Discussions - Recent Threads

Tessitura webinar 'First look and Q&A: Direct debit extension' on 24th April

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Mon, 08 Apr 2024 11:03:32 GMT

Hello everyone,

I wanted to let you know that we have an upcoming Tessitura webinar on the new direct debit extension for UK members on Wednesday 24th April at 3pm. Details here:

Are you interested in adding direct debit sign-up functionality to your TNEW site as part of your Version 16 upgrade? In this session for organisations in the UK, we will take an in-depth look at the direct debit extension's functionality. This will include the online sales path and how it integrates data into Tessitura. Bring your questions! We'll have ample time for Q&A. A panel of Tessitura leadership representatives are ready to discuss this extension and answer questions about direct debits and Tessitura functionality.

Please note: this is the same session that some of you may have seen at TLCC Gateshead in March - you'd be very welcome to attend again!

Register for the Zoom webinar here.

We look forward to seeing you and/or your team attend.

RE: Tessitura webinar 'First look and Q&A: Direct debit extension' on 24th April

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:53:01 GMT

Hi Charlotte - thanks for your interest! Yes, the webinar will be recorded and available shortly afterwards.

RE: Tessitura webinar 'First look and Q&A: Direct debit extension' on 24th April

Charlotte Cole — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 10:29:33 GMT

Hi Gill, do you know if the session will be recorded? I can't attend this one (though I did at the conference) and it would be good to be able to look back at the conversation if possible.

TLCCC Gateshead Community Group Meet Up

Anna Maria Foster — Thu, 29 Feb 2024 20:10:33 GMT

Dear all,

We’re excited to be meeting as a group soon at TLCC Gateshead! Here’s some key information ahead of the conference:

When: 2:30-3.15pm on Wednesday 6^th March

What: A quick round of conversation-starters to connect attendees, followed by a full group discussion Restructure of campaigns and funds for Reporting and Analytics.

Check out the conference app here to see full details of the session.

We’re looking forward to seeing many of you next week! If you’re unable to attend, feel free to forward onto colleagues who may be interested.

Best wishes

Anna Maria

TLCC 24 Gateshead - Community Group Meet Up - Call for topics for discussion!

Anna Maria Foster — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 20:43:16 GMT

Dear all

I hope you're all getting excited about the forthcoming TLCC 24 in Gateshead.

We are going to host a Group Meet up at the Conference on 6 March, which will be a great opportunity to meet other fellow fundraisers from other organisations, and finding out more about topics that you have an interest on.

Apart from the usual suspects such as Gift Aid and Direct Debits, with the latter having a special focus at the Conference, are there any other topics you would like to discuss?

I would be grateful if you could let me know by Thursday 8 February by leaving your answer in the comments below.

Best Wishes,

Anna Maria

Gift Aid - purchase dates and performance dates

Dawn Yates — Wed, 31 Jan 2024 16:55:56 GMT

Hi
I've cross-posted this in Finance

How do others use the Performance Date on the Gift Aid report? Eg if you are running the report for transactions during July 2023, what would you put as the performance date, given people may be buying tickets some time in advance of their visit/performance? Tessitura have advised us to consider the potential refund situation, which would obviously make the gift aid claim on that ticket ineligible. As a daily admission venue, the majority of our tickets are on the day or close to the day of visit, but some people do buy 3 months or more in advance. Thoughts welcome!

Many thanks
Best wishes
Dawn

RE: Gift Aid - purchase dates and performance dates

Melanie Ryan — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 10:44:30 GMT

Hi Dawn, we don't claim gift aid on performance date, but I would think you want to know the final people who attended, so it would be safest to wait until the performance has matured (and you have your final list of visitors) before you claim the gift aid? Given the majority of your tickets are on the day or close to the day, it shouldn't present you with a problem in terms of cash flow as you'd still be claiming gift aid for the majority of transactions near to their transaction date. And you can claim gift aid up to 4 years after the original gift. We wait until our management accounts have been signed off for the month in question, so never claim gift aid within the first couple of months after a gift - this is to avoid the potential situation of having claimed gift aid on something and then having to return the gift aid to HMRC.

RE: Monthly Direct Debit

Cassandra Makris — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 14:11:32 GMT

Hi Joanna, we are also currently at the end of our first year of Monthly DD's and would love to join this conversation. We are still troubleshooting issues so it would be good to get an insight into the process and discuss any issues that anyone has come across.

Many thanks

Cassandra

Monthly Direct Debit

Joanna Borton — Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:51:51 GMT

Hello,

We have recently decided to offer our members a monthly direct debit option. We have had this in place for about a year now and are reaching renewal periods for some of our monthly DD payers. Has anyone set up monthly DD's for memberships and would anyone be willing to give insight into any hurdles or snags they encountered if any? And how they have set up their monthly DD's?

Happy to chat about this topic here or on a separate channel.

Thank you!!

Joanna

RE: Monthly Direct Debit

Ethan Lumb — Mon, 20 Nov 2023 08:32:13 GMT

Hi Joanna,

We have monthly, quarterly, semi-annually and annual DDs for both memberships and recurring donations. I'm happy to have a chat with you about it, But this is also a topic we are going to be discussing at our next EU Finance meet-up at the Mayflower in Southampton on the 4th December here is the event link if you are able to attend: the event page

Kind regards, Ethan

RE: Monthly Direct Debit

Karen McCarthy — Fri, 17 Nov 2023 09:30:47 GMT

Hello

We have mostly annual DDs for our memberships but we use monthly Direct Debits for donations. I would be happy to have a chat if that would be helpful.

Karen

Deadline this Thursday: Apply for Diversity or Emerging Leader Scholarships for TLCC Gateshead

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Tue, 14 Nov 2023 15:18:07 GMT

Hello all! Our scholarship application period for TLCC Gateshead (5-6 March 2024) closes this Thursday 16th! Please help us spread word and pass this on to any members of your team who may be interested.

We have five scholarships available:

x3 Diversity
x2 Emerging Leader

Scholarships will cover the full conference registration fee, but awardees will be responsible for their own travel expenses and lodging.

Applications coupled with letters of recommendation are due by COB Thursday 16th November - more details regarding eligibility and online application links can be found on our website here.

If you have any questions please email scholarships@tessituranetwork.com or direct them to me personally.

Many thanks - we look forward to receiving your applications!

TLCC Gateshead Call for Presenters: Open Now

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Wed, 18 Oct 2023 15:16:56 GMT

We want to hear from you! Share your fundraising and development expertise, successes and case studies at TLCC Gateshead on 5-6 March 2024 at The Glasshouse (previously named Sage Gateshead)

Whether you’re new to Tessitura or a seasoned expert, a first-time presenter or an experienced speaker, we invite you to submit a proposal for a presentation.

Your voice matters! Share your ideas and experiences, and spark conversations with your peers.

Find out more and submit a proposal here - we look forward to your submissions!

Please note: session submissions are due by Friday 3 November 2023.

If you have questions, feel free to email presentations@tessituranetwork.com.

Elevated events and gift aid

Dawn Yates — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:08:52 GMT

We're using Elevated Events to manage our gala dinner for the first time. If anyone in the UK is using Elevated Events, I'd love to connect! We're particularly interested in knowing how to report on Gift Aid. You can split the Deductable and Non-Deductable amounts when you create the Levels, but I can't see how you then report on this, and identify those eligible for Gift Aid.

Many thanks

Best wishes
Dawn

RE: Elevated events and gift aid

Brian Kerr — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 11:03:00 GMT

Hi Dawn, we deliberated over this a few years ago and have ended up using two Funds (one for ticket, one for donation) for each transaction. I tried the deductable/non-deductable function but that didn't work for us. Unfortunately using two funds also throws up problems with the standard Events module reports so we mostly just report via the Contribution module only. We created a bespoke SQL report for the event registration detail but I'm not sure how much the team still use this. If you're interested in going this route I could get more info. I've not really kept up so there maybe better options now! Many thanks, Brian

Introducing your EU Development and Fundraising Tessitura Community Co-Chairs

Anna Maria Foster — Thu, 20 Jul 2023 11:05:11 GMT

Hello everyone!

My name is Anna Maria and I’m thrilled to introduce myself, Katie and Maria as the co-chairs of the EU Development and Fundraising Tessitura Community. It’s such a great time to be involved in the community and we hope to organise many opportunities for fundraisers to connect and share knowledge, best practice and the amazing things they are doing at their organisations. Below is a little bit about our background and involvement with Tessitura.

Anna Maria Foster - Membership and Gift Aid Manager – National Portrait Gallery

I have worked at the National Portrait Gallery in London (UK) in different roles since 2005. I’ve been the lead for Membership since 2015 and my role focusses on income generation, by creating many opportunities to attract and retain members, as well as encouraging secondary spend. I also look after Gift Aid on membership and exhibition tickets. As I was involved with the implementation of Tessitura back in 2015 and the TNew customisation for Direct Debits, I have had the chance to learn more about the system beyond Membership. Since then I’ve always been seeking opportunities to learn from peers but also happy to speak to organisations who are new to Tessitura.

The Gallery has recently reopened after a 3 years redevelopment and I’m really excited about the opportunities that this will bring for Membership and fundraising, so I’m hoping to make the most of the enhanced features for Membership in v16 that will help making our members experience even better.

Katie Grundy – Membership Manager – The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

I began my career in Membership back in 2017 when I joined The Fitzwilliam Museum’s Development Team as a part time Membership Administrator. Having spent my previous career in Field Sales and Sales Development I was completely new to the Arts and Cultural sector and the world of membership but I guess I had transferable skills.

In my current role, I manage the Membership and Individual Giving Team that looks after our Friends of the Fitzwilliam Museum and our Patrons – The Marlay Group. The Fitzwilliam Museum is part of the University of Cambridge Museums Consortium (UCM) and is the arts and antiquities museum attached to the History of Art Department. We welcome around 400,000 visitors a year with free admission and free exhibitions. The Museum migrated over to Tessitura in the depths of the pandemic in 2020. We have just implemented Direct Debits and launched new membership cards with an integrated QR code for our Friends, and we will be launching both initiatives for our Marlay Group in the autumn.

I am very much looking forward to working with my co-chairs Anna Maria and Maria and meeting more members of the Tessitura community.

Maria Gimlick - Legacy and Campaigns Officer - Royal Academy of Arts.

Hello Fundraisers! My role sits in the Major Gifts Department, part of a wider Development group. Tessitura is our leading CRM at the Academy. I have used it for four years in various departments, including membership and ticketing.

I look forward to meeting you all and growing this group together. I believe it will be an excellent opportunity for us to explore and learn from one another, especially as many of us embark on v16!

We hope to meet many of you in person but in the meantime if you have any suggestions for topics you would like to discuss at future meetings please let us know. We are currently planning a meeting for early autumn so please keep an eye on our posts!

All our best wishes,

Anna Maria, Katie & Maria

Sharing Draft Document from EU Data Insights Tessitura Community

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 09:07:14 GMT

Hi everyone,

Some of you may be members of the EU Data Insights Community already, but for those who aren't, I thought to highlight the Development-related draft document that former co-chair Lauren Coombes recently shared there.

This might be of interest to some of you: Master Decision document beginning to be trialed within the Science Museum Group's Development department

RE: Sharing Draft Document from EU Data Insights Tessitura Community

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 09:27:41 GMT

Apologies, the link appeared to be broken - I've updated it above, and here it is again: community.tessituranetwork.com/.../goodbye-from-your-co-chair-and-community-meetup-follow-up-master-decision-document-template

RECOMMENDED PRACTICES FOR CAMPAIGNS, FUNDS, AND DESIGNATIONS

Claire Zammit — Mon, 06 Mar 2023 14:05:45 GMT

Dear All,

At the recent development and fundraising community meeting at the National Theatre, Erin shared that she done a webinar on recommended practices for campaigns, funds and designations.

Sharing here for you all to access as some of mentioned this would be helpful. https://www.tessituranetwork.com/en/Items/Videos/Webinars/2019/Revisit_Camp_Fund_Design

Best wishes, Claire

Join Us: Next Week - Tessitura Fundraising Webinar on 8th March

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Tue, 28 Feb 2023 20:23:20 GMT

Join us at 5pm next Wednesday 8th March for a fundraising-centered webinar, 'How Community-Centric Fundraising Made Me A Better Fundraiser', with Carlos García León.

More details and registration here - we look forward to seeing some of you there!

Poll - What Would You Like to See Covered at the Development & Fundraising February Meetup?

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Wed, 01 Feb 2023 14:55:33 GMT

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RE: Poll - What Would You Like to See Covered at the Development & Fundraising February Meetup?

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:27:34 GMT

Great, many thanks for your feedback Tara.

RE: Poll - What Would You Like to See Covered at the Development & Fundraising February Meetup?

Tara Patterson — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 12:24:54 GMT

I've voted for the second option but also interested in the third too, especially how people are using Tess to log prospects as well as existing supporters.

RE: Poll - What Would You Like to See Covered at the Development & Fundraising February Meetup?

Gill Tasker (she/her) — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 09:54:02 GMT

Hi Joanna many thanks for your feedback! Great to hear of your interest in these topics, and see you next Friday.

RE: Poll - What Would You Like to See Covered at the Development & Fundraising February Meetup?

Joanna Borton — Tue, 14 Feb 2023 09:49:27 GMT

Thank you for arranging this. The three proposed topics are great. We as an organisation have been looking at using Plans more as well as reporting and analytics.