How to handle tributes without Tribute Module

Joanne Danganan

Hi there. My organization cannot currently afford the Tribute Module, so as a workaround, we soft credit the tributee and send them an acknowledgment letter. However, in the Mail module, I can't find an automated way to insert that tributee's address and salutation. Instead, I place the tributee (in this case, the soft credit recipient's) addressee followed by "[Recipient's Address]" and "[Recipient's Salutation]" to flag that the user MUST edit this information straight on the letter that is pulled. With year-end right around the corner, this is way too much editing for our data specialist. Does anyone have a better solution for organizations that don't have the Tribute Module?

JoAnn Strommen

Joanne Danganan:
Hi there. My organization cannot currently afford the Tribute Module, so as a workaround, we soft credit the tributee and send them an acknowledgment letter. However, in the Mail module, I can't find an automated way to insert that tributee's address and salutation. Instead, I place the tributee (in this case, the soft credit recipient's) addressee followed by "[Recipient's Address]" and "[Recipient's Salutation]" to flag that the user MUST edit this information straight on the letter that is pulled. With year-end right around the corner, this is way too much editing for our data specialist. Does anyone have a better solution for organizations that don't have the Tribute Module?

We do not have the tribute module.  We do not soft-credit the tributee as that does not meet our definition of SC. 

I use two options. 

1. 
   
   Either manually typing tributee info into standard letter (when record not in RE and do not plan to enter it).  (I know some would say all should be in RE but we have past board member who does gift to our annual fund as tribute when friends/acquaintances pass away - these families may have no relationship with the Y and may live no where near, so we don't clutter our db with their info.) 
   
   
2. 
   
   If they are in RE, I've used letter option on the tributee record - pulls standard letter and enters their bio data.
   
   

But if you are SC'ing the tributee you should be able to have info merged in an acknowledgement letter.  Are you clicking option to credit gift to SC record on Tab 1?  I use this when I'm sending letter to SC recipients regularily.  The only time this wouldn't work that I can think of is if you're running your receipt as acknowledgement letter and gift is already marked as acknowledged.  Then you could do tributee first and chose do not mark gift as acknowledged so you can run your receipt next.  Or manually change to not acknowledged and run it. We run receipts through Receipt function so the Donor Acknowledgement function is available to me to use for SC.

Just some thoughts...

Christine Cooke 2

Joanne Danganan:
Hi there. My organization cannot currently afford the Tribute Module, so as a workaround, we soft credit the tributee and send them an acknowledgment letter. However, in the Mail module, I can't find an automated way to insert that tributee's address and salutation. Instead, I place the tributee (in this case, the soft credit recipient's) addressee followed by "[Recipient's Address]" and "[Recipient's Salutation]" to flag that the user MUST edit this information straight on the letter that is pulled. With year-end right around the corner, this is way too much editing for our data specialist. Does anyone have a better solution for organizations that don't have the Tribute Module?

 I have had this challenge.  The solution, because we did want the info to merge into an acknowledgement letter AND wanted to be able to easily pull lists for reporting and annual reports etc., lists for the tributee's family member(s)>.  You have to manually type in the Addressee/Salutation and addressee at the time of gift entry, but much easier than going back into the record or having to flag the letter.

 Set up fields in Gift Attribute:  IMO Name, IHO Name (have these separate so you can tell the difference for reporting!), IMO/IHO Addressee, IMO/IHO Salutation, IMO/IHO Address, IMO/IHO City, IMO/IHO State, IMO/IHO Zip.

 In Mail, under Acknowledgement Letters, there is a letter for IMO and one for IHO.  Each is two pages.  First page is the acknowledgement. to the donor that made the gift with the IMO or IHO Name merge field inserted into the body of the letter where appropriate.  Second page is the acknowledgement, to the tributee/family/friend that is to receive notification of the gift in tribute.  At the top of the letter the merge fields are the ones from Gift Attribute for IMO/IHO,and in the body of the letter/note the IMO/IHO Name and  the person who the gift was from, you use the donor addressee and address info merge fields. 

 This way, when the letter is printed from Mail, all the fields are filled in.  And you can also pull reports on Gift Attribute to get lists on IMOs or IHOs. Works great!

 We do not SC the tributee, that does not meet our SC criteria/protocol.

 

 

Joanne Danganan

JoAnn Strommen:

We do not have the tribute module.  We do not soft-credit the tributee as that does not meet our definition of SC. 

I use two options. 

1. 
   
   Either manually typing tributee info into standard letter (when record not in RE and do not plan to enter it).  (I know some would say all should be in RE but we have past board member who does gift to our annual fund as tribute when friends/acquaintances pass away - these families may have no relationship with the Y and may live no where near, so we don't clutter our db with their info.) 
   
   
2. 
   
   If they are in RE, I've used letter option on the tributee record - pulls standard letter and enters their bio data.
   
   

But if you are SC'ing the tributee you should be able to have info merged in an acknowledgement letter.  Are you clicking option to credit gift to SC record on Tab 1?  I use this when I'm sending letter to SC recipients regularily.  The only time this wouldn't work that I can think of is if you're running your receipt as acknowledgement letter and gift is already marked as acknowledged.  Then you could do tributee first and chose do not mark gift as acknowledged so you can run your receipt next.  Or manually change to not acknowledged and run it. We run receipts through Receipt function so the Donor Acknowledgement function is available to me to use for SC.

Just some thoughts...

Thanks for your thoughts, JoAnn and Christine! Both very helpful.