Is there any other organization that uses scanners to aid in the data entry process? We plan to use the scanner to make images of donation checks along with any correspondence that came with the check. Our Gift Coordinators are a little leary on the process change because it seems to be extra steps and more time consuming. We are having trouble coming up with a way to keep the check and correspondence from getting separated. We not only use all cards, letters, obits, etc. that come with the donation but also sometimes require the envelope for address verification. Our data entry staff believes this will take more time to process than our current system. The plan is to use a split screen to input the batch. We are having a hard time getting the staff to get on board with this idea and I have to admit, as the database admin, that I have some reservations also.

How do other organizations handle this type of process?

We don't use a scanner for gift entry, but I use one to scan photos for nametags.  I think this would add quite a bit of time to the process.  We occasionaly scan documents for e-mailing, and I often scan obits to keep from typing them in.  If the original is not very good quality (such as a copy of a clip from a magazine) this can be difficult.  Scanning handwritten documents, such as notes, can be tricky since the scanner can't read some people's handwriting.

 At this time, we print a copy of the batch report and staple all correspondence with the gifts on the batch to report and store them in notebooks.  At the end of the year, we put them in a storage box and keep for the alloted time.  I must add though, that our batches are typically small, so if you have a high volume of gifts this wouldn't work.

Elaine Gipson

Alumni/Development Administrative Asst.

St. Andrew's-Sewanee School

I agree with Elaine, I think scanning would consume an inordinate amout of time.  We file batch reports in binders by batch number.  All correspondence from donors is filed in an accordian file since we tend to receive notecards and small coupons.  We also don't file in alpha order other than keeping each letter of the alphabet seperate from the next.  We simply drop the correspondence into the file.  In the rare instance that we have to pull documentation, it's easy enough to go through the stack and find what we're looking for.  We also stopped copying checks unless there was no accompanying documentation from the donor.  We switched to this system 4 years ago and it's working quite well and has definitely increased efficiency.  We keep the current accordian file and one past year, and we keep the batch reports forever.  I'd love to hear what other folks do around record retention, particularly of batch or validation reports.

 Hope this helps,

Leslie Heisler

We don't use a scanner as part of our data entry.  We make a copy of the check and the correspondence on one sheet that stays with the batch report and the copy of the letter.  When our auditors want to look for a gift, we can check the batch number on the donor's record and then pull the batch reports.  For the most part it has worked well, but when you are doing several thousand gifts a year, it can get cumbersome to store.

However, our finance department scans all checks in as they go for deposit.  They then keep a pdf of all the checks scanned for that deposit.  They tell me that it is a nice backup.  We are talking about getting a lockbox and having finance send us the pdf instead of the actual checks.

I'd be curious to find out how much time scanning does add to your process.

 Melissa Brwon

We scan all of our correspondence like checks and put them in the constituents media file. It is extremely helpful when looking in a record, all the correspondence on all gifts, etc. is right there. You don't have to do any searching. I think this is better than copying because you have less paper to deal with and tt is a much more organized process.

 Please let me know if you have any questions!

Andrea Zepernick

Development Assistant

Wesleyan Senior Living Foundation

The problem with this procedure is that we process 100-150 donations per day. We are going to be expected to enter a batch just from the scanned images. That will include front and back of letters and cards, obituaries, envelopes that the gifts were mailied in and anything else that may have been enclosed. We are concerned with keeping to our 3-day turnaround standard on processing and keeping from complicating the position even more. 

I use a scanner a lot in my gift processing. In the past, we used to photocopy all the cheques and file those along with the carbons of receipts and all the correspondence that came with the gifts, in envelopes labelled according to batch. That process used up a huge amount of paper and was also pretty slow; at busy times, the various pieces tended to accumulate in a drawer, and every week or so someone would have to go through and sort them. It wasn't efficient.

At the beginning of this year, I started printing receipts on a laser printer, which meant I need to scan them because the Canada Revenue Agency requires that we keep a copy of all receipts we issue. I bought a new high-speed scanner for this purpose.

The scanner does such a nice job that I also started scanning in the cheques (alphabetically by surname) and correspondence as well. All this material (cheque, correspondence, receipt) is stored according to batch number, with one file per batch. Looking things up later is so much easier this way than digging through the drawers finding the right batch envelope or going to the storage room for older ones. And the cheque scans are way clearer than the photocopies ever were. Another benefit is that in seven years when we no longer need these copies, they can be easily deleted; shredding old receipts and cheque photocopies is a pain.

I haven't tried doing batch entry from the scans and would only recommend doing so with a really wide monitor. I usually have just the batch entry window spanning my two 19" monitors, so even with my hi-tech setup I'm not sure where I would fit in a PDF of the scan. I think I would either want a third screen or else a separate computer for looking at the scanned PDF.

Split-screen does not work very well with a small monitor because either you can then only see one cheque at a time (if horizontally split) or else have only a couple columns in the batch entry window visible (if vertically split). Blech.

Good luck!

Pamela

 

We use the PaperSave product and scan all of our checks and correspondence with donations at the same time we enter the information in batch. We use the scan now feature instead of the scanning batch process. It works best for us. After we enter the gift in batch it ask if we need to add a PaperSave and we say yes. We then load the check and all the correspondence into the scanner and the information is stored at the gift level inside of RE. When you open the gift you can view the check and all of the information. We use to make copies of checks also and keep them along with the correspondence for our audits. This process has saved us lots of time from copying many checks and its very easy when the auditors need the information we can open it up and print it out for them, or even send it in an email. This way you can enter checks right away and you don't have to wait for someone to copy them.

Tracy Akers

VMI Foundation, Inc.

We currently do not scan anything.  We are about to get a great new high speed photocopy/scanner.  We are wanting to scan documentation from our monthly donors (we have 9,000 active monthly donors).  My question is can anyone recommend a software (other than blackbaud - too expensive), to organize this.  Ideally we want to be able to have searchable scanned information.  I think it would be to time consuming to attach each scan to the donor record so we are looking at having a seperate database of the scans.  Does anyone do it this way?  Does it make sense?  Any forseeable issues?  Your input would be most welcome as it's all in the air right now!

I haven't scanned gifts while working with RE, so I cannot offer you process expertise, but we did scan gifts at an organization I used to work for--and we had up to 550-1000 gifts per day. 

We were able to save a great deal of storage space, and it saved data entry and member services staff considerable time when researching gifts for donors.  I think it's a best practice to strive for in development and a donor centric one.

Good luck with it!

We have just started scanning in June - we use a top loading scanner which makes the process faster - you can scan the following as one "stack" into the scanner:

gift entry validation record with check (one copy is made and this copy eventually is the deposit record)

card/gift envelope/event reply cards (originals)  <--saves making a copy

thank you letter (original)  <--saves making a copy

This scanned document (donor record) is then saved (under the same last name as you have entered it in R/Edge) on your shared drive under the month (June) --this has now become our "filing cabinet" instead of having to go into that stuffy, dusty file room!  The shared drive saves everyone from pulling a donor file.

saves making another copy --> We do the same kind of thing with the memorials by scanning the letter sent to family but saving it under the deceased person's name with (MEM) after it. We also save scanned docs on the ACTIONS tab of the donor file concerned such as copies of K1s, Obits, etc. 

Please note this is a work in progress and when we started this is was decided that we should just take small steps and not get overwhelmed.  This may not be the way for everyone but we are learning as we go along AND keeping as much paper off of our desks as possible.  Also time saved on sorting, stapling and FILING.  Just like everyone else we have events, appeals, etc. going on but so far we like what we have started :))

 I would definitely recommend using a scanner! Not only does it save time and money (think of all the trees you save) but it is also a great way to backup important information. We get audited every year and having an electronic copy of a check to explain why we put it in such-and-such account is a really great asset. (We always get top marks by our auditor)

 An example for you. We received an angry letter from a donor saying "Why did you sent my receipt to such-and-such address I haven't lived there in years etc. etc." We were able to print out his back-up material where HE WROTE the incorrect address! He of course was embarrassed and apologized.

Another example. A person called and said they made a donation on such and such date and we never sent them a receipt. We could not find their information in Raiser's Edge so we looked up the PDF scanner file and saw that the donation was cash under their church's name and they never included their information.

 If you process more then 20 checks a day and need to track where they came from and any extra information (like personal notes) you need a scanner! Especially during the Holiday season.  We process 500-800 checks a day during the holidays and I don't know what I would do without ours.

Laura Dickerson, Stewardship Assistant

Community Food Bank



 

We don't scan/photocopy anything. 

We've never needed copies of cheques and neither is it a requirement from our aiditors etc. and so this would be a waste of time (althogh we do photocopy the larger sums such as legacies and trust donations).

I can see how keeping scanned copies of the correspondance MAY come in handy (IE. when an angry man phones in to ask why acknowledgement has gone to wrong address). However, this type of thing does not happen often enough for me to justify the extra time it would take to scan these in when, going to the "dusty store room", on the odd occasion when this happens takes much less time in comparison. (Actually - I rather like it in there, I can get some solitude )

I would suggest you work out exactly what your reasons are for wanting to use a scanner, what you want to achieve (increase time/efficiency/data storage) and then work out, logistically, if it really would achieve it.  Having so much more data stored on RE is very flash and, perhaps, ideal.  But if it's not going to make a big difference is it really worth putting in all that time?

Hope this is of some help to you.

Holly

Just quick reply regarding CRA

You have all information stored in RE so it is not required to have paper one.

I realize this is an older post, but I wanted to add that I use a website - www.legacy.com - to obtain obituary information. Just type in the name and you can pull up the obituary, date published, newspaper and city. As long as it is a current obituary, you can copy and paste directly into the notes or tribute section of Raiser's Edge. It has been a HUGE timesaver for me and I wanted to pass it along!