Your Dashboard is your home in Avid — a personalized page you build yourself by pinning what matters to you. It loads instantly every time, and everything on it is yours alone: your pins, your notes, your layout.
Use this article when
- You want to understand what the Dashboard is and how it fits into Avid.
- You are setting up your Dashboard for the first time.
- You want to add, rearrange, resize, or customize what's on your board.
What is the Dashboard?
The Dashboard is your personalized home page in Avid. You build it yourself by pinning the charts, audiences, connections, and reminders you care about from anywhere in the app. It replaces a one-size-fits-all landing page with a board that fits your role and priorities.
A few things worth knowing upfront:
- It's yours. Your pins, notes, and layout are only visible to you. Customizing your Dashboard never changes anyone else's view.
- It's fast. Your board is saved and ready — it loads instantly without re-running reports in the background.
- It's available on every paid Avid plan (except Benchmarks-only accounts).
Setting up your Dashboard for the first time
The first time you sign in after the Dashboard launches, Avid will ask you about your role — for example, whether you focus on donor acquisition, major gifts, email, or database management. Choose the roles that best describe your work.
Based on your answer, Avid builds you a starting layout: relevant charts, audiences, and reminders selected for someone in your role. Avid also looks for key dates for your organization — such as fiscal year-end, signature events, or giving days — and can set up countdowns for them automatically.
From there, the board is yours to customize. Add, remove, or rearrange anything at any time.
What can I add? The module catalog
Your Dashboard is made up of modules — individual tiles you can pin, resize, and arrange. Here is what is available:
| Module | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Charts | Any chart, scorecard, or KPI from your reports — pinned with your exact filter settings saved. Pin the same chart multiple times with different filters for a focused, multi-view board. |
| Top 5 Insights | Today's highest-priority insights from across your data, ranked and explained so you know what to pay attention to. Configurable to show 1, 3, or 5 insights. |
| Audiences | Your saved audience segments with weekly change indicators. Also surfaces Suggested Audiences from Ask Edna — segments Avid thinks are worth your attention — with one-click options to launch a playbook or export. |
| Pathways | Your active Pathways with progress and next-step status at a glance. |
| Connections | Integration health, last sync time, and next refresh for each connected platform. Reconnect a broken integration directly from the module. |
| Notifications | In-app alerts organized by category — insights, integrations, billing, and files — so nothing important gets missed. |
| Ask Edna | Avid's AI fundraising assistant, available right on your Dashboard. Ask a question about your data without leaving your home page. See Ask Edna. |
| Quick Notes | Free-text sticky notes you can title, color, and position anywhere on your board. Useful for reminders, to-dos, or anything you want visible at a glance. |
| Countdown | A countdown to a key date — a campaign launch, fiscal year-end, giving day, or any date you choose. |
| Clock | A timezone-aware clock. Add multiple clocks if you work across time zones. |
| Lockstep | Your onboarding status, open support tickets, and your Avid contact information. |
| User Info | Your organization context, plan level, and key account details. Always present on your board. |
How do I customize my Dashboard?
You can personalize your board at any time using the actions below.
Pin something to your Dashboard
Look for the Add to Dashboard or pin option on charts, reports, insights, audiences, connections, and Pathways throughout Avid. Click it to add that item — with your current filters and settings saved — to your board.
You can pin the same chart more than once using different filters. Each pinned copy can be renamed so you can tell them apart at a glance.
Rearrange modules
Drag and drop any module to a new position on your board. Your layout is saved automatically.
Resize a module
Use the resize handle on a module to make it smaller or larger — from a compact tile to a full-width view. Some modules can also be opened full-screen for a deeper look at the data.
Rename a pinned module
Pinned charts and some other modules can be renamed. This is especially useful when you pin the same chart with different filters — give each copy a descriptive name so you always know what it is showing. A detail view shows the full filter settings applied to any pinned module.
Adjust a module's settings
Some modules have configurable options — for example, setting how many insights to show, choosing notification categories, or picking a color for a sticky note. Look for a settings icon on the module.
Refresh a module
Each module can be refreshed manually to pull the latest data. Your Dashboard loads from a saved snapshot for speed; use refresh when you want the most current numbers.
Remove a module
Unpin or remove any module from your board at any time. Removing it from your Dashboard does not affect the underlying data or how it appears elsewhere in Avid.
Privacy and performance
Two questions we hear often:
- Can other people see my Dashboard? No — your Dashboard is private. Your pins, notes, countdowns, and layout are visible only to you. No one else — including other users at your organization or Avid staff — can see or change your board.
- Will a large Dashboard slow Avid down? No. Your board is saved for instant loading and does not re-run reports or queries in the background when you open it. Adding more modules does not affect other users or Avid's performance.
For information about how Avid protects your data more broadly, see Data Security and Compliance: Common Questions.
Tips for getting the most out of it
- Set your filters before you pin. Pin a chart while a specific segment or date range is applied — Avid saves that exact view to your board.
- Pin the same chart with different filters. For example, pin your email retention chart filtered to each major channel separately. Rename each one so they are easy to scan.
- Use Quick Notes and Countdowns to practice. These low-stakes modules are a good way to get comfortable resizing and rearranging your board before moving data modules around.
- Put what matters most at the top. Arrange your board so the things you check every day are in the first row.
- Check your Audiences module for Edna suggestions. Ask Edna surfaces audience ideas based on your data — these can be a fast way to spot a segment you have not acted on yet.
What's coming next
The Dashboard is built to grow. Upcoming improvements include:
- Multiple dashboards per user — a personal board, a campaign board, and others.
- Dashboard templates — Avid-preset starting layouts for common roles and use cases.
- Team dashboards — a manager's view showing each team member's activity.
- Ask Edna pinning — Edna will be able to suggest and add modules to your board on your behalf.
We are actively gathering feedback on the Dashboard to shape what comes next. If you have a suggestion, use the feedback option in your account or reach out to your account team.