Hi, I work for a non-profit that funds research for melanoma. I can't say for sure how much volume of gifts we have on a regular basis, but right now is one of our busiest times. I'm the fundraising assistant, and it's my job to process all of our gifts as well as send out acknowledgements. Although my co-workers help me out with the data-entry sometimes, I'm still getting far behind. I'm interested in finding out how other organizations handle processing large amounts of gifts and getting letters out in a timely fashion.

 Any feedback is appreciated!

Batch entry, batch entry, Mail merge 

I use a gift batch (fields loaded from a template) with as many defaults and hidden fields as possible.  Saves a lot of time not having to tab over lots of fields.  Besides having a gift batch to enter gifts, I have a constitutent batch open too.  When I enter the name in the gift batch and it doesn't find a constituent record, I set that gift aside.  I then take all those gifts which do not have records in RE and enter them in our constituent batch template.  I commit that batch and then enter their gifts in a gift batch.  I know some would enter the new record info at the same time as the gift, but when I have a lot of new records to enter I find this works much better for me than going to every separate record.

I do our acknowledgements through Mail function.  I just select the gift batch and run them.  (We use a combined receipt and thank you for gifts/payments we receive.)  I've gotten it so I can send a batch of letters to one printer, send the envelopes to another printer and I'll be working in RE on the next things. 

Hope there's an idea that might help.

I agree - make sure you are taking advantage of every time saving measure in RE.  Batch's default row is one that many people do not take full advantage of.  You can even make some fields default and hide them so you do not even need to tab past them but you know they are being added to every gift (assuming all gifts get the same default)

Do you customize your donor renewal reply devices where you print the name, address, appeal ID, package and Constit ID on the reply device for them? This can really help with difficulty reading people's handwriting and checking spelling, etc.  all you need in batch is the Constit ID and you are golden.

I believe that bar codes do not help much with speed but they can help with accuracy that means you do less double checking.  It is only a cost of maybe $200 for a handheld bar code reader then adding bar codes to your appeal reply devices.  Takes some practice exporting the bar codes but it becomes old hat and easy to use in Batch.

Also - if at all possible ask for complete quiet and no interruptions for at least part of your day so you can get gift entry done.  It is amazing the loss of time involved in dealing with interruptions much less the errors that happen.

Melissa

 Definitely use batch - it is a life saver.

Have you considered using volunteer labor? It is easy to restrict volunteer rights in RE to just the areas they require. Almost my entire gift processing cycle is done by volunteers. Batch is straightforward and easy for volunteers with even a little computer savvy to understand. I currently have 3 volunteers doing gifts processing: 1.) takes the copies of checks/c.c. and enters the information in Batch 2.) proofreads volunteer #1's work and commits the batch 3.) prints appropriate reports for our finance dept. and prints letters.

I know data entry can be a hard sell to volunteers, and I'm not sure how you reach out to potential volunteers, but once you find someone to regularly work with you it can really take the pressure off. 

Thank you so much!  I use as many defaults as I can as well, but I really like your idea of having a new constituent batch open...our problem is that most of our donations are new constituents, so I'd probably be setting aside a majority of the gifts, but I'll definitely give it a try! 

Are you also in charge of stuffing and putting postage on all the envelopes? That's part of my job too....

Melissa, you are absolutely right about the interruptions...I'm also the person who has to answer the phones, but starting next week, my other co-workers will be taking over.

We deal primarily with memorial gifts and event donations, so we don't have renewal devices for them...and setting up new tributes takes time as well.

Thanks for your reply!

We are having a volunteer come in to help me stuff letters, but I'm going to talk to my supervisor about possibly setting it up so that we have volunteers in the office as much as possible during this busy season....today alone I printed out almost 700 letters!

Thanks for your input!

Hi Jackie,

I'm curious, do you keep copies of each acknowledgement letters along with copies of checks, etc, to be filed in the donor record?  We are running out of space and I was wondering what others are doing to concerve space and energy. 

Thanks,

Paula

Copy of checks are kept with our batch deposits for auditors purposes.  Rather than keeping a hard copy of acknowledgement letters, I run a receipt report an acknowledgement report.

 Zoe, what is the acknowledgement report?  Thanks

I run a Cash Receipt Journal report and include the optional column "acknowledgement".

Hi Zoe,

We don't keep hard copies of acknowledgements, although I do keep them saved on my personal drive in my computer. I did, however, work at another organization where we did keep hard copies of acknowledgements, but the donor base there was much smaller.

We are a bit archaic here, but we save a copy of each letter, attached to a copy of the payment in a hard file.   We also save the letters electronically on the server.  Finance also save copies of the payments for the 7 years required by the IRS.

We scan each letter after it is signed and then we link it in the constituent's media tab.