Changing An Acknowledgement Letter In Raiser's Edge

Michael Catrino

Hi, I'm relatively new to Raiser's Edge and I need help changing my current acknowledgement letters to new acknowledgement letters. Do I accomplish this by changing the word document during the mail merge or is there another way to do it?


Thanks in advance!

Chris Krueger

I do the following when updating a letter, click on the "Send to Word Merge wizard" from your selected letter. Once the Wizard opens, click next, I would choose not to acknowledge at this time, choose either simple mail merge or conditional mail merge, open letter type, click edit merge document.  Make changes to your letter as needed....Be sure to click on Add-Ins tab and save the file.  This is the part I tend to forget.  Click finish, and your letter(s) should export for you to verify that they print properly.  If they do, merge the file as normal, if not preform the wizard again.  

Austen Brown

Hi Michael Catrino‍ - Below are the steps I use to update our acknowledgement letters.  

1. Navigate to Mail > Donor Acknowledgement Letters > open the mail merge you use to process acknowledgement letters. 
2. Click the Include button and bring in a batch that has not been acknowledged. 
3. On the upper left of the top menu on the merge file - click on Send to Word merge wizard. 
4. On the pop-up that appears, click Next. 
5. Our merge file is set up to create a query - if yours is the same, click the option that follows your organization's procedure. 
6. On the next window that appears for click the option that follows your organization's procedure. 
7. On the next window, choose the option to Perform a conditional merge using multiple documents, and click Next.
8. Chose the conditional merge field your system utilizes by highlighting it - for us it is "Letter Code - and click Next.
9. Highlight the letter you want to edit and click Open, then Edit merge document. 
10. This will open the letter used in the merge - update your letter accordingly.  If you need to add any RE fields, go to: Add-Ins Tab > Insert Raiser's Edge Field.   
11. After you are done with your edits, go to: Add-Ins Tab > Save and Return to RE7, then click OK. 
12. Repeat steps 9-11 for any other letters you need to edit. 
13. After all your edits are made, click Finish.  You need to process a letter merge in order for the changes to be saved

Let me know if you have any questions.  

Michael Catrino

Thank you for the information! I was able to change my letters due to your directions. However, another issue has been made apparent. When I merge the documents, there are these extra spaces that appear between the lines of the address block field. And then for other letter codes, the font will change halfway through the letter and then change back again. Does anyone have any ideas as to why this could be happening? Thanks.

Theresa Rogers

I have had to move the letter I am editing to the first position in the list of all of our letters in the mail merge function.  That is the only way I can get it to save the correct formatting.  There is a discussion in the Knowledge Base about this issue.  The formatting problem occurs because of Microsoft Word issues.  The number of the Knowledge Base article is 65109 and is something like "margins or tabs does not save or is incorrect in a conditional mail merge."

roger berg

Hi Michael- are the fonts changing for sections of the letter that are merge fields? Another helpful bit when editing your merge document is to hit Alt F9 which will toggle the merge fields on or off. When you can see all of the merge fields you can highlight them along with any other text that you want to change fonts for - or Ctrl A to select all of the text.