GiftWorks 2012: Volunteers Improvements September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Jonathan Leaman

The GiftWorks Volunteers Addin has been updated for GiftWorks 2012. If you already have the Volunteers Addin, these new features and improvements are provided free when you upgrade to GitWorks 2012. You simply need to install the latest version of the Volunteers Addin.

Customize Skills List

Previous versions of GiftWorks Volunteers allowed you to modify the skill list for one customizable category. With GiftWorks 2012 Volunteers, the entire skills list can now be modified. New databases will still default the list with the preset categories and skills.

You can add, rename or delete individual skills within a category.  Click the Customize link next to the Category.

 

You can add, rename or delete the skill categories.  Click the Modify Skill Categories link.

Create Volunteer Profiles for a SmartList

A new SmartUpdate option can be used to add Volunteer Profiles for a SmartList of donors, donations or pledges. This includes the ability to screen the Volunteer Profiles so they are available to be assigned to jobs.

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.

GiftWorks 2012: Events Improvements September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Jonathan Leaman

The GiftWorks Events Addin has been updated for GiftWorks 2012.   If you already have the Events Addin, these new features and improvements are provided free when you upgrade to GitWorks 2012.  You simply need to install the latest version of the Events Addin.

Performance Improvements

The overall performance of GiftWorks Events has been improved. This will benefit everyone using GiftWorks Events. However, if you are managing events with a larger number of reservations or participants (several hundred), you will see the most improvement.

Copy Events and Event Activities

With GiftWorks 2012 Events, you can copy an existing event, optionally copying the activities, participants and tasks. This can save time if you repeat events from year to year.

You can copy individual activities for an event.  This is helpful when setting up a series of similar activities (i.e. tables at a banquet).

Manage Reservations - New Options

GiftWorks 2012 Events provides more options for managing the reservations list for an event. You can sort the list by reservation donor name or reservation date and search by reservation donor name or reservation date range. You can also limit the number of reservations displayed.

New Report - Event Reservations For Activity List

A new report is available to list all the reservations for a specific Event Activity. The most powerful feature of this report is that the reservation fields for the specific activity are included as columns on the report. This is a List style report and can therefore be exported to Excel (e.g. to print name tags) or grouped by a specific Reservation Field to get Event counts (e.g. meal choice counts).

Event Tasks Widget

A new event tasks widget is available that can be included on the Home page.  It is similar to the tasks widget but displays any event tasks for the user signed in.

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: SmartEntry Improvements September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Mike Greineder

GiftWorks 2012 introduces some new features to the SmartEntry process that will help you manage and use your SmartEntry pages more effectively.

Save and Continue your SmartEntry Session

Entering information into SmartEntry pages can take some time depending on how many donors or donations you are entering.  If you get interrupted or need to run to a meeting, you can now save your work and continue it later without losing any of the information you entered.

Simply click the Save SmartEntry Session link to save your session so you can finish later.

When you are ready to continue your SmartEntry session, you can restore your session and finish entering data.

Copy a SmartEntry Page

Sometimes you have the need to maintain two SmartEntry pages that are very similar but have a few different fields or default values.  Now you can create the first SmartEntry page and then use that as a starting point for the second SmartEntry page by using the copy feature.

More Options For Defaulting Dates

Previous versions of GiftWorks allowed you to default a SmartEntry date field to a specific date but that didn't always provide the necessary flexiblity.  In GiftWorks 2012, you will be able to set the default date to a specific date, today, or a date calculated based on today.

One example of how this is useful is if you track membership renewal dates.  Let's say that your organization's membership period is one year.  You can set a default date for the Renewal Date to be one year from today as seen in the screenshot below.  Any time you use this SmartEntry page to enter donors, it will always default the Renewal Date to one year from today.

All Payment Type Information Available

Previous versions of GiftWorks included check date and check number as available SmartEntry fields. GiftWorks 2012 includes all of the payment type information as available fields for SmartEntry pages.  GiftWorks will ensure that the the payment fields that you fill in match the payment type you select.  For example, you will not be allowed to enter a check number for a donation that has a payment type of cash.

Mike Greineder is a senior developer at GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: GiftWorks History September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Mike Greineder

In previous versions of GiftWorks, it was possible to see some tracking information for a donor such as created by, created date, last action by, last action, and last action date.  While this information was helpful, it was not possible to see the entire history of actions performed on a donor or many of the other actions performed within GiftWorks.

In GiftWorks 2012, you can see the history of many of the actions performed within the various areas of GiftWorks.  These areas include Donors, Donations, SmartLists, Pledges, Pledge Payments, Mailing Templates and more.  Some examples are adding a donor, adding a donation, adding a SmartList and more. The history is available in two different locations within GiftWorks.  

View Donor History

The first is from the donor details screen in a new tab labeled History.  This tab only shows the actions related to the current donor.

View GiftWorks History

The second is in the Settings section under Database and Maintenance / Manage GiftWorks History.  

You can filter the view by customizing the available filters.



GiftWorks History will help you manage and protect your valuable GiftWorks information since you are able to track history in GiftWorks at a more detailed level than ever before.  

Mike Greineder is a senior developer at GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: Organize Custom Fields September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Jonathan Leaman

GiftWorks provides the ability to define custom fields for donors and donations.   Prior versions of GiftWorks allowed you to rearrange the order of these fields but many of you said that did not provide enough flexibility.   Your feedback indicated that, many times, there are fields that are related and it would be helpful to group them into separate sections.

Organize Custom Fields

GiftWorks 2012 provides flexibility to set up categories for your donor and donation custom fields and arrange the fields within those categories.  Also, the categories can be moved up or down.

View or Edit a Donor, Donation or Pledge

The donor custom fields are displayed in different sections according to the organized categories when viewing or editing a donor.   The donation custom fields are displayed in different sections according to the organized categories when viewing or editing a donation or pledge.

We believe these changes in GiftWorks 2012 will help you better manage the information that is unique to your organization.

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: Improvements to Adding a Donor September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Jonathan Leaman

GiftWorks has always provided an easy, step-by-step process to add a new donor.   The most common and critical information such as name, address, phone, email, salutation, addressee, groups and mailing lists is collected.   An option is provided to add more details when needed.

We heard a lot of varied feedback requesting additional information to add to the step-by-step process, such as source or a specific custom field.  Also, we understand that times have changed and many donors have multiple phone numbers and emails.

GiftWorks 2012 provides more options and more flexibility to customize the step-by-step process to add a new donor to meet the unique needs of your organization.

Address, Phone and Emails

GiftWorks 2012 provides the option to enter the address name when adding a donor.  Also, the Insert key can be used to find the City, State and Country based on the ZIP/Postal  Code entered.

 

GiftWorks 2012 allows more than one phone and email to be entered when adding a donor.   Also, the phone and email names can be entered.

The ‘Show more’ link allows a 2^nd and 3^rd phone and email to be entered.

Additional Donor Information

GiftWorks 2012 provides the ability to configure additional donor fields to be available to enter when adding a donor.

These fields show up on the last screen when adding a donor.

GiftWorks 2012 provides the flexibility to tailor the process to add a donor to meet the unique needs of your organization and provide the efficiency that you need.

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: Geocoding September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Mike Greineder

Geocoding is the process of turning physical address information into its equivalent latitude and longitude coordinates.  GiftWorks 2012, through a partnership with MapQuest, gives you the ability to geocode your donor addresses.  Once your addresses are geocoded, GiftWorks is able to provide a number of useful features including mapping and location based searches. 

View your SmartList donors on a map

You can create a map of all the donors in a SmartList that have been geocoded.

Configure SmartList locations

You can create a Donors SmartList to find all the donors within a certain number of miles or kilometers from a specified location.   This is accomplished by defining a location for a zip code or latitude/longitude.  

You can then add criteria to show the donors within so many miles/kilometers of this location. Each Donors SmartList can have up to four defined locations.

Geocode Donor Addresses

You can either geocode all addresses that are not already geocoded or choose a specific SmartList to geocode all donors in the SmartList.

Through the use of geocoding and the partnership with MapQuest, GiftWorks 2012 is able to provide even more power to SmartLists and more tools to help your organization accomplish its mission.

Mike Greineder is a senior developer at GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: Enhanced Email Communication September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Mike Greineder

GiftWorks has always provided the ability to send and track emails through GiftWorks.  Prior to GiftWorks 2012, GiftWorks required Microsoft Outlook to be installed to send emails through GiftWorks.  This was restrictive to users that wanted to send and track emails in GiftWorks, but were already using another email provider/interface and did not want to or were not able to install Microsoft Outlook.

In GiftWorks 2012, you can send email through GiftWorks by configuring standard email settings to use your outgoing email server.  This is similar to what users experience when setting up most email clients.

View Sending Progress

When sending email through the mailing center, GiftWorks gives users better progress and reporting while sending the emails to the configured email server.

Mike Greineder is a senior developer at GiftWorks.

New in GiftWorks 2012: Soft-credit Recognition September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

by Jonathan Leaman

GiftWorks has always provided helpful tools to find and recognize the individuals who have given gifts to your organization – through Thank You Letters and Receipt mailings, viewing Donor Details and powerful Reporting and SmartLists. 

However, not every individual who contributes to your organization is the person who “signs the check.”   A couple common examples are when a donor gives a gift through a charitable foundation or an individual prompts his employer to write a check to your organization. 

In both cases, an individual was in some way responsible for the gift but cannot be issued a tax receipt because the gift did not come from them.  But it is very important to thank these individuals for the gift and to easily find them later when looking for donors that have given to your organization.

We listened to our customers and learned that many were trying to track this type of information by using notes or custom fields but they wanted an easier way that was more integrated into GiftWorks.  With GiftWorks 2012, soft-credit recognition can be used to assign credit for a donation to one or more donors who cannot be credited for the gift from a tax-receipt standpoint.

Assigning soft-credit recognition

GiftWorks 2012 provides an option to add soft-credit recognitions for a donation or received pledge payment.    You can also indicate how you would like to acknowledge this soft-credit recognition.

The soft-credit recognition is displayed when you view a donation or received pledge payment.

 
 
Soft-credit recognition Thank-You letters

GiftWorks 2012 provides a special type of Donation Mailing – Soft-Credit Thank You Letters – to help you easily thank these individuals.

 
View Donation History

GiftWorks 2012 provides options to display soft-credit recognitions or have them included in the donation history when viewing a donor. 

Soft-credits can be optionally included when displaying the Top Donors on the Donors Dashboard, when creating Donor SmartLists or when running reports like the Donors By Giving Level and Lapsed Donors report.

We are confident the new features in GiftWorks 2012 to track soft-credit recognition will help ensure you properly recognize all the individuals that contribute to your organization’s mission.

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.

GiftWorks 2012 Released on September 6 September 6, 2011 By Jonathan Leaman

Our team is excited to announce that the newest version of GiftWorks was released on September 6! GiftWorks Anywhere will be updated with the latest features on September 12. GiftWorks 2012 represents our ongoing commitment to our customers and to the nonprofit sector.

We read and thoroughly evaluate the feedback we receive from customers and we have implemented many of the recommendations we have heard. When you use GiftWorks 2012, you can thank your nonprofit colleagues around the world who have made recommendations, enabling all GiftWorks users to benefit from their years of accumulated insight and wisdom.

In the next few days, we will be posting articles to this blog highlighting some of the new features that are included in GiftWorks 2012 versions. We are confident you will be pleased with the enhancements and improvements!

Jonathan Leaman is the lead developer for GiftWorks.