Email With (Even More) Style!
One of the key pillars of Responsive Fundraising is making connections with your supporters. We’re not talking about LinkedIn connections (though that can be handy too) or playing Connect Four (if you recognize that GIF, you probably remember having a landline telephone). Building connections requires meaningful communications and touchpoints. And having snazzy emails that your supporters want to open certainly helps with that.
Well, now you’ll have more options than ever before to help with that.
Yes, in this release, we are adding new options to the marketing email builder, including new content blocks:
- Title - Add headings to your emails with ease and make
- List - Dedicated formatting options for bulleted and numbered lists
- Paragraph - This upgraded version of a text block is designed to have better styling controls and improved copy/paste functionality
All of these new content blocks will also help make your emails more accessible for recipients who may use screen readers, helping you connect with more supporters than before.
Now, these new content blocks are fine and dandy if we do say so ourselves. They would make a fine set of upgrades.
But did we stop there?
Dear reader, I’m sure you can guess, we most certainly did not.
We’ve also included the ability to set a background image for your entire email!
Yes, it’s true: background images are no longer confined to a single row in the email builder.
Now, you’ll see the Background Image option in the Settings tab, with additional design and placement options to ensure your email looks just the way you’d like.
New content blocks, background images, wow, this is fantastic. Surely, this will help immensely with creating beautiful email content.
But why stop there?
Yes, say it with us:
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! (Never gets old)
This release ALSO includes a very popular request: the ability to set preheader text for your emails! (Insert your own Kermit dancing GIF or whatever other celebratory imagery you’d like).
Yes, gone are the days of adding invisible text at the start of your email, or worse, having emails show up in your recipients’ inboxes with a description of your logo showing after the subject line (not very enticing).
Whew!
With all of these new features, you’ll be pleased to know that all of our existing content blocks aren’t going anywhere, which means that any Form Confirmation Emails, Email Receipts, and Workflow Emails will still look just the same.
Go ahead and check out these new options and create even more incredible emails today! New to working with marketing emails? Well then, might we recommend some light reading to get your started?
Accessibility is a Virtue(ous)
With modern technology, everyone can work more comfortable and efficiently than ever before. (Of course, many of us thought modern technology would have given us flying cars and robot butlers by now, but we take what we can get.) And with this release, we’ve added a new feature designed to make it easier for users to access all that Virtuous can do.
In this release, we’ve aded a new menu option, which will open up a new Accessibility Widget powered by UserWay. There, you can choose to modify the look at feel of navigating Virtuous, including dyslexia-friendly fonts, increased contrast, and more.
Our team will continue to work on making Virtuous more accessible for all users, including reviewing pages to make sure they are screen-reader friendly. In every nonprofit, fundraising is really everyone’s job, so why not make sure everyone has access to the best fundraising platform around?
Email Sync Update’s (Microsoft’s Version)
(Note: while the title of this section is obviously a Taylor Swift reference, there are too many songs to choose from to insert a random link or two. So, please feel free to dial up your own favorite Tay-tay tune instead. Thank you.)
In our last release, we celebrated the triumphant return of Email Sync for Google users. And now, Microsoft users get their turn at bat! (Yes, we’ve pivoted from Taylor Swift to sports metaphors; here at Virtuous, we contain multitudes.) We’ve made some behind-the-scenes updates to make sure Microsoft users have the latest and greatest security and performance. This means that some users may be prompted to re-authorize their Email Sync connection. Make sure to double-check so you can keep seamlessly tracking email communication in Virtuous!
And the Rest…
As with every release, this latest update also includes a number of other fixes, tweaks, minor modifications, and assorted nudges. Among the various fixes released over the last month or so:
- We’ve added both the first and last names for the Primary and Secondary Individuals listed in the header when viewing a Contact record. Too many Bobs working at a particular company? Well, now you won’t need to guess which one is listed. Unless, of course, there is more than one “Bob Smith,” in which case…good luck?
- We’ve made a correction to the default business rules for setting Contact Names on households where the Primary and Secondary Individuals have different last names, making sure both Primary and Secondary Individuals are included. No Secondary left behind!
- Speaking of Contact Names, we’ve also added a new option to “Lock Name Settings” for a Contact. This option means that you can manually edit the values for Contact Name, Formal Name, Informal Name, or Alternate Name, and then lock the values so they cannot be changed by any system rules. This is a great way to make sure that your supporters are always addressed just the way they would like.
- And finally, we completed this month’s Contact Name Settings trilogy by making sure that Contact Names are correctly updated when changing the Primary and Secondary Individuals for a Contact. We’ve got names covered from all angles!
- As we head into giving season, why not increase capacity for Gift imports? With this release, we’ve upped the record limit for the Gift & Contact Import Tool. You can now import up to 10,000 records in a single import. Go get those year-end gifts!
- We don’t just talk about Responsive Fundraising; being Responsive is part of who we are. We’ve been listening to a lot of your feedback and suggestions, and this release includes a bevy of popular requests. Check ‘em out!
- New relative date parameters for “Last Fiscal Year” and “Last Month” are now available in queries and filters!
- When setting values for a Date Custom Field in a Workflow, you can now choose to have the date the Workflow runs set as the value.
- Contact addresses are now clickable! You can quickly see an address on Google Maps. Even partial addresses can still be clicked and then validates in Google Maps!
- When viewing Gifts on a Contact record, the Project (or Projects) are now clickable, and will open the Project page in a new tab.
- Phone numbers now support country codes! Select from a dropdown list when entering a new number, or click “format number” on any existing phone number to add a country code.
- This one is BIG. And it’s been a long time coming. You can now customize the columns when viewing query results. That’s right! No more exporting to csv just to see certain fields! Just click on the gear icon in the upper right from the query results page to add columns. Whoohoo!
- Want to always see 100 records per page instead of 10? Now, we’ll remember your selection even after you leave a page, so you can set the number of records you prefer and then…forget it.
- While you can now customize query output, we have added the Project by default to the results of Gift Split queries. Knowing the Project for each split does seem kinda important, after all.
- When using Receipts on Demand, you can now generate receipts even when the receipt template has been manually set on a Gift. Because who doesn’t like adding a human touch to automated processes?
- We’ve corrected an issue where gifts were not syncing to Quickbooks Online correctly when rolling up totals by Project. Now, you can roll up with confidence!
- Copying a Ticketed Event from the past was causing an error for som users, because Ticketed Events is all about the future, baby! We’ve made sure that copying previous events will work more smoothly from now on.
- You know how it can be hard letting go of things you really like? Well, Contact queries were not willing to remove Tags from Contacts, but we’ve given the query tool a crash course in Marie Kondo minimalism and now Tags will be removed as expected.
And that's the list! Phew! As always, if you have any questions about these or other features, feel free to contact our support team.