Getting Started with MonkeyPod as a New Development Officer
As a new development officer, you have the incredibly important role of helping to manage donor relationships and grow revenue coming into your organization. MonkeyPod can help you stay organized, automate the busywork, and focus on what's important. Here's what you need to know to get started in MonkeyPod.
What is MonkeyPod?
MonkeyPod is an all-in-one software platform that includes CRM, email marketing, fundraising, grant management, and nonprofit accounting. MonkeyPod is your command center for managing donors and other constituents, recording notes, running reports, and more.
How do I search for people?
There are many ways to search your data in MonkeyPod, including through pre-built reports, but here are three ways to search your relationships in the CRM. All of these search functions can be found in the Relationships menu.
1. Quick Search
The Quick Search feature is the text box in the bottom corner of the Relationships menu. Quick Search allows you to find and view a single relationship.
2. Browse Relationships
The Browse Relationships feature allows you to view all of the relationships in the CRM. You can filter those relationships by role and other basic criteria.
3. Relationship Search
The Relationship Search feature allows you to build and save complex searches. For example, you might want to find all donors who made a gift in the last 3 years, live in a certain state, and have never purchased a ticket to your annual gala. The Relationship Search feature also allows you to do bulk actions with your search results, like subscribe those relationships to an email list, export them to a spreadsheet, or add them to a pipeline.
How do I create a new relationship?
Go to Relationships → Create New. When you create a new relationship, you will have to specify the type of relationship (i.e. Individual, Organization, Foundation, Government, Corporate, Other). Those relationship types are fixed categories that cannot be modified. Relationship types are used as filters in many reports across MonkeyPod.
How do I record a donation?
Go to Finance → Record a Donation. You can record standard donations, donations of nonfinancial property, donated services, or credit card donations that are not processed by MonkeyPod. Once you record a donation, you can send the donor a receipt via email (if the donor has an email address on file) by using the pop-out menu on the left side of your screen.
How does MonkeyPod handle online donations?
Your organization can receive online donations using MonkeyPod's fundraising pages or embedded donation forms. Fundraising pages are standalone webpages that can be linked to your website, social media pages, or included in email campaigns. Embedded donation forms can be embedded in your website.
Donations that are received through MonkeyPod's fundraising pages or embedded donation forms are automatically recorded in the CRM and accounting records, and receipts are automatically emailed to donors.
To adjust the settings for those online fundraising tools, including the language on donation receipts, go to the Fundraising menu and look at the Online Fundraising section.
How do I get notified when a donation is received?
Click on your picture or initials in the top right corner of MonkeyPod and select Notification Preferences. You can receive notifications in MonkeyPod and/or receive email notifications.
Where can I find all of our grants?
Go to Fundraising → View All Grants. You will see a list of all of your organization's grants, in reverse chronological order.
You can record a new grant by clicking Finance → Record a New Grant. Grants in MonkeyPod can be restricted or unrestricted.
If your organization has the Grant Tracker installed (found under the Apps & Integrations menu), you can track all of your grant proposals and submission and reporting deadlines.
How do I capture emails that I send to donors via my Outlook, Gmail, etc.?
You can automatically log emails that you send to your donors using the Bcc to MonkeyPod feature. By adding a special Bcc address to any email you send, MonkeyPod will automatically log the message as an Email interaction for the recipient(s) — whether you're emailing from Gmail, Outlook, or any other mail client.
What reports should I look at first?
- Top Donors shows you who has given the most to your organization over time. You can filter the report by relationship type to help devise your stewardship strategies.
- Contributions by Source shows donations, pledges, and grants by relationship type. Check out the Insights tab in the report for helpful data visualizations.
- Annual Giving Trends shows donations, pledges, grants, number of donors, and number of gifts by fiscal year.
- Donor Retention includes retention metrics from year to year, monthly gifts, annual gifts, first time donors, and lapsed donors (LYBUNT and SYBUNT).
How can I ask questions and get support?
You can use the Support beacon in the bottom corner to search the MonkeyPod knowledgebase or to submit an email to our support team. MonkeyPod's YouTube channel includes video tutorials. And for live trainings, MonkeyPod offers free, weekly drop-in office hours, called Welcome Wednesdays, and free monthly webinars. Check out our training opportunities here.
If your organization is on a MonkeyPod Pro or Enterprise subscription, your team has access to 12 hours of scheduled Zoom support per year. Email support@monkeypod.io to schedule training sessions.