Hi all,

In our next release - 3.7.0 - we will be releasing changes that should help address some of the issues raised here. In particular, with the new functionality, you'll be able to assign different "notifications" (automatic emails) to different stages (i.e. LOI, Application, Follow Up) in different processes.

We expect this release to be in our DEMO environment in the next week to 10 days and in Production in the next few weeks.

Please pay attention to our announcements and release notes around this functionality, and if you have questions on it, please let me know.

posted June 11, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

I'm a late chimer-inner! We would love to have automatic emails attached to the forms instead. How do other feel about this??

posted June 11, 2013 by Kim Nott, Akron Community Foundation

My chime in - discussed with Diane who really works in the system daily - I think I have grabbed what Diane wants, not sure if it would apply to all others in this thread:

If there was a batch email for a dashboard display (you would select the grouping for pipeline level (LOI submitted, Approved, etc) and you would select the process (MLI) from the drop down selection.

And there would be a button to “email all” which would include the ability to select a template or create an email (like there is when you select the users by checking the boxes to send email in "batch").

If there was the ability to select all applications in any process at any stage (this could be drop down menus like for exports) and it would strip only the email addresses for the main contacts - into even a text field (ideally separated by semicolins) where users could grab that data and paste into a blank template (or populate the bcc in an email template which would be fancier)

posted May 17, 2013 by Sally Weldon, Community Foundation of Western North Carolina

Just want to chime in that this would be a huge help to our organization where we have multiple processes in each of our databases. It would be ideal to be able to have auto emails that give specific next step instructions for each of those processes, and for each stage, LOI, Applicaiton, and Follow-up.

Hope to see this happen in the near future! Keep up the great work guys!

posted May 14, 2013 by Katrina Howey, Land Trust Alliance

Hi all,

We're talking more about this internally. I'm not sure when it's going to happen (not in the next few months), but it's moving up the internal priority list. When we start getting a design document put together for this feature, I'll try to remember to run it by folks on this thread for comments / input :-)

Thanks

posted March 26, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

This would be INCREDIBLY helpful both to us as well as our grantees. Many apply to multiple processes and are confused as to what process is being referred to in the follow-up request.

posted February 26, 2013 by Emily Bronson, Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Hi Sarah and Chris,

This would be so helpful. We just created a general email response for three different processes which solves the problem temporarily. We would like each process to finish with a clear message instead of "you just clicked the submit button, thank you". People receive so many emails these days that clarity is key.

We will keep pushing this idea. We've been with Foundant since 2007 and know you can do it. We're cheering for you from NYC!

February 13, 2013 by Rossana Martinez, Lily Auchincloss Foundation

Hi Sarah,

Thanks for the comments. I like your suggestion about process-specific notifications being in the Process Manager. I think we'd probably still want them in the list of Email Templates - but maybe with a column that showed "Process" for any event-driven notifications. Without thinking it all the way through, that'd still be the place to administer them (content, etc.), but they wouldn't be "active" until they were attached to a process (though I would guess some folks might still want to have a one-email response for everything).

There's been a bit more discussion around the fact that more people are using Foundant GLM for more communication, so while we do have higher-priority items to work on in the short-term, we will keep this in mind as we look at improvements to email and communication in general.

Thanks again

posted January 30, 2013 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

Chris - as for your July 1st comment:

I do not think it would be a pain at all to set up the notifications (if they are by process) right in the Process Manager.

It makes more sense to me workflow wise - when you set up a process, it's all right there in the Process Manager. There would be no issue with having to "remember" to do anything "outside" (like an email template.

It makes sense to me organization/admin-wise. If I want to know everything that is connected to that process/form, it would all be there. "Am I sending an automatic notification with that schoalrship application?" Simple - I go check the Process Manager.

posted January 16, 2013 by Sarah Copeland, Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation Grant

Notifications are becoming more and more important to our Foundation. Ironically, I have "applied" for/to several different things lately (on a personal basis) and have heard nothing. No response, no follow-up. It is very frustrating. I am all about customer service. Whether our Community Foundation is working with a donor or recipient, they are all our customers.

So, here are a couple thoughts:

If it would be easier to program notifications by process, maybe there is some magic you can do through the Process Manager [or Form Builder] (instead of the email templates). We definately would want notifications by process [better yet - by form].

Plus, once the “by process” [or form] notifications are working, it would make more intuitive sense to me to have the email notifications located in the Process Manager [or Form Builder] instead of the email templates (workflow and otherwise).

I like the idea of sending Form Submitted and Evaluation Pending as a single notification with the ability to select a time. So, if there if there is 1 or there are 40 of a certain form that was submitted on a certain calendar day, the single email is sent, say, at midnight. (When we arrive at work the next day, we are cheerfully greeted by a single email from our Fun with Foundant Friends!) Or, since "you guys" (pronounced: Chris) are so good at this, maybe in the New Notification Section of the Process Manager or the Form Builder, we can select either the "send 1 email" (bulk) or "send for each submission" (individual) box we can check along with a little clock where we can set the time we want it sent each day there is that specific form/process item submitted.

posted January 16, 2013 by Sarah Copeland, Grand Rapids Area Community Foundation Grant

Hi Katie,

No, you're not doing anything wrong. At this point, the same email will go out. I totally understand the desire to send different auto-replies. Given other priorities, we won't be working on this in the near-term, but when we start to design how this will work, I'll summarize our approach to get feedback from you and other users.

Thanks for the feedback

posted September 14, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

Chiming in - we would also find this useful since we run a number of different grant processes that are very different. Additionally, unless I've done something wrong, it appears that every time someone submits anything (LOI, application, follow up), they're getting the same email. Even if we could just send different autoreplies for each step of the process, that would be helpful.

posted August 28, 2012 by Katie Briggs, Laird Norton Family Foundation

Thanks for the feedback and the details around your individual experiences - it definitely helps.

We will need to determine where this falls in terms of priority against other things we are working on, but it is something that is on our product backlog. If our internal discussions raise specific questions regarding how best to implement this, I will try to reach to you for further feedback.

Thanks

posted July 20, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

This is a great idea. We have two types of grants: one by application and one by nomination. It would be very helpful to be able to send an automatic submission verification email to each type/process. The sooner this gets resolved the better.

Thanks!

posted July 11, 2012 by Rossana Martinez, Lily Auchincloss Foundation

Thanks for your reply, Chris!

Yes- at least for our situation- there would be unique notification templates that we could set up to auto-send for each process. Just for context- we have approximately 25 separate, unique grant processes, each with its own application form. We do use a common report form, but it just doesn't make sense to say "we've received your grant application" when the recipient is submitting a follow-up report. Even something like 1. LOI submission notification, 2. application submission notification, and 3. follow-up submission notification, would be a great start!

Thanks again for considering my suggestion as you continue to develop the products!

posted July 2, 2012 by Carolynn Sween, Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa

Good point - I know before we put in the latest notification we discussed internally doing it on a process-specific basis. However, at the time, the thought was that it would be better to get it out and see how it worked before investing more development time to do it on a process-by-process basis. With the actual problem around follow-up notifications, I can see how this is certainly something we'll need to take a closer look at. I'm assuming you would want ALL notifications that are event-driven (follow-up reminders, form submissions, etc.) to be on a process-by-process basis? Also, at this point, because they are NOT process-specific, admins do not have to remember to add them each time they add a new process. I'm guessing you would want the default to be something like "Apply to all processes" and then only change that if you had a need, correct?

Thanks

posted July 1, 2012 by Chris Dahl, Foundant Technologies

I would favor separate email templates too. Currently we can not put too much detail in these templates because our prcocesses have varying requirements and instructions.

posted June 22, 2012 by Erin Baird, Allegany Franciscan Ministries

This is an incredibly helpful suggestion. Our 2012 grantees recently received an incorrect 2-week reminder intended for our 2011 grantees. This occurred as a result of our two processes intermingling in the "follow-up" assignments. Our 2011 follow-up grant reports were due, as well as our 2012 follow-up Grant Agreements. As it is set up now, with notifications not being restricted by process, follow-up notifications go out to every grantee that is assigned a follow-up. Our options are to disable the automatic notification, or make our email generic. Neither of these options are favorable.

posted June 5, 2012 by Nancy Bonenberger, Genuardi Family Foundation