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How does TntConnect determines monthly average?

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First published by:
Troy Wolbrink
on 29 Sep 2008
Last revision by:
Troy Wolbrink
on 18 May 2016
6 people found this article useful.

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How does TntConnect determines monthly average?

How TntConnect Determines the Monthly Average for a Contact

 

Contacts in TntConnect have an AveMonthlyGift field that can be used to determine past giving performance and can also be used to estimate future expectations.  This field is not necessarily a simple average.  If you want a simple average, you can just divide the TwelveMonthTotal field by 12.

 

Special Partners

When a contact does not have a financial pledge, they are treated as a special partner and the AveMonthlyGift field does represent the simple average.  This is the TwelveMonthTotal field divided by 12. 

 

Financial Partners

When a contact does have a financial pledge, their MonthlyPledge (PledgeAmount / PledgeFrequency) is taken into consideration.  First of all, the average is based upon (12 + PledgeFrequency) months.  This means that a monthly giver has the average based on (12 + 1) 13 months.  A quarterly giver is based on (12 + 3) 15 months, and an annual (12 + 12) 24 months.  If no gifts have been received within this time frame, the average is zero.  If there are no gifts before this range, the number of months is shortened to just include the first gift.

 

Once this range is established, the first month with gifts prior to the range and the last month with gifts within the range are treated uniquely.  The first month with gifts prior to the range is spread out evenly to fill in all months without gifts up until right before the first month with gifts within the range.  This is done because the donor probably intended for that gift to cover those months.  The last month with gifts is spread out into the future based upon the MonthlyPledge.  This is done because the donor probably intends for the gifts that month to count for future months if it is larger than the MonthlyPledge.

 

Examples

 

This donor has pledged $50/month of support.

 

Here is their giving history:  (The current month is March)

 

300

 

 

 

 

 

100

 

100

 

50

100

 

150

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

 

First of all, their average will be based on (12 + 1) 13 months.

 

300

 

 

 

 

 

100

 

100

 

50

100

 

150

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

 

The first month with gifts before this range will be spread out to fill in all the months up until the first month with gifts within the range.

 

50

50

50

50

50

50

100

 

100

 

50

100

 

150

 

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

 

Now the last month with gifts is spread out into the future based upon the MonthlyPledge of $50.  Notice this causes $50 from the last month’s total of $150 to not be counted.  This $50 was probably intended to cover future months.

 

50

50

50

50

50

50

100

 

100

 

50

100

 

50

50

50

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

 

The average can now be determined by adding all of the monthly totals within the range.

 

50

50

50

50

100

 

100

 

50

100

 

50

50

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

 

Therefore, this partner’s average is $650/13 = $50 per month.  This seems very reasonable because the partner occasionally gives a few months at a time to cover future months, and because this partner has done this consistently.  If a simple mean were calculated for 12 months, the partner would have an average of about $42 (12 month total of $500), which in this case does not make sense since the partner has been faithful to their $50/mo pledge.

Recent Comments

By: ADWeathers Posted on 14 Mar 2011 10:36 PM

We had a church that was giving $1,000 per month, then stopped in June 2010. So now we are trying to raise our support to fill that gap. How do I remove that church's previous giving from the average to find out my current actual average is. I considered deleting the church as a contact, and their giving, but I like having that on history, just don't want it included in my current average to see how close I am to getting the support we need.

By: Troy Wolbrink Posted on 18 Mar 2011 10:01 PM

TntMPD doesn't currently offer a way to exclude certain contacts from the total average.  But on the anlaysis page, if you drill down, it does seperate total averages between those w/ pledges and those without pledges (special givers).

By: Eric Myatt Posted on 21 Jul 2012 1:35 AM

I have a supporter who increased from $25 monthly to $50 monthly. I increased the pledge amount field and the first increased amount of $50 has come in. However, the contacts Average Monthly only goes up to $27. I realized this is the past 13 months gifts divided by 13, but I was hoping for a way to have the Average Monthly reflect the increased gift amount. Is this possible?

By: Troy Wolbrink Posted on 24 Jul 2012 2:24 AM

The average will not move up until the first $50 gift comes in.

By: Segullah Posted on 12 Feb 2014 10:36 PM

Discussed this with Troy today as I was a little confused on this. So I post this to help others.

When filling in the missing months before the range by spreading out the latest gift before the range, the assumption is that the donor meant for that gift to last for however many months have been skipped before the range begins. So if the number of skipped months had been 3 instead of 5, the $300 would have been become $75 for 4 months instead of $50 for 6 months.

In contrast, the last gift, if over the pledge, gets divided by the pledge amount and spread into the future.

By: Khuseby111 Posted on 25 Oct 2017 9:03 PM

In my total pledge amount, it says I have $200 in outstanding pledges.  What does that mean?  It also states what I have left to raise as well.  I can't figure out how this $200 got there.

By: Troy Wolbrink Posted on 26 Oct 2017 3:16 AM

Under the "Tools" menu, click on "Pledge Fulfillment Report".  The contacts with "Outstanding Pledges" will be listed in a section.  Outstanding pledges means that the "Pledge Received" box is not checked.  This is the box to the left of the pledge amount.