Separate, non Follow-Up form to Collect Thank You Notes from Students
The current methods of collecting and delivering specific thank-you notes to donors from students are often difficult. We'd like to see a system where a dedicated thank you note form can be configured and assigned to the student per opportunity and as needed and attached to the request, eliminating the need to use follow up forms. The choice between having fewer common follow ups (general thank you) and a large number of opportunity-specific follow ups (to get a specific follow up) is not a great one. A dedicated way of exporting these or emailing a donor directly would also be welcome.
Michelle Brown
shared this idea
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Andrea Gerhard
commented
We've built this into our award acceptance & follow-up form, and provide clear guidelines for the expectation of what should be submitted (including who it's addressed to, what information to include, proper greeting and closing, etc.). Then we include an upload field - encouraging them to complete their letter within a .doc or .pdf format and then uploading it (to help ensure good formatting and grammar/spell check capabilities to minimize errors). That way we're also able to download and print them to share with donors easily. If what we've asked isn't initially received, the form is marked incomplete until the items to be adjusted or that are missing are included in the form. It helps us to maintain accountability with the recipient for the scholarship award. I understand this may be adjusted on a case by case basis depending on the nature of the scholarship/award. We build the 'follow-up form' on the information we need to ensure integrity in each process. I'd think you could edit the "follow-up" to be just the guidelines and either field or upload for them to include the thank you letter if that is all you need. (It would at least help you in the short term until another solution comes available.)