We publish a quarterly Foundation newsletter. I'd like to record which constituents receive the newsletter without cluttering their records too much. Does anyone have any experience or ideas with this type of thing?
Thanks so much,
Ellyce Whalen
St. Charles Foundation
Bend, Oregon
ewhalen@cascadehealthcare.org
Hi Ellyce,
I think there are several existing threads in the forums on this topic. One thread titled, Newsletter and Publications tracking, is a good read. I think most people will conclude that if you are not soliciting in the newsletter, that you can add action records to those constituent records who receive the newsletter. If soliciting for something through the newsletter, then creating a appeal record with or without packages and add the appropriate appeal/package combo to the appeal tab of the constituent records who receive the newsletter.
Hope this helps,
jwant
We add them as Constituent Appeals.
If I were using Attributes to track mailing sent only that weren't gift related:
I would set up a Constituent Attribute of Newsletters and then have a drop down list (Table) That lists the newsletters.
For who to send the mailings to:I would use Standard Queries (Based on donor giving, committees, boards, employees or whoever should receive) for each newsletter or invitation as Melissa suggests and then Globally add this attribute to all that were mailed this newsletter (unless you use one of the canned segmenting functions that would add the constituent appeal automatically). I would use the Solicit Code field as an exclusionary (Do not Solicit, Do Not Mail, No Spring Direct Mail, Do Not Invite, or whatever criteria of folks that would be one off exclusions)
Invitations can be done the same way. Now that being said, if your organzation is heavy on Event invitations or newletters you may want to go with a slightly different setup either by Year or By Event Type or Group. This would just be for easier viewing reasons on the record
Example1: If you hold a specific event 4 times a year, every year you may want to set this up as 2009 Event with a drop down table using the 4 specific events
Example 2: If you hold an event annually you may want to set it up as that specific event and have the drop down be the year. Gala with drop downs of 2008, 2009, etc.
Example 3: If you have multiple newsletters with specific names that are sent out on specific schedules you can set them up like the events mentioned previously.
Healthy Decisions Newsletter with a dropdown of the schedule (Spring 2009, Fall 2009, Spring 2010, Fall 2010)or
Newsletters: with the drop down of newsletter and date (Healthy Decisions Spring 2009, Friends And Partners Summer 2009, Healthy Decisions Fall 2009)
For appeals or solicitations for money I would defintely use the appeal functionality as designed.
I have a similar question. We just sent a planned giving newsletter to 10,000 alumni and friends and wanted to add it to the appeals tab through segmentation on the mail tab> Has anyone done this? Are there reasons not to do it?
If anyone could respond to my post I would appreciate it. I am having a data base meeting on Friday and I would like to address this issue.
We add almost all of our appeals (esp the larger ones) through segmentation on the mail tab. No reason not to in my opinion.
Hi Cindy,
It all depends on your needs.
We only add mailings that ask for money as assigned appeals. Newsletters and invitations are added as actions. It's a easy line to draw and alleviates any confusion down the road. If you're planning to follow-up any mailings with emails or phone calls, you can incorporate the action into action tracks or simply create a follow-up action on a case by case basis. Also, if you are mailing to organizations, you can track which contact received the mailing in action record, but not as an assigned appeal.
Like Nina said, there aren't reasons not to add them as assigned appeals. But there may be reasons to add them as actions.
Jason