How to Set up Notification Process for Volunteer/Donor Birthdays

Ann Keeler

We're wondering how to set up a notification process for volunteers/donors birthdays.  The volunteer supervisor would need to know a few weeks in advance about the upcoming date, each year. How have other organizaitons handled notification for a birthday or annual event like this? We think action tracks could work for the notification process, but would like to hear how others have set this up, either for donors or volunteers. Thank you for any and all ideas and comments!

Jen Claudy

We do birthday cards for donors of $500+.  In early July, I did this process for August birthdays, so we have almost a month to get them all signed and ready to go.


I use a Query showing cumulative giving for the past 14 months (to catch any that are slightly inconsistent with their giving), Constituents and Spouses.  Then I go thru the Query and add Actions manually for each one (we generally have 20-30 per month, so it's not overwhelming to do it manually).  I use an Action Default Set to add things like Action Category, Action Type, Solicitor, etc. and I put the birthday as the Action Date (so if Robert Hernandez was born 8/10/1945, the Action Date would be 8/10/2016).


A separate Query then shows the Action information, sorted by Action Date (birthday date, but all 2016 so they actually sort in order by day rather than chronologically by year and day), I address all of the envelopes and hand them to the Solicitors...where the stamp goes, I write the birthday (so for Robert, I'd write "8/10").  They return them signed, I scan them and file the scans (we have NXT, so I attach the scan directly to the Action, in RE:7, we'd put it on the Constituent Media Tab).


I mark the Action as Completed and put in the Date the card is mailed when I mail them out, usually ~3 mail days before the birthday (they're almost all local, so that's generally enough time).  We also track on the Action which version of card was sent (Action Letter Field) and to whom, in the case of a nonconstituent spouse (Document Name Field, so it shows as a column on the Action Tab).  (We have 6 different covers and we need to know which cover was sent to Robert, so that when Wendy's birthday comes up in September, we can use a different cover.  The scan is only the inside of the card, and the pre-printed messages are similar enough that you can't always tell...I requested a "fine print" code printed discretely on the inside, but that didn't happen.)

Ann Keeler

Hi Jen, 

thank you so much for replying. I didn't realize until now that you had written! It's very helpful to hear your system for tracking birthdays for your +500 donors. Yes, I think Actions and creating Default Actions so they're easy to log in is the way to go.


Thanks again,

Ann


Jen Claudy:

We do birthday cards for donors of $500+.  In early July, I did this process for August birthdays, so we have almost a month to get them all signed and ready to go.


I use a Query showing cumulative giving for the past 14 months (to catch any that are slightly inconsistent with their giving), Constituents and Spouses.  Then I go thru the Query and add Actions manually for each one (we generally have 20-30 per month, so it's not overwhelming to do it manually).  I use an Action Default Set to add things like Action Category, Action Type, Solicitor, etc. and I put the birthday as the Action Date (so if Robert Hernandez was born 8/10/1945, the Action Date would be 8/10/2016).


A separate Query then shows the Action information, sorted by Action Date (birthday date, but all 2016 so they actually sort in order by day rather than chronologically by year and day), I address all of the envelopes and hand them to the Solicitors...where the stamp goes, I write the birthday (so for Robert, I'd write "8/10").  They return them signed, I scan them and file the scans (we have NXT, so I attach the scan directly to the Action, in RE:7, we'd put it on the Constituent Media Tab).


I mark the Action as Completed and put in the Date the card is mailed when I mail them out, usually ~3 mail days before the birthday (they're almost all local, so that's generally enough time).  We also track on the Action which version of card was sent (Action Letter Field) and to whom, in the case of a nonconstituent spouse (Document Name Field, so it shows as a column on the Action Tab).  (We have 6 different covers and we need to know which cover was sent to Robert, so that when Wendy's birthday comes up in September, we can use a different cover.  The scan is only the inside of the card, and the pre-printed messages are similar enough that you can't always tell...I requested a "fine print" code printed discretely on the inside, but that didn't happen.)