Acknowledgement Letters

Laura Hofstrand

We have always run our acknowledgement letters outside of RE using Access. I'd like to get rid of using Access and instead run them thru RE. Based on my limited research it looks like there are a bunch of different ways to do this. What I'd like feedback on is what is the best way to run letters? I don't think it's possible to run letters right now thru NXT? It's confusing using the Support articles because some of them are outdated and no longer apply as I know the Microsoft integration went away with database view. It seems to me that using Mail in database view just gives you a list of gifts and then you have different mail merge Word docs saved on your computer that are used with this export? Any feedback/assistance would be appreciated!

Christine Robertson 4

@Laura Hofstrand Yes - if you use the Mail function, you are creating a file and doing the Merge in Word. Since you're in NXT, I've been really pleased with the options in Letterbox from Red Arc. I have clients using both the free and paid options with success. It's definitely worth a look!

Faith Murray

@Laura Hofstrand
Yes, that is correct. Using Mail generates a csv file (accessible in Excel) and also marks the gifts acknowledged in RE. Then you use your native Word functionality to merge into a letter doc.

A number of orgs use conditional letter acknowledgements – that is, someone with a “scholarship” letter type gets one acknowledgement and someone with a “Christmas Appeal” letter code gets a different letter type. You can set up a Conditional merge master doc on your local server/shared folder that links to the individual letter templates to merge all the letters in one pull. There are discussions on the Community detailing best practices as we all floundered through it a year or 2 ago. But, if you prefer to stay simple, you can just pull one letter code type at a time out of Mail and merge individually.

Let us know if you had any specific questions!

Laura Hofstrand

@Christine Robertson Thanks! I will look into this!

Laura Hofstrand

@Faith Murray Thanks Faith. I'm looking for a way to get rid of using mail merges. It seems like in 2023 there should simpler way to run letter than using 20 different mail merges.

Karen Diener 2

@Laura Hofstrand:

@Faith Murray Thanks Faith. I'm looking for a way to get rid of using mail merges. It seems like in 2023 there should simpler way to run letter than using 20 different mail merges.

When Microsoft was “dis-integrated”, I set up conditional merges for about 10 clients and it was a nightmare. I had a lot of practice obviously, but it was incredibly finicky. Most of them could not maintain it either - it was too complicated to make adjustments, and once a portion of the process broke, it broke everything.

I have since made a slight adjustment for most of them. They still use the Mail process and generate one file with all of the gifts needing acknowledgement. They do have separate Word templates for each letter, and each template is attached to the same data file. When you open the Word template, you can specifically select each letter needing acknowledgement by going to Mailings | Edit Recipient List.

So essentially you end up with one Donor Acknowledgement Letters template in RE, one data file, and one template for each of your letter types.

I agree that this should be easier. It is at the core of every nonprofit using Raiser's Edge and it is kind of ridiculous that Blackbaud has not made this easier. There are much lower cost donor databases out in the world that handle this beautifully. I think RedArc is a pretty accessible option and automates the merging for you, so I would definitely look in to that. But Blackbaud itself has no good option right now.

Karen

Lee Grisham

@Laura Hofstrand We've used Power Automate through the Microsoft Connection in NXT and it works really well! It will automatically do the merge and pull in the necessary information (except for soft credits and DAF) and store them all in a file in SharePoint for us. Definitely makes our life easier.

You can find some samples in the Sky Developer section. Will require some time if you've never used those programs before.

Daniel R. Snyder

@Lee Grisham is right that Power Automate can do this, but there is a learning curve. I should also note that we are able to handle soft credit and DAF gifts with our Power Automate process. Just additional conditions to add to the flow.

Catherine Burns

@Laura Hofstrand
I have not learned Power Automate yet but am grateful for Conditional Mail merges when it comes to receipting. One export with different letter codes, one merge template, and as many different letters as you can be bothered setting up. One mail merge creates all the letters at once in one file. We do split our export for post and email but merge each the same way. They are fiddly to set up, and you cannot always get formatting perfect (bold, italics, text alignment etc. sometimes changes to plain text) but they are fast to run and much more customisable then the NXT letter options because there are better options for salutations, organisation contact people etc. See https://kb.blackbaud.com/knowledgebase/articles/Article/198141

Incidentally, this is how I used to create receipt letters from Raiser's Edge 6 over 20 years ago! Quite a leap backwards.