Donation Acknowledgement: Settings: Acknowledgement Settings (Version 2+)

Communications: Donation Acknowledgement: Settings: Acknowledgement Settings

1. This tutorial will cover how to configure the default settings for Donation Acknowledgements.
2. These settings must be configured prior to receiving any donations.
3. Once configured, the settings can be updated/changed at any time.
4. To configure the default settings for donation acknowledgement, click on Communications on the Main Menu to open the Communications sub-menu and then select Acknowledgment under Settings.

   

5. The resulting screen will show you all default settings for donation acknowledgement as they are currently configured.

   

6. Start by selecting the default template used for a given acknowledgement type, in the Template (Letter) and Pledge Template (Letter) Setup sections, select the desired template from the drop-down options provided for primary donor, soft credit donor, and tribute gifts.These fields must be filled out even if you don't plan to use our system to generate the donation acknowledgment letters.

   

7. The default template for each of these categories is the one that will be used when no template is configured for the Fund, Program, or Campaign assigned to a donation (see our tutorials on configuring Funds, Programs, and Campaigns on how to assign a template to these items). The system uses a hierarchy for determining which donation acknowledgement template is assigned to donations if there are multiple eligible templates (for example, if you assign a campaign and a program to a donation and both have their own acknowledgement templates assigned, then there are two possible templates the system could use to generate the acknowledgement letter). That hierarchy is:
   
   • Program
   • Campaign
   • Fund
   • Default Template
8. To select a template for each category, click Choose Template under the category heading and then select from your previously configured templates by hovering over a template and clicking Select (a green Selected banner will appear across the top of the template) and the click Done in the lower right.

   

   

   

   

   

9. Conversely, you can create a new template from scratch by clicking the blue Create New button in the top of the Choose Template screen. See our tutorials on creating communications template for more information on how to create an acknowledgement letter template.

   

10. To edit a template you have selected, click on the Edit Template button for that template.

    

11. To specify whether a separate or combined letter will be generated for soft-credit donors, select the desired option from the “Combine Soft Credit Option” drop-down. Please note: if you select Combine soft credit donation into a single letter, then the option to indicate a template for soft credit donor and soft credit pledge template is removed/disappears.

    

12. To specify whether acknowledgements will be generated per-donation or cumulatively per-donor, use the Acknowledgement Preference drop-down menu. This will set the default, but on the Send Acknowledgement Screen, you can toggle between viewing acknowledgements by donor or by gift.

    

13. If using the Acknowledge By Donor option, the system will lump together all of a donor's donations since the last time an acknowledgement was generated into a single letter.
14. To send an automatic acknowledgement for online donations, select the Send Auto Acknowledgement for Online Donations checkbox. Selecting this means that all donation acknowledgement letters for online donations will bypass you and be sent automatically; they will not be queued in the send acknowledgements area and you will not have the ability to customize/personalize the letters before they are sent.

    

15. To change the internal numbering/reference system used to identify acknowledgements, adjust the Acknowledgement Number Start From field and/or add a prefix or suffix to the numbering system (for example, if you want the acknowledgement reference number to contain the year in which the acknowledgement was generated, you could add a suffix of "-2016" to the donation acknowledgement number).
    
16. All donation acknowledgement letters sent via email will be sent as PDF attachments (this is a legal requirement to prevent recipients from editing/changing the letter, which could allow them to commit tax fraud). To set default text that will be added to the body of the email to which the PDF letter is attached, complete the Default Email Body for Acknowledgements information. You can customize/change this default text when you are sending emails.

    

17. If using placeholders, select the placeholder from the dropdown and click the plus sign.
18. The Spell checker will help you proofread and will detect the incorrect words or spelling mistakes. Users just need to hover on the marked words for instant correction suggestions or click the dialog icon in the bottom right corner to have the whole text proofread at once. Read this article on How Spell Checker Works to know more details about spell checker. 
    
19. When you have completed making changes to the Donation Acknowledgement settings, click on the Save button in the lower right corner of the screen.