Release Notes: October 13, 2026

Thank donors faster, prepare review committees in one click, and keep every award decision in view. This release brings bulk receipts and acknowledgements to Giving Records, downloadable review packets, and notes, flags and follow-up tracking on Award & Deny.

Catching up on a stack of gifts no longer means opening them one at a time. Giving Records now lets you select gifts, see which ones have been thanked, and send receipts and acknowledgements in a single pass.

Find exactly the gifts you need

- Amount range: filter by "Between" (for example $100 to $499) on Giving Records and in Giving Records Smart Reports.

- Receipt Email column: see which gifts have had a receipt email, when it went out and which template was used. Gifts without one show "Not sent", and you can filter by sent or not sent.

Take action in bulk

Tick up to 200 gifts, or select the whole page, then choose an action:

- Download receipts: choose a receipt template and we prepare the receipts in the background. You get an email with a link to a ZIP file holding one PDF per gift. The link works for 48 hours.

- Send acknowledgement: each donor with an email address gets one acknowledgement. When it's done, you get an email listing anything that was skipped and why.

You need edit access to Donors to use these actions.

One email that thanks and receipts

Attach a receipt template to an acknowledgement email template. When you send that acknowledgement, the donor gets their thank-you and their tax receipt in the same message.

Preparing materials for a review committee now takes one click instead of dozens. A review packet is a single PDF of one student's application, showing exactly what reviewers are allowed to see.

What's in a packet

- The student's answers

- Their uploaded files, converted into the PDF. Files that can't be converted, such as videos or spreadsheets, come along as separate original files.

- Completed recommendation letters

- A scorecard for each assigned reviewer, with scores where they've been submitted

Questions hidden from reviewers never appear. If the review group uses blind review, student names are hidden and each file is named with the anonymous applicant number.

Download one, a reviewer's set, or the whole group

- One student: from the review group's list of applications.

- One reviewer's set: from Reviewer Assignment, pick a reviewer and download only their assigned applications, exactly as that reviewer sees them.

- The whole group: from the review group's Applicants page, choose Download all packets. Review groups with two panels are organized by panel.

Larger downloads are prepared in the background, and you get an email with a link when they're ready. The link works for 48 hours.

Reviewers can download too

Reviewers can download all of their assigned applications from their own list, so they can review offline.

Check on your downloads

Admins and reviewers can see the downloads they've requested and what's happening with each one. If a download fails, request it again with one click. If the link has expired, get a fresh one without waiting for the file to be rebuilt.

Deciding who gets an award, and keeping track of what happens afterward, now takes fewer clicks and less memory.

Notes have their own tab

In the student panel on Award & Deny, notes now have their own Notes tab, right after Review. It replaces the small pencil icon and the popup that used to cover the application. Scholarship Notes and Global Profile Notes each have their own box, and both save as you type.

Flag students for next time

Add short flags to a student from the Notes tab, such as Nearly qualified or Can be reconsidered. Your school shares one list of flags.

- Starter flags > every school starts with four: Nearly qualified, Can be reconsidered, Strong essay and Needs follow-up.

- Your own flags > create your own of up to 30 characters, and rename or delete them whenever you like.

- Flags stay with the student > they carry into later award cycles, so a near-miss this year is easy to find next year.

Reviewers never see flags.

Your sort order sticks

Sort Award & Deny or the Task Board, leave, and come back to find it sorted your way. Award & Deny remembers your sort for each scholarship, and the Task Board remembers it for each tab. Your sort is yours alone.

See award outcomes on the Task Board

- Award column: turn it on from the column picker to see whether the student behind each follow-up was Awarded or Denied. You can filter and sort by it.

- Award removed: a follow-up that closed because the student's award was taken away now says so under its Complete badge, so you can tell it apart from one the student finished.

- Cancelling a first payment: if you cancel a student's first payment and more payments are still to come, AwardSpring asks whether the student keeps their award or loses it. Before, it always took the award away.

Payment period in offer emails

You can now insert each student's payment period, such as Fall 2026, into your offer email template. That way, two students awarded the same scholarship in different terms each see their own term.

- See gross, fees and net on each gift: Card gifts made through your payment pages now show the processing fee and net amount alongside the gross, on the donor's Activity tab and as columns and filters in Smart Reports.

- Stop or change a monthly gift: Monthly gifts from your payment pages now have a clear Stop option, and you can change their amount and next payment date.

- Choose which gift fields are required: Decide which fields must be filled in when someone logs a gift or pledge by hand, including your own custom fields.

- Pick funds from your fund list: When you record a gift or set up a recurring gift, choose the fund from your school's list instead of typing it.

- Recurring gifts keep their gift type: Set a gift type on a recurring schedule and every gift it creates carries it, so your type reports stay complete.

- Receipt Templates in a table: Your receipt templates are now in a searchable, sortable table that shows how many email templates use each one.

- New donor filters in Smart Reports: Filter Donor Details and Giving Records by deceased status, constituency tags and relationship manager, so a mailing list can leave out deceased donors and a gift officer can pull only their own donors.

- Grouped left navigation: People, Fundraising and Communications items now sit in menus that expand, so the left navigation is shorter and easier to scan.

- View documents without leaving AwardSpring: Uploaded PDFs, text files and images now open in AwardSpring's own viewer.

- Set admin types on the Permissions page: Super Admins can set each admin's type right on the Permissions page, and it stays in step with the admin's profile.

- Free event tickets: Mark a ticket type as Free to run an event as a simple registration form with no payment.

- Hide Student ID in blind review: Review groups now offer Hide Student ID as a blinding option.

- Release or re-send a thank-you letter: Staff can release a thank-you letter that's stuck and re-send one to a donor.

- Start an Impact Report template from a PDF: Upload a PDF to turn it into an Impact Report template.

- A message on the student dashboard: Show students a message on their dashboard, set from your Appearance settings.

- Clearer SpringIQ summary scores: SpringIQ summary scores now follow a 100-point scale with clearly defined bands.

- Payment Pages polish: Payment pages fit more on a phone screen, and the Gifts step in the page builder has been tidied up.

- Refreshed pages: Additional Requirements, Review Group Assignments, Reviewer Assignment, the Budget Calculator and the Account page have been redesigned.

- Consistent popups and side panels: Popups and side panels now look and behave the same across AwardSpring, with the main button on the right.

- Faster pages: Several heavily used pages load faster, especially at larger schools.

- Fixed: An older scholarship's close date no longer blocks saving the Details tab for scholarships in a newer award cycle.

- Fixed: Saving an application question without its options no longer hides a text question's answer box.

- Fixed: Conditional sections on the student application no longer disappear or show false "is required" messages when one question has no active answer option.

- Fixed: Budget calculator qualifications are judged on the right answers again, so nightly matching no longer un-applies students or removes their review assignments.

- Fixed: Nightly matching no longer fails when a scholarship's qualifications use an inactive question.

- Fixed: Incomplete application reminders pick the right award cycle when a Special Funds window is open, and keep going out to every school.

- Fixed: Changing an award amount after a swap is set now updates the swap and the institutional amount.

- Fixed: Table question answers now appear on the printed copy of a student application.

- Fixed: The unsaved changes prompt on custom award notifications now appears before the browser's own warning, so you can choose from it.

- Fixed: Auto-apply and imports assign reviewers using your current rules, including auto scores and two-panel review groups.

- Fixed: Removing a student from a review group no longer deletes the wrong auto score card scores.

- Fixed: The review scoring screen opens a student quickly in large review groups, instead of taking about 90 seconds.

- Fixed: The Reviewer Scores by Applicant report no longer times out at larger schools.

- Fixed: The Total Amount Donated variable shows one total on receipts and letters, instead of a list of gifts.

- Fixed: Soft-credited gifts show the same custom field values on both donors' records, and saving from the soft-credited donor's record no longer moves the gift.

- Fixed: Custom field dropdowns on a donor's Activity tab show their options on the first gift you expand.

- Fixed: You can move a donor to the Disqualified stage and give a reason.

- Fixed: Staff are notified when a donor is assigned to them or taken off their list.

- Fixed: Adding to a fund's Transaction History opens a working form instead of a blank popup.

- Fixed: You can type in the newsletter text box again.

- Fixed: Newsletter image blocks show the option to add an image from a URL.

- Fixed: The Scholarship Details report shows the correct application end date, instead of one day later.

- Fixed: Texts sent to large groups (about 2,100 people or more) now go out matched to the right students.

- Fixed: Keyboard users can skip the menu on the redesigned student pages.