Split Donation Acknowledgement Letters

Definitions: For the purpose of this article, we will use the terms “Payment” and “Donation Record” when talking about split donations, even if not all of the portions are tax deductible donations. From DonorSnap’s perspective, every monetary transaction is listed in the Donation tab as Donation Records. The “payment” is the split donation umbrella that includes all of the individual “donation records” that the “payment” has been split into. In other words, an entire $100 check is the “payment” and the three splits of $50 membership dues, $30 additional donation, and $20 t-shirt purchase are “donation records“.

The acknowledgement letter system typically used for thank you letters will generate one letter per donation record. In the case of Split Donations, each payment is split into multiple donation records, and will therefore queue up multiple acknowledgement letters. To combine multiple donation records into one letter, you could instead use our Custom Contribution Statement tool. It was not intended to be used for acknowledgement letters, but with a few extra steps and precautions, the instructions below will explain how to make it work for split donations.

This setup process is two parts: 1) generating the report in DataMiner Platinum of the contacts to generate statements for and 2) creating your custom statement that selects only the split donations you want to acknowledge. Once you have the setup completed, you can use this report and template for generating your split donation letters going forward.

Step 1: DataMiner Platinum Report

Build a simple report in DataMiner Platinum that selects the contacts needing a letter.

*This report can be used over and over again, so you do not need to rebuild this report each time, as long as you acknowledge your donations once they’ve been thanked.

Reports > DataMiner Platinum

Click Add a new DataMiner Platinum Batch, title your report, and Save.

Data Export tab, choose Donation > click Summary below.
*If you forget to click Summary, the batch will not appear in the printing of the statements.

Field Export tab: pull in whatever fields you want to see, but it does not matter for the printing of the statements. You could simply pull in First/Last name here. These fields are NOT required for mail merge or generating of statements.

Query: the easiest specifically for Split donations is:

DonationIsAcknowledged = NO
AND DonationIsSplit = YES

Once you have your report finished and saved, you do not need to export it. Move on to step 2.

Step 2: Create your Custom Contribution Statement template

Go to Processing > Documents and Labels > Custom Contribution Statements.

Download the Portrait Contribution Statement Template
(or view the other template options)

Customize the downloaded template with your desired text, logos, formatting, and mail merge fields. Make sure you do not change or delete any of the text in red in the templates:
«BeginGroup:Contacts»
«BeginGroup:Donations»
«EndGroup:Donations»
#PageBreak#
«EndGroup:Contacts»

Once you have finished building your letter template, upload it to DonorSnap by going to Processing > Documents and Labels > Upload/Download/Delete. Change the dropdown at the top to select Contribution Statements. Upload your letter.

Step 3: Generate your mail merged letters

Now that you have completed all the setup go to Processing > Documents and Labels > Custom Contribution Statements. Set your date range to be very specific to the dates of your split donations. Select your DataMiner Platinum batch in the dropdown field to limit the contacts.

NOTE: The contribution statements tool will include all donations that match your report settings. Even though your DataMiner Platinum batch is only grabbing the split donations, that part only selects the contacts themselves. It does not limit the actual donations that will show up in the statement. If other donations (even acknowledged ones) fall in your date range and filters, it will be included in the letter.

Select your template document and generate your letters. If you need to edit your letters after generating, choose the export to Word.

After you have generated and printed your letters, you will still need to mark those donations as acknowledged so they don’t get sent with your regular acknowledgement letters. Go to Processing > Documents and Labels > Donation Acknowledgement Letters. Click the Flag Update button for your batch code.

Related Pages

Custom Contribution Statements Training Webinar
Email Contribution Statements
DonorSnap blog article with more templates