Thanking Donors in Bulk Based on Dedication

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Your donors may contribute to your organization with a dedication, which can be tracked within the DMS as in memory of or in honour of someone.

You can personalize a Thank You email template or letter template to acknowledge the dedication, which can be done in bulk. Alternatively, you can also send Thank You Emails at the same time as Tax Receipts.

Once a donor is thanked, the message is tracked as an Activity in your DMS. Learn more about Activities here.

1. Build a Thank You Template with Dedication

1.1 Email Template

1. In your administrative Settings, first  Clone an existing Message Template.

2. Assign a unique title for your Message Template, which will be used for template selection.

Add a unique title to your Message Template

3. Assign a Message Subject, such as "Thank you for your recent donation".

Add a subject that will send with your Thank You Email

4. Personalize the Message Template so that it reflects an acknowledgement of the dedication, including the name of the honouree.

Customize the new Template to acknowledge the Dedication

5. Select Save.

1.2 Letter Template

1. Visit your administrative Settings.

2. Under Communications, select Message Templates.

Settings > Message Templates

3. Select Add Message Template.Select Add Message Template

4. Give your Template a name for internal use in the Message Title field.  Utilize Merge Fields for Contact names and Contribution details so that each letter populates with unique information.

Learn more about Merge Fields here.

Give your Template a title. Use Merge Fields to customize your Letters

5. Use the text box to draft your thank you Letter, including the dedication information.

Use the Rich Text options to modify your Letter

6. Select Save.

2. Segment your Dedication Contributions

In order to Thank your Donors in bulk via the Tax Receipting process or as a separate Action, segment your Contributions by dedication information. For example, you may want to view:

1. All Contributions with the In Memory of field checked
2. All Contributions with the In Honour of field checked
3. All Contributions dedicated to a specific Honouree name
4. Limited results by Contribution Received Date, Campaign, Contribution Source, etc.

All scenarios can be searched within the Advanced Search button of the Contributions Tab.

1. In the Contributions Tab, select Advanced Search.

2. Under the Dedication Information section, add in your preferred search criteria. For example:

In Memory of: YES

Name of Honouree: James Smith

Add more Advanced Search criteria to segment your search further.

Add your Dedication Search Criteria

3. Select Search.

3. Communicate with your Donors in Bulk

Next, we can acknowledge these dedication contributions in multiple ways. We can either:

1. Thank donors by Email with their Tax Receipt attached

2. Thank donors as a separate Action by Email

3. Thank donors as a separate Action by generating a MailMerge document for printing

3.1 Thank donors by Email with their Tax Receipt attached

1. After segmenting our Contribution list by Dedication information, select All Records in your search, and select Actions. Under Actions, select Issue Separate Tax Receipts.

Issue Tax Receipts

2. Select Send a custom Thank You Email Message. Select your preferred Dedication message template from the menu.

3. Ensure that the Delivery Method selected is Email. Select Issue Tax Receipts.Select Email Delivery Method and Issue Tax Receipts

3.2 Thank donors as a separate Action by Email

1. After segmenting our Contribution list by Dedication information, select All Records in your search, and select Actions. Under Actions, select Send Thank You

2. Choose your preferred method of communication from the Print and Email Option menu to send emails where possible.

Select your preferred "Send emails where possible" option

3. Select the Email Template to send. Then,  select Make Thank-you Letters.

Select the Dedication Email Template and Make Thank-you Letters

3.3 Thank donors as a separate Action by generating a MailMerge document for printing

1. After segmenting our Contribution list by Dedication information, select All Records in your search, and select Actions. Under Actions, select Send Thank You.

Select Say Thanks - Print or Email

2. Select "Generate PDFs for printing (only). Select your Letter Template from the menu.

Select your preferred letter template for printing

3. Select Make Thank-you Letters to generate a PDF file for printing.

Select Make Thank-you Letters to generate for printing

PDF copy of Thank You Letter

4. Next, learn how to generate Mailing Labels for printing in your DMS.