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Understanding the Contributors dashboard

Explore how to use the Contributors dashboard to analyze your supporter base, track demographic patterns, and enhance donor engagement strategies.

Updated over 2 months ago

Overview

The Contributors dashboard provides comprehensive insights into your supporter base and contribution patterns. This powerful tool helps you monitor contributor growth, identify demographic patterns, and understand supporter behavior over time. While the Transactions dashboard focuses on financial data and revenue patterns, the Contributors dashboard helps you understand the people who are funding your organization.

Understanding dashboard filters

At the top of the Contributors dashboard, you'll find a set of filters that allow you to segment your data for more targeted analysis:

  • Year: Select which year's data you want to analyze

  • Nation: Filter contributors by the nation they belong to

  • Tag: Filter contributors by specific tags assigned to them.

    • 📌 Note: Select multiple tags to return contributors who have at least one of those tags.

  • Status: View data for new or retained contributors.

    • A new contributor is a person who made a transaction for the first time in the selected year

    • A retained contributor is a person who made a transaction in the selected year and the previous year

  • State: Filter by geographic state

  • Postal Code: Narrow down to specific postal/zip code areas

  • Revenue Type: Analyze by contribution type (donations, memberships, tickets)

These filters can be used in combination to drill down into specific segments of your contributor data.

Key metrics summary

The dashboard displays four key metrics at the top of the screen, providing a quick overview of your contributor performance:

  • Total Transactions: The number of financial transactions processed

  • Total Revenue: The total amount of money raised

  • Total Contributors: The number of unique individuals who made financial contributions

  • Average Transaction: The average amount per transaction

Each metric includes a year-over-year comparison showing the percentage change and absolute difference versus the previous year's performance to date (PYTD).

📌 Note: Green upward arrows indicate growth compared to the previous year, while red downward arrows would indicate a decrease.

Monthly tab

The Monthly tab provides time-based analysis of your contributor performance with two side-by-side visualizations:

Revenue by month

  • Bar chart displaying your monthly revenue totals

  • Current year (darker blue) and previous year (lighter blue) shown for comparison

  • Y-axis shows revenue amounts, X-axis shows months of the year

Contributors by month

  • Bar chart showing the number of unique contributors each month

  • Current year (darker blue) and previous year (lighter blue) shown for comparison

  • Y-axis shows contributor count, X-axis shows months of the year

This view helps you identify seasonal patterns, track year-over-year changes in revenue and contributors, and spot months that typically perform best or worst for fundraising.

Type tab

The Type tab breaks down your contributor base by geography and revenue sources:

View toggle options

Show visualizations in terms of contributors or revenue:

  • Contributors: Shows metrics focused on contributor counts

  • Revenue: Shows metrics focused on revenue amounts

Sources summary

Shows contributor counts from different revenue types:

  • From Memberships: Total contributors from membership fees

  • From Donations: Total contributors from donations

  • From Events: Total contributors from event tickets

Each category displays:

  • Total amount for the current year

  • Year-over-year comparison with previous year (percentage and absolute difference)

Contributors by Location

  • World map visualization showing geographic distribution of contributions

  • Larger and darker circles indicate a higher concentration of contributors

  • Provides a global view of where your support is coming from

This view helps you understand which contribution sources are attracting the most supporters and driving your fundraising success.

Source tab

The Source tab provides insight into where your contributors are located with two visualizations:

View toggle options

Show visualizations in terms of contributors or revenue:

  • Contributors: Shows metrics focused on contributor counts

  • Revenue: Shows metrics focused on revenue amounts

Revenue by Nation

  • Horizontal bar chart showing contributor counts for each nation in your NationBuilder account

  • Current year (darker blue) and previous year (lighter blue) shown for comparison

  • Y-axis shows nation names, X-axis shows contributor counts

Revenue by State

  • Horizontal bar chart breaking down revenue by geographic states

  • Shows which states are generating the most contributors

  • Current year (darker blue) and previous year (lighter blue) shown for comparison

  • Y-axis shows state names, X-axis shows contributor counts

This view helps you identify your strongest nations and geographic areas of support and target your outreach efforts accordingly.

Common use cases

Here are some ways to use the Contributors dashboard to improve your supporter engagement strategy:

  1. Geographic targeting: Identify regions with a high concentration of contributors to focus in-person events or region-specific messaging.

  2. Seasonal planning: Schedule acquisition campaigns during months that historically show the strongest contributor growth.

  3. Campaign effectiveness: Compare contributor growth before and after specific campaigns to measure acquisition effectiveness.

  4. Supporter diversification: Monitor the balance between different supporter types (membership holders, donation contributors, event attendees) to build a more resilient community.

  5. Year-over-year analysis: Compare current performance against previous years to track growth in your supporter base or identify segments needing attention.

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