Addressing Addresses

Do you have donors that have summer homes or need to have mail delivered to other than their primary address? Would you like to pull up a donor's record by a different name (Maiden) or an alternative spelling/abbreviation to make the look-up easier?

It's all easy to do in DonorPerfect by using the Address tab.

Whenever you have a donor record on the screen in DonorPerfect, you can click on the Address tab to add additional addresses or salutations for that donor. Once added, it's simple to mark a date range for that address, and DonorPerfect will automatically know to send mail to that address (instead of the primary address) when you export addresses from the system.

Likewise, you can create additional addresses, and mark them with specific mailing types, so that when you send out certain mailings (like a volunteer newsletter), the newsletter can be addressed to the right person in the household.

Finally, you can create alternative addresses or aliases that you can use to pull up that record on the main search screen. This is useful if you want to pull up a record by different last names in a household or use an abbreviation for an organization.

Addressing in DonorPerfect is very easy AND very powerful- try it out today!

Dear [First_name] [Last_Name],

We've all seen the 'personalized' letters in our mail and in our email. 99% of the time they are canned versions that simply inserts our name into the letter (or even better, one of our pets names!).

Not too long ago (early 1980's), this type of communication was very powerful because most people thought it really was personalized.

Jump to the 21st century, and you'll understand that this perception is no longer the case. However, that doesn't mean you should stop personalizing your acknowledgments!

The best way to personalize your acknowledgements in DonorPerfect is to print out the canned version, and at the bottom of the page handwrite your personal note. Short and simple is the rule here- Something like:

"Dear Roger and Mary- I wanted to really thank you for your generous gift.
It's going to have a direct impact on the organization and the people we help. Thank you!"

When a donor receives this type of personalized letter, they will feel special because their letter was picked out of the stack on purpose. The donor literally feels touched and is apt to feel a stronger relationship with you and the organization- which ultimately leads to more frequent and bigger gifts down the road.

Publish Documents in PDF for free...

The use of PDF's (Portable Document File) on the Internet has exploded to the point that just about everyone has the ability to open and read these types of file on their computer. (And if you don't you can always access it here.)

This makes distributing PDF's an alternative to sending normal Microsoft Office files- Your recipients don't need Microsoft Office to read the file, and you can also make sure that the content of the file doesn't change. Another advantage is that you can distribute non-Office files like faxes, reports (including all DPO reports), Web-sites, etc.

There's a free tool available that we use internally to create PDF documents. It's called PDF995.

Here's how it works:

1. Download PDF995 from their main website (select version 7.8s (as of 6/5/2006)).
2. Once downloaded, simply open the file.
3. The program will install automatically on your Windows computer.
4. The program will create a new 'printer' in your list of available printers. This way, when you want to create a PDF document file, simply click on Print, and select PDF995 from the list of available printers.

That's it! It's easy, it works, and it's free. Try it today!

More Weblink Success...

As you may know, our WebLink solution makes it easy for you to capture information from your web site and have that data automatically integrate with your DonorPerfect software.

WebLink is so flexible, it's being used for:

Online Donations
Event Registrations
Volunteer Sign-up Forms
Petitions
Surveys
Orders (Requires Order Inventory Module)
And much, much more

Our latest successes include Institute for Public Relations and Voice of the Faithful. In fact, Michelle Hinson (Development director for the Institute for Public Relations) said:

"I am happier and less stressed since WebLink came into my office. I no longer have tons of paper registrations and payments strewn everywhere. I feel like I am now in control."

See for yourself how WebLink can make you more happier and less stressful and call Julie Blum at 800-220-3537 or jblum@donorperfect.com

Managing Growth

It's been really busy staff wise the last three weeks. We've added 3 new staff positions- two in our support department and one in sales. This, of course, has made our existing office space challenging, so we've decided to convert an extra conference room into office space temporarily while we build more office space on the first floor of our building.

Oh, if managing growth were only easier- wouldn't it be great to just stretch your walls/building (sort of like an Amoeba) and contract based on your growth needs?

I know we're not alone- we have several DonorPerfect clients that are not only growing- they are literally exploding 100 times faster than we are! It's great to see their success.

How do you manage growth? In fact, as I mentioned in an earlier column, do you even want to grow?

Here at DonorPerfect Online, we're focused on responsible, profitable growth so that we can make sure we're able to continue to invest in our solutions and make sure we're here for you today and into the future.