January 2009 - Posts
In the original screenplay for Wild, Wild West (then titled Wild, Wild Cards), Will Smith and Kevin Kline used a variety of special symbols to battle an enormous, mechanical millipede. When this premise was dismissed as too outlandish, the movie was retitled and rewritten. The heroes now used a variety of steampunk gadgets to battle an enormous, mechanical spider - which is waaaaaaaay more realistic.
While the original vision will probably never be brought to the screen, the wild cards they would have used to defeat the giant metal millipede are very much with us. Wild cards are special symbols that stand for one or more characters you can use to search for several types of records and to identify records in queries.
The question mark and the asterisk * are the symbols that make wild cards work. The question mark is used to replace a single character in the name of the record. For example, if the star of Wild, Wild West was in your database, and you were unsure how he spelled his last name, you could search for constituents named either Smyth or Smith by entering Sm?th on the search screen. The asterisk is used to replace a series of characters. For example, to find anyone whose last name ended with the letters "son", you would enter *son.
Brackets [ ] are used to query on a range of characters or to locate several characters. For example, to find all constituents with a last name that begins with A, B, or C, select the criteria Last Name Begins with [A-C]. The hyphen makes the search inclusive. When using the brackets with a comma between characters, you are searching for records with only the values listed. For example, if you search on Last Name Begins with [A,F,G], your query results will only give you records with a last name beginning with an A, F, or G.
Wild Card Miscellany:
- When using wild cards to search for records, unmark the Exact Match option or the wild cards will not work
- In query, you can use wild cards with the following operators: Begins With, Does Not Begin With, Like, Not Like, Contains
- Only one character should be specified when using Brackets and the Begins With operator. For instance, if you want to Query on all records that have last names beginning with Ab or Al, create a query with the following criteria:
Last Name begins with Ab*
OR Last Name begins with Al*
Read more about wild cards in Knowledgebase solution BB44191. You can also check out past forum threads that include discussions about wild cards.
Shakespeare once wrote, "To speak is human, to blog, divine." Well, I don't know if he actually wrote that or not, but I think we can all agree that he certainly should have. Like an actor on the stage, a blogger depends on the reaction of an audience. It is not enough to sit in isolation, churning out relentlessly witty prose - a blogger craves feedback the way a Fraggle craves radishes.
After the last issue of The User's Edge newsletter, a reader asked for something on Action Tracks. In the same spirit with which Shakespeare produced What You Will as "something cheerful for twelfth night", I offer you this post.
In The Raiser's Edge, an action track is a series of actions that are assigned to a constituent, event, or appeal record. When you create the track, you define the conditions that must be met for each new action to be created. The completion of the first action causes the second action to be created automatically, and so on, like one domino tumbling into another. You can assign action tracks to one specific record or to a group of records in a query. Action tracks are used to cultivate prospects and donors as part of a moves management strategy, which was covered in a post last summer by Katy McGinnis.
To create an Action Track, start by selecting Tools, Action Tracks, Define Action Tracks from the menu bar on The Raiser's Edge shell. You can create Action Tracks for three types of records: Constituents, Events, and Appeals. Select the type of action track you want to create, click New, and name your Action Track.
Click New in the lower left of the Action Track screen to add each action. Beginning with the second action, set conditions on the Conditions tab for each record. The conditions are based on Action queries, the criteria of which must be met for the second action to be created. For instance, if the first action of the track is a phone call, this must be completed before the second action of the track is created and added to a constituent's record. If the second action were a meeting, on the Conditions tab of the meeting action, you would enter an action query with the criteria Action Information, Completed equals Yes. It is not necessary to specify what action is completed, because the program knows the query is based upon the previous action in the track.
Continue to add as many dependant actions as you need. Once the Action Track is completed, click OK to close it.
To assign an action track to one constituent or a query of constituents, select Tools, Action Tracks, Assign Constituent Action Tracks from the menu bar. In the Assign Track Wizard, you will be able to select with what action and on which date the Action Track will begin. When you have added all of the necessary information, click the Assign Track button.
To read about Action Tracks in Knowledgebase, check out BB18724. To join a discussion about Action Tracks, or to view past discussions, check out the forum threads marked with the action tracks tag.
Most industries have a way of recognizing the best of the best. The film industry has the Academy Awards, Major League Baseball has the Hall of Fame, and the gourmet food industry has Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest. While the Academy Awards and the Hall of Fame are subjective distinctions, recognizing your top donors is like awarding the Nathan's Mustard Belt - purely objective.
The Top Donors Report provides a list of top donors for a specific date range. You can include top donors by count or by percentage. Select the criteria for your Top Donors on the Format tab, in the Detail selection. For instance, if you want a list of your top 100 donors, enter 100 in the Top field and select Count in the drop-down menu. To get the Top 25 percent of your donors, enter 25 in the Top field and select Percent. You can also use the Top Donors Report to show the total giving for each constituent. To do this, in the Top Donor Criteria frame, select 100 and percent.
Also on the Format tab, Detail Order is used to determine the Sort order for the report. You can sort the results alphabetically or by gift size.
The report considers only gifts satisfying the Filters, Gift Types, and Attributes tab parameters. You can use filters to determine the Top Donors by Campaign, Fund, Appeal, Constituency Code, Solicit Code, or Gift Solicitor. For example, if you filter the report by the 2008 Annual Fund, the report will give you the top donors to that fund only.
The report includes columns for Rank, Constituent Name (including address), Number of Gifts, and Total Gift Amount. The report also includes grand totals for the number of gifts and total giving at the bottom of the report.
This information is also available in Knowledgebase. It's BB23869.
My wife and I support several nonprofits throughout the year. Each time we donate we receive an acknowledgement for our donations. What we don't seem to consistently receive is an end of year statement, detailing the amount and date of the donations. We receive a summary of sorts from some of the nonprofits we support, but not all.
An easy and efficient way to do this in The Raiser's Edge is to use the Annual Statement Report. This report itemizes each constituent's gifts, providing everything he needs for tax purposes. Each constituent's information appears on a separate page. The report includes the donor's name and address, gift date, gift type, gift amount, receipt number, receipt amount, and total receipt amount.
Here is a sample layout of how the report appears
So at the end of the year when it comes time to issue your donors an annual statement detailing their giving for tax purposes, save yourself some time and headache and let the Annual Statement Report do the work for you! Leave your ideas in the comments.
For more information about the Annual Statement Report, check out Knowledgebase solution BB77534.
On September 6, 1995, the Iron Man (but not that Iron Man) passed the Iron Horse to set the Major League Baseball record for most consecutive games played. You may never have a donor who gives a gift 2,632 days in a row, but you probably have donors who give every year. You can capture these donors by running the Consecutive Years report.
The Consecutive Years Report is located in Analytical Reports. When you enter the date range for the report, select the latest year in which constituents must have given. For example, if you want to find everyone who gave in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007, use the date range 1/1/2007 to 12/31/2007. On the Format tab, highlight Detail, and enter a value in the Minimum number of consecutive years field. For the example above, you would enter 5.
A couple tips:
If you need this group of constituents for a mailing, create an output query of the records included in the report: mark the Create output query checkbox on the General tab. If you want to list constituents by the number of years they have given consecutively, go to Format, Sort/Break, and select to Sort by Consecutive years.
This information can also be found in Knowledgebase solution BB56739.
In the Brain Buster from this month's edition of The User's Edge, Noel would be able to acquire 19 bottles using her strategy. From the original 77 empty bottles, she receives 15 full bottles with 2 left over. From the 17 empties, she receives 3 more full bottles with 2 left over. From the 5 empties she receives 1 final full bottle. 15+3+1=19
Now that we're a week into the new year, most people seem to be taking their resolutions to heart and gradually transforming them into new (hopefully healthier) habits. As you work toward personal goals, don't forget to also consider ways to improve your database and keep it happily chugging along throughout the year.
Jennifer Maroney, frequent blogger for The Ledger, recently shared helpful resolution recommendations in her New Year's Resolutions post. Check it out, and feel free to add a comment if you'd like to share some of your resolutions as well.
The earliest receipt was developed by our Neanderthal ancestors, who used large, heavy rocks to acknowledge the exchange of goods or services. This led to a great deal of confusion, as these same rocks were also used as currency, and all available goods and services were in some way rock-related. Over the millennia, the receipt evolved, rocks gave way to clay tablets, papyrus, parchment, and ultimately the modern paper receipt. In recent years, evolution has leaped forward, providing humankind with a new tool: the electronic receipt. In The Raiser's Edge, eReceipts let you create and send receipts without creating anything on paper.
When you work with eReceipts, you must specify an SMTP mail server and port number for your local email server that will be used to send electronic receipts. This information is added to The Raiser's Edge under Configuration, Business Rules, Mail options. If you are hosted by Blackbaud, you will need to request that your organization be configured to use SMTP relay before you run eReceipts for the first time. Create a case or email OnDemandSupport@blackbaud.com and an analyst will assist you.
Once this is configured, enter the following in the SMTP field: re-relay.hurricane.blackbaudhost.com. Enter 25 in the Port Number field.
If you have created custom receipts in the Mail module before, using eReceipts will be a snap. The process is the same way in that you open a new Receipt parameter file in Mail and select Create custom data file as the Receipt Type on the General tab. On the Fields to Include tab, select the fields to include on the receipt.
On the eReceipts tab, mark the Send as eReceipts checkbox and select Write Message. Indicate who the email is from, specify the subject, and then compose an email to accompany the receipt, using the Insert Field button to add the merge fields you selected on the Fields to Include tab. Once you are done, click OK to save the email and then specify the Email Types to Use. Select Send to Word Merge Wizard, save the new receipt parameters, and click Next to begin the Mail Merge Wizard. You can select to mark gifts as receipted, receipted and acknowledged, or Do Not Update as appropriate.
If you are creating one type of receipt for all donors, select to perform a simple mail merge using only one document. If you are creating customized receipts based on fields such as gift type, campaign, fund, appeal, or letter code, select to perform a conditional mail merge using multiple documents. Add the receipt template(s) to the wizard, and click Finish to merge them and send receipts electronically. The receipts will preview for record-keeping purposes. When the preview appears, the email message will have already been sent with the receipt as a PDF attachment.
You can read more about eReceipts in Knowledgebase solution BB186795.