I created a new letter export in config. When I go to letters and set up a new letter type, how do I get my new letter under mail to find the letter I created in config? I'm having trouble "connecting" the two. Sue Potts Woodland Park Zoo Seattle, WA

Unfortunately they are Unconnectible. I hate to say it but BB really messed this one up and it catches users every time. You have to go to config to create the name of the letter and you think you should set it up right there but no, that only sets up the letters you can run one by one from the gift tab. To set up the letters in Mail it is a completly different process and unfortunately you can't even go to config and cut and paste into Mail because the merge field names are different in the 2 processes (brilliant, eh?) I love Blackbaud and many of the processes they have work very well but this one was really messed up beyond help. Let's prey that they are really fixing this for RE8. *** I can spell, I just can't type. Where is spell check? Melissa S. Graves Director of Development Services The Village for Families and Children mgraves @ villageforchildren.org

I just went through this exact same thing. It's frustrating I agree & when I contacted Blackbaud about it they did put it on their list of things to consider for future enhancements. Stephanie Roland

Thanks for your response to my question. I guess I'll start from scratch. Here's the 2nd part of my problem. I need to create these letters to acknowledge for event gifts, including tickets, event pledges, event gifts, matching gift pledges and on and on. How can I include different types of gifts in the same letter? Would it be a conditional mail merge? All of these event gifts have the same letter code, so I can't isolate them that way.

 

Sue Potts
Woodland Park Zoo
Seattle, Washington

I'm not sure what you mean by including different types of gifts in the same letter.  If you're just looking for gift types, you can include them all using the "Gift Types" tab in RE:Mail.  Unfortunately the BB gift types only include cash, stock, pledge etc.  It sounds like your gift types are more robust and individual to your organization (event pledge vs ticket purchase) so you will need to do additional coding within the gift record to identify the gifts you want.  There are two options going forward: I would think about them in terms of "will we be doing this kind of coding on a regular basis, or is this a one-time thing?"  If you will need to code gifts like these on a regular basis, I would recommend a gift subtype (we use those for event gifts, tracking event sponsor, ticket purchase etc) or a gift attribute.  You could then include that field in your letter template which would then appear in the mail merge.  If this is a one-time coding, a better option might be creating different letters based on the gift type.  You would have to create different letter templates that includes language based on your specific gift coding, then query on the gift type and globally change those gift types to the new letter template you created. This is better in that you don't create table entries that then sit around collecting dust.  Of course you do create a bunch of letter templates which will sit around, inactive forever.  Either way you'll have to do some additional coding to your gifts to solve the problem and plan for the future.  Good luck!

Sue,

How can you distinguish them apart (appeal code, campaign, gift subtype).  Anything?  To do a conditional merge you need some common field to use to set up your conditions.

I would consider using a different "appeal" or even "package" when entering the gifts.  Then you would need to add that field merge code into your conditional letter.

 

Barbara

RMHC of Central Florida

 

The types mentioned that they want to acknowledge are kind of a mixture of appeals and gift types.  Matching gifft pledge, for example, could be to any appeal.  Acknowledgement letters take a lot of thought on how you want to use Mail to do the conditional merge.

You can use one condifion in RE to input separate letters (I suggest letter code) but you can also use if..then... conditional statements within Word to do a multitude of other conditions such as gift type.

There is no one way to do this.