Thanking your donors is an important part of the stewardship process - but sometimes, it can be challenging to keep up with all of the acknowledgments that need to be sent.

You can easily send e-mail or letter acknowledgments in bulk through Donor Management. The steps below will help guide you through that process.

First, you will want to create a template for either an E-mail Blast or a direct mailing. Even though this is a bulk acknowledgment, you will want to make sure you are selecting either 'Direct Mail' or 'Email Blast' from the 'Add Template' button's drop-down options.

Note: You will not select any acknowledgment templates for this bulk process.

You will want to craft a more generic message because some "merge fields" typically available within a true acknowledgment template are unavailable in an E-mail Blast or direct mailing. For example, you may not want to mention a specific donation amount or date.

To identify unacknowledged donors, click the 'Giving' tab on the left navigation menu and then the 'Create Filter' button. Under 'Create a Custom Filter', select 'Acknowledged' and 'is false' from the drop-down menus.

Be sure to click the 'Save Filter' button once this is set up, so you can use this filter to identify unacknowledged donations in the future.

The filter you created will identify each donation in your system that has yet to be marked as 'Acknowledged'. You can continue customizing the filter to help narrow down results and include more specific information by adding other conditions, such as 'Amount', 'Donation date', etc.

Tip: Need additional guidance on building complex filters? Click here.
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Once you have created the bulk acknowledgment template and the filter to identify unacknowledged donations, you will want to work on creating a new direct mail letter or Email Blast.

Once you have selected the template you created in Step 1, you can select the saved filter you set up in Step 2.

Pro Tip: Send yourself a test e-mail or download a test letter to check that everything appears correct. When you are all set, click 'Send Now' for e-mails or 'Generate Labels and Letters' for direct mail.

After you have sent your bulk acknowledgments, navigate back to the 'Giving' tab from the left navigation menu. Select the 'Saved Filters' option and the filter you used to send your bulk acknowledgments.

Once your filter returns with results, you will want to scroll down and check the box next to the 'Contact' to select all of the donation records included in this filter.

Finally, scroll back up and select 'Mark as Acknowledged' from the 'Bulk Actions' drop-down menu.

This will update those donations to reflect as being 'Acknowledged'.