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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
Important Things to Know
Important Things to Know
When Conducting Email Outreach
When Conducting Email Outreach
If you want the option to receive a test version in your mailbox first, send the message from the Email page, not the constituent’s full record.
In order to accurately track your activities, check the Gift Conversation and Thank You checkboxes when applicable.
Emails drafted on the Email page or one-off from your assignment info are not saved as a draft or a template. If you wish to continue using content you drafted, navigate to the My Templates page to create your own template. Templates can be edited one-off on the Email page before sending, any edits made to the template in the Email section are not reflected on the saved Template.
You can edit any email template to suit your needs. If you want to use a modified template repeatedly, create a new template using the preset template as a base.
When emailing multiple assignments at one time, this generates one email per recipient. It will not send one email with multiple recipients.
Any responses to your emails go to your email inbox—not the email page or be listed in their constituent profile. You must add their replies manually.
New! You can schedule emails to be sent out at later date to capitalize on high impact fundraising days, such as I Heart Brown Day or Pay It Forward Day.
When Conducting Other Outreach
When Conducting Other Outreach
You must add a note to track any outreach you do outside of the Portal. This includes:
Any responses to emails you sent within the Portal. All of your assignment’s responses are sent to the email address linked to your Portal account.
Any phone outreach regardless if you utilized the call or text buttons.
Other examples include social media, in-person gatherings or letters.
When creating notes, share as much detail as possible. Use the appropriate note type to help with accuracy. Note types include:
Gift conversation if you're talking about making a gift
Non-gift conversation for any other conversation
Updated contact information to notify Brown of any changes in the assignment's profile
Other should only be used when you're making a note that did not involve contact with the assignment
Email from the Portal
Email from the Portal
A key feature of the Volunteer Portal is the ability to email assignments. This section covers how to send emails to multiple assignments at once or send one-off emails. You can use the email templates that your staff liaison provided for you by looking under the heading School Templates or you can create your own. You can also utilize the preset filters & tags on this page to help identify the appropriate recipients. Any responses to your emails go to your email inbox - not the email page or be listed in their constituent profile. You must add their replies manually.
How to Send Emails
How to Send Emails
Email Page (Email Multiple Assignments at Once)
Email Page (Email Multiple Assignments at Once)
Click Email in the left hand navigation menu.
Fill out the Subject and Email Content.
↳ You can use School Templates that your staff liaison created for you. To use a template, click the name of the template you’d like to select and the text boxes will populate, along with any presets (e.g. Is this a gift conversation?) associated with the template.
Check the following boxes as appropriate:
Is this a gift conversation? – Use if the email includes mention of a gift.
Is this a thank you? – Use to thank a constituent for committing to a gift.
Send me a copy – Use as a backup record of your outreach.
Schedule Email - Use this function to schedule the exact day and time you would like your email to be sent to the recipient.
Review the Email Preview to the right hand side, to ensure there are no typos or issues with the merge fields that were used in the template.
Select the desired Recipients -- you can select or deselect all, or scroll through the assignments and choose your recipients. Use the preset filters and custom tags to help you decide who to reach out to.
Click the Send Email buttons at the bottom of the page. A copy of the email is automatically added as a note to each recipient’s constituent profile [optional: use Send Test to Me to preview the email in your mailbox before you send. Note: This test email will include test data.]
The methods below only allow you to email one assignment at a time.
From My Assignment's Page / Assignment Snapshot
From My Assignment's Page / Assignment Snapshot
Navigate to your My Assignments Page and scroll down to view your list of assignments.
Click on your assignment’s name to expand their snapshot. In the center of the screen, click the Send Email button. This opens an email composition window.
Check the following boxes as appropriate:
Is this a gift conversation? –Use this if the email includes mention of a gift.
Is this a thank you? – Use this to thank a constituent for committing to a gift.
Send me a copy – Use this as a backup record of your outreach.
Schedule Email - Use this function to schedule the exact day and time you would like your email to be sent to the recipient.
Fill out the Subject and Email Content
↳ You can use School Templates that your staff liaison created for you. To use a template, click the name of the template you’d like to select and the text boxes will populate, along with any presets (e.g. Is this a gift conversation?) associated with the template.
Scroll to the bottom of the email message and click the Send Email or Schedule Send button at the bottom of the page to send. A note is automatically generated from this email.
From Search Constituents / Constituent's Profile (Full Record)
From Search Constituents / Constituent's Profile (Full Record)
Search for your assignment via the Search Constituents page. We recommend using the advanced search checkbox.
Click on your assignment’s name to navigate to their full record. In the center of the screen, under their name, click the Send Email button. This will bring you to the bottom of the page.
Fill out the Subject and Email Content.
↳ You can use School Templates that your staff liaison created for you. To use a template, click the name of the template you’d like to select and the text boxes will populate, along with any presets (e.g. Is this a gift conversation?) associated with the template.
Check the following boxes as appropriate:
Is this a gift conversation? –Use this if the email includes mention of a gift.
Is this a thank you? – Use this to thank a constituent for committing to a gift.
Send me a copy – Use this as a backup record of your outreach.
Click the Send Email button at the bottom of the page. A note will be automatically generated from this email.
New! Schedule Send
New! Schedule Send
No matter which method you use to send emails, you will always see a red button with the term "Schedule Email" next to the "Send Email" button. Once you select this option you will be directed to pick a date and time to schedule when you'd like that email to be sent out. You can either start typing directly in the text box or click the calendar icon to select a date and time. Confirm your choice by clicking on the "Schedule Send" button again.
You can also:
Adjust your scheduled date and time up to one hour before the date and time you had originally scheduled.
Cancel the scheduled emails.
View all of the recipients of a scheduled email.
How to Use Email Previews
How to Use Email Previews
Understand how email previews work and how to identify broken email tokens.
Don’t forget to remove or edit any highlighted text in a Portal template. Highlighted text is your opportunity to customize a School Template.
When you create a template, use the red email token buttons to insert a token. Copy & paste won’t work.
The Portal uses TEST DATA for email tokens for email previews and test emails. Use the preview email pane to review for spelling errors, broken email tokens and formatting issues.
In the email below, we utilized three email tokens, $NICKNAME$, $ASK_AMT$ and $EMAIL_SIGNATURE$. These tokens allow you to send the same email to multiple assignments at once. In this example, the Portal populates their nickname, ask amount and the email signature will sign your name.
Good preview
Good preview
The good preview on the left will send an email that works as expected – you can see the test data, highlighted by arrows, is appearing correctly! The tokens are converted: $NICKNAME$ becomes Bru, $ASK_AMT$ becomes $100.00 by default and $EMAIL_SIGNATURE$ lists your first name or your customized email signature.
Bad preview
Bad preview
The bad preview on the right must be edited before sending. If you notice the preview does not populate with test data, you’ve got a broken token. For example, above, the preview is addressed to $NICKNAE$, while the other version is addressed to Danny. If you send an email with a broken email token to multiple recipients, every recipient will receive an email addressed to $NICKNAE$ and with the broken tokens of $ASK_AMT and $EMAILSIGNATURE$.
Creating Notes from Other Contact (Outside of Portal)
Creating Notes from Other Contact (Outside of Portal)
Call
Call
You can access the call button on an assignment's expanded snapshot or their full record.
On a computer, the browser will prompt you to open a calling app. You need to have a phone app installed in order to do this. When using a mobile device, this button will initiate a call between the user and the preferred phone number for the constituent.
If you call an assignment, you must create a note about this interaction. It is not automatically tracked.
Text
Text
When on a mobile device, you can access the text button on an assignment's expanded snapshot or their full record.
The text button only works if the preferred phone number for your assignment is a mobile number. The texting button will open your default texting app, and you must type out your texts, rather than using a template.
If you text an assignment, you must create a note about this interaction. It is not automatically tracked.
Other
Other
Other contact includes: mailing a letter, responses to emails you sent within the Portal, in-person interactions, etc.
You must add a note to track this outreach. You can access the add note button on an assignment's expanded snapshot or their full record.
To create a note, scroll to the bottom of the page, next to the email section. Use notes to update constituent information and document interactions with the constituent. You can also add and view notes on the Notes page. Fill in the respective areas and save note when finished.
Notes are pivotal for tracking your communications with prospects and can be used to efficiently organize additional information you may need during outreach. Review the note section inside your assignment’s full record before you do any outreach.
What is the purpose of notes?
What is the purpose of notes?
Notes communicate changes and interactions between staff liaisons, volunteers and constituents. Any emails you send within the Portal are automatically logged as notes. You can add a note from the constituent’s profile, the assignment snapshot or by clicking on the Notes tab on the left hand menu.
When to add notes?
When to add notes?
Notes Generated Automatically
Notes Generated Automatically
Initial emails sent via the Portal. Use the gift conversation and thank you conversation checkboxes when sending emails or creating email templates in order to properly track outreach.
You Must Create a Note
You Must Create a Note
Notable responses to Portal messages (which will be sent to your personal email inbox)
Text messages and notable responses to said texts
Phone calls
In person interactions or gift conversations
Contact information changes
How to Create a Note
How to Create a Note
You can create a note from the Notes page, the Search Constituents page (full record) or the My Assignments page, assignment snapshot.
From Notes Page
From Notes Page
Click Notes on the navigation menu.
Click the Create a new note button and a new window will pop up.
Fill out Who is this note about?
Fill out What type of note is this?
Fill out When was this contact?
Click Save Note.
Once you save the note, it appears on that assignment’s profile for you and your staff liaison to see. You will also see notes organized by assignment on the Notes page.
From My Assignment's Page / Assignment Snapshot
From My Assignment's Page / Assignment Snapshot
Navigate to your My Assignments page and scroll down to your list of assignments.
Identify the assignment and click on their snapshot to view the expanded menu.
Click the Add Note button located at the top center of the menu. This will generate a pop up labeled Add Note for Name.
Fill out What type of note is this?
Fill out When was this contact?
Click Save Note.
Once you save the note, it appears on your assignment’s profile for you and your staff liaison to see. Notes will not save as draft.
From Search Constituents / Constituent's Profile (Full Record)
From Search Constituents / Constituent's Profile (Full Record)
Navigate to the Search Constituents page.
Search for your assignment using the search box. We recommend using the advanced search checkbox.
Click on the assignment’s name to view their full record.
Click the Add Note button located near your assignment’s name. This redirects you to the bottom of the page.
Fill out What type of note is this?
Fill out When was this contact?
Click Save Note.
Once you save the note, it appears on your assignment’s profile for you and your staff liaison to see. Notes will not save as draft.
Types of Notes
Types of Notes
Updated Contact Information
Updated Contact Information
When was this contact: Insert the Year // Month // Day
Select updated contact type:
Personal phone number change
Email Address change
Home Address change
Name change
Employment change
College information update
Marital status change
The Inactive or Incorrect buttons appear if the information being flagged for change is currently populated in the assignment's profile. You will mark the current contact information inactive or incorrect. If the information is not already in the profile, simply type in new information.
Inactive: contact information is outdated/no longer used
Incorrect: contact information is incorrect
Gift Conversation
Gift Conversation
When was this contact: Insert the Year // Month // Day
Method of Communication:
Phone
In Person
Email
Letter
Social Media
SMS/Text
Other
Outcome:
Select result of conversation:
Committed to make a gift
Refused to make a gift
Will think about it
No response yet
Thanked for gift
Enter Note Content Here: Details should include the amount of gift, designation, anticipated gift date, and whether your staff liaison should follow up.
Non-Gift Conversation & Other
Non-Gift Conversation & Other
When was this contact: Insert the Year // Month // Day
Method of Communication:
Phone
In Person
Email
Letter
Social Media
SMS/Text
Other
Enter Note Content Here: Details should include the amount of gift, designation, anticipated gift date, and whether your staff liaison should follow up.
How to view notes?
How to view notes?
From an Assignment's Full Record
From an Assignment's Full Record
You can view notes by assignment in the constituent’s full record. To get to the full record, go to the Search Constituents page or through the My Assignments page and choose the desired assignment. Notes are listed from newest to oldest.
From Notes Page
From Notes Page
To view all notes created by you or your staff liaison visit the Notes page from the left-hand navigation menu. Notes will be grouped by constituent and then from newest to oldest. To expand click see last 1 note about (Name).
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