condition for new gifts in mail merge

Cathleen Mai

I'd like to insert a conditional text in Acknowledgment letters - only if it is a first time gift. I am thinking to use the "first gift date" field and set the condition to < a  day before the actual gift date. Is there a more elegant way? I do not want to change the query on the General tab, but just pull in my batch query.

Jen Claudy

Can you do First Gift Date = (this) Gift Date?

Cathleen Mai

Yes, I can and I should ;-). I assume "first gift date" is the only field that can pull new donors?

Alan French

We had some logistical issues with identifying donors' first gifts in acknowledgements as we didn't want to include all gift types - eventually I gave up trying to do it in RE and built something in Crystal. Are you acknowledging any type of gift, such as a pledge that is never fulfilled? If someone has an unfulfilled gift from earlier and now sends you a check, the check will not be considered the first gift by your query - I don't know if that would pose an issue for you or not?

Melissa S Graves

I am with Alan on this one. I have had trouble doing this in the past and when necessary stuck with a first time donor letter code instead. I think I used a business rule looking for number of "cash" gifts =0 or something to identify donors who had never given (popped up during gift entry to notify gift entry person to use new donor letter code).

Cathleen Mai

Alan, yes the pledges are a problem, that's why I was hoping for a better solution than using the "first gift" field.

Thank You for all your input. I like Melissas idea using a business rule, because it's probably the most flexible solution.