Hi All,
I am looking to understand how TNEW operates on the contribution side. We are looking to possibly switch from the Classy platform over to TNEW soon, but we need to make sure it's going to do what we need it to. Is there anyone here who uses TNEW for contributions who would be willing to chat with me about how that works for you?
Basically, I am trying to find out what it looks like when online donations are entered automatically on constituent records. How are designations assigned? How are workers and source codes assigned? Are tax receipts automated, and if so what do those look like? What is the flexibility/ease of designing and editing giving pages?
Also, if anyone uses TNEW for event pages and could send me a link to their event page, I would appreciate it! We also want to understand how TNEW functions for events.
We have been in contact with Tessitura support, but they have not provided thorough answers- I feel like actual users will be better able to explain these functions. Any insights/info/links you can provide is SUPER appreciated! And if anyone is willing to jump on a call to briefly discuss, I would love it.
Thanks!!
-Chelsea Dvorchak
The Joffrey Ballet
Advancement Operations and Data Specialist
Hi Chelsea. I definitely don't have all these answers but I'm happy to jump on a call and share my experience with contributions from TNEW. Feel free to send me an email: blair_laurie@harvard.edu
Chelsea, one thing to keep in mind if you want more control over how online gifts are entered is that you can set it up so that any gift that comes in online immediately goes on account for the record instead of being entered as a gift so that you can go in an enter it yourself. Obviously, if you get a lot of online gifts you may not have the bandwidth to enter each one, but it's something to note!
Hello-
You have a lot of questions here, so I will try to answer a few that I can. I've not used Classy, so I don't know what that looks like. We, here at the Dallas Zoo, use TNEW Contribution pages quite extensively and they serve us well. For the most part, once it gets setup, it can be quite automated if that is how you want it to be. Below I'll include some screenshots of what online donations look like. TNEW donations can be setup to go on-account or directedly to a Fund. If you put it On-Account, it still takes human interaction. In that scenario, you can do all the things you want - add a Designation and assign to Workers or whatever. The Pro's would be quickly & easily taking money online and full control over how you process it. The Con's are it "still takes a person". The other option is that you can direct the money to a Fund - this is how we do it. Then, using Acknowledgement functionality, you can generate tax emails or other Acks based on the Fund and dollar amount. We auto-send a Tax Thank You email for donations up to $100. For $100+, we still produce a paper letter and it gets signed by a gift officer & mailed. The Pro's to this method is primarily automation. For all intents & purposes, once it gets setup it can operate with no human interaction. The Con's are you cannot assign a Designation (out of the box-I'm sure there are customizations/coding that could do this) nor can it really interface with Workers. As for Sources...they will pass thru to TNEW in either scenario based on how the user gets to the TNEW page if you are currently using Sources.
Designing & editing the pages is relatively straightforward and easy in the TNEW Admin Portal. We use TNEW for RSVP'ing & registering for most of our Events. However, as you'll see on other Posts, TNEW does not do a good job of tracking tables & Guest Names. To get to that point, you need to be crafty with added questions and there is a lot of staff interaction on the backside.
This is how a Contribution comes through:
The Acknowledgement Tab:
This a TNEW link to one table level for our Gala that just occurred:
https://my.dallaszoo.com/donate/i/170?promo=192487
One Level of upper level Membership Program:
https://my.dallaszoo.com/donate/i/13
(here's the entire program - https://www.dallaszoo.com/presidentscircle)
We had a sign talking about conservation in the Zoo with a QR Code that went to this One-Page Giving Link:
https://my.dallaszoo.com/donate/q/188
I think those are the big points. Hope this helps!
-Mark
This is how we do it, and I honestly prefer it this way as opposed to automatically becoming a contribution. I go in every day and process the on account donations, and as long as I don't get too far behind it doesn't take much time. We get donations online that are for the annual fund, our campaign, tribute gifts, etc, so I prefer to look at them individually to ensure they're processed correctly.
Same! I like being able to note each gift for my own purposes (not to mention I'm going to need to go in and update the source for them since we utilizes those pretty heavily). Also, some folks like to make pledge payments online, and it's much easier to have them go on account than have to zero it out and adjust it.
Chelsea Dvorchak (Past Member) - just so it is said out loud...you can have different TNEW pages each set differently. So, you could have one page go on-account for big donations that you handhold as mentioned above and you can have a different TNEW page with the donation going directly to the Fund if you expect high volume or that works better for a certain program. Just wanted to make that clear, too.