FundRaiser Blog

The FundRaiser Software Blog is an excellent resource for nonprofit organizations looking to learn more about fundraising, donor management, membership management, and much more.

Handling Holiday Auction Gifts

auction-blog-header

Auctions are a popular part of holiday fundraising and festivities. People are often looking for gifts and a charitable donation while they’re marking off items on their holiday list creates a great way to raise funds and provide value to your donors. Auctions also provide a way for local businesses to promote themselves and do good in the local community. Once the auction is over, how do you enter in the money raised from the auction?

Continue reading
2273 Hits

3 Important In-Kind Gift Entry Tips

3 Important In-Kind Gift Entry Tips
1.  Mode Code Denotes In-Kind or Monetary

When entering a gift in FundRaiser, the Mode Code is used to differentiate not only between methods of payment (cash, check, charge, etc.) but also between monetary or in-kind donations. When you create a Mode Code you must specify whether that code will be monetary or in-kind. A Mode Code is always one or the other, and each gift requires a Mode Code. You may have multiple codes, as is usual in FundRaiser, which allows for specific types of in-kind donations. For instance, one of our users is a diaper bank, and, while they accept many infant-related types of in-kind donations, they need to keep diaper donations separated from others. The easiest way was to have, simply, a "diaper" Mode Code. When running various reports, you can specify to include monetary, or in-kind, or both types of donations. Use these codes to your advantage.  And check out the Coding & Spare Fields training video in the Customer Portal section of our website.

2.  Use the Merge Notes for Descriptions

On each gift record is a "Letter Notes for Merging" section. It is primarily used for notes that will then be merged into thank you letter templates. And for monetary gifts, these are usually personal greetings, of sorts, like "Gee, it was great to see you", or "Glad to see you've recovered from surgery", or something else to more personalize the thank you letter. For In-Kind donations, this is a great place to put a description of the items (or services) that were donated. It makes a permanent record as well as an easy way to pull that description in to a thank you letter.  More information on entering gifts is available in both the FundRaiser Overview and Recurring Gifts training videos available in the Customer Portal section of our website.

Continue reading
6606 Hits

Short take: Changing Merge Field Criteria In Letter Templates

Short take:  Changing Merge Field Criteria In Letter Templates

When updating a previous letter, it's important to review the criteria for the merge fields. This is especially true when using merge fields that input a total of all gifts or a list of gifts which meet certain requirements. For example, you may want to make the total of the gifts include the current year to date, rather than the date range used previously.

You can remove and then insert the merge field again to bring up the list of criteria to make those changes; however, there's an easier way to do this. Double click on the capital letter or symbol preceding the field name in brackets. This will open up the criteria window where you can make changes to the criteria and click okay to save it. Then, save your letter again.

Continue reading
5217 Hits
Wait a minute, while we are rendering the calendar
fundraising letters animal rescue development director ROI grassroots campaign holiday letters foundations entering auction gifts Groupings mailing Task List Cloud donor profile new nonprofit community broadcasting planning corporate sponsors role of nonprofits Personalizing how-to videos planned giving ticket sales small donations correspondence flash sales look and feel online donations membership programs FundRaiser Basic giving history new donors product news security Network for Good GoFundMe project advanced tab letter data entry recurring gifts solicitors communications gift notes field in honor of donations the Ask community supported gardens large donations correspondance backing up data office Thanksgiving mode code alumni Snow Birds campaign follow up features charity golf tournaments welcome packet FundRaiser Spark salutation event management new version new features nonprofit fundraising premiums In-Kind gifts annual campaign donor retention Reminders motivation donor attrition giving levels National Change of Address spare fields user spotlights understanding giving trends annual maintenance plan auction announcements appeal letters SYBUNTS Codes End of Year Letters pictures NCOA processing merge notes Facebook campaign word processor grants support overview transparency disaster relief customer portal change of address updating donor prospects donor attrition rate how to handle auction gifts arts training tip data conversion tribute gifts brick campaign data analysis case study fundraising email donation history updates memorial giving happiness community arts nonprofits spreadsheets Reporting to IRS on site training passwords donor vacation upgrade campaign management donor recognition Importing Data prospects user interface thank you letters capital campaign anonymous donors monthly giving Constant Contact budget volunteers gift entry volunteering direct mail merge fields donor relations donor engagement repeat donors LYBUNTS social media publicity materials New Year Excel legacy giving FundRaiser Hosted donor source donor targeting general online donations operational costs reports Volunteer module new leadership government grants customer service accounting software major gift prospects Tickles donor slip targeted mailings personalizing letters #GivingTuesday training Alternative Addresses building donor relationships custom page Donor Portal membership benefits pledges upgrading donors banquet Company culture major donors texting donors Crowdfunding Campaign technical support GivingTuesday motivation code importing csv donor preferences mission driven Thank You donor advised funds Resiliency donor contact information adding personal notes to letters holiday giving raffle letter templates operating systems tax summary letters password protection membersip benefits phoning donors increasing giving amounts Congratulations relationship tracking PayPal add ons donor loyalty ticketsales lapsed donor appeal endowment campaign gift acceptance policy tech tip holiday segmenting donors moves management Facebook board members donor retention rate

Connect With Us

  800-880-3454 ext 3
  Email Us
  Request More Information
  Monday-Friday
      8:30AM-5:30PM CST

Customer Portal Login Form

User Name:
Password:

If you are not sure about your Customer User Name, please call 800-543-4131 and we will be able to help you.

Or you have lost your password, Request Password