Tributes - a hot mess! Please fix this!
The tribute functionality is a big mess. There are multiple issues with it, which I have listed below:
* When a donor enters "John & Jane Doe" in notify, CSuite creates an Organizational Profile. This makes finding and merging those profiles incredibly difficult.
* Every time a donor enters notify information via the online portal, it is creating a DUPLICATE profile in CSuite. You would think this wouldn't be any big deal, but unfortunately we have tested this in multiple instances and CSuite does not recognize these are similar to existing profiles (so the little "merge" suggestion at the bottom of the profile does not populate). There either needs to be a better way to merge duplicate notify profiles or, more preferably, CSuite would not create a profile at all. Instead, the information entered would simply be static text connected to the tribute ID as it is when we manually enter notify information with a check/cash donation.
* Please fix the tribute letter generation feature. Currently, if you click "Generate PDF" or "Generate Word" or "Email" and have to exit out of that window for any reason, the letter simply DISAPPEARS from the screen as if you have already sent it! This impacts our workflow almost daily.
Because of all these issues, our team is struggling to even use the tribute functionality. We are a statewide community foundation, so the volume of duplicated notification profiles and tributes becomes unmanageable for staff. Please address these issues so we can serve our donors through this important vehicle for giving!
Sidney Suttles
shared this idea
8/2/2023: Tributes: In order to manage tributes more efficiently, a new workflow has been designed for Tributes.
The Tribute list view is now a custom report with the ability to sort each column and have the ability to apply filters, save filtered lists, export, email and load for future use. On the left hand menu, there is also a new Delete Unused menu item. This will allow clients to delete any unused tributes that do not have donations attached to the tribute or if the tribute does not have associated notify information. If the notify address or email information is not completed, the tribute information will move to a non-notify tribute field. This will allow clients to retain the information about the tribute on the donation in a text field.
A status field has been added to tributes. By default, all tributes are now public. The public status will allow for the Tribute to be displayed on the Donation Page. The Private Status will not allow for that tribute to be displayed on the Donation page. To allow for the Public Tributes to be displayed on the the Donation Page, clients will need to enable the Search Public Tributes from the Tributes Settings menu. We have also added the ability to set tributes to public or private using a bulk action. From the Tributes list page, there are two new left hand menu items, Mark Tribute Public and Mark Tribute Private. Using one of those menu items will create a table to mark all or a selection of tributes to public or private.
Additional enhancements to Tributes is the ability to Add Notify. This will provide a quick way to add additional people to notify within the tribute record. From the tribute record in edit mode, there is now the ability to unlink the profiles and/or delete profiles.
Tributes workflow was enhanced similar to the tax receipt workflow. This new workflow can be accessed from the Donations Tribute bucket, and will now have a Tribute Notify left menu option. This will populate the list of tributes and the bulk actions available: print-word or pdf, email, create labels, or envelopes. and mark the tributes as sent from this list. Once the tributes have been marked sent, the information of the person notified and the date will appear in the tributes section of the corresponding donations. To resend a Tribute, clients can clear the tribute from the donation record, add the tribute, and it will then populate back on the List Notify . For performance reasons, we have decided not to populate the count at the top of this Tribute bucket.
To allow for a little more flexibility with tracking and managing tributes, we have added a non-notify tribute. This will allow for clients to track tributes that do not require any additional notifications, but they still want to be able note that the donation was in Honor or in Memory of a person. Clients can use the non-notify tribute section to populate tribute information without creating tribute. rom a donation record after the donation is posted, the tribute add option will display with the non-notify tribute or the tribute notify sections. We have also added the ability to report on the Non Notify Field from within Custom Reporting.
When using donation imports, added the ability to populate a non-notify tribute to a donation. When using the donation import template: ONLY populate the memorial_name field, leave all other memorial fields blank. Also, updated the memorial_notify_method options to (mail, email).
A new Tribute Permissions for Settings was added with this release. This permission is enabled for the Admin group.
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Daniel Hare
commented
I have had a huge issue with the "print all tributes needing to be sent" as well. It appears in multiple places on the tribute page so I'm never sure which one will allow me to print them in Word (One only does PDF, but if you select the right one then it gives you the option)
I've had to MANUALLY enter tribute info into the letter because as stated above if you select the wrong one the Tributes get marked as being sent immediately. This has happened to us multiple times and it's not at all clear how Foundant expects this workflow to work.
There was a change in how the Tributes page works a few months ago, somehow this change managed to make it even worse.