Is It Better to Give or to Receipt?
Look, giving is great (and heck, it's kinda necessary) but sending receipts just got a whole lot better with our new receipting tool!
This new receipting tool is accessible directly from the Gift & Contact Import screen. You can create Receipting Groups, which connect a Receipt Template with a gift query, and then set a priority order for them when running receipts.
Then, you can run receipts in bulk with just a few clicks. That's right, no more running every single gift query individually!
You'll even be able to review total counts for all receipts before sending/exporting, and view a history of all past receipting runs.
In order to make it easy to access the new receipting screen, we've made a slight change to the buttons visible on the Gift & Contact Import page:
The first button creates a new import, and the second allows you to move to the new receipting screen. Both options are also available in the Actions drop-down, along with access to archived imports:
You will still be able to generate receipts from the query tool, as usual, while you make the transition to using the new receipting features.
Want to learn more? Of course you do! Just check out this support article.
Send Email, Typing Optional
Connecting directly with your supporters just got a whole lot easier, thanks to our new Personalized Email Templates. These templates allow you to send a scripted email, directly from your own email account, and even add a personal note before sending.
Once you've created templates for your organization, from any Contact record, just click on the new email icon on the right side of the screen, below the blue header.
Then, you can select the template you'd like to send and the Individual you want to email. Click "Compose Email" to open your default email program, review and customize the email (if you want to - we're not gonna make you!) and send it on its merry way.
Sound easy?
It is easy!
But (here it comes) wait...THERE'S MORE!
When you create tasks via Automation, you can even select a Personalized Email Template to associate with that task. This makes it even easier to drive processes like major donor portfolio outreach or giving thank-yous.
Would you like to know more?
Well then, just scuttle on over and check out this support article to learn about creating templates. Or, you can peruse this article to learn more about sending emails.
Queries, They Are A-Changin'
We've been busy making quite a few changes to the query tool. The most obvious one will be that the main screen has a bit of a new look:
Now, you'll use the blue button in the upper right to create new queries, which makes creating queries more consistent with other Virtuous features. This change will also make it easier to see query descriptions.
What, what?
Yes, we've added descriptions for saved queries, making it much easier to document criteria or communicate the use of a particular query to your team.
But did we stop there?
Of course we didn't! (can you imagine if we actually did?)
We've added three new query types in this release!
Use the new Contact Collection query type to query on Custom Collection data for Collections related to Contacts.
Use the Individual Collection query to...yep, you guessed it: query on Custom Collection data for Collections related to Individuals.
For these queries, you'll actually need to specify the Collection you'd like to query on when creating your query.
We've also created the Individual Form Submission query type, which will allow you to query on form submission activity for all lead forms, event forms, and volunteer forms. This way, even if existing Individuals complete a form on your website, you can track that activity and even respond via Automation.
In fact, all three of these new query types can be nested into Contact or Individual queries, so they can be used in triggering Workflow steps.
Developers' Corner
Last week, we sent out information on API changes for this release to everyone signed up for our Developer Digest emails.
This release includes just one updated endpoint (whew!).
If you are a developer, or if you just like to stay in the know on all the high-tech goings-on around here, just reply to this email and let us know, or use the support messenger to contact us.
...And the Rest
As with every release, this month's update also includes a number of other fixes, tweaks, minor modifications, and assorted nudges. Among this month's assorted fixes:
- In addition to all the other query changes and hullaballoo, we've also added the ability to query for Individuals where the Gender field is (or is not) set.
- Once an email is scheduled, it can be tricky to find it and cancel it. Or at least, it was. We've added a new "Scheduled Emails" page, accessible from the Actions menu on the main email screen, where you can easily find and even cancel a scheduled email.
- And speaking of cancelling an email, we also eliminated a bug that caused scheduled emails to send...even if the email was deleted. (ooooooh, spoooooky!)
- In the "you asked, we listened" category, it is now possible for admins to delete custom fields, and even delete Custom Collections. No more disabled custom fields cluttering up your settings and Contact records like a handful of misfit toys! Yay!
- And speaking of Custom Collections, we've also added a new "Save and Continue" option that you'll see when entering data for a Collection. This makes it easy to keep entering values if you need to log multiple entries at once.
- Also by popular demand, the Private flag for anonymous gifts can now be added as an option on Virtuous Giving forms. This will show as a checkbox on forms with the label "Keep my donation private." Pro Tip (way better than amateur tips): If you want to add this to your giving forms, be sure to re-publish the forms with your changes.
- New Data Health developments! We've added email addresses with high bounce counts to the Data health screen so these can be reviewed and, if needed, updated or deleted. Or replaced. Or corrected. Heck, whichever verbs you like best.
- We've also allowed for sorting Data Health results by the Review Reason column, making it easier to focus on specific data issues. No pithy joke here, it's just what we did.
- We also corrected a bug wherein (doesn't that sound fancy?) addresses and contact methods were being flagged as having been "assumed primary" when they were the only address, phone number, or email address on a record. This review reason should only apply in cases where a record has multiple possible values.
- Form Confirmation Emails will now list all project designations for a gift if the projects merge tag is used. Which seems only fair, after all.
- Users with list-type custom fields that contain large lists of values can now enter data using a type-ahead search, which replaces endless scrolling with a little bit of typing.
- We fixed a bug that prevented sending test emails when creating or editing Form Confirmation Emails. So test away!
And that's the list! As always, if you have any questions about these or other features, feel free to contact our team using the support widget in Virtuous, or drop us a line at support@virtuoussoftware.com.
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