People App: How to Create and Manage Activities

Authored by: Michaela Hyden
on 3/14/2025 4:46:00 PM

Introduction

CharityEngine provides an easy way for you and those in your organization to craft activities associated with your contacts and constituents. Creating an activity not only creates a record but also a reminder and record of the points of time in which you are interacting with your donors. CharityEngine makes it easy to create, manage and automate activities - allowing you and your team to ensure strategic activities are planned, scheduled and executed.

Introduction
Instructions - Creating New Activity Records
Instructions - Managing Existing Activity Records
Instructions - Creating Activity Automation
Instructions - Viewing My Activities
Sync Calendar Feature
FAQs & Additional Reading

Instructions - Creating New Activity Records

Step 1: Navigate to the People App > Activities > Create New to create a new activity from this screen.

Instructions - Managing Existing Activity Records

Step 1: Navigate to the People App > Activities > Activities.

Step 2: Apply the search criteria to find your desired Activity to manage. Click "Search" once all filters have been applied.

Step 3: Once you have found the activity you would like to manage, hover to the far right of the activity and click "Manage".

Instructions - Creating Activity Automation

Step 1: Navigate to the Automation App > General > Queries > Create New > Create a query in which an activity should be created

Ex: Donations Query for transactions made this week over $100

Step 2: Navigate to the Automation App > Workflow > Triggers > Create New > Type: Create Activity > Next > Data Source: query as created in step 2 > Start Date > End Date > Participating Contact: select assigned activity contact name

Instructions - Viewing My Activities

There are a few areas in which you can view and monitor your activities to assist you in keeping organized on donor cultivation efforts, organizational events, and/or planned communication plans.

Activity Calendar

Use the activity calendar to view activities, communication plans, and events in a calendar view.

Step 1: Navigate to the People App > Activities > Calendar
Step 2: Use the filter features to view by month, week, or day - and/or filter by activities, events, and/or initiatives

Activity Summary Panel - Default Dashboard

Use your organization's default summary dashboard for a quick view of activity calendar to view activities, communication plans, and events in a calendar view.

Step 1: Navigate to the main dashboard (click on the CharityEngine icon in the top left corner

Step 2: Locate the Activities panel at the bottom of the dashboard, in the middle section
Step 3: Locate the Upcoming Events panel to view organizational events in which you are connected with

Activity Report Builder

Use the report builder to create a custom report and export for your organization's needs.

Step 1: Navigate to the People App > Activities > Activities

Step 2: Use the Quick Filters and/or Advanced Filters to segment your list

Step 3: Use the Report Builder from the top right-hand corner and select your preferred fields, add a name to your report, and Save

Sync Calendar Feature

You can now sync your CharityEngine calendar with your preferred email calendar using the Sync Calendar feature under People > Activities > Sync Calendar. Additionally, you can add individual Activities to your email calendar by selecting "Add to Calendar" from the ellipses dropdown on the Activity detail screen OR clicking the calendar icon on the Activities listing screen. To ensure you never miss an important task, you can also enable "Send Reminders" on the Activity detail screen to receive email notifications as the activity’s target date approaches.

Setting Calendar Reminders: Individual

Step 1: Access an activity from Dashboard or People App > Activities > Activities > Manage selected activity

Step 2: Toggle Send Reminders to Yes

Step 3: Click Add to Calendar

Step 4: Open download file to initiate Microsoft Outlook Calendar and complete calendar details to save to personal calendar

Setting Calendar Reminders: Bulk

To select 2 or more activities to add to calendar

Step 1: Access an activity from Dashboard or People App > Activities > Activities > Use filters to select activities

Step 2: Select all or one or more check boxes next to the activity and access the Bulk Actions menu

Step 3: Select Add to Calendar

Step 4: Open download file to initiate Microsoft Outlook Calendar and click Import at "Do you want to open this calendar as a new calendar or import its items into your calendar?"

Sync All (Automatic)

Step 1: Access People App > Activities > Sync Calendar

Step 2: Sync Calendar: Enabled > Save

Step 3: Access the ICalendar URL (refresh page if not immediately populated)

Step 4: Access Microsoft Outlook > Calendar > Add Calendar > From Internet

Step 5: Paste URL from step 3 into Pop Up box in Microsoft Outlook and click OK

FAQs & Additional Reading

Q. How can I use the trigger feature to create automated actions, activities, notifications, etc. for my organization?
A. The Automation Trigger feature can be a powerful tool to assist you in automating tasks to eliminate the need of manual work. Learn more about how to use the Trigger feature and a few use cases by visiting Automation & Workflow: An Overview of Triggers & Use Case - Examples