[MichelleWilkinson]

I have just started my position last month and one of the stewardship ideas I want to implement is sending a letter to each donor from 2007 thanking them for their gifts in the last calendar year. Simple. I think. I found the Annual Statement Report which includes all kinds of great info, but I want that information in fields (says in an Excel spreadsheet) so I can merge it into a letter. But without any formal RE training, I'm not sure how to make it happen. I have clicked on the export icon and tried several versions but none give me all of the info (including mailing adddress) in columns. Can anyone help me with this? I appreciate any ideas.

As the newbie, I have many questions but little/no budget for training. If you have suggestions for learning the software on the cheap, I'm open to those as well.

[Kate Schandler]

Michelle,

Try creating a New Donor Acknowledgement Letter file. On the General tab, select "Gift Date" and "Last Calendar Year" and then on the Fields to include tab, start with "One letter per donor."

I will admit, I have never run this particular letter this way, but it is designed to work that way. You could also create an export and use the "Total Amount" field, which would allow you a few more filters then the Mail file would.

[nisaac]

The donor acknowledgement letter may not work if you already have the gifts marked as acknowledged. You could use the Quick Letter option with a query pulling those who gave a gift in the last calendar year. This would work well if you do not wish to include the total amount given. There are ways to use the Quick letters to create a query and extend that query to use in an export; however, it may sound too complex without some background.

If I were in your position, Michelle, I'd spend a some time with the user guides you can find through the help on your menu bar in RE. If your donors have been thanked and receipted throughout the year, it should be ok to wait a bit to send them a general letter.

I really like quick letters. I use it all of the time to pull simple mailing info into a query. The nice thing about it is that you can combine a lot of queries by using the segment tab. For example, say you wanted to send letters to board members, people who gave to a certain appeal and some people marked with a certain constituent code. You can use the segment tab and include three separate queries: one for the board, one for the giving to the appeal and one for the people with certain constituency.

So, I would spend some time learning how to create a query and then some time learning about donor acknowledgement letters and quick letters. Continue to read these boards and post your questions. There is so much information and guidance offered through this forum.

[MichelleWilkinson]

I appreciate the insights and ideas. As the new person in a very small staff, it has been challenging to bring myself up to speed on the database. Your help has been invaluable!