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How to Create Batch Mail Merge Documents from PatronManager: https://help.pm.leapevent.tech/a/1155944
Properly thanking your donors for their contributions is important to your organization. This article will help you get those acknowledgment letters out as fast as possible!
Below, we'll show you how to create Microsoft Word documents that can merge information from a report exported from PatronManager. No extra tools, downloads, or coding needed! We'll show you how in:
Office 2021 is what's used in Microsoft 365!
Office 2021 for Mac
In this example, we'll show you how to create a batch of donation acknowledgment letters, but you can use this same process to mail merge just about anything!
1. Create a PatronManager report that gathers the information you need
For this example, let's say we send acknowledgment letters to our donors weekly.
We'll create a report that gives us all the donations received in the last 7 days.
We also included the fields we need for our mail merge document: Address Name, Salutation, Mailing Address, Amount and Date of the donation, and Fund.
When we're satisfied with the report, we'll click Export
For additional information on reporting, read our All About Reporting help article.
2. Export the report to a Comma Delimited .csv Excel file
- Select Details Only as your Export View
- Pick Comma Delimited. csv as your Format
- Click Export
3. Remove unnecessary information from the export and save it
Delete the rows containing the report information at the bottom of the screen, to avoid merging them into your letters later on. Once you're satisfied with the spreadsheet, click "Save As" and save the report as an .xls or .csv file with a recognizable name.
4. Open your acknowledgment letter as a Word document
Here, we've created a generic letter and simply placed reminders about the information we need to merge in capital letters. You can use whatever placeholders work for you; we'll be replacing them with the actual merge fields in the next steps.
5. Open the Mailings tab
- Click Start Mail Merge and select the document type you want to work with (letter, envelope, label, etc.),
- Then click Select Recipients and choose the Excel file you just saved.
6. Replace your placeholders with the Merge Fields from your report
Once you've selected your recipient source, the Insert Merge Fields menu will become available. Highlight the placeholder you want to replace with a merge field, and select that field from the Insert Merge Field Menu.
7. Complete the merge and print your letters
8. Update your records in PatronManager
If you use the "Acknowledged" checkbox on the donation record, or another custom field, to track which donations have been acknowledged, be sure to go back into PatronManager and update the records you've just completed.
If you've have received more donations than you can update manually, you can perform a data update. Check out the DIY Data series to learn more.
Office 2021 for Windows
In this example, we'll show you how to create a batch of donation acknowledgment letters, but you can use this same process to mail merge just about anything!
1. Create a PatronManager report that gathers the information you need
For this example, let's say we send acknowledgment letters to our donors weekly.
We'll create a report that gives us all the donations received in the last 7 days.
We also included the fields we need for our mail merge document: Salutation, Amount, and Date of the donation.
When we're satisfied with the report, we'll click Export
For additional information on reporting, read our All About Reporting help article.
2. Export the report to a Comma Delimited .csv Excel file
- Select Details Only as your Export View
- Pick Comma Delimited. csv as your Format
- Click Export
3. Remove unnecessary information from the export and save it
Delete the rows containing the report information at the bottom of the screen, to avoid merging them into your letters later on. Once you're satisfied with the spreadsheet, click "Save As" and save the report as an .xls or .csv file with a recognizable name.
4. Open your acknowledgment letter as a Word document
Here, we've created a template and simply placed reminders about the information we still need to merge in capital letters. You can use whatever placeholders work for you; we'll be replacing them with the actual merge fields in the next steps.
5. Open the Mailings tab
- Click Start Mail Merge and select the document type you want to work with (letter, envelope, label, etc.),
- Then click Select Recipients and choose the Excel file you just saved.
6. Replace your placeholders with the Merge Fields from your report
Once you've selected your recipient source, the Insert Merge Fields menu will become available. Highlight the placeholder you want to replace with a merge field, and select that field from the Insert Merge Field Menu.
7. Complete the merge and print your letters
After you've inserted all of your merge fields, select "Edit Individual Documents" from the Finish & Merge menu to view all the letters as one Word document. After you've merged the document, you can edit each letter individually if needed, and print them one at a time or as a batch.
8. Update your records in PatronManager
If you use the "Acknowledged" checkbox on the donation record, or another custom field, to track which donations have been acknowledged, be sure to go back into PatronManager and update the records you've just completed.
If you've have received more donations than you can update manually, you can perform a data update. Check out the DIY Data series to learn more.