Hi all,
Devo has requested a process they can use to create itemized tax letters for FY2019. They want to be able to print and mail a letter that includes a message from our Director of Development and then has a table of each contribution a patron has made in a year (eg row 1 is a gift on 1/5/2019 to the Annual Production Fund, row 2 is a Gala ticket purchased on 8/9, etc.). I am able to use an output set to export all of the data I want to an Excel spreadsheet, but I am absolutely unable to come up with any process by which to take that data and put it into a single letter per patron by way of a mail merge in Word. I am wondering if anyone else has any similar processes that they are willing to share as I'm at my wit's end trying to get this to work. I've considered using a flattening technique in SQL but I'm nervous since that only really works well if you want a fixed number of contributions, and I don't want to have to re-code the process based on how many gifts the top donor in a year has given every single year.
I just saw in the TNEW newsletter this morning that there's a new utility for this kind of thing:Need to generate year-end receipts? Introducing the Constituent Contribution Summary Receipt UtilityProvide a receipt that shows your constituents all the contributions they gave in a specific year with the new Constituent Contribution Summary Receipt Utility. This free utility can be used to pull a constituent’s giving history for any timeframe you specify, such as a quarter or a fiscal year. Receipts include a unique tax receipt number and PDF copy, as required by Canadian law. I'm very intrigued by this utility -- it might be exactly what you need as well! It suggests opening a ticket if you want the utility