Any body having trouble with Annual Statement report? I would like to be able to customize the Annual Statement Report into a letter format so the address will fit into a window envelope and have a list of gifts with date, Fund, Check # and Amount with a total at the bottom showing all monies given to the diocese for the year and a IRS Code Statement at the bottom of the letter.  Used to do this by hand on a monthly basis with only the ones that gave $250 and above.  I would print out a letter and the Annual Statement Report, match each one up, fold it and insert it into a window envelope.  Now I have to do it at the end of the year to about 17,000+ donor records.  Any suggestions?

We do not send annual statements. Our thank you letters have the current gift and total for year to date.  We only send annual statements upon request.

I've not had good success with the standard reports in Raiser's Edge.  I'll share with you what we've come to, and it seems to work really well.

When a gift over $10 is received (we set that criteria)

• Thank You Letter - Personalized with gift amount in letter form on letterhead.  This is a "nice" receipt that tells them more about what initiative their gift is going, etc.
• Gift Receipt - Personalized with gift in table form including Gift Date, Check #, Appeal, etc.
• The 2 pieces are matched and folded together and mailed 1st Class every time a gift is received.  (Unless the constituent specifically asks us not to.)

At the end of the year.  (You should know that we use CounterPoint to manage our CD's, DVD's, and Books which are sent at no charge to a constituent, but have a Fair Market Value so we have to deduct that FMV from the annual contribution statements.)

• The End of Year Tax Statement for us is in line item (table) form not paragraph (letter) form.
• I've built a custom Crystal Report which pulls contributions for the year and "orders" for the year.
• The report then subtracts the total amount of FMV from the year's gifts giving them a "Total Deductible Gift Amount" for the year.

I know it sounds complicated (and it is a little hard to setup) but it works really well for us on the day to day execution.

Hope that might help some.

Hi Carol,

 I created a custom Crystal report that we send out at year-end.  We decided to start doing this 3 years ago and have found that it is also a great way of suggesting additional donations.  We also enclose a form that asks for their recognition listing, their email address (if they want to receive our weekly e-bulletin), and suggest another gift for the upcoming year.  Also included is a postage paid envelope.  We immediately saw results from providing this service to our donors.  After subtracting the cost of the paper for the statements (cute zoo paper of course), and postage, we had more than enough additional donations come in that covered the cost of the statements and then some!  Our email base is growing and our recognition listings are updated for our donor lists/annual report lists.  All in all, we are very happy that we decided to do the year-end statements.  Setting up the Crystal report wasn't too difficult.  It was one of my first reports so I had to muddle through using Crystal.  BB has an advanced reporting class if you have the opportunity to take it.  It really helped me out.

Chris Parrish, Database Coordinator, Denver Zoological Foundation

www.denverzoo.org