REACH provides organizations with the ability to create unlimited Custom Fields to capture any additional data or information for your Sponsorships, Supporters, Projects, Places and Campaigns. Custom fields vary per organization.

Data collected using Custom Fields can be shown publicly or to Admins Only or Sponsors Only (when logged in to their Donor Portal).

Custom fields will also be shown on the Admin Console and in Reports and Exports.

Common examples of Custom Fields#

• Sponsorships –
  • Note: See example Sponsorship Custom Fields
  • Commonly Used Examples: Admin Notes (Admin-Only), Gender, Grade, Favorite Activity, Favorite Color, Immunization History, Updates for Sponsors (Sponsor-Only)
    • REACH already includes a system field “Date of Birth” for all sponsorship records. You do not need to create a custom field for Date of Birth or Age for your Sponsorship Types. By using the included Date of Birth field, the age will be calculated and available to view on the sponsorship page.
• Supporters –
  • Note: See Example Supporter Custom Fields
  • Commonly Used Examples: Active, Deposit Held, Admin Supporter Notes, Founding Member, Interested in Volunteering, Spouse DOB
• Projects – Estimated Completion and Extra Info
• Places – Greatest Need, Region and Extra Info

The Custom Fields Manage page will list the Title of the field, it’s Permalink, the Type, if it’s Admin Only view, Sponsor Only view and the Referral. You can Edit and Delete from the main page.

To Create a Custom Field#

• Go to Data Setup > Custom Fields
• Click on + New Field
• Add a Title
• Choose your Referral
  • Note: This is where you determine where the Custom Field will be added. For example, if you are adding a Custom Field of Grade for Sponsorships, your Referral would be Sponsorship Type.
• Check the corresponding box(es) to Show in Admin Console only or Show to Sponsors only
  • Note: Sponsors must log in to their Donor Portal to view.
• Check the box to Auto-Increment Value as a Unique ID
  • When bringing in records from a previous system that have been assigned a Unique ID or for increased sorting ability, REACH allows you to create a unique numerical code that auto-increments for use on Sponsorships, Projects, Places, Campaigns and Supporter Records. As new records are added within REACH, this allows organizations to continue assigning a Unique ID in the same order.
  • If you would like to use existing numbers already assigned to sponsorships or supporters from a previous system, you will first need to create an auto-increment custom field, then use our import templates to populate the unique ID field created. Any new sponsorship or supporter added after the import will reference the largest number used and increment from there.
  • An existing custom field cannot be converted to a unique numerical code field, you must create a new field to use this feature.
  • Only numbers can be used, no alphas characters.
  • When creating an auto-increment value as an unique ID for existing Supporters, Campaigns, Projects, or Places, a unique number will be assigned automatically. When creating an auto-increment value for Sponsorships, you must edit the sponsorship type(s) to add the custom field created.
  • If checked, you can input the First Unique ID. This is the first number that will be assigned. Auto-incremented values for your records will add 1 to this base number going forward. (i.e. 1 to start with the number 1; 100 to start with the number 100).
• Select the Type of Data
  • Single Line Text – a short text field to hold information such as a Nickname
  • Paragraph Text – a string of text such as a sentence or paragraph
  • Number fields are used for numbers such as Age.
    • Note: For data that will need to be updated yearly (Grade or School Year for example), we recommend inputing as a Number in order for you to complete a Bulk Update yearly or as needed.
  • Date fields are used for any calendar date
  • Dropdown Select allows you to add multiple options to choose from.
    • For example, a Gender field to select Male or Female.
  • A Table can be created to hold a historical list of information.
    • Any Table field created for a Sponsorship or Supporter will be only available to Admins and will display as a tab on a record.
    • Custom tables fields are not included in Reports due to sizing requirements. If you want to generate reports on this data, we suggest using Single Line Text.
    • However, Table data can be reviewed and exported under Data Setup > Data Import/Export.
    • Common Table examples are Immunization History, Admin Sponsorship Notes, Extra Info and Report Cards.
• Click Create

Additional Options#

The Order tab allows you to reorder how your Custom Fields are listed for Supporters, Places and Projects. You can drag the fields up and down to reorder. The top option will be shown first. Sponsorship Custom Fields can be reordered once added to the Sponsorship Type. Go to Sponsorships > Sponsorship Type > Edit the Sponsorship Type. Once more than once custom field is added here, you can drag and drop the fields.

The Bulk Update tab is where organizations can update every value associated to a custom field that are numerical values (the Data Type has to be added as a Number). This is most commonly used for Grade and School Year or for an internal accounting number.

To complete a Bulk Update:

• Select the Custom Field you want to update
• Select the Action (Add or Subtract)
• Type in the Amount (the Value to add or subtract)
• Click Update

The Birth Date Conversion tab is used to convert a custom field created for age of sponsorships to the Date of Birth field already included on Sponsorships. Often, new organizations will create a custom field for Age, which is not necessary. This conversion function allows you to convert that record to the Date of Birth field, where Age is calculated automatically to be shown on the public side.

Note: The bulk update will apply to all records that have information in the number field, regardless of Sponsorship Program Status classification.