This help manual is still being built. Yellow highlighted entries are either not yet finished or need to be updated with recent changes to the software.
 
1. USERNAMES
1.1. Signing In
1.2. Setting up New Users
1.3. Security Levels
1.4. Last Logged In Date
 
2. RECORDS
2.1. Search for Records
2.1.1. Name
2.1.2. Address
2.1.3. Email
2.1.4. Phone
2.2. Master Records
2.2.1. Master ID #
2.2.2. Households
2.2.3. Organizations
2.2.4. Name
2.2.5. SortBy field
2.2.6. Address
2.2.7. Email
2.2.8. Phone
2.2.9. Types of Mailings / Phone / Emails to recieve
2.2.1. Master Flags
2.2.12. Never Contact
2.2.13. Overview page fields
2.2.14. Snapshots
2.2.15. Splitting Records
2.2.16. Combining Records
2.2.18 Delete Records
2.3. People Records
2.3.1. Person Name Fields
2.3.2. Person Work/School Fields
2.3.3. People Flags
2.6. General Reports
 
3. MAILING LISTS
3.2. Marking records for receiving Mass Mailings
3.3. Building complex Mailing Lists
Section 05.01.
Processing Donations / Donation Wizard

Processing new Donations is a multi-step process. Those steps are summarized below along with some suggestions about 'Best Practices' we recommend.

To begin, Search the database for the name of the Donor. If the donor is not already in your system, add a new Master Record.

Go in to the Master Record and click on the DONATIONS icon on the left-hand menu. This will show you a list of donations this year and in previous years. Click on one of the 'Add a Donation' buttons to access the Donation Wizard.
  • Donation Wizard Setup - On this page you choose what type of Donation you are processing. For more details, read about Donation Types. Best Practices: It's important to choose the correct option here since the fields that appear on future pages will be informed by this choice. If you choose the wrong option here and therefore miss fields you expect on other pages, you can go in to Edit the Donation to access all fields. Best Practices: Make sure you think about which record you are attaching a donation to before you do it. For example, if a check comes from a business, should the donation be under the business or under the individual owner of the business? Or if a check comes from a family foundation, should you create a new record for the foundation and enter the gift there, or simply add the foundation gift to the family's existing record in your database but mail the letter to the foundation instead of their home? These decisions can have a large impact in the data you pull out of the database later. You may want to read about Family Tree Connections to help understand some of these complex issues.


  • Donation Wizard Step 1 - Dates & Amounts - this step of the Donation Wizard has the most fields. You can fill them all in, or allow the defaults to take care of it for you. For more details, read about Donation Fields. Best Practices: If you are entering a bunch of donations, organize them to save yourself some time - many of the fields on this page remember when you change them and will stay changed on the next gift you enter. So, for example, if you change the Fund field (or the date fields, or the fiscal year or most others), the next gift you enter will assume you want it to be in the same fund. Thus, if you organize all your Endowment gifts so you process them together, you won't have to keep switching funds. Or if you process all your credit card gifts simultaneously, you will only have to change the method of payment once and the system will remember it as you keep working.


  • Donation Wizard Step 2 Response to a Solicitation - each donation should be attached to an appeal / mailing / calling campaign / event. Appeals appear in 3 possible ways on this page:
    1.) Any recent personal Communications made to this record - phone calls, mailings, meetings, etc. - will show up first. These are added on the Communications page of the Master Record.
    2.) Then you will see a list of any appeals / mailings / calling campaigns / events that are currently active for display. You have the ability to add a new Appeal 'on-the-fly' here in case you haven't added it to the database yet.
    3.) Lastly, on the far right side of this page (you may have to scroll over if you have a smaller screen), you will see a list of recent mass-mailings and communications this record has received.
    Between these 3 possible groups of appeals you should be able to decide what caused this donation to be given.





  • Donation Wizard Step 3 Send a Thank You? - For more details, read about Donation Types. Best Practices:


  • Donation Wizard Last Step - Notes - For more details, read about Donation Types. Best Practices:


  • Donation Wizard Create a matching Gift - For more details, read about Donation Types. Best Practices:



Related Topics:
  • DONATIONS / GIFTS
  • Donation Type
  • Editing a Donation
  • Donation Fields
  • Deleting a Donation
  • LastDonated fields
  • Pledges
  • Installments
  • Honorariums/Memorials
  • Matching Gifts
  • Matching Campaign Grants
  • In-Kind Gifts
  • Letters
  • Funds
  • Adding/Editing a Fund
  • Deleting a Fund
  • Sub-Funds
  • Budget and Costs
  • Running a Cost-benefit Analysis
  • Yearly Totals for Donations, Ticket Sales, Etc.
  • Gift / Donation Reports



    •  
    4. COMMUNICATIONS
    4.1. Entering Calls, Mailings, Meetings and other Communications History
    4.2. Mass Mailings / Mass Communications
    4.3. Appeals
    4.3.1. Adding/Editing an Appeal
    4.3.4. Running a Cost-Benefit Analysis
    4.5. Communication Reports
     
    5. DONATIONS / GIFTS
    5.1. Processing Donations / Donation Wizard
    5.1.1. Donation Type
    5.1.2. Editing a Donation
    5.1.3. Donation Fields
    5.1.4. Deleting a Donation
    5.1.5. LastDonated fields
    5.1.6. Pledges
    5.1.7. Installments
    5.1.8. Honorariums/Memorials
    5.1.9. Matching Gifts
    5.1.1. Matching Campaign Grants
    5.1.11. In-Kind Gifts
    5.1.12. Letters
    5.2. Funds
    5.2.1. Adding/Editing a Fund
    5.2.2. Deleting a Fund
    5.2.3. Sub-Funds
    5.2.4. Budget and Costs
    5.2.5. Running a Cost-benefit Analysis
    5.3. Yearly Totals for Donations, Ticket Sales, Etc.
    5.4. Gift / Donation Reports
     
    6. GRANTS
     
    7. NOTES
    7.1. Adding/Editing Notes
    7.2. Deleting a Note
    7.3. Family Tree Connections
     
    8. The LIST
    8.. Calling Lists
    8.2. Renewal Criteria
    8.2.1. Adding/Editing Criteria
    8.2.2. Changing Criteria Menus
    8.2.3. Pulling Reports
    8.3. Renewal Lists
    8.3.1. Generating Renewal Lists
    8.3.2. Building Lists for Calling and Mailing
    8.4. Contacting Donors
    8.4.1. Telemarketing Interface
    8.4.2. Telemarketing Reports
    8.5. Interest
     
    9. BOARD / COMMITTEEE
    9.1. Committees
    9.2. Members
    9.3. Board Logins / Connections
    9.3.1. Portfolio / Main Contact