Setting Up a Sustainer Program. Appendix: Excerpts from Online Help: Benefit Auto Renewal (v. 5.x and 6.x)

Transcription

1 Setting Up a Sustainer Program Appendix: Excerpts from Online Help: Benefit Auto Renewal (v. 5.x and 6.x)

2 Table of Contents HOW A SUSTAINING PROGRAM WORKS... 1 SUMMARY OF SUSTAINER FUNCTIONALITY THAT RELIES ON THE PLEDGE TRANSACTION... 2 SAMPLE QUERIES... 3 RECOMMENDATIONS AND TESTING LIST... 6 RECOMMENDATIONS... 6 SYSTEM PREFERENCES TO CONSIDER... 6 SAMPLE TESTING TASK LIST... 7 APPENDIX... 8 PARAMETERS (BENEFIT AUTO-RENEWAL) VERSION 5.X... 9 BENEFIT AUTO-RENEWAL PROCESSING - VERSION 5.X PARAMETERS (BENEFIT AUTO-RENEWAL) VERSION 6.X BENEFIT AUTO-RENEWAL PROCESSING - VERSION 6.X ii

3 How a Sustaining Program Works Overview of Process We will review how sustainer transactions are entered, the key components of sustainer transactions, and review auto-renew process. Entering a Sustaining Gift (a PL transaction with an SG Gift Kind). Note that this could be uploaded from a vendor. For step-by-step instructions, please refer to online help: Select Sustaining Givers from the Index, then select Entering a Sustaining Gift. The account must have an AUTO-RENEW classification that corresponds to the payment method (in versions previous to 6.0x). If your organization decides to use a Rolling Sustainer Renewal cycle, then you must award a MEM benefit. The Benefit Auto Renew procedure is run monthly if your organization uses a Rolling Sustainer Renewal cycle. It is run annually if your organization uses a Calendar or Fiscal year cycle. This procedure finds those pledge transactions that are fulfilled and creates new pledge transactions (a copy of the original) using a new source code that you enter with the parameter. To Upgrade or Downgrade a Sustainer: To upgrade or downgrade a donor in the sustainer program, enter a new sustaining gift transaction with the new installment amount. TA closes the original sustaining gift, and automatically adjusts the amount of the old pledge down to the paid amount on the pledge. NOTE: If your organization has set the Sustainer Renewal Basis system preference to Rolling, and your business practice has you keep the old sustaining gift open, instead of entering the new sustaining gift, you can manually adjust the original pledge to show the new installment and pledge amounts. Or, if you want to manually adjust and close the original sustaining gift and then create a new sustaining gift, you can do so. 1

4 To Cancel a Sustainer: Required: Reset the Pledge Status on Giving History Detail for the pledge transaction. If you need to process a refund, create an adjustment transaction to cancel a donor s participation in your sustaining program. Required: Inactivate the related Sustainer classification. (If you don t do this, and your sustainer mailings pull based on the status of the sustainer classification, you could end up with more or fewer sustainers in your mailings than intended.) Optional: Create an interaction to show that the donor wanted to cancel his/her participation in your sustainer program. If the donor didn t request that you cancel his/her participation for example, he just stopped sending in payments or the credit card expired and none was given in place of it you might not add an interaction or you might use a different interaction type. (Using interactions lets people easily see when and why this donor cancelled, it s especially useful for staff who look at a donor s Interaction History frequently but who don t often look at Giving History. It also lets other staff know who cancelled the sustaining gift on Giving History. Summary of Sustainer Functionality that Relies on the Pledge Transaction The pledge transaction controls these elements that drive the sustainer functionality Gift Type Rules valid values include NW (New), UP (Upgrade), DN (Downgrade), RN (Renewal). Your organization may have others. Optional: Benefit Classification (you can assign the classification to the account manually). MEM benefit for Rolling Cycles Pledge Payment Schedule keeps track of End Date of the pledge Pledge Payment Amount keeps track of Pledge Status Contact Information (such as name and address) are used for statements/invoices Flags the donor so that pledge exclude query pulls them 2

5 Sample Queries For Welcome Letters and Statements Here are some sample queries for monthly statements and for welcoming new sustainers to your program. The activity types and classification codes are organization-specific. You would set up your own queries based upon your organization s codes and production schedule. Welcome Sustainers - This pulls new sustaining pledges that have not yet been acknowledged (acknowledgement code = Y and date acknowledged is null and gift type = NW) to receive a welcome certificate. This query would run with an update procedure to set the acknowledgement date and code to values other than null and Y, respectively, to ensure that each pledge is not pulled again for another welcome letter. The NW gift type ensures that only the very first pledge will be pulled (that is, when TA renews the pledge each year, a certificate will not be pulled, because any pledge after the first one will have a UP, DN, RN, or RJ gift type.) Query Type: Transactions Activity Type = X And (Transactions) Acknowledgement Code = Y And Date Acknowledged Is Null And Transaction Type = PL And Soft Credit Type Is Null And Gift Type = NW And Gift Kind = SG Sustaining Members This pulls active, sustaining member accounts that can be excluded from direct marketing appeals. Note that this query translates null values for the start and end date criteria, so that a null start date is always considered before today, and a null end date is always considered after today. Query Type: Accounts Classification Code = AUTO_RENEW And Classification Value IN LIST EFT, CH And Status (Classifications) = A And Start Date (Classifications) >= TODAY And End Date (Classifications) <= TODAY 3

6 Monthly Statements for Credit Card Sustainers Query Type: Transactions Activity Type = X And (Transactions) Transaction Type = PL And Pledge Status In List UF, PF And Soft Credit Type Is Null And Gift Kind = SG And Payment Method like B% Monthly Statements for EFT Sustainers Query Type: Transactions Activity Type = X And (Transactions) Transaction Type = PL And Pledge Status In List UF, PF And Soft Credit Type Is Null And Gift Kind = SG And Payment Method = EF 4

7 Reactivate Sustainers with No Pledge Payments in the Last 5+ Months This query pulls sustaining pledges that began 5 or more months before today, and have had no payments in the previous 5 or more months. Note that this query translates null values for the last payment date criterion, so that a null last payment date is always considered after today. This means that if the donor has never paid to the pledge at all (and therefore, the last payment date is null) and the pledge began more than 5 months ago (controlled by the gift date criterion) then the pledge will be pulled by this query. You could run this query with the Update Pledge Status procedure to set the pledge status to one that prevents the donors from being pulled for the monthly pledge statements (for example: pledge status of UC for uncollectible). You might also include these donors in a sustainer reactivation mailing/telemarketing campaign. Query Type: Transactions Activity Type = X And (Transactions) Transaction Type = PL And Pledge Status Not In List UC, DF, PC And Soft Credit Type Is Null And Gift Kind = SG And Last Payment Date < = TODAY And (Transactions) Gift Date (Transactions) < = TODAY 155 5

8 Recommendations and Testing List Sample Testing Task List and List of System Preferences to Consider Recommendations At least two months before going live: Have a face to face meeting to go through project plan Define roles for all members of the team Document business rules and distribute to entire team At least one month prior to going live: Confirm all members of the team are ready Allow an extra week for statement file turnaround for the first statement run. Allow extra time the first time you run BAR so that you can verify that it pulls the correct accounts. System Preferences to Consider Under Entry/Gifts: Minimum Installment Amount = X Sustainer Renewal Basis = Calendar, Fiscal, or Rolling Sustainer Classification Values = Null or X Years to Keep Pledge Schedule Records = 1 Payment Reconciliation Method= X Procedures tab: Charge Upload: Maximum Number of Charge Rejections = X Charge Download: Charge Card Retry Delay? = X and Activity Type = X EFT Generation & Download: Pull Cycle = X 6

9 Sample Testing Task List Note that you should perform all testing in the test environment, not in your Production environment. Gift Type Rules Pledge and Pledge Payment Transactions Manually entering, uploading, and posting EFT-specific coding: Pull Cycle must be set or records will not be pulled in downloads. Prenote flag should be set to Y Ensure EFT s have a Classification Code of AUTO_RENEW and Classification Value of EFT Last Payment Date assignment (queries rely on this) Creation of the Sustainer Classification based on a Benefit being awarded, if applicable End Date Classification coding and application Update Pledge Status Acknowledgement run Statement and Invoice queries Sustainer Exclude queries Benefit Auto Renew 7

10 APPENDIX Excerpts from online Help Benefit Auto-Renewal Parameters and Processing v. 5.x Benefit Auto-Renewal Parameters and Processing v. 6.x 8

11 Parameters (Benefit Auto-Renewal) Version 5.x You set the following parameters when you schedule the Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure to run. Parameter Description Output Destination Activity Type Printer Classification Value(s) Day range for autorenewal Activity Campaign Initiative Effort Segment Set this parameter to the destination for the procedure s reports (i.e., PRINTER, FILE, or PREVIEW). Enter the activity type for which your organization wants to renew donors with auto-renew classifications. Set this parameter to the printer name, if the Output Destination parameter is set to "PRINTER." Enter the classification value(s) for which the procedure should select accounts with the auto-renew classification. For example, if you want to select sustaining givers who pay by EFT, enter "EFT" as the classification value for the AUTO_RENEW classification code. The classification must be active (if the classification is inactive or marked for deletion, the account isn't selected). If you leave the parameter set to "ALL" (the default value), TA selects all accounts assigned the auto-renew classification code, regardless of the classification value. Enter the number of days to add to the current date for selecting accounts with an expiration date that occurs on or before this "end date" that TA calculates. For example, if you enter "30" as the value of this parameter and you run the procedure on 10/14/99, then the procedure selects accounts with expiration dates on or before 11/13/99 (i.e., TA adds 30 days to the current date). Enter the activity for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "AM." Enter the campaign for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "R" for renewal. Enter the initiative for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts. By default, the initiative is set to "Current Month." If you leave the initiative set to "Current Month," the procedure translates it to the appropriate calendar month and year based on the system date (the date on which the procedure runs) and formats the result in the form "YYMM" (if you run the procedure in October 1999, TA translates the initiative to 9910). Enter the effort for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "01" for first effort. Enter the segment for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts. 9

12 Calculate Gift Type? Set this parameter to "Y" for yes if you want the procedure to call the gift type rules for your organization to set the gift type on the new pledges created (your organization has multiple renewal gift types). Set this parameter to "N" for no if you want the procedure to set the gift type to "RN" for renewal for the new pledges created. Set OK to Deliver? Set this parameter to "Y" for yes if you want the procedure to set the OK to Deliver? field to yes for the renewing benefits. Set this parameter to "N" for no if you do not want the procedure to set the OK to Deliver? field to yes for the renewing benefits (i.e., you want to delay delivery of new benefits until some payment is made on the new pledge and the delivery criteria for the benefits is met.) Note: Before you schedule this procedure to run, you must create the source code to be used for the accounts being automatically renewed. You will set the Activity, Campaign, Initiative, Effort, and Segment parameters for the procedure based on the source code you create. For example, if you want to run the procedure in December 1999, you can create the source code AMR When you run the procedure, you will set the activity to "AM," the campaign to "R," the initiative to "9912," the effort to "01," and the segment to "001." When the procedure runs, the procedure constructs the source code based on the values for these parameters and validates that source code. If the source code created from these values is not stored in TA, then the procedure runs in error. Benefit Auto-Renewal Processing - Version 5.x The Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure selects and renews donors with automatically renewed benefits by completing the following steps. 1. The procedure selects all accounts with the Auto-renew classification identified by the classification value(s) you enter; the classification must be active (if the classification is inactive or marked for deletion, the account isn't selected). 2. From the group of accounts selected based on step 1, TA selects each account with an account activity record for the activity type you entered in the Activity Type parameter. 3. From the group of accounts selected based on step 2, TA selects each account with an expiration date that comes on or before the "end" date determined by the system date and the value you entered for the Day range for auto-renewal parameter. 4. From the group of accounts selected based on step 3, TA selects the most recent pledge to which automatically renewed benefits were awarded. An "automatically renewed benefit" is one for which the Auto Renew? checkbox is marked. The procedure then looks at the activity status for the account's account activity record for the activity type you entered in the Activity Type parameter. If the status is active, grace, or lapsed, TA creates a new, sustaining gift pledge for the account in the amount of the most recent pledge for that account. The gift type for this pledge is set to "RN" for renew if the procedure was run with the Calculate Gift Type? parameter set to "N." If the parameter was set to "Y," the procedure calls the gift type rules to determine the gift type to assign to the pledge. 5. TA awards benefits to this new, sustaining gift pledge, marking these benefits for automatic renewal. Note: During entry of a donor's gift, if the donor is a sustaining giver, you set the gift kind for the donor's gift to "SG" for sustaining gift. When TA automatically awards benefits to that donor s 10

13 gift, e.g., membership, TA marks each benefit to be automatically renewed (i.e., TA marks the Auto Renew? checkbox) but does not mark each benefit ready for delivery. TA does not mark the Auto Renew? checkbox for benefits you manually awarded. 6. If your organization set the Set OK to Deliver parameter to "Y," the procedure marks all the auto-renewed benefits OK to deliver. If your organization set the Set OK to Deliver parameter to "N," TA does not mark the benefits OK to deliver (i.e., your organization wants to wait until the first payment is made on the pledge before marking the benefits OK to deliver). 7. The procedure sets the pledge status to "FF" for fulfilled for the most recent pledge to which automatically renewed benefits were awarded. Note: If you run the Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure such that an account is either renewed early (e.g., one month before the account expires) or is renewed "late" (e.g., one month after the account expires), then the total payments-to-date for the fulfilled pledge may not equal the pledge amount. For example, assume the sustaining giver is giving a $120 gift per year in $10 payments. If you run this procedure such that this account is renewed after the account s 11 th payment but before the 12 th (and last) payment is received, the total payments-to-date against the pledge will be $110. If you run this procedure such that this account is renewed after the account s 13 th payment is received (again, the donor is paying monthly without regard to when the pledge starts or finishes), the total payments-to-date against the pledge will be $130. You should keep this point in mind when running reports for which you include the pledge status and sustaining gift money. 8. The procedure then prints the associated reports (Batch Detail Report; Batch Summary Report; Lapsed Auto-Renewable Donor Report, which prints only those accounts with a lapsed status that were renewed; and the Auto-Renewal Error Report) to the printer you identified by setting the Printer parameter if the Output Destination parameter is set to "PRINTER." If you don't want the reports to print and you only want the procedure to create the file for each report, you can set the Output Destination parameter to "FILE." See Also: How the Benefit Auto-Renewal Procedure Creates Batches of Pledges Parameters (Benefit Auto-Renewal) Version 6.x You set the following parameters when you schedule the Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure to run. Parameter Description Activity Type Classification Code and Value(s) Expire Date End Enter the activity type for which your organization wants to renew donors with auto-renew classifications. TA selects only those transactions with this Activity Type Enter the classification Code and Value(s) for which the procedure should select accounts with the auto-renew classification. For example, if you want to select sustaining givers who pay by EFT, enter "EFT" as the classification value for the AUTO_RENEW classification code. The classification must be active (if the classification is inactive or marked for deletion, the account isn't selected). If you leave the Value parameter set to "ALL" (the default value), TA selects all accounts assigned the classification code, regardless of the classification value. Use this parameter if your organization sets the renewal basis as Rolling. Enter the latest expire date donors may have (on their MEM benefit) in order to get selected by the procedure. 11

14 Pledge Year Gift Kind Transaction Affiliation Activity Campaign Initiative Effort Segment Calculate Gift Type? Renewal Gift Type Use this parameter if your organization sets the renewal basis as Calendar or Fiscal. Enter the pledge year that should get renewed. For example, C-1 represents last year (current minus one). Enter a gift kind that you want the procedure to use to select the transactions. For example, if you enter SG, TA only selects transactions with an SG Gift Kind. Enter the transaction affiliation that you want the procedure to use to select. You may set this to ALL or a specific affiliation. Enter the activity for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "AM." Enter the campaign for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "R" for renewal. Enter the initiative for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts. By default, the initiative is set to "Current Month." If you leave the initiative set to "Current Month," the procedure translates it to the appropriate calendar month and year based on the system date (the date on which the procedure runs) and formats the result in the form "YYMM" (if you run the procedure in October 1999, TA translates the initiative to 9910). Enter the effort for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts, e.g., "01" for first effort. Enter the segment for the source code to be used on the new pledge created for the renewed accounts. Set this parameter to "Y" for yes if you want the procedure to call the gift type rules for your organization to set the gift type on the new pledges created (your organization has multiple renewal gift types). Set this parameter to "N" for no if you want the procedure to set the gift type to "RN" for renewal for the new pledges created. If you set the above parameter to N and you do not want TA to assign the RN (for Renew) gift type, use this parameter to designate what you want. 12

15 Set OK to Deliver? Set this parameter to "Y" for yes if you want the procedure to set the OK to Deliver? field to yes for the renewing benefits. Set this parameter to "N" for no if you do not want the procedure to set the OK to Deliver? field to yes for the renewing benefits (i.e., you want to delay delivery of new benefits until some payment is made on the new pledge and the delivery criteria for the benefits is met.) Batch Owner Enter a User ID if you want TA to assign this user as the Owner of Batch. Leave this parameter blank if you do not want any specific user designated as the owner. Gift Date Calculate Debit Account Enter a gift date on the pledge transaction that is created as result of this procedure. Enter N if you want TA to retain the debit account from the original transaction. Set this to Y if you want TA to Note: Before you schedule this procedure to run, you must create the source code to be used for the accounts being automatically renewed. You will set the Activity, Campaign, Initiative, Effort, and Segment parameters for the procedure based on the source code you create. For example, if you want to run the procedure in December 1999, you can create the source code AMR When you run the procedure, you will set the activity to "AM," the campaign to "R," the initiative to "9912," the effort to "01," and the segment to "001." When the procedure runs, the procedure constructs the source code based on the values for these parameters and validates that source code. If the source code created from these values is not stored in TA, then the procedure runs in error. Benefit Auto-Renewal Processing - Version 6.x The Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure selects and renews donors with automatically renewed benefits by completing the following steps. 1. The procedure selects all accounts with the Auto-renew classification identified by the classification value(s) you enter; the classification must be active (if the classification is inactive or marked for deletion, the account isn't selected). 2. From the group of accounts selected based on step 1, TA selects each account with an account activity record for the activity type you entered in the Activity Type parameter. 3. From the group of accounts selected based on step 2, TA selects each account with an expiration date that comes on or before the "end" date determined by the system date and the value you entered for the Day range for auto-renewal parameter. 4. From the group of accounts selected based on step 3, TA selects the most recent pledge to which automatically renewed benefits were awarded. An "automatically renewed benefit" is one for which the Auto Renew? checkbox is marked. The procedure then looks at the activity status for the account's account activity record for the activity type you entered in the Activity Type parameter. If the status is active, grace, or lapsed, TA creates a new, sustaining gift pledge for the account in 13

16 the amount of the most recent pledge for that account. The gift type for this pledge is set to "RN" for renew if the procedure was run with the Calculate Gift Type? parameter set to "N." If the parameter was set to "Y," the procedure calls the gift type rules to determine the gift type to assign to the pledge. 5. TA awards benefits to this new, sustaining gift pledge, marking these benefits for automatic renewal. Note: During entry of a donor's gift, if the donor is a sustaining giver, you set the gift kind for the donor's gift to "SG" for sustaining gift. When TA automatically awards benefits to that donor s gift, e.g., membership, TA marks each benefit to be automatically renewed (i.e., TA marks the Auto Renew? checkbox) but does not mark each benefit ready for delivery. TA does not mark the Auto Renew? checkbox for benefits you manually awarded. 6. If your organization set the Set OK to Deliver parameter to "Y," the procedure marks all the auto-renewed benefits OK to deliver. If your organization set the Set OK to Deliver parameter to "N," TA does not mark the benefits OK to deliver (i.e., your organization wants to wait until the first payment is made on the pledge before marking the benefits OK to deliver). 7. The procedure sets the pledge status to "FF" for fulfilled for the most recent pledge to which automatically renewed benefits were awarded. Note: If you run the Benefit Auto-Renewal procedure such that an account is either renewed early (e.g., one month before the account expires) or is renewed "late" (e.g., one month after the account expires), then the total payments-to-date for the fulfilled pledge may not equal the pledge amount. For example, assume the sustaining giver is giving a $120 gift per year in $10 payments. If you run this procedure such that this account is renewed after the account s 11 th payment but before the 12 th (and last) payment is received, the total payments-to-date against the pledge will be $110. If you run this procedure such that this account is renewed after the account s 13 th payment is received (again, the donor is paying monthly without regard to when the pledge starts or finishes), the total payments-to-date against the pledge will be $130. You should keep this point in mind when running reports for which you include the pledge status and sustaining gift money. 8. The procedure then prints the associated reports (Batch Detail Report; Batch Summary Report; Lapsed Auto-Renewable Donor Report, which prints only those accounts with a lapsed status that were renewed; and the Auto-Renewal Error Report) to the printer you identified by setting the Printer parameter if the Output Destination parameter is set to "PRINTER." If you don't want the reports to print and you only want the procedure to create the file for each report, you can set the Output Destination parameter to "FILE." See Also: How the Benefit Auto-Renewal Procedure Creates Batches of Pledges 14