I Just Can’t Get Enough Of Altru Appeal Mailings
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Hello, my name is Meredith and I am an Appeal Mailing evangelist.
I admit it. I love Appeal Mailings and I want all of you to love them too. I’m not alone – check out this previous blog from my friend Rachel with her “5 Reasons I Love Altru Appeal Mailings.” I can whole heartedly echo everything from that blog as reasons that I love Appeal Mailings too. I’d recommend reading Rachel’s blog post before you continue reading my post below.
But let me add a few reasons of my own:
#1 – Appeal Mailings aren’t just for Appeals! In Altru, Appeal Mailings can (and should) be used for all mailing lists that aren’t Acknowledgements, Tribute Acknowledgements, Membership Cards, Membership Renewal Notices, or Pledge Reminders (which all have their own custom processes.) That means that all your marketing pieces, newsletters, eBlasts, volunteer mailings, etc., etc., etc., can be generated using Appeal Mailings. Your output can be merged Microsoft Word documents, email sent directly from Altru, and/or Excel files, if you are sending the letters using a mail house or emails using a non-Altru system.
#2 – Actually, this is the same as Rachel’s “Reason 2: Easy Segmentation AND Less Query Work”, but I want to expand on what she’s shared about the de-duping that Altru can do across the separate letters that you are including in your mailing. In the example that Rachel shared, she uses one simple query per letter, but did you know that you could add multiple queries to the same letter and, if some of the same constituents are included in more than one of those queries, that Altru will still make sure that there are no duplicates in your final mailing list? Basically, Altru takes all of the queries included in a single letter and does a query “OR” merge to remove the duplication across all the queries, which means that you don’t have to write a complex query or do the query merge ahead of time.
#3 – OK, OK, this one is also still a variation on Rachel’s Reason 2, but there’s still more awesomeness to add. Now that you’ve added some simple queries for who you want to include in a letter, what if there are constituents in those queries that you specifically don’t want to include? Like those that have already given a certain amount in the last 12 months? Or those that you’ve mailed to already in the last week? Or maybe you want to remove Staff? Or perhaps the letter is an email and you’d like to remove everyone with a solicit code of “Do not email”? Appeal Mailings also allow you to exclude constituents from each letter in four different ways:
#4 – Name Format Options – Name Format Options let us ensure that we are using the most personalized Addressee and Salutation for each constituent, even when they right addressee or salutation to use ISN’T the constituent’s Primary Addressee or Primary Salutation. Let me give you an example: When a constituent is a contact person for an organization in your mailing, but in Altru, that constituent has a spouse relationship in their individual record. In almost all cases, this means that their Primary Addressee and Salutation are Joint formats, which would be appropriate to use if you are mailing to them as an organizational contact – you wouldn’t want to mail to “Dr. and Mrs. Shawn Galdeen, Blackbaud, Inc.” when what you really wanted was to mail to “Meredith Galdeen, Blackbaud, Inc.” Name Format Options let you treat Organizations and their Contacts differently than you treat Individual Constituents in your mailing. You can learn more about how to customize name format options in our Knowledgebase: How to configure name format options
#5 – When an Appeal Mailing is run in Altru, Altru marks each constituent record with the Appeal Mailing so that you can see later that the constituent received that mailing. Additionally, you can use query to see exactly which Letter that constituent was sent. This means you don’t have to worry about tracking that information outside of Altru or adding that information to each constituent record after the mailing is sent.
Now you have a bit of a better idea why I can’t stop praising Altru Appeal Mailings. If you’re ready to start reaping the rewards of Appeal Mailings at your own organization, we have lots of resources to help you use Appeal Mailings and follow best practices.
Altru Resources
Best Practices Resources
I admit it. I love Appeal Mailings and I want all of you to love them too. I’m not alone – check out this previous blog from my friend Rachel with her “5 Reasons I Love Altru Appeal Mailings.” I can whole heartedly echo everything from that blog as reasons that I love Appeal Mailings too. I’d recommend reading Rachel’s blog post before you continue reading my post below.
But let me add a few reasons of my own:
#1 – Appeal Mailings aren’t just for Appeals! In Altru, Appeal Mailings can (and should) be used for all mailing lists that aren’t Acknowledgements, Tribute Acknowledgements, Membership Cards, Membership Renewal Notices, or Pledge Reminders (which all have their own custom processes.) That means that all your marketing pieces, newsletters, eBlasts, volunteer mailings, etc., etc., etc., can be generated using Appeal Mailings. Your output can be merged Microsoft Word documents, email sent directly from Altru, and/or Excel files, if you are sending the letters using a mail house or emails using a non-Altru system.
#2 – Actually, this is the same as Rachel’s “Reason 2: Easy Segmentation AND Less Query Work”, but I want to expand on what she’s shared about the de-duping that Altru can do across the separate letters that you are including in your mailing. In the example that Rachel shared, she uses one simple query per letter, but did you know that you could add multiple queries to the same letter and, if some of the same constituents are included in more than one of those queries, that Altru will still make sure that there are no duplicates in your final mailing list? Basically, Altru takes all of the queries included in a single letter and does a query “OR” merge to remove the duplication across all the queries, which means that you don’t have to write a complex query or do the query merge ahead of time.
#3 – OK, OK, this one is also still a variation on Rachel’s Reason 2, but there’s still more awesomeness to add. Now that you’ve added some simple queries for who you want to include in a letter, what if there are constituents in those queries that you specifically don’t want to include? Like those that have already given a certain amount in the last 12 months? Or those that you’ve mailed to already in the last week? Or maybe you want to remove Staff? Or perhaps the letter is an email and you’d like to remove everyone with a solicit code of “Do not email”? Appeal Mailings also allow you to exclude constituents from each letter in four different ways:
- Mailing History – this includes how recently you’ve sent a communication to them or how many times you’ve sent communications to them in the last 12 months
- Giving – this includes how recently they have given a gift or that the donor has reached a total amount of giving in the last 12 months
- Solicit Codes
- Query selections
#4 – Name Format Options – Name Format Options let us ensure that we are using the most personalized Addressee and Salutation for each constituent, even when they right addressee or salutation to use ISN’T the constituent’s Primary Addressee or Primary Salutation. Let me give you an example: When a constituent is a contact person for an organization in your mailing, but in Altru, that constituent has a spouse relationship in their individual record. In almost all cases, this means that their Primary Addressee and Salutation are Joint formats, which would be appropriate to use if you are mailing to them as an organizational contact – you wouldn’t want to mail to “Dr. and Mrs. Shawn Galdeen, Blackbaud, Inc.” when what you really wanted was to mail to “Meredith Galdeen, Blackbaud, Inc.” Name Format Options let you treat Organizations and their Contacts differently than you treat Individual Constituents in your mailing. You can learn more about how to customize name format options in our Knowledgebase: How to configure name format options
#5 – When an Appeal Mailing is run in Altru, Altru marks each constituent record with the Appeal Mailing so that you can see later that the constituent received that mailing. Additionally, you can use query to see exactly which Letter that constituent was sent. This means you don’t have to worry about tracking that information outside of Altru or adding that information to each constituent record after the mailing is sent.
Now you have a bit of a better idea why I can’t stop praising Altru Appeal Mailings. If you’re ready to start reaping the rewards of Appeal Mailings at your own organization, we have lots of resources to help you use Appeal Mailings and follow best practices.
Altru Resources
- Blackbaud University Instructor-led Online Class: Altru: Effective Communications
- Recorded Sessions:
- Support Spotlight Resources (Knowledgebase articles, videos, session recordings and handouts): Appeals All Spotlight Resources
Best Practices Resources
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10/24/2018 10:57am EDT
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