Does anyone have a streamlined acknowledgement process they are happy with and would share? We are currently stuck in the cycle of many letters that contain a ton of customization. I am looking to create a more streamlined process that gets the initial tax letter out the door a whole lot faster. My VP is totally on board (this is one of her operational thorns) but I know I am going to get push back from my front line fundraisers. Any tips or tricks to navigate this? Thinking a system of secondary follow up based on gift amount that could be easily customized, like a phone call or note card, that comes after the tax letter (receipt?) is out the door. I would love any feedback or advice you can offer.
Hi Dana,
We implemented a process last year that's been working very well for us. We configured our various letters (acks, notifications, tax letter, etc.) in Tessitura, and have an internal schedule for when we run that report. I have several templates for the letters depending on the different types of contributions, and that's helped limit customizing each letter and writing drafts because much easier. The biggest help has been using a Trello board to keep track of everything though.
Every step of the process is laid out in a pipeline from "contribution entered" to "1st draft done" "sent for edits" and "mailed out." It can get very granular depending on your particular needs. We also use Slack, and have a dedicated channel for just the people involved in acks so everyone can track the whole process there as well.
Happy to discuss this further if you have any questions!
Maia that sounds fantastic! Would you be willing to share that pipline? I am looking to reinvent the entire wheel over here and I would love to see as many details as possible.
Thanks so much for responding!
You can email me directly at dgenco@architecture.org
Hello Dana,
Recently, I did a similar overhaul of our acknowledgement process. We have three or four templates for various kinds of donations, and for each of these we have gift, pledge, and pledge payment language. Additionally, we use different language and include or exclude language based on the donation level. These acknowledgments also include receipts that frequently need to reflect specific situations.
While no process will ever encapsulate everything, I was able to boil down the most common situations, and create one letter template that captures most of the specific issues we come across. It’s a Word document that consists of about three pages of merge fields that pull text from about six other templates I’ve set up. This was a lot of work on my end, but I can now save the printed acknowledgments from Tessitura as an excel sheet, and produce 30 something letters from three or four different funds and payment types in about five minutes. We have been able to reduce our turn around time to 48 hours at the latest, and on some days have been able to send out letters the day we received the donation.
I would be happy to send over that template to you to check out, of course it would need to be formatted to your fund types, and I’d be more than happy to walk you through it. This has saved me a lot of time and trouble, and I didn’t need to ask Tessitura or our in-house power user for any additional reports or letter templates to be built in Tessitura.
Let me know if you’re interested!
Hello William,
I too would be interested in any tips that you could share with acknowledgments.
Many thanks!
CrystalCrystal HancockOxford Performing Arts Center
Hi William!
This is something I would love to see if you wouldn't mind sharing! We are in the process of looking at our acknowledgement process and would appreciate your help. Please email me directly at chollatz@thesmithcenter.com
Thank you!!
William, this is amazing of you to share and I would love to see your template! Would you mind sharing at dgenco@architecture.org?
I've also been looking to try something like this. I would really appreciate it if you could send me the template as well. acontreraz@cscmail.org Thanks!
Greeting William,
I would be forever grateful if you would also share the acknowledgement process information with me as well. Acknowledgements are definitely a thorn in my side as well.
With gratitude,
Lona Palmero
Database Manager
New World Symphony
Lona.Palmero@nws.edu
I know this is an old post, but if possible I would to see as well? Jennifer.vinson@riversidetheatre.com
Hi Maia,
Are you willing to share this with the SLSO as well? My email address is ashleye@slso.org. Can you copy my coworker Christina Cook christinac@slso.org?
Thanks,
Ashley Elliott
Database Administrator
St. Louis Symphony Orchestra
314-286-4198
ashleye@slso.org
Same here! Can we at SLSO get a share from someone? Anyone?
Hi Everyone,
While I don't have any templates to share, I did want to highlight the incredibly helpful Contribution and Membership Acknowledgment webinar.
https://www.tessituranetwork.com/en/Items/Videos/Training/Acknowledgements
Part 3 reviews how to create templates.