Where to Find the Dashboard
When you log into PublicInput as an organization admin, you’ll land on the Engagement Dashboard. This dashboard aggregates engagement activity across all projects under your organization (or department, if you have department-level permissions).
Each tile shows:
The total count for the selected date range
A percentage comparison vs. the previous equivalent period
A short definition of the engagement type
Below are the official definitions for each dashboard metric.
Participants
What this measures:
The number of unique people who interacted with any of your projects or meetings during the selected date range.
How we calculate it:
A “participant” is counted once per period when they do any of the following:
Answer a survey question
Submit a comment
RSVP or attending an event
Calling into your project hotline or meeting
Texting the project keyword and responding to the prompt received
Submit a comment on social media on a post that has its comments sync'd with a survey question
Respond to a location and/or contact question
Email the project email address and the email has been converted to a comment
Note: Email opens, email clicks, and project website viewers are not included in the participant count.
Important:
This is a unique count. If the same person comments and responds to a survey, they're still counted once.
Comments
What this measures:
The total number of public comments submitted across your organization. Comments on surveys, projects, and meetings are all included.
How we calculate it:
We count all comment records where:
The comment date is within the selected range
The comment belongs to your organization
Important:
Comments that have been archived or have been moderated out are not included.
New Contacts
What this measures:
The number of new people added to your organization’s contact list during the selected date range.
How we calculate it:
A “new contact” is anyone PublicInput identifies as new to your CRM during that period.
This includes people who:
Sign up via an email subscription form
Opt in by text message
Provide contact information while participating in a survey, poll, comment, or meeting
Are manually added by staff
Are imported into your CRM for the first time
Important:
Each person is counted once, the first time they appear in your organization’s contact database within the selected date range.
Meeting Attendees
What this measures:
The total number of times people attended or interacted with your public meetings during the selected date range.
How we calculate it:
This metric counts every instance where someone participates in a meeting in any of the following ways:
Joining the online meeting page
Calling into the meeting phone line
Texting the meeting’s code
Emailing the meeting’s public meeting address
Being recorded as an in-person attendee through meeting tools
Speaking or requesting to speak during the meeting
Each attendance event is counted.
If the same person attends multiple meetings or attends a single meeting through more than one channel, they generate multiple attendance counts.
Important:
This metric represents total meeting participation activity, not unique individuals.
Emails Sent
What this measures:
The total number of emails delivered to your audience during the selected date range.
How we calculate it:
This metric counts every email that PublicInput successfully sends out on behalf of your organization, including:
Email campaigns
Project or meeting update emails
Subscriber notifications
Automated system messages sent to participants
Other outreach configured through your communication tools
Each delivered email is counted individually. If a message is sent to 500 recipients, that adds 500 sends to this total.
This metric reflects all outbound email communication sent from your organization within the selected period.
How “vs. last period” Is Calculated
The percentage displayed beneath each metric compares:
Selected date range
vs.
The immediately preceding period of the same length
Examples:
If you select Last 7 days, the comparison is vs. the previous 7 days.
If you select Last 30 days, the comparison is vs. the previous 30 days.
For custom date ranges, we use a matching-length prior period.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are participants and meeting attendees the same?
No.
Participants is a unique person count across all engagement activity.
Meeting attendees counts attendance instances only.
Do comments or responses from internal staff count?
If an internal staff member participates using a regular PublicInput account, they count like any other user.
Does deleting a project remove its historical counts?
No. Dashboard metrics are based on stored engagement log data and remain intact even if the project is archived.
Will imported contacts count as “New Contacts”?
Yes, imported contacts count as “New Contacts” if they are being added to your organization’s contact list for the first time during the selected date range.
If the contact already existed in your CRM before that period, importing them again will not count toward the total.
See also: