Acknowledgement Rethink

Over the course of a year plus of lockdowns, quarantines, and work-from-homes the way we work and communicate with our donors has changed. One place many organizations have felt this shift is in their gift acknowledgement process. Despite this change being forced and somewhat abrupt, we all made it work. With new features for acknowledging and receipting donations, Raiser's Edge NXT helped many teams manage the change.

Most organizations produce acknowledgement letters using a conditional mail merge in Raiser's Edge NXT database view. With the release of new web view features, options for acknowledging donors' generosity have expanded.

In database view Configuration and Mail are the primary areas for efficiently producing gift acknowledgements directly from the database. A great tool, but if you aren't able to be in the office this option can present some challenges.

Enter web view. With the release of Gift Receipting, Giving Statements, and Workflow Designer we have several alternatives for thanking our donors.

Gift Receipting (think electronic acknowledgements/receipts) and Giving Statements (think electronic annual statements) can be found under the Fundraising menu. Both of these features allow for bulk sending using a List as well as one-off emails. With Giving Statements you can even print out PDFs and send via traditional mail. Both of these features require a manual touch to initiate and complete.

If you are looking for something a bit more automated, Workflow Designer is your friend. With Workflow Designer you can pair custom criteria with a custom email. When a gift hits the database and meets the criteria you've setup the custom email is sent to the donor.

BONUS: Have a welcome series to steward first-time donors? No problem. Build up to twenty steps in Workflow Designer to automate the series.

Of course these fabulous features require a constituent email address to work. So, get to collecting those emails you don't currently have.

Gone are the days of endless printing, stuffing, and mailing. With a small upfront investment of time for setup, you could gain back hours going forward.

During difficult times, change feels inevitable. Change (forced or voluntary) can offer new ways of thinking and doing. Hopefully these new features in Raiser's Edge NXT open up a new way to connect with your loyal friends and important donors.