Report Cards
The Report Cards page displays the details of your most recent data quality grade. Report cards are generated on the 10th of the month and are immediately available on the Customer Portal. The most recent report card is visible and past report cards are available in the drop-down menu at the top right.
An overall grade is assigned and emailed to your organization's Data/User SPoCs monthly on the first Monday following the first Friday of the month. Any user from your organization can review the Report Card history and details via the Customer Portal.
Tip: For a deep dive on keeping your data clean, check out the Data Cleanup 101 webinar in the MinistrySmart Academy!
Your overall grade is calculated based on your grade in the individual categories detailed below. Your percent grade and percentile (across all MinistryPlatform churches) are also included. The honor roll is awarded to churches in the top percentile.
Note: It's possible to get an A on your report card and not be on the honor roll, but don't despair! A new month is right around the corner.
A trend graph of the past five weeks is also visible for each category. Hovering over trend graphs will show the date and count.
Contact Activity
The number of Contacts1 with an Active status should reflect the people who are actually active in your church.
- How it's calculated: The ratio of active Contacts compared to the number of Contacts with Activity Log items in the last 365 days.
- How to get an A: 85% or more of your Contacts with a Contact Status of Active also have activity in the last year.
- How to improve: Check out the Active Status vs. Activity view on the Contacts page. It's available for those in the SPoC Views user group, and it shows the most recent activity date for your active Contact records. Use the Inactivate Tool as needed. Also, check out the Engagement Tracking Routine.
Duplicate Contacts
Duplicate Contacts should be kept to a minimum. This grade is weighted more heavily than others and rewards improvement over time.
- How it's calculated: The number of Contacts marked with the Duplicate Of Contact Relationship compared to the number of Contacts with Activity Log items in the last 365 days.
- How to get an A: Less than 2% of your active Contacts have a Duplicate Of Contact Relationship.
- How to improve: To view all of your duplicate Contacts, go to , and select the Duplicates view. Use the Combine Contacts Tool to combine duplicates into one Contact record. All duplicate contacts display in the drop-down list when you launch the tool without making a selection.
- Best practices to prevent bad data:
- ALWAYS search more than one way before you add people to your system.
- Ensure your church has a "minimum data required" practice. In other words, before you add someone to the system, you must have at least their first name, last name, and two other pieces of information (birth date, email, phone, address, and so on).
- Try to gather birth dates, as that data does not change, whereas someone's phone number or address might.
Contacts No Household
Contacts should have a Household record.
- How it's calculated: The number of Contacts with a missing Household field compared to the number of Contacts with Activity Log items in the last 365 days. Note that deceased people are not included in this report card item.
- How to get an A: Less than 2% of your Contacts with a missing Household field also have activity in the last year.
- How to improve: Create Views and View Notifications to find and fix these Contact records. You can then create the missing records using the Transfer Selection Tool.
- Best practices to prevent bad data:
- Always use a tool to create new records and in cases of divorce or other family separations. You can create the Contact and Household records using any of the following: Add/Edit Family, Add/Edit Company, Assign Participant, Assign Donor, Batch Manager Tool, Check-In Suite, or Split Household Tool.
- When you remove a person from a Household (for example, divorce), use the Split Household Tool to create a Household for the individual. You can do this even if you do not have a new address for the individual.
Default Donor Donations
Donations should be assigned to an actual Donor.
- How it's calculated: The number of Donation records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Donation records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: Less than 2% of your Donations are associated with Default Contact compared to number of Contacts with Activity Log items in the last year or none.
- How to improve: Update Donation records associated with the Default Contact to an actual contact. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. Use the Assign Donor Tool to fix Donations, automatically create Households, and create a Participant for a Donation assigned to Default Contact. See Fix Views.
Default Pledges
Pledges should be assigned to an actual Donor.
- How it's calculated: The number of Pledge records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Pledge records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: Less than 2% of your Pledges are associated with Default Contact compared to number of Contacts with Activity Log items in the last year or none.
- How to improve: Assign Pledges associated with the Default Contact to an actual Donor. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. See Fix Views.
Default Form Responses
Form Responses should be assigned to an actual Contact.
- How it's calculated: The number of Form Response records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Form Response records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: A decrease of at least 10% month over month, none, or the number of Form Response records associated with the Default Contact is less than 2% of total Form Responses in the last year.
- How to improve: Update Form Response records associated with the Default Contact to an actual Contact. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. Use the Form Responses Tool to assign a Contact with the Form Response associated with an Event.You must edit the default Form Responses to the appropriate Contact for the following types of Forms. If needed, you may need to create a Contact record with the Add/Edit Family tool.
- Standalone Custom Form
- Mission Trip Registration (you must also update the Pledge record)
- Opportunity Response (you must also update the Opportunity Response record)
- To keep the response anonymous, assign the default Form Responses to the Unassigned Contact.
See Views and View Notifications.
Default Event Participants
Events should be assigned to actual Participants.
- How it's calculated: The number of Event Participant records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Event Participant records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: A decrease of at least 10% month over month, none, or the number of Event Participant records associated with the Default Contact is less than 2% of total Event Participants in the last year.
- How to improve: Assign Event Participant records associated with the Default Contact to an actual Participant. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. Use the Assign Participant Tool to review registrations and assign a Participant. See Views.
Default Opportunity Responses
Responses should be assigned to actual Participants.
- How it's calculated: The number of Opportunity Response records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Response records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: A decrease of at least 10% month over month, none, or the number of Opportunity Response records associated with the Default Contact is less than 2% of total Opportunity Responses in the last year.
- How to improve: Edit and update Opportunity Response records associated with the Default Contact to an actual Contact. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact.You must assign Default Contact Opportunity Responses. We recommend:
- Create a View on the Responses page that displays all Default Contact responses. Include First Name, Last Name, and Phone columns from the Response record fields.
- Use the Add/Edit Family Tool to create Contact and Participant records for individuals who aren't in the database. This is more efficient if you set up the View as mentioned above so you can reference the columns for the values you need in the Tool.
- Change the Participant field on the Response record to the correct Participant record.
See Views and View Notifications.
Default Group Participants
Groups should be assigned to actual Participants.
- How it's calculated: The number of Group Participant records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Group Participant records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: A decrease of at least 10% month over month, none, or the number of Group Participant records associated with the Default Contact is less than 2% of total Group Participants in the last year.
- How to improve: Update Group Participant records associated with Default Contact to an actual Contact. For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. Use the Assign Participant Tool to assign a Contact with the Group Participant associated with an Event. See Views.
Default Participant Group Inquiries
Inquiries should be assigned to actual Participants.
- How it's calculated: The number of Group Inquiry records associated with Default Contact this month as compared to the number of Group Inquiry records associated with Default Contact last month.
- How to get an A: A decrease of at least 10% month over month, none, or the number of Group Inquiry records associated with the Default Contact is less than 2% of total Group Inquiries in the last year.
- How to improve: Update Group Inquiry records associated with the Default Contact to an actual Contact.For more information about how these get created in your system, see Records Assigned to the Default Contact. See Views and View Notifications.
Major Data Issues
Contacts should be properly related to Participants, Donors, and Users. Your report card shows Mismatched Donors, Participants, and Users as well as Too Many Donors, Participants, and Users.
- How it's calculated: The number of Contact records with mismatches (IDs do not match both ways). Includes mismatched Participant, Donor, User, and multiple Participants, Donors, or Users pointed to the same Contact.
- How to get an A: No Contact records with a major data issue. That means:
- You shouldn't have any Donor records that are not matched with a contact.
- You shouldn't have any Participant records that are not matched with a contact.
- You shouldn't have any User records that are not matched with a contact.
- You shouldn't have multiple Donor records that point to the same contact.
- You shouldn't have multiple Participant records that point to the same contact.
- You shouldn't have multiple User records that point to the same contact.
- How to improve: See Fix Mismatched People Records.
Significant issues will cap your overall grade at a B or C based on severity. This grade is weighted more heavily than others.
Note: Concerned about your report card grades? Reach out to a coach to make a plan for getting on the data honor roll!
1 In this article, "Contacts" refers to contacts with a Contact Type of Individual. Contacts with a Contact Type of Company are not in scope when calculating report card grades.