Acknowledgement Letters

Abby Miller

Hi, I am new to BB CRM, but have lots of experience with Raiser's Edge. I am trying to learn how to set up the acknowledgement letter process in BB CRM. What I found in KB and the help files wasn't super clear. I'm waiting to hear back from support on a few questions as well. If you have any tips or things you wish you knew when you were setting it up I would be most grateful!

Lois Smith

Are you looking at Revenue Acknowledgements or Marketing Acknowledgements?


We use Marketing Acknowledgements because of the flexibility in generating multiple letters all in one process. We have an acknowledgement attribute added during batch entry for the type of letter to receive (the type of letter isn't based entirely on amount).


1) We have selections created for each type of letter.

2) Each selection is in a separate segment.

3) All segments use the same export definition.

4) Each letter is in a separate package.

5) Marketing Acknowledgement process has each segment with its appropriate package.

6) When these are run, they merge into the appropriate letter.


I don't think I missed anything in the set up. it has been a while for us since we use the same processes all the time. We have one for even numbered years and one for odd numbered years and we touch them very little after set up unless something is changed in the letters.


In the letters, we have conditional merge fields to customize them a little more. "Increased" for an increase over the prior year, "new" for a new gift, "renewed" for a flat gift, for example.


We currently operate pretty strictly on a pledge basis, even if the payment is received at the same time, due to our existing business processes but we will be working to adjust our process with a coming extension of our current customization.

Abby Miller

Thank you so much! Do the marketing acknowledgement letters still show the gift as having been acknowledged?

Lois Smith

Yes, you can mark as acknowledged. We do a trial run first, verify all is good, then go back and mark as sent. It changes on the revenue from not acknowledged to Acknowledged with the date.

Stacy Evans

Don't mark it acknowledged until you're ready to mail the letter out. I learned this the hard way.

Mike Cicerone

As I was learning how to do acknowledgments I wrote everything down. Eventually I had a “diagnostic how to” document which I share with end users who can then investigate why a particular piece of revenue did or didn't get a letter. This cut down on support calls I got about acknowledgments