Appeal Code for Response to Prior FY Appeals

Laura Lyons 2

Hi everyone. I'm new to my position with my current employer, but not new to annual giving. I just discovered my organization has been tracking gifts made in the current fiscal year to appeals sent out in prior fiscal years. FYI, if that donor has a recent Assigned Appeal, we use that appeal code for the gift, but if they haven't been solicited in some time (based on communication preferences), and send in a gift with an old reply coupon/envelope, I'm curious what appeal code structure (e.g., Misc Prior FY Appeal) you are using? I would also love to know how long you code gifts to a prior appeal (e.g., 3 months after a direct mail appeal was sent).


Thanks!

Laura

Crystal Bruce

Discussion moved to Raiser's Edge. Thanks!

Daniel R. Snyder

Hi Laura Lyons‍. We use a "Prior FY Appeal" appeal code if a gift is returned with an appeal coupon/envelope from a prior FY, otherwise we would default to the most recent appeal based on the method of gift. For example, if someone received a mailed appeal in February, then two e-solicitations since then but they send in a check (without a reply device) we would code it to the last mailed appeal. If they were to make a gift online, we would code it to the last e-solicitation appeal. Not really based on time if it is in the same FY.

Laura Lyons 2

Thanks so much, Dan. Exactly what I was thinking, so it's great to have your feedback. Plus, I ran detailed reports yesterday and discovered the vast majority of old appeal codes still being used are for recurring gifts made to those older appeals. FYI, we currently consider an appeal "active" for gift attribution for about three months.

Catherine Burns

Hi Laura Lyons‍ 


Like you we code donations to the lastest appeal the donor received if they used an old response form. If the person did not get the latest appeal, but got the last appeal we can still code to that too, but we do not code new gifts to older appeals than that. This means we have, at most, two appeals that cross financial years.


But if the donor did not get the latest appeal then I have done it two ways. At my last organisation we had an "Old Appeal" appeal like you suggest. At my current organsation we put it to the current appeal but with a blank package. Blank pakage is for anyone who gave to the appeal but did not receive it via post or email, so it may also be used for new donors coming direct to the appeal form on our website. Donors we sent the appeal to have packages.


We have also also repurposed a couple of fields we don't use on Bio2 (Ethnicities and Religion in our case) and populate these with the Last Appeal and Last Package data when a new mailing list is pulled. This means we can see these fields in the Constituent window when entering a batch of gifts. so do not need to go into each donor record to find out what their latest appeal/package is. It is great when a donor donesn't send back the response form too.

Rachel Cavalier

We would code donations received with previous appeal paperwork to the current appeal - the slightly awkward thing for us, is that all 3 appeals are based around religious holidays that shift about according to the lunar calendar. We normally check in with our marketing team for when they are planning the next appeal to drop and pick an arbitrary cut-off date about two or three weeks before that for the current appeal. For donations where there's a note or something that mentions that particular holiday, or it's come in our reply envelope, but they don't seem to have received our appeal mailing - we have a package for "misc/unidentified" gifts that relate to the appeal. The only real overlap is when there's crossover with our various annual appeals and particular events that have pledges - so Friday is Shavuot, and typically we might have synagogue members who make a pledge at that time (although this year, of course, it's working a little differently). Shavuot, in our database, is counted in with Pesach - though we have packages for it that are different to the Pesach ones. The Shavuot donations tend to work like event pledge donations rather than a normal appeal donation.


For regular gifts - they go in either a general appeal package or one relating to our young patrons/friends/patrons programmes. Once in a while we might get one that might not fit in those brackets - but that's on a kind of ad hoc basis e.g. lately one of our trustees did a "coffee pledge" event (no idea what actually went on for that particular event, but we got the forms back!) so those regular gifts are put to this "coffee pledge" event appeal and we had another person make a regular gift in memory of a loved one.