or Household contacts for family-level reporting rather than combining both contact types into the same giving total.
Dashboard Calculations
DonorDock dashboards calculate giving totals directly from gift records, not from the calculated giving statistics stored on contact records. Household roll-up does not create another gift record; enabling the setting does not cause gifts to be counted twice on dashboards.
When Household giving roll-up is enabled, the Household record also provides additional visibility into member activity.
Household Area | Behavior with Roll-Up Enabled |
All Gifts | Displays gifts recorded on the Household and gifts recorded on Household members |
Pledges | Displays pledges associated with the Household and its members |
Timeline | Includes member gifts, activities, and form responses and identifies the Contact associated with each item |
Giving Statistics | Uses the Household's rolled-up values |
Notable Donations | Reflects giving across the Household and its members |
Household Members Total | Displays the Household's saved roll-up total, including gifts recorded directly on the Household when applicable |
Who Counts as a Household Member?
Household membership determines whose information is included in the Household's rolled-up statistics.
As long as an Individual remains connected to the Household, their applicable information continues to count toward the Household's totals.
For example, marking a Household member as deceased does not automatically remove their historical giving from the Household.
Similarly, if someone is no longer part of the family unit but remains connected to the Household record, their applicable giving will continue to be included.
Removing the Individual from the Household removes their information from the Household's rolled-up calculations. It does not delete or change the gifts, activities, or history stored on the Individual's own record.
When Is Household Reporting Useful?
Household giving roll-up is especially useful when your organization maintains separate records for family members but also wants to answer family-level fundraising questions, such as:
Which families have given the most this year?
What is a family's lifetime giving?
Which Households have not given recently?
Which families have outstanding pledges?
Which Households meet a specific giving threshold?
Which families gave last year but have not yet given this year?
By filtering reports to Household contacts, you can use DonorDock's existing contact statistics and reporting tools to analyze family-level giving without combining or manually calculating each Household member's individual totals.