Two-for-one Training Session last week
Two weeks ago, we discussed how to import data from other systems which bridged the gap of consolidating your data into DonorDock rather than using multiple systems.
Last week you got to hear from both Erika and Matt as they volleyed the training from doing a Mail Merge with DonorDock and Microsoft Word and to How to Create and use Campaigns, Appeals, Asks and Funds.
Doing a Mail Merge with DonorDock and Microsoft Word
In DonorDock
1. Login to DonorDock and access Reports
2. Choose New Donors This Year in the contact reports column to Load the Report
3. Add columns to the report to include the contact’s address, city, state and zip code. We also chose to include First Name and Last Name, since some of the contacts were organizations and we wanted to address individuals specifically.
4. Go to the address line column and filter on Is Not Empty. This will allow you to see only the contacts that you will be sending a letter to
a) Pro tip: Go to the add button and add a Letter Activity to this report. This will indicate that the letter you are sending to this group of people is complete and will now show up in their activity history.
5. Once your report has the data you want, export it to Excel and save it as a CSV document
In Microsoft Word
6. Once you've saved your report, close Excel and open Microsoft Word
7. Access Mailings in the main navigation menu
8. Click on Start Mail Merge and Choose Labels from the dropdown menu
9. Select the manufacturer and type of label you want to use and click OK
a) Common labels used are Avery 5160 labels (allows for 3 lines of information)
10. In the top menu choose Select Recipients and click on Use an Existing List from dropdown menu
11. Browse and choose your CSV file from your DonorDock report to create labels
12. Then begin to Insert Merge Field and choose the fields you want to add to your label from the dropdown. We chose First Name (space) Last Name, (Enter) Address (Enter), City (comma + space) State (space) and Zip.
13. Once the template label is set the way you like, click Update Labels to fill in merge fields
14. Click on Finish and Merge in the menu and choose Edit Individual Documents in the dropdown
15. Click OK to merge all of the records from your imported excel doc and new window will open with your labels
16. That’s it! Save and close your labels to access later or save and print your labels to prep your envelopes for mailing 17. For step-by-step instructions and screen shots of the progress, access the Mail Merge with MS from DonorDock article in our Knowledge Base
What are Campaigns, Appeals, Asks, and Funds and how do we use them?
Our team has carefully created these areas to build on each other and defines them as follows:
Campaign
A campaign is the reason your organization is asking for funding. It is the umbrella in which all related activities on how you ask for donations would roll up to
Appeals
An appeal is 1 or more ways about how you are asking for donations, as part of a campaign. Which could be an event, a call goal, an email, etc.
Asks/Activities
Asks are individual activities where you ask a donor for donations as part of an Appeal. For example, if your organization is doing a call event Appeal and you have set a goal of 50 calls, each of those 50 calls would be an activity or an ask. Each of the asks created within DonorDock are tied to that Appeal and to the parent campaign.
Funds
Funds might be specific grants, foundations, planned programs, etc. that your organization raises money for. In DonorDock, we use this area to note where gifts should be applied when a donor donates to that specific cause or area.
Steps for creating Campaigns, Appeals, Asks and Funds
Campaigns
1. Start by Navigating to the Campaigns page and create a New Campaign
2. Input the Campaign Name the monetary goal and the start and end date. In our example, we created an EOY 2020 Campaign
Appeals
1. Under the campaign create your first Appeal. We created a Phone Call Appeal for EOY 2020
2. Input your Appeal Title and Appeal Type which is a call down. If you input a monetary goal here you will be able to see the progress of the Appeal as gifts are tracked to this Appeal.
1. Note: This type of Appeal example is a 1 to 1 donor activity. You can also track bulk emails, a letter activity after completing a mail merge, etc. on a 1 to many level.
3. Once the appeal is created you can start doing 1:1 donor engagement to ask for donations. Go to Contacts and choose a contact
4. Click on Actions and Add a Phone Call activity to this donor’s record
5. Update the status to complete, Input the Subject and tie the activity to the appropriate Campaign and Appeal. Once saved the activity will be tracked as 1 of your 50 calls to the Campaign and Appeal
Asks
1. Prior to completing phone call activities you may want to plan and forecast how much you want to ask for or need to ask for in order meet your goal. You can track this by creating an Ask activity.
2. Create the Ask by adding an activity in the contact record. Relate it to the appropriate Campaign and Appeal. Update the Planned Ask for the donation amount you want to ask for and the likelihood of receiving it. Then schedule out the ask for a later date to complete the activity
3. Asks will sit out there with likelihood noted on them until you go back to access the ask and complete the activity of calling the donor.
4. To update the Ask go back to the contact record or to the Appeal and review the Activity History. Update the Actual Ask the status of the ask to Complete and the Likelihood that the donation will be received.
Funds
1. If your organization tracks funding, Funds are the place in which you identify how dollars are to be used from a donors perspective
1. You can track donations to a specific fund using Accounting Integrations, discussed in previous training.
2. Creating a Fund within DonorDock will show you a a roll up donations that have come from Campaigns and Appeals
---
After our session we walked through the new layout updates that will be released in the near future. This will continue each week until the release is published.
To catch a glimpse of the new layout, get a live training demo and here real-time Q&A with your peers. Join us for the next call, held every Tuesday at 10am.
