general correspondence - table of contents

Last Revised Date: April 5th, 2019 1

General Correspondence and Management

GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE - TABLE OF CONTENTS

General Correspondence and Management ................................................................................................. 2

General Correspondence Process ............................................................................................................................ 2

Individual General Correspondence .................................................................................................................. 4

BULK General Correspondence ......................................................................................................................... 5

Add/Edit a Correspondence Process ................................................................................................................. 7

Run a Correspondence Process ....................................................................................................................... 10

Viewing Correspondence on a Record ............................................................................................................. 12

Write a Letter ......................................................................................................................................................... 12

Create Letter in Word with merge fields ......................................................................................................... 13

Merge Letter .................................................................................................................................................... 13

2 Last Revised Date: April 5th, 2019


GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE AND MANAGEMENT General Correspondence is a way to indicate that a communication has occurred. It can be used to record a personal letter written to thank a constituent or lunch or by using correspondence codes, a way to record sending a birthday card to multiple constituents at a time.

Any communication that supports the missions and fundraising efforts to our institution is considered a General Correspondence.

General Correspondence Process General correspondence can be used to stamp a record that a mailing such as newsletters, promotions, and annual reports have been sent.

The steps for creating general correspondence are displayed in the following process image:

Correspondence Codes

These are the categories that are currently listed to have define the purpose of the correspondence and what is labelled on the record itself. This list will help identify what should be used a General Correspondence (Generic Communication) or an Interaction (a personal note on a record)

Here is the list of the active General Correspondence codes that can be used:

Name Description

AA/AF General Communications General communications sent out by AA/AF

Affinity Partners Manulife, TDMM, MBNA, Pets Plus

Request for Selection (list of

records to stamp)

IS provides name of the

Selection

Correspondence Process is

reused or added

Correspondence process is

started

Record is stamped and

verified



Alumni E-News People who want to receive the newsletter but are not in one of the groups we normally would send to

Annual Fund Stewardship Generic Annual Fund Stewardship

Birthday Cards Mass Mailing of Birthday Cards

Class Newsletter – CBE

These are all class newsletters that are sent based on the described Colleges

Class Newsletter - CBS

Class Newsletter – CEPS

Class Newsletter - CoA

Class Newsletter – CSAHS

Class Newsletter – OAC

Class Newsletter – OVC

Endowment Reports Endowment Reports sent by Donor Relations

Event Correspondence Generic Event Communication (not invitations)

Event Save the Date

Finance Correspondence Generic Finance communications

First Time Donor Brochure Annual Fund mailing to first time donors

Governors’ Council Newsletter Donor Relation Newsletter to top donors

Holiday Cards Annual bulk holiday card mailing

Impact Report Combined Donor Relations and Alumni Affairs Report



Library Newsletter Annual Fund mailing to Library donors

Milestone Recognition Alumni Program for baby, new house marriage, etc.

OAC Libranni Magazine College Publication

OVC Crest Magazine Replaces FRIS code M in mailing table

OVC Pet Trust Best Friends Newsletter

Pet Trust donor Mailing

OVC Pet Trust Stewardship Thank you cards, etc. specific to OVC Pet Trust

Portico Magazine Additions by AA&D Individuals we wish to send an Alumnus but do not meet the criteria.

Stewardship Reports Donor Relations reports to donors

Vet Clinic Tribute Acknowledgement Tribute acknowledgement sent to pet owners on behalf of the clinics

Individual General Correspondence

When there are less than 25 records that follow one of the General Correspondence codes, you can create an individual General Correspondence on an individual record.

1. Go to the Communications tab on the record you wish to add the correspondence

2. Select a Correspondence code (refer to the table above for a description of each code)

3. Date Sent: enter the date which you send the correspondence

4. Comments: Enter the channel of the correspondence (eg. LO Email, mail, personal email) and a details of the correspondence that was sent



BULK General Correspondence

There are entries wish you have a file of multiple records wishing to be stamped with this General Correspondence code (approx. 25 records or more)

Generate a Header File

You can generate header files for documents you create in Microsoft® Word that includes merge fields. With the header file, CANNON CRM can export the selected data fields and merge them with the merge fields in the Word document when you generate the correspondence output.

NOTE: At this time, header files will only be created by our Communications team. Submit your request to the Manager of Communications with the template you wish and merge fields.



To Generate a Header File:

1. On the navigation bar, click

2. In the Donor relations task group, click

3. On the explorer bar, click Generate header file.

4. In the Output type field, select either “Output format” or “Export definition.”

5. Depending on which Output type you select:

• In the Output format field, select the output format to use.

• In the Export definition field, search for and select an export definition.

6. Click OK.

7. Choose to open the file with Microsoft® Excel.

8. Save the header file as a *.csv file, then close the document.

Record entries are created and imported into Cannon

Once Communication has been sent (via mail or Luminate Online email outside of Cannon), you will want to track this in Cannon and stamp the record indicating that something was sent. You will need to provide the Cannon IS team with the records you would like to stamp so it can be imported into Cannon as selection.

The IS Selection request form can be found at the following link and send to [email protected]: https://www.uoguelph.ca/alumni/events/dataSelectionForm.cfm Upon request of the import, IS requires 2 business days and will respond with the name of the Selection. Note that based on permissions, some roles have access to import the selection without having to request the IS team. (Full instructions on this process can be found here: http://aadtraining.uoguelph.ca/pdf/Import%20Selections.pdf )

mailto:[email protected]

https://www.uoguelph.ca/alumni/events/dataSelectionForm.cfm

http://aadtraining.uoguelph.ca/pdf/Import%20Selections.pdf



Add/Edit a Correspondence Process

When you create a correspondence process, you specify the selection of constituents to receive the correspondence and the letter to use with the correspondence (if applicable). You can also specify constituents in the selection to exclude from the correspondence.

For repetitive processes that only requires a new selection each time, the same process can be reused (eg. Monthly newsletter).

Please contact your SME for further direction on when to add a new process or re-use an existing one.

To Add a Correspondence Process:

1. From the Marketing and Communications Functional area, go to Manage correspondence.

2. Click the Add, to create a new processes or expand the chevron of an existing process and edit.

3. Complete the fields and options on the Add a correspondence window:

• Name - Naming convention: <AAD Department > - <description of Correspondence> (eg. EV – class newsletter, AF – First time donor, DR-Governors_Council)

• Description – brief overview of what the process is for and/or when it is used



• Letter template - click Choose file to search for your Microsoft® Word document. (This is optional and in most cases not used – see Write a Letter below)

Letter templates are currently found on the shared drive using the formatted mail correspondence output. Choose the file template to be applied.

T:\s_drive\Communications\Templates and Resources\templates for DAs

Mailing label template – mailing label templates are currently found on the shared drive using the formatted mail correspondence output. Choose the file template to be applied.

T:\s_drive\Communications\Templates and Resources\templates for DAs

Note: export definitions can be used for an output type and used for the header file. At this time, the standard process will be to use defaulted templates found on the shared drive location noted above.

• Output type – in most cases is not applicable when stamping a record regarding communication that has already been sent outside of Cannon. By Default, the standard will be:

• Output type: Output format

• Output format: Formatted mail correspondence output

• Selected Constituents – this where you can search for the Selection that the IS team has provided you.

Click Exclusions to exclude constituents who request not to be contacted or solicited in any way (if there are any that need to be applied – most cases the imported selection should already have exclusions)



Make sure to UNCHECK the exclude inactive constituents for any EMAIL correspondence types. Our current business process indicates that we do in fact email inactive records. If the imported selections was derived from IS, then these records will only be stamped if this checkbox is UNCHECKED

• Update constituent record with correspondence details – use this checkbox to update the constituent record with the details of the mailing.

• Correspondence code – see table above for List of Correspondence Codes

• Comments – this is what will be shown on a record. Specify the channel to how the correspondence was delivered in this area (eg. Mail, LO email, personal email)

• Create constituent selection from results – in most cases will not be used as a selection is already created and specified in the criteria above

4. Click Save.



Run a Correspondence Process

To Run a Correspondence Process:

1. When you are ready to start the correspondence process, expand the chevron and click Start Process

2. Make any necessary changes to the options on the Run correspondence process window.

3. Click Start.



4. Once the process is complete, you are taken to the Process status page.

Process Status Page

Once you run a correspondence process, the process status page displays automatically. This page contains the Recent status, History, and Job schedules tabs. The top half of the page contains the parameters and properties for the correspondence process.

Page item Information

Download output file To save a copy of the output file to your hard drive or network, click Download output file. You can download the file as a *.csv or as a *.xlsx.

Merge letter To merge the letters for your correspondence, click Merge letter. The correspondence letters merge automatically in Word. Save the merged correspondence letters on your hard drive or network.

Merge label To merge the data for your labels, click Merge label. The labels merge automatically in Word. Save the merged label document on your hard drive or network.

Modifying a Correspondence

Once the process has completed, from the History tab you can download the output to view all the records that would have this process stamped.

You can also use the Clear results, if you need to re-run the same process and wish to clear the results from the record



Viewing Correspondence on a Record

Once a process has completed or a single correspondence has been created, the record should now be stamped. This can be found in the Communications tab of a Constituent Record.

Note: Only those that have access to modify General Correspondence will be able to click on the General Correspondence link.

The Details column will only show the General Correspondence Code and whatever was written in the Comments of the Correspondence process is what will be displayed.

Write a Letter Adding a letter to the General Correspondence allows merge fields to send one generic letter to multiple people. Once this letter is created, it can be incorporated in the process to be printed and mailed.



Create Letter in Word with merge fields

From MS Word, you can at the Selection you are using to stamp the record, to generate a letter containing merge fields.

To Create a Letter in Word:

1. Open a new blank document in Microsoft® Word.

2. Select the Mailings tab.

3. Click Select Recipients and then select Use existing list.

4. Browse to your .csv file that was created for the selection, select the file name, and click Open.

5. On the Header Record Delimiters window, click OK.

6. Type your letter. To insert a mail merge field, click Insert Merge Field and then select the field to insert.

7. Save and close the Microsoft® Word document.

Merge Letter

Once you have incorporated the letter to the Correspondence Process, and the process has been started to stamp the record with a General Correspondence communication, you can now open the merge letter to preview and print each document with all the merge fields.



To Merge the Correspondence letters:

1. On the Process status page of the correspondence process you can see the Recent status tab.

2. Click Merge Letter on the action bar.

3. MS Word will open with all the letter and merge fields.

4. You can also Download Output if you choose to see all the records that will have a letter.

The History tab will provide a status of all instances this process has been run. If you wanted to remove the general correspondence from the entire process that was ran, you can do this here by clearing results.

general correspondence - table of contents

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