Running Acknowledgement Letters

Running Acknowledgement Letters in Raiser’s Edge

Go to Query on the blue left side menu.

Select the THANK YOU LETTER QUERIES folder

Double click the THANK YOU LETTERS; ALL LETTERS query. This is the first set of letters to run.

Go to the “4:Results” tab and check that the Primary Addressee, Primary Salutation and Preferred Address are in the correct format.

Addressees & Salutations Formating for Raiser’s Edge

Single Person

Married Couple

Two Different Last Names

The address format should be as follows: 123 East 77th Street, Apt. 1A where Street, Drive, Court, etc. is always spelled out. If Apt. is present it always has a period after it and Apt. should always be used instead of Unit, #, etc. Street direction should always be spelled out, for example use East instead of E.

If the address format does not follow the format above, double click on the gift and then go into the constituent record and change it in the Address Tab.

After all changes have been made go to Mail on the blue left side menu.

Then select Donor Acknowledgement Letters and then double click 650 Fund All Letters without signature.

Make sure the window that opens looks like this:

Change the End date to today’s date and then select Send to Word merge wizard.

You are now in the Word mail merge wizard which will guide you through the acknowledgment letter export process. Click the Next button. The screen below appears:

The data is now beginning to be exported. Another window also appears so the data can be saved as a query.

Always save the Query name in this format: ACK LETTERS 2015 today’s date and the Description as the name of the appeal, the year and today’s date. Create in: THANK YOU LETTER QUERIES. Then click the Save button.

The next window to appear will ask you the question below. Always select Yes.

Make sure the next window to appear looks like this below. Now select the Next button.

And then select Letter unless it is already highlighted. Click the Next button.

The next window to appear is the merge document window. These are the many letters that will be merged based on the various ways we would like to acknowledge the donor. Click the Next button.

Now the document can be saved. Always use the format ACK LETTERS and today’s date. Please save in the ACKNOWLEDGEMENT FOLDER in the shared folder on our remote server. Press the “Finish” button and the letters will now be created and open automatically in Microsoft Word.

Please run all of the letters.

The Word document will appear. Now you are ready to format the letters.

- FORMATTING ACKNOWLEDGEMENT LETTERS -

Change the section breaks in the letters to manual page breaks:

1. Hit Ctrl + F (Find) 2. Click the Replace tab 3. Type ^b in the Find box 4. Type ^m in the Replace box 5. Select Replace All

Why?

So Microsoft Word recognizes the letters as pages instead of one continuous document. Doing this will help your printer, and other curious parties, recognize that the document is a series of pages.

Next, trash the zeros:

1. Hit Ctrl + F (Find) 2. Click the Replace tab 3. Type .00 in the Find box 4. Leave the Replace box blank 5. Select Replace All

Lastly scan all the letters for grammar, spelling, address and salutation/addressee format mistakes. Now you are ready to print on our awesome letterhead! The President, Father Tierney gets all letters to sign. Please put them in Father Tierney’s mailbox and he will return them to you after he has signed them Written by Robert Thibault Development Database Manager Cardinal Hayes High School 2015