1. using the tables as shown, there is a drop-down for year each time a record for the DONATIONS is entered. the other 3 tables, SPONSOR, PARTICIPANT, and YEAR are filled out before beginning to enter DONATIONS. this way, there are lists of sponsors, participants and years to draw from to create records for DONATIONS. again, you can have any combination of years, sponsors & participants any number of times.
2. not having access (pardon the pun) to your database, this is one way to store a variable without too much programming:
create a table like TEMPYEAR with one field, YEAR, for example. when the form opens, have its ON OPEN run a macro that deletes the contents of TEMPYEAR. have one field on the form for YEAR. have a NEXT button have a macro that saves the YEAR to TEMPYEAR YEAR and then closes the form, then opens the form for which you wish to use YEAR. upon closing that form, have the field YEAR write to whatever field in whatever table you desire, along with the other info to complete that row.
please note, my way (way nr 1, the picture and description previously posted) is so so much simpler than way nr. 2.
3. there is a third way, but that assumes you know visual basic real well.
rsvp...