Acknowledgement Letter and Receipting Aftermath Post

Dariel Dixon 2

It's the days after. We have mostly survived. How is the process working for everyone? Everything going okay so far? I think my organization is working out okay. We still have our fingers crossed, as we haven't gotten all of the kinks out yet, and E-receipting still is a bit of a challenge, but we shall see how it goes. I'm optimistic.

Jennifer Rohrig

Manage to get our receipt letters done and out … but that was with two types of letters. Not sure if there's a way to do the same conditional merge in word – say we have three types of letters and fund x needs letter 1 and fund y needs letter 2 — is there a way to do that in one mail merge or do I need to do a separate merge it for each fund type?

Bobby Steurer

Things have gone well so far. We started testing a couple weeks before shut-off, and that helped. There are still quirks here and there that I'm sure we'll figure out over time. My team seems to be finding their rhythm in this new method.

Dariel Dixon 2

Jennifer Rohrig:

Manage to get our receipt letters done and out … but that was with two types of letters. Not sure if there's a way to do the same conditional merge in word – say we have three types of letters and fund x needs letter 1 and fund y needs letter 2 — is there a way to do that in one mail merge or do I need to do a separate merge it for each fund type?

This absolutely can be done. You can set up a conditional merge based on fund. There are several examples and posts that can help with this. It does take some time and effort to get it correct.

Larry Wheeler

We were lucky, I guess. Very little problem switching relative to what I've read on other's experiences. There are a couple of big reasons why we had it fairly easy, in my opinion.

Our campus has a contract agreement with MS for O365 and that is one reason we had fewer issues (already had the necessary software on all machines).

We converted to Raiser's Edge, from Ellucian Banner, in 2017 and there were already issues with using Crystal Reports. Blackbaud pulled the bait-n-switch on us during the sales meetings. After we converted is when I was told that CR was no longer supported by Blackbaud. Anyway, we ended up not going the route of purchasing CR. I made due with what was available. Not using CR at all eased the pain of the Office software transition.

It is good to hear that a lot of folks found a way to make it work at their orgs.

Dariel Dixon 2

Larry Wheeler:

We were lucky, I guess. Very little problem switching relative to what I've read on other's experiences. There are a couple of big reasons why we had it fairly easy, in my opinion.

Our campus has a contract agreement with MS for O365 and that is one reason we had fewer issues (already had the necessary software on all machines).

We converted to Raiser's Edge, from Ellucian Banner, in 2017 and there were already issues with using Crystal Reports. Blackbaud pulled the bait-n-switch on us during the sales meetings. After we converted is when I was told that CR was no longer supported by Blackbaud. Anyway, we ended up not going the route of purchasing CR. I made due with what was available. Not using CR at all eased the pain of the Office software transition.

It is good to hear that a lot of folks found a way to make it work at their orgs.

I think that the ability to understand how the merges work and having the time to dedicate to getting it right is the most important part. Fortunately, we had just enough latitude to get it right, but it was in the midst of EOY tax letters and other events. I imagine not everyone was so fortunate. I would imagine the orgs that are struggling with this probably don't have the technical expertise in their departments to get it done, or the time to learn and listen to the trainings on how to roll this out.

I would love to see the percentages of orgs who used the Word mail merges as opposed to other platforms.

Catherine Burns

We set up a multi document conditional merge like I used to run to receipt gifts from RE6 21 years ago! But we also had about 50 pivot reports and used a lot of constituent letters. I think I spent about two weeks solid setting up new processes, templates, data sources and documenting it all and training users. I hate to think how much this change has cost charities in terms of time.

Andrea Clark

I thought we had managed okay. We relied heavily on the conditional mail merge (with 20 different letters) and so I created one in Word using the If then Else rules. All my testing worked, however, we are getting errors now that I don't know how to rectify. The errors vary; sometimes it will say “can't complete the merge” sometimes it completes and letters are missing. Or Record 26 contains too few data fields and the same message for the next 30 records, etc. Often on the third or fourth try the merge will complete successfully.

It's frustrating not being able to get support from BB for these issues and trying to solve it with my limited knowledge. Other than the conditional mail merge we have fared well.

Dariel Dixon 2

If you are getting those types of errors, I would take a look at your data file @Andrea Clark. If the data is in the file, maybe there is some corruption happening in the conversion. The best thing about using a .csv is that the file is in a very readable format. Is there a comma somewhere that might be messing up the format, for instance in an address or something?

Faith Murray

Transition seems to have gone alright. We had everything in place and tested 2 weeks before. We already used export and mail merges for several of our other processes, so the main thing that was new to use was getting a conditional merge set up in Word. Thankfully, we already had Word on all of our workstations. It does feel like “the day after”, doesn't it? lol

JoAnn Strommen

Still working through it in many respects. Functioning but not at goal line.

New stewardship/communication staff member was to generate new letters we would implement at the same time. Still waiting for finals on those. As I'm fairly comfortable with Word, Excel and merge process I waited until the end hoping to have the new letters in RE to export and test.

When I attempted to set up the conditional merges I ran into path problems when trying to use shared drive. Read posts and tried several options. Gave up and just save to my files. Met with university IT yesterday and confirmed where I wanted the files is where they should be. Will try again next week. ?

Have now documented how to do the individual letter merges for office staff who generates the letters. This person hates change. Process has been tough for her as she doesn't know Word or Excel. (Don't ask.) She works off her desktop files a lot so the change to shared drive won't be received well either.

Will continue to work through the glitches. So glad it's a slower receipting time for us! Someday hope to use Power Automate functions but don't see it in near future.

Glad to hear transition went well for many. For those with struggles, I can relate.

Karen Diener 2

I think @JoAnn Strommen raises some VERY interesting points as to why this is a challenge. Yes, there are the technical issues. But more than that, it working with people who do not like change and cannot break away from their old habits. Or are not very savvy when it comes to MS Office products.

So as much as people like to be encouraging and say “this is a great opportunity to refine your letters or process!”, or "consider doing email acknowledgements and receipts instead”, or “consider this professional development - expand your skill set!" it is not that easy. This is a real problem and we are typically not the final decision-makers.

I LOVE to enter projects with that frame of mind, but everyone doesn't share my optimism. Leadership doesn't want to send email acknowledgements or streamline the number of letters, and colleagues don't want to change, and we spend easily half our time trying to convince people that these are good changes.

I don't have an answer. I've seen this for 20+ years. I just want to say that I hear you.

Karen

Jennifer Rohrig

Yes agreed – there are a lot of problems with no longer having the ability to just let RE create the merge as RE did a lot of steps that no longer exist. Such as re-adding every merge item to a letter each time you do a mail merge one by one….

And for the memorial letters we have I figured out how to get that information set up but in order to create the list of donors you have to select all the information over and over again for each donor to go into the letter….

Unless I'm totally missing something and a template should actually have the merge item already set up so I don't have to reelect each one every time I do the same letter type? Am I missing something?

But yeah there's a lot of chaos caused by having to relearn how to do things. Thankfully I already know how to do a fairly simple mail merge and can just create the receipts that way. It's those memorial acknowledgment letters that are going to be the worst to figure out.

Karen Stuhlfeier

Karen Diener's response is really good and I agree. I also think that Blackbaud is getting too much into the business of telling organizations what their best practices should be rather than making software that works for us.

Dariel Dixon 2

Let's talk about it @Karen Diener. We had this issue thrust upon us with very little warning and at the worse possible time for many of us dealing with holidays and EOY processing. That being said…Blackbaud has shown they are in a transition. I think it would be foolish to think that these are the last changes to come down the pipe. There will be more changes in the future.

We all have co-workers and colleagues that don't handle change well. We can relate to @JoAnn Strommen when she is dealing with a processor not wanting to change the process. We are all in the same boat with that however it is important to help them through this. I think we would like that BB to be more helpful and forthright with these changes; the company is changing and I think many of us feel like we are being left behind or at least taken for granted.

For those in leadership positions, it's important to let your upper management know the stress and strain that these changes have put on your staff, as well let those in your employ know that you appreciate their hard work in this tough transition.

Karen Diener 2

I couldn't agree more @Dariel Dixon, particularly with your final paragraph. We need to advocate for ourselves in a clear and professional manner. Lay it out to your supervisors - what you need to be more effective, and what that means if the organization is unwilling. Have suggestions too! Don't just go to a supervisor with all of the complaints. Provide your entire case including suggestions of how to resolve the issue. “What you need” may be time, money, or organizational change.

And IF there is anyone in this community who is in the position to make those changes. Hear your staff! Listen carefully and openly to them. Work together! Although I see issues on both “sides” of this, management is often able to make the change. That's why they are in management. I've been thinking for a few years that the target audience to implement some of these changes are not always database managers, but the people they report to.

Karen

Katherine Manniion

YES! YES! I've proposed a session at bbcon for the last 3 years (and obviously not been chosen!) to speak on the topic of how DBMs can and should advocate for themselves. This is a topic that fires me up!

Dariel Dixon 2

@Katherine Mannion I think this is an excellent session. I'm very interested in this.

Faith Murray

Amen, @Karen Diener and @Dariel Dixon! I think one of the challenges that DBMs face is that sometimes we're a little too good at problem-solving to advocate well.

For years, my Director did not want to use the canned tax summary report in RE because it could not be customized for our brand (fonts, layout, etc.). So, I developed an alternate method to export giving data and merge in Word, but the back-end work was a pain. Fast forward nine years and we have a different Director, plus we've hired a new staffer to take on some data work. After one look at my “workaround” our new staffer balked – and our new Director agreed the canned report was suitable after all.

Sometimes I think we get so used to being "database wizards" who can make anything work, to really voice how challenging or time-consuming these individual jobs become. Thank goodness for newbies and our tech-challenged coworkers to help us demonstrate the case! After all, our job is not so much to do “all the database things”, but to make the database useful for the entire organization at its various skill levels.

Karen Diener 2

Katherine Mannion:

YES! YES! I've proposed a session at bbcon for the last 3 years (and obviously not been chosen!) to speak on the topic of how DBMs can and should advocate for themselves. This is a topic that fires me up!

That's disappointing because I do remember one being offered a few years ago (probably more than I care to remember!) and the room was PACKED! Considering how often there IS repeat material, the fact that this one is not being selected is frustrating.

Karen

Sandra Birchard

Thank you all for sharing on here, it is nice to know that I am not the only one struggling with these issues and even nicer to know there is light at the end of the tunnel!

Heather Pauli

Knowing we had the year-end wrap-up to deal with, we were able to get management to approve consolidating dozens of existing acknowledgments down to just a few. Multiple team members then helped draft new all-encompassing letters on top of their already-heavy workload, and tested the merges a few weeks before the change. Though glitches still seem to pop up occasionally that have folks looking at other options, things have gone fairly well just by simplifying the process, going back to basic Word merges wherever possible and getting all affected parties involved in working through the muck to get to acceptable solutions.

Tammy Tsakalios

My organization hired an outside consultant to help with the new mail process and it went very smoothly. We couldn't have done it without her and our database manager. We have a lot of templates with different people signing them, on different stationary, but they was able to streamline the process.