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Setup: Helping Avid Speak in Your Language

A quick guide on how to train Avid to look at your donors, giving levels, and fiscal years just like you do.

 

How to Setup Your Fiscal Year & Giving Levels

Every nonprofit is unique, from how you define donor segments to how you track fundraising performance. Avid is built to adapt to your organization’s specific way of measuring success—you just need to tell it how you prefer to see your data.

Step 1: Access Fiscal Year & Donor Settings

  1. Click the gear icon to open Settings.

  2. Select the Fiscal Year & Donors tab at the top.

Step 2: Set Your Fiscal Year

Not every nonprofit follows a January–December calendar. Avid allows you to define your fiscal year to align all reporting with how you track financial performance.

  • Choose your fiscal year start month (e.g., January, July, October).

  • Avid will automatically adjust reporting to match your selection.

Step 3: Define How You Measure Giving Levels

Different organizations measure giving levels in different ways. Customize how Avid categorizes donor giving:

  • Cumulative Annual Giving – Total of donations given within a year.

  • Highest Previous Gift – Largest single donation recorded for a donor.

Pick the metric that best reflects how you measure your donors' giving levels.

Step 4: Choose Default Reporting View

Decide how you prefer to view reports first:

  • Fiscal Year to Date

  • Last Trailing 12 Months

  • Calendar Year to Date

You can always adjust filters as you navigate Avid, but this setting ensures reports default to your preferred view.

Step 5: Customize Donor Levels

Each organization is unique in how exactly they define each giving level. You can add your giving levels and so that the reports you find in Avid are customized to how you view your donors.

The most common giving levels include:

  • Broad-Based Donors

  • Mid-Level Donors

  • Major Donors

Why This Matters

By setting up these preferences, you ensure that Avid delivers insights tailored to how your organization measures success. Taking a few minutes to configure these settings will make your reports more intuitive, actionable, and aligned with your fundraising strategy.

 

Ready to Keep Learning? Check out the next article on Telling Avid What's Most Important to You »