Email Acknowledgement Letters from RE Batch

Angela Stickler

Hello Fellow RE Users!

At my organzation our CEO wants to send out as many acknowledgement letters as possible via email in order to save on postage/paper costs and increase the turnaround to next day, preferably same day, gift acknowledgement. All of the gifts are processed in batch and so are the letters. Any advice on the best way to do this, in order to have those letters that need to be printed vs emailed flagged as such when the letters are processed through mail merge (outside of using a query to reference back to) and also, without needing to copy/paste the letter from the batch into an email? 

Thank you!

 

Elaine Tucker

You can send acknowledgements via RE MAIL - Receipts and select the "e-receipts" option on tab #10.

The letters can be a simple merge or conditional. We use the letter code to determine which letter is used.  To further streamiline this we've just used simple word merges because the conditional letters made us click "ok" for every letter that was being merged.


You can create a dynamic query for gift date <ask> and letter code = "specific letter" and ackn/rec = no.  Add this to the receipts in mail.  The receipts then create a PDF that gets attached to the email, and there is a space for a message in the email.  Ours says something like: Thank you for your support.  Please find attached a receipt and letter of thanks from our CEO...


The mail process will then let you mark the gifts as ackn/receipted (or not) - we mark then as ackn & receipted. It will also save the file of PDF's on your network so if you need to retrieve them later you can.


This is a big change for us because historically we've done the merge directly from the gift and saved the action on the const. record.  We are still going to do this, but have an intern do the gift merge and save as an action AFTER our gift processor has completed the actual e-receipt.  I decided to continue to do this because ALL the staff is so used to the letter being on the actual constituent record.


Hope this helps!

Elaine

Cindy Avery

Elaine Tucker:

You can send acknowledgements via RE MAIL - Receipts and select the "e-receipts" option on tab #10.

The letters can be a simple merge or conditional. We use the letter code to determine which letter is used.  To further streamiline this we've just used simple word merges because the conditional letters made us click "ok" for every letter that was being merged.


You can create a dynamic query for gift date <ask> and letter code = "specific letter" and ackn/rec = no.  Add this to the receipts in mail.  The receipts then create a PDF that gets attached to the email, and there is a space for a message in the email.  Ours says something like: Thank you for your support.  Please find attached a receipt and letter of thanks from our CEO...


The mail process will then let you mark the gifts as ackn/receipted (or not) - we mark then as ackn & receipted. It will also save the file of PDF's on your network so if you need to retrieve them later you can.


This is a big change for us because historically we've done the merge directly from the gift and saved the action on the const. record.  We are still going to do this, but have an intern do the gift merge and save as an action AFTER our gift processor has completed the actual e-receipt.  I decided to continue to do this because ALL the staff is so used to the letter being on the actual constituent record.


Hope this helps!

Elaine

Elaine, I LOVE this post but I am confused . . . I don't have a #10 Tab (at least where I think I should be looking to find it!). Could you be more specific or include a screenshot? 

Angela Stickler

Cindy Avery:

Elaine Tucker:

You can send acknowledgements via RE MAIL - Receipts and select the "e-receipts" option on tab #10.

The letters can be a simple merge or conditional. We use the letter code to determine which letter is used.  To further streamiline this we've just used simple word merges because the conditional letters made us click "ok" for every letter that was being merged.


You can create a dynamic query for gift date <ask> and letter code = "specific letter" and ackn/rec = no.  Add this to the receipts in mail.  The receipts then create a PDF that gets attached to the email, and there is a space for a message in the email.  Ours says something like: Thank you for your support.  Please find attached a receipt and letter of thanks from our CEO...


The mail process will then let you mark the gifts as ackn/receipted (or not) - we mark then as ackn & receipted. It will also save the file of PDF's on your network so if you need to retrieve them later you can.


This is a big change for us because historically we've done the merge directly from the gift and saved the action on the const. record.  We are still going to do this, but have an intern do the gift merge and save as an action AFTER our gift processor has completed the actual e-receipt.  I decided to continue to do this because ALL the staff is so used to the letter being on the actual constituent record.


Hope this helps!

Elaine

Elaine, I LOVE this post but I am confused . . . I don't have a #10 Tab (at least where I think I should be looking to find it!). Could you be more specific or include a screenshot? 

Yes, THANK YOU Elaine for the detailed answer. I also noticed that I don't have a Tab 10, but when I went to Receipts to create a new receipt, and changed Receipt type to Create custom data file... a Tab 9 for eReceipts was created.

 

Jen Claudy

On the [1. General] Tab, you must change [Receipt Type] from [Preprinted Receipts] to [Create Custom Data File], as Angela mentioned.


The now-accessable [eReceipts] Tab will be the last tab in the parameters file...#10 if you have [8. PostalSaver] and #9 if you do not.


I highly recommend adding a couple of dummy Constituent Records with Gifts to your database, put your own email address(es) on them, and play with setting up and sending eReceipts.  As with many things in RE, it doesn't always work as you'd expect.


You may want to consider using a new [Phone Type] of [eReceipt] and duplicating the email address to be used for the eReceipts.  Then set up a Query for Constituents with Gifts the need to be receipted AND having the [eReceipt] Phone.  Run the eReceipts and then re-run the Query, because there will occasionally be a record that RE does not send to, but also does not consider to be an Exception.  (These records will be included if you click [Export] from the Mail Parameter File, and will generate the Word letter if you click [Merge] with the [Send as eReceipts] box unchecked.  This is useful when you want to try sending an email directly, and attaching the letter (print to a pdf from Word before attaching to the email message.)


And I recommend always saving the Parameters File with the [Send as eReceipts] checkbox unchecked...to prevent accidentally sending emails you don't intend to send.


As for indicating on the Gift Records whether the receipt was printed or emailed, if you are using different letter templates, just include this as part of the [Letter Code].  Otherwise, a Gift Attribute is probably a good option for recording print versus electronic.

Candy Reichert

 

We apply the eReceipt phone type to all gifts where the donor has requested to be emailed a receipt. I've created a query to view all gifts that will be sent by eReceipt, double check for all the fields that cause an exception, and make the corrections before sending the eReceipts. I use this query to run the mail merge. This eReceipt phone type has also been helpful when the donor uses a different email for receipts than for email communication.  I also include the email that the receipt was mailed to in the letter they receive.  This confirms which email address was used for the receipt. 


I have also set up a seperate Mail merge for eReceipts because I use a Simple mail merge with if...then...statements for eReceipts instead of multiple letters, and use a Conditional mail merge for all the others.  The Simple letter merge runs MUCH faster, with less complications, than the conditional mail merge for eReceipts. I have also found that adding a Receipting Address type is helpful for those that choose not to receive direct mail solicitation, and the address is marked as Send Mail? No. I have it send to the Receipting address first with the Send Mail? Yes address box checked. When the donor requests to not receive email through BBNC but does request an eReceipt, I uncheck the Do Not email box on the BIO1 tab, and add a solicite code for No Emails for marketing purposes. That way they still can receive eReceipts even though they choose not to receive mail or email on a regular basis. It has been helpful to check the box for the exceptions, as recommended in the Knowledge Base instructions, so I know which ones did not get sent.


After running the eReceipt mail merge, I use the regular Receipt mail merge by batch number to run the rest of the receipts that will be mailed.

 

Candy Reichert

Angela Stickler:

Hello Fellow RE Users!

At my organzation our CEO wants to send out as many acknowledgement letters as possible via email in order to save on postage/paper costs and increase the turnaround to next day, preferably same day, gift acknowledgement. All of the gifts are processed in batch and so are the letters. Any advice on the best way to do this, in order to have those letters that need to be printed vs emailed flagged as such when the letters are processed through mail merge (outside of using a query to reference back to) and also, without needing to copy/paste the letter from the batch into an email? 

Thank you!

 

I wonder if it would be possible to start a second Receipt # Stack used only for eReceipt purposes.  Then when you pull up the gift it would have a different receipt series, possibly with a letter code included.  Then it would easy to see that it was sent by email, when looking at the gift.

Hmmm.  I'll have to look into this.

Candy