Creating Targeted Letters

Cathleen Zinn

I am looking for ways to create more targeted letters for our annual giving. I was thinking about creating some new attributes so I am looking for ideas on different attributes I can use for this.

Joe Moretti 3

@Cathleen Zinn I would say stay away from attributes. But what are you basing your targets on, Gift amount, appeals, etc. But I would say not to use attributes, but then I am not clear what you are attempting to accomplish and how.

Cathleen Zinn

@Joe Moretti thanks for your input. One of my goals for this year is to come up with more targeted letters. I am just looking for ways to do this. I thought attributes would be the way to go. Why do you suggest I stay away from attributes? Gift amount is probably what I want to focus on. Any suggestions?

Christine Robertson 4

@Cathleen Zinn It's really hard to say without a better idea of what your targets are. If that data already lives somewhere else in RE, I would completely agree with @Joe Moretti about creating attributes.

I wonder if what you're looking to do is track what letter you sent to each of these people? In that case, I would use Appeal/Package to track who you sent the letters to and apply those codes to all gifts generated from the letters. You can easily add Appeal/Package based on Queries in Quick Letters segmentation.

Joe Moretti 3

@Cathleen Zinn If GIft amount is what you are focusing on, you can always create a letter code for specific gift levels. The reason to stay away from Attributes is that gift amounts can vary and if you use attributes you have the pain of constantly updating attributes and who will be responsible for seeing that those updates take place. Just not a good idea to use attribute for this id your focus is gift amount and that is always at your fingertip. I have had the unpleasant pleasure of cleaning up and removing such attributes in my two decade career with Raiser's Edge and I always say to myself, “what were they thinking”.

Chris Vaz

@Cathleen Zinn Hi Cathleen, the way we have more targeted letters is by using data we have in RE to speak to each particular donor, such as asking for an amount just above what they've donated in the past, using their preferred name and including mentions of their part support. I export things like largest and average amount donated, appeals given and philanthropic interests. I'm not sure if that is what you meant but I hope it helps.

Cathleen Zinn

@Chris Vaz thanks for your input! That is very helpful!

Cathleen Zinn

@Joe Moretti I have never heard of a letter code. Can you expand more on that?

Cathleen Zinn

@Christine Robertson We are looking to create more targeted letters when we do our annual appeal. So I am looking for ways to personalize the letters.

Joe Moretti 3

@Cathleen Zinn In database View in Configuration, you can create a Letter Code, that you can add to a gift when a gift is entered. It is just a letter code, that will tell you want letter you want to send. But you still need to decide that letter codes for the particular gift amounts you want to use. But again I am not sure what you are attempting to do and how. We use letter codes for our person who does the letters, such as this event gets this type of letter, this fund, will get this type of letter. The code is usually entered by the person who enters gifts, BUT, you do not want to have a gazillion letter codes that make it complicated. But I am still not clear what you are attempting and how. You can also use whatever appeals you are using and say that this particular appeal gets this letter and this particular appeal gets this one, etc. But you need to be much clearer.

Christine Robertson 4

@Cathleen Zinn I think you should absolutely use Appeals/Packages for that. You can build queries based upon Gift Amounts and assign the Appeals/Packages based upon what query the donor falls into.

Letter Codes are available on Gifts as a way to indicate what Acknowledgement letter to send.

Cathleen Zinn

@Joe Moretti thanks for the info. That would not be helpful for this. I know what letter goes with each appeal and event, so that is not needed. Thanks for clarifying though!

Carlene Johnson

@Cathleen Zinn there are some great responses and suggestions in this thread. If you are primarily focused on more targeted ask amounts I suggest checking out Ask Genius. There is an upcoming webinar on Feb. 6th.

I've attended a number of webinars by Prenger Solutions Group and they are always well worth my time! A couple of my other favorites: How to Write the World's Greatest Fundraising Letter and Designing the World's Greatest Pledge Card.