What is an example of an Action with a category of Mailing?

Michael Moore

My organization mails direct appeals twice a year and emails or mails newsletters with a return envelope for gifts 6 times a year each in alternating months. Those sort of mailings are recorded and assigned to constituents as Appeals. I'm right now trying to standardize and define guidelines for the creation of Actions, and the presence of a Mailing category kind of surprised me.

Perhaps a mailed invitation to an event, the mailing of our Annual Report to high level donors, or the mailing of annual statements to donors with recurring gifts could be considered Actions, but things like the event invite is better served via the Event record with the date of the mailing recorded alongside the Invited status or within an attribute category of Mailed Invite with a date. Annual statements for donations can just be recorded as the ack date for gifts given in the past year. Actions akin to the mailing of a grant application could be recorded as a Proposal Action, but even then, simply dating the Proposal with a date asked would suffice.

I just can't think of many types of Actions that would be best served as a Mailing, except in the event that a constituent has no phone or email. Can you give suggestions where an Action via Mailing is appropriate?

JoAnn Strommen

@Michael Moore I have seen it used for the following here: invite, birthday card, sympathy card, specific thank you from university president, specific thank you from university dept that they gave to, MOU/LOI drafts, final copy, any one-off mailing from development officer to constituent and our mailed calendars.
I guess it could be anything that hits the postage meter. ?

Michael Moore

@JoAnn Strommen Thanks, it hadn't occurred to me to enter Actions as they relate to stewardship because I'm thinking more in terms of qualification and solicitation but what you're saying makes sense.

La Donna Borth

@Michael Moore In addition to the items JoAnn mentioned, we do “donor of the day” - when I select the donors for the upcoming month (query that “randomly” selects them), I mark it as a Mailing. Because we mail the donors a card with date they will be held in the Sisters' prayers. Later, on their day, a Sister reaches out by telephone, if we have their phone number. So, we potentially have 2 Action Types of “Donor of the Day Contact” one with the Mailing category and one with the Phone Call category.

Michael Moore

@La Donna Borth What an interesting stewardship program!