Email and FundRaiser

by Larry Weaver 

If you plan on jumping into the internet fundraising pool with the growing number of non-profits utilizing websites for increasing their numbers of donation and volunteers, then you'll want to understand the Email section of FundRaiser software. For the vast majority of people who have internet access, it is safe to assume that they have at least one email account, and you'll probably find that many of your current donors have multiple email accounts. More and more people are turning to the internet for written communications, and for good reasons: 

1. Email costs nothing but time, essentially, and is delivered in a matter of minutes, or seconds, rather than days.
2. It can contain graphic material to better illustrate your point (assuming that your recipient’s email can handle formatted text and graphics, of course). 
3. True supporters of your cause probably would prefer that you use their monetary support for your mission, rather than for postage and supplies. 
4. The ecologically-minded will appreciate your reduction in paper use. 
5. Even your volunteers will be relieved when they find fewer envelopes having to be stuffed and sorted. 
   

It's really a win/win/win situation for the organization, its supporters, and its beneficiaries.

Direct linking to your website to collect donations and volunteer recruitment is great, but you’ll want to be sure you’re ready to respond with a working knowledge of the email system built into FundRaiser, too. So far as setting up the email system in FundRaiser, it is best to attend our Email Setup training class (or view the video on CD) prior to trying to use it. It explains how to bring your accounts from Outlook directly into FundRaiser (mostly automatic), as well as how to create templates in the Word Processor for use with either print or email or a combination of both, and much, much more. 

You’ll want a non-personal return email address to use primarily with FundRaiser, such as info@..., or donations@..., or volunteers@..., like we do here at FundRaiser for training, support, and sales. Of course, you’ll need to set up the email account(s) with your email provider before you can use them in FundRaiser. And, while most of your mass emailing will use one or the other of these “generic” accounts, you’ll still be able to use your personal organization email account to send occasional emails, as well. Having the “generic” address for mass mailings will prevent you from flooding your personal organization account inbox with responses, too. Even with only a 10% return, a mailing of 10,000 could send 1,000 to that box, perhaps overloading it, but definitely making the task of sifting through them all quite a chore. FundRaiser can receive email for your generic address, while not grabbing your personal email, but still allowing you to use it to send personal email, if you like. And it will automatically align any incoming email with a known email address to the proper name record.

FundRaiser will be able to help you with those emails that don’t get through to the recipient, too, by using the phrases found in those “bounceback” notifications to categorize the level of severity of the problem. You know; the ones sent to you from “mailer daemon” or postmaster@..., saying that the email was not deliverable. It can, automatically, mark someone’s email address as “no longer active”, if the problem warrants it. And it can do that the very first time it gets a bounceback, or it can try a number of times, depending on how you want it to work. 

You can choose on each name record’s Preferences tab exactly how that person (or organization) would like to receive their correspondence, broken down into the two types:  Automated Correspondence and Mass Mailings. A person (or organization) can receive either type by Print Only, Email Only, or Both Print and Email.  If you are consistent in using these preference choices, FundRaiser will be able to keep it straight at the time of printing/emailing, without your having to take it into consideration when creating groupings, too.  When you choose to email, for instance, FundRaiser will send email “Where Appropriate”, which simply means that, for whichever type of correspondence you’re doing, it will print for those marked Print Only or Print & Email, and it will email to those marked Email Only or Print & Email. And, of course, it can only send email to those who also have an active email address in FundRaiser.

You can also set up FundRaiser to automatically check for incoming email, and to automatically send outgoing email. The first is handy if you’ve sent out a big emailing and expect responses to come in over the next few days or weeks. You can tell FundRaiser to check email every so often (every x minutes, or once a day, or once each of several days, etc.) so that you don’t get them all at once and feel overwhelmed. And the latter is handy if you have a very large emailing to do, and don’t want to tie up FundRaiser until after your normal work day. Leave the computer and FundRaiser running, and set up the Send Schedule to send all the email after you’ve left the office for the day.

As your donor base gets younger and younger (many Baby-Boomers are not as tech-savvy as Generation X and later), you’ll find that they are more and more accepting of using email for most correspondence. You’ll also find that they expect faster responses, and with a good knowledge of how to use FundRaiser’s email system, you’ll be able to provide them with what they expect, and reap the benefits associated with this low-cost alternative to “snail mail”.

Resources 

Donate or Volunteer Now: Worth the Cost?  Maybe .... by Sasha Daucus

Integrating your Desktop Donor Database with the Web by Autumn Shirley 

Larry Weaver is Training Manager for FundRaiser Software. He is a Microsoft Certified Professional. He’s work in and around computers since the late 1960’s in the. His passion is operations, whether operating sonar gear, computers, guitars, motorcycles, or any other motorized vehicle. He’s applied his passion to FundRaiser's Tech Support department and most recently as the Training Manager for the company, holding live web training sessions and recording training CD's on various FundRaiser Software related topics.