I can see the problem with multiple documents causing server problems. Sometimes, though, I might want to pull just one document per application (to look at all the budgets for all the grantees, for example), and that MIGHT be less of a server hog. Glad to hear it's a possibility someday.

Re providing more input: anytime! :):)

Hi Mary,

Thanks for the input - and for catching the spelling error (it was corrected in the last release).

You're correct in that you can't create multiple merge documents if they include documents. This is in large part due to the fact that these packets would get big quickly, and would consume a lot of server resources. It would have the potential to be a bad user experience for both the person generating multiple merge documents as well as anyone else that was on the same server. Internally, we're discussing ways to add "Batch Print Packet" functionality in 2014. It's not trivial, but as we get further along in defining what that experience would be, would you be interested in providing some input?

Thanks again,
-chris

Or how about a "merge next request in list" button? (From search requests/decisions page, within Create Documents dialog.) See image. Button could also be labeled simply "Next"...

Merge next request.png (140KB)

It looks like you can't mail merge with attachments for multiple requests at once. (Separate doc for each request.) I'm sure that would be very complicated, but it's on my wish list anyway.

posted September 19, 2013 by Mary Giraulo, United Arts of Central Florida

To be more specific: I love the summary of past grants; love the ability to pick and choose which questions to include; LOVE the ability to pick and choose which documents to include, and to add request documents as well (I assume that's what Supporting Documents are?? If yes - the name should be consistent... and note Supporting is misspelled when you click "Create Documents" from the Request Summary.).

Another suggestion: The instructions at the top of the merge templates page should end with a quick note on the two ways you can merge documents (from request summary page or from search decisions). I uploaded my merge template then was unsure what to do next.

posted September 13, 2013 by Mary Giraulo, United Arts of Central Florida

WOW. I am so, so impressed. With the mail merge, I can create my own custom print packets - at will... not sure how much of this functionality is new, since I'm still new to Foundant, and have not explored mail merge in depth until today. (Glad you added the pre-decision mail merge, as that's probably when we will use it most.) I never dreamed this could be part of the software - thought it would be too complex. Thrilled and comforted, yet again, that we made the right choice in software provider. THANK YOU.

posted September 13, 2013 by Mary Giraulo, United Arts of Central Florida

Thanks for the heads up. Will be looking forward to testing the new capabilities. We are working our way through using the auto-generated emails now and really appreciate the increased functionality across the board.

posted July 29, 2013 by Skip Moore, Weaver Foundation

Thanks Chris!! I will check out the new functionality and let you know how it works for us. I think the changes in 3.7 and the additional ones you describe above will certainly enhance our ability to use Foundant to meet our needs.

Thanks for addressing and following up.

Jennifer

posted July 29, 2013 by Jennifer Pedroni, North Penn Community Health Foundation

Hi Skip, Jennifer, and Katie,

In our upcoming 3.8.0 release - slated to be in our DEMO environment in the next week to 10 days (Aug 1-5) - we are adding the ability to create Merge Documents prior to the decision stage.

Between that and the increased customization options - including the ability to include form questions - I'm hoping that most of the concerns here will be addressed. I'd appreciate feedback when you get a chance to look at the new functionality. And if you have questions, let us know.

Thanks,

-chris

posted July 28, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

Hi Katie,

It is complex functionality, but it's certainly not a pipe dream. We are currently wrapping up some changes to our Mail Merge functionality that should give you a lot more customization functionality - including the ability to include particular questions, etc. With anything more powerful, there is additionaly complexity, but we've tried to make it as straightforward as possible.

We anticipate having this in our DEMO environment next week and released to Production a week to 10 days after that.

As it is more complex functionality, please pay attention to our announcements and release notes about this feature. I anticipate it will also be covered in an upcoming training webinar.

I hope you will find it useful, and thanks again for the feedback,

-chris

posted June 12, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

I think my idea is similar enough to this thread to post here rather than start a new thread.

We had a customized print packet created and while it has been a big improvement for our needs, there is some additional customization that would make our process much more efficient and user-friendly for our end reviewers (who, for a variety of reasons, recieve pdfs of the proposals that staff export from Foundant rather than directly interfacing with Foundant), but it isn't currently possible to do that within the parameters of the print packet customization. I would love to be able to more fully customize documents, for example, choosing which of the questions asked in an application process to include (or not include) in the final print packet, include or not include full text of some questions (for our questions that have longer instructions, having 1/3 of the page eaten up in instructions that are essential for our applicants but add no value for our end reviewers is a real waste of space), and so forth. Right now with any given process each of the applications I send out to our end reviewers end up with at least a page of unnecessary information, and oftentimes a few pages - and this is after removing uploaded documents from the print packet.

This is likely a pipe dream, but that's why this is called "idea" lab, right?

Thanks,

katie

posted May 9, 2013 by Katie Briggs, Laird Norton Family Foundation

Jennifer,

Thanks for the response. If you could let me konw how your approach works for this first process, I'd appreciate it. Also, as you start to wrap it up, if you could me a couple of your "staff write ups" and indicate which applications they were for, that might help us get a better idea of what we could do to help.

Thanks,

-chris

posted March 26, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

I did talk to Kris about developing a custom print packet. We agreed to work through our first process and see how things work with our staff and board reviewers. Specifically we create a "staff write up" that provides some background information and frames critical issues for our board reviewers to read in connection with the application. There are two program staff that collaborate on the write up to produce one final document. I have set up the staff review in Foundant to capture the information that we like to include in our write up. I am not yet sure how I will have multiple staff work on this, but we are working through that. I was thinking that the mail merge would allow me to create a word document "write up" that could be shared with board members - some who are reviewers and log onto Foundant and others that are provided the "staff write up" but do not participate in the approval process.

Please let me know if you want to discuss further - We may want a custom print packet and I think I'll have a better idea about this after we go through our first process.

Thanks

posted February 21, 2013 by Jennifer Pedroni, North Penn Community Health Foundation

Hi Skip and Jennifer,

Thanks for the suggestions on how to improve mail merge. I agree it's not the strongest part of the software at this point.

In terms of your request, Jennifer, it might be helpful if you can provide a bit more detail around the information you would like to see. It sounds like more than just the print packet for an application, but with some more detail we could better gauge the amount of effort it might take. It would also give others who might be interested in similar functionality a baseline for adding their comments so that the solution worked well for everyone. Is this something you'd actually like to send to someone, or would you just find it helpful for reviewing the request? It may be something we could also address with a custom print packet ... it might be worth your time to contact Client Services and see if a custom print packet would be a reasonable option.

And Skip, it might make sense for you to do something similar in terms of providing a bit more detail about what you'd like to see. I think we could make a pretty decent attempt, but it could save us some cycles if we had more information from you as a starting point.

While mail merge functionality isn't a really high priority at the moment, if the details help us realize these wouldn't be high-effort changes, we could investigate them as options to help fill out releases as we continue working on higher-priority items.

Thanks again, and I look forward to hearing more about these,

-chris

posted January 30, 2013 by Chris Dahl,Foundant Technologies

Agree - I also would like the ability to generate mail merge templates prior to the decision. Creating a one page summary of information including staff comments prior to the decision would be helpful to our process

posted January 16, 2013 by Jennifer Pedroni, North Penn Community Health Foundation