Sending Thank Yous with Mail Merge

Thank yous are how your school will acknowledge donors for their donations. With the three thank you options it is easy to thank each donor when and how you like. The three thank you options are: “Initial Thank You”, “Year-End Thank You”, and “Pledge Complete Thank You.” Each option has a host of ways to communicate and handle the delivery of the thank you. You will have the option to generate letters, print mailing labels, send emails, or export a list of your choosing.

Types of Thank Yous

Initial Thank You

This thank you is used to communicate for each individual donation that is made. When used, this thank you will reflect the total dollar amount of a single donation.

Year-End Thank You

This thank you is used to communicate year-end donation totals that have been made throughout the fiscal year. When used, this thank you will tally each separate donation you choose and reflect the cumulative total of donations made by a donor or donor profile. This can be used for informational purposes as well as year-end tax info.

Pledge Complete Thank You

This thank you is used to communicate after a pledge has been completed. To review the difference between a gift donation and a pledge, see Donation Help Documentation.

Sending Thank Yous

Thank yous work like batches. They are not automatically sent when a donation is made. Instead, when a donation comes in they are placed in a batch and stored until you are ready to send them. A new batch is created for each type of thank you the donor is set to receive, and also by the date the donation was made. You also have the ability to create your own batches based on your own needs. When you are ready to send the thank you, you go into the batch and choose the donations that you would like to thank. This gives you the option to choose every donation within the batch or select whichever donations you want. The reason BigSIS does this is because you choose the method you would like to send the thank you. Some schools prefer to send email, whereas some schools prefer to send letters, others may have their own methods of thanking for donations. Adding the thank you to a batch allows you to not only choose which donors you want to communicate with but also how you will communicate with them.

From the Dashboard:

1. From the left-menu, proceed to Donations > Thanks Yous
   
2. For a New Batch click the New button.
   
3. Select the Donation Type, meaning are you thanking pledge donors, one-time gift donors, or recurring gift donors? The option you select will determine which donors will appear in the Thank You batch.
   
4. Then, select the Thank You Type.
   
5. The batch title will default to the date the batch was created, the donation type, and the Thank You Type, but you can edit it here if needed.
6. You'll notice there are no Donations on the Donation table, that's because you need to select the appropriate donations that need thank yous. Click the Select Donations From the 'Unthanked' Bucket for This Batch.
7. Select the Donations that need Thank Yous and then click the Add Selected Donations to Thank You Batch and click the Back button.
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8. Select all the donations from the list and click the Communicate button, then select Generate Letters - Per Donation or Generate Letters - Per Donor.
   
   Note: Per Donation will send out a letter for each donation whereas Per Donor will send out one letter per donor with the total amount given up until the date the letter is generated. So, for example, if a donor donated $50 each month for four months, and all of those donations are a part of this batch, the donor will receive four letters thanking them for each $50 donation. Per Donor, on the other hand, will send one letter thanking the donor for giving $200 since they have four donations of $50 in the batch.
   
   
9. This will take you to the Mail Merge Wizard page. This is where you will be able to start building your thank you template.
   
   
   
10. Now, you will want to use the template below to formulate the template that you want. You can use the myriad of options to formulate the template exactly as you need it. For more detail on these options click here.
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    • SPECIAL NOTE: To add mail merge markers you can use the Mail Merge option. The Mail Merge option is very important because this will provide the list of markers you are able to use within THIS mail merge.
      PRO TIP! Markers are place holders for the info the marker pertains to. For example, if you include "Dear <<Firstname>>" into your letter it will print "Dear John," "Dear Lisa," "Dear Timmy," etc. 
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      • Special Instructions for placing Mail Merge Markers
        You will want to place your cursor in the text area where you want to place the marker. Then you will select the marker you want and click Insert, or double click on the marker. You will see that that marker will be placed into your letter.
        PRO TIP! You can click on the gray bar that says Insert Merge Field to move the marker window to where you need it and so that it is moved out of your way.
        Pro Tip! After you add the marker you will need to click on the text area of your letter or exit out of the Insert Merge Field window to have the focus pulled back to the letter so that you can continue typing into the body of the letter.
        NOTE: You may need to experiment with the markers to make sure you have exactly what you want. You can experiment by completing your mail merge letter, then download one letter to get an example of how the markers will pre-fill.
11. Once you have edited the template to your preference, you will want to save the template for future use. Once you have saved your template you will be able to use your template at any time in the future by selecting the template from the "Load saved Mail Merge Template" drop-down menu.
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