Segmenters

There are several segmenters found in Denari; Name Segmenter, Gift Segmenter, Pledge Segmenter, Sponsored Name Segmenter and others. Segmenters are query tools that allow you to segment your data based on filters and they give you a much expanded set of filters compared to the standard reports. One big advantage of segmenters over the standard reports is that they give you complete control over what is in the output. For example, you may want to get a list of gifts that were given this year but confine that list to only hard credits. There is no way to modify the standard reports options to include or exclude hard credits but you can with a gift segment. Or you may want a list of names of the people who gave more than $1000 this year but confine that list to just individuals, no organizations. Again you can't do that with the standard reports but you can with a name segment.

 

There are two rules that you first need to know to work with segments.

 

1. Segments produce results based on their type. For example, name segmenter uses name characteristics as filters and outputs name information. That means that it does not output specific gift information. So you can filter on things like geographic location, jurisdiction, classifications, giving statistics, etc.; things that are associated with a name record. And, a name segment will give you that type of information in the output. Gift segmenter filters on gift characteristics and outputs gift information and pledge segmenter the same. Knowing this helps you determine where you need to go to produce your report. If you want a list of gifts that were given to a fund code you would not use name segmenter because a fund code is a gift characteristic.

 

2. You only use the filters that you need. All of the segments, and most reports in Denari, start with everyone, or every gift, or every pledge. So for example, if you want a list of all of your names you can create a name segment and use no filters. That will give you everyone. If you then only want those donors in a specific zip code you will use ONLY that filter. Since you are starting with everyone you are reaching into the bucket of names and pulling out only those with that zip code.

 

As mentioned above, the segmenters are query tools. They assist you in creating a query statement. In the old days of data management you had to write out your statement. It might be something like, "Give me a list of gifts between 5/1/2010 and 5/30/2010 that have the fund code equal to AN56." You would then run that query to get that list of gifts in a database format that you would then have to convert into whatever format you wanted for the data. Denari's segmenters do that for you. You select only the filters you want to get the data you want and Denari creates that query statement for you. You can also then select an output type. For example, you may want the data in an Excel format or a PDF document or even as an email list.

 

The segmenters provide a great deal of flexibility over Quick Reports or the Standard Reports and they do require training an experience. If you are able to get the information you want from either of those two categories then they are the ones to use. But if you need or want more flexibility the segmenters give you that option.