Hi all,
Our devo forefathers here had originally set up some CSI activity types to handle recordingthings like annual "where we're at" non-ask related correspondence but I'mthinking these might be better suited living in some sort of reference only appeal that we could then promote and inactivate.
I'm curious if anyone out in turaland has any opinions on this either way they would care to share.
Cheers!
Hi Ryan,
At the Public, we do exactly as you’ve suggested with our e-mail newsletters and season info mailings (promote an appeal and then mark it as Inactive).
It helps us keep track of the many ways we contact our donors and helps us gauge whether or not we really are overwhelming them with information or not keeping them up-to-date enough. Devo staff can simply click on Contacts > Promotions to see how we’ve contacted them and when.
One recommendation, if we’re doing something regularly I just build a single appeal for the entire year and then do a series of sources/promotions. For example, our current appeal for our monthly e-mail newsletters is named 10 Indv Part E-mail, and the sources are named 09.09 E-news, 10.09 E-news, 10.09 Casting announcement, and so on. Since there are no gifts to track, making multiple appeals seems unnecessary.
Rey
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A. Rey Pamatmat
Development Database Coordinator
The Public Theater
425 Lafayette Street
New York, NY 10003
(212) 539-8739
From: Tessitura Development Forum [mailto:forums-development@tessituranetwork.com] On Behalf Of Ryan Rowell Sent: Tuesday, January 26, 2010 8:13 PM To: Rey Pamatmat Subject: [Tessitura Development Forum] Track Reporting to Donors
Our devo forefathers here had originally set up some CSI activity types to handle recording things like annual "where we're at" non-ask related correspondence but I'm thinking these might be better suited living in some sort of reference only appeal that we could then promote and inactivate.
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Ryan,Like Rey we use sources/appeals to record contacts with a group of constituents - especially where no detailed explanation is required. For example an invitation to a reception or committee meeting or the emailing a press release.
I have two main appeals I use to record these contacts: "Misc. Event Invitations" for non-gala, non-fundraising event mail/email and "Stewardship Mail/Email" for things like special devo newsletters or donor benefit information. These appeals are specific to a fiscal year.
We mostly add CSIs one at a time to record personal interactions with constituents. Occasionally however I will import a CSI for a group of constituents where we want to record specifically what was sent to a group of individuals such as a special email message sent to all board members.
Dale
Hey Ryan -
We split the difference, similar to what Dale does. We mostly keep our customer correspondence in appeal/promotions area. We have different appeals like 'Customer Correspondence' and 'Subscriber Mailing' which we use for a variety of things such as enewsletters, Christmas cards, state of the union letters, surveys, etc.
We also have a CSI that we use for correspondence where we either want to follow up or want to really make sure we've reached the customer. For example, if we have to kill seats in a show we will use the CSI for all customer contact dealing with that issue to make sure that we've actually contacted and dealt with each patron.
HTH,
Heather
Thanks for the feedback all!I think I may go for three appeals, one for devo related contact, ticket related contact and misc related contact.Since the promotions get inactivated at the time they are promoted do you all just link them to whichever campaign makes the most sense or do you have a specific campaign set up to link all these too. If the latter is true do you bother with a fiscal year in the campaign or just leave it ongoing?
Ryan,
I didn't see a reason why campaign would affect anything in this situation so I was lazy and just used an existing campaign - In-kind Gifts. The Fiscal Year on the campaign matches the Appeals.
I think your idea of creating a new campaign without fiscal year is a good one. I don't see why that wouldn't work, especially if you are inactivating the sources right away so gifts/orders cannot be applied to those sources.
I just wanted to interject that the campaign you select for an appeal doesn’t matter in 99% of circumstances. Sources (through appeals) do not control which campaign contributions or ticket purchases are attributed to. All that campaign/appeal association will do is link expenses from the appeal to the campaign on an expense report buried on one of the campaign detail tabs. When you select a campaign on a source report it does not select associated appeals, but rather transactions attributed to that campaign. In other words it selects which products and contributions are listed. Any source from any appeal that is used for one of the transactions selected by the report will be listed, whether or not the appeal is associated with the campaign. So, selecting a random campaign or a dummy campaign is totally o.k.
The 1% circumstance when the campaign on an appeal might matter is when you are selling a gift certificate. If there is no product in a ticket order from which a campaign can be selected, the campaign will be taken from the source used for the order. And that generally only matters because the fiscal year assigned to the gift certificate transaction is pulled from the campaign (just like any other transaction), so if the source is from an appeal tied to a campaign with an old fiscal year the gift certificate sale will be assigned to that old fiscal year on the GL reports (which generally makes finance people unhappy).
The moral of my story is don’t let that campaign field on appeals hold you back when you are devising your appeal structures. And I guess make sure gift certificate purchases use a an up to date source.
Kevin Sheehan
Documentation & Learning Resources Specialist
Tessitura Network
1 888 643 5778 ext 329 Office
ksheehan@tessituranetwork.com