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Transactions: Sending Year End Statements Using the User Center
Authored by:
on 3/9/2023 1:34:00 PM

Introduction

Sending year end statements is an important task when reviving gifts from donors. Your donors can use this information for tax purposes and would need it prior to filing their taxes. Donors can access their own statements through the User Center, however CharityEngine suggests sending a reminder to your donors and informing them on how to receive their statement if they do not know how to do so.

Table of Contents

Prerequisites 

Note: Only your individual people contacts will have access to the user center, not your households or organizations. If you want to send year end statements to your households, you will need to do this manually. For assistance in sending these statements manually, read this article.

Instructions - Query for Transaction Summary 

Step 1: The first step in sending year end statements is creating a list of contacts, which can be done in query builder. This this list will need to contain all contacts who have donated within the past year.
Navigate to Automation & Workflow > General > Queries > Create New.
Step 2: Select Donations from the drop-down and filter for transactions.
Step 3: Create the query to filter for any contacts that have made a donation within the last year, as shown below.
    1. SELECT: Full Name and Primary Email Address

    2. FILTER: Date > use the beaker icon to select Last Year from the drop down
Step 4: Click SAVE to name and secure your query. 

Instructions - Exposing the Tax Acknowledgement Download Option within the User Center

Step 1: Navigate to the Configuration App > Design & Messages > Templates > Create New
Step 2: 
    • Name your template (required)
    • Select Type = Statement from the drop down
    • Set Active to yes
    • Optional, create Description
    • Click SAVE


Step 3: Navigate to Message Content tab to design your content. From here design using the out of box features or leverage the source code for more advanced html coding. 

Step 4: Leverage Tokens to locate systemic tokens available for important end of year summary data
    • Search Statement to locate all End of Year Statement systemic tokens to enter into your template 
    • Pro Tip: Click on the Validate Tokens to ensure any tokens used are confirmed
Step 5: Once the template is complete, click Save. 

Instructions - Exposing the Tax Acknowledgement Download Option within the User Center

Ensure your Online User Center has been configured to expose Year End Tax Acknowledgement template.


Step 1: Navigate to Online > User Center > Configure > Donations 

    1. Ensure Enable Tax Ack. Download = yes
    2. Select your Statement Template from the drop down box (as created above)
Step 2: Click SAVE to secure changes
Pro Tip: Navigate to the General Tab to capture your User Center URL to be used as a link within your email content 


Example of the Online User Center

Instructions - Initiating your Email Blast for Donor Notification

Now that you have created your end of year statement template, exposed your user center, and created your targeted audience, you are ready to develop your email communication.

Step 1: Navigate to the Campaigns App > Quick Action > Email Blast

Step 2: When selecting your Audience, select Source: List and from the Select List: select the name of the query you created above and click NEXT. 

Step 3: Next create your message or locate your previously designed content. Click NEXT once ready. 

  1. Pro Tip: Be sure to include a link to the User Center where donors can print their tax statements (use the Button under Content and add your user center URL captured from above for easy click through)

Step 4: Under Settings, schedule your send (Send Now or Send Later) and leverage Additional Settings for additional attribution or sending details. Click NEXT.

Step 5: Confirm & Send by clicking PROCESS.



FAQs & Additional Reading

Q. How do I guide my donors on accessing and using the User Center?
A. For assistance in providing instructions to the user center, please read this article 



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