PP5-23

CAMPAIGNS AND PLEDGES

CREATING AND MANAGING CAMPAIGNS

Planning and executing fundraising campaigns is important to the survival of

most museums and historical organizations. Once you have created your database

of contacts, you will have gathered all the necessary information that can help you

identify your key supporters and turn your contacts, volunteers and members into

prospective donors. To access the Campaign Management screen, click Campaigns

on PastPerfect’s Main Menu. You will see the screen shown in Figure 23-1.

The top of the Campaign Management screen has fields to record the campaign

name, manager, the associated fund, the purpose of the campaign, and the start

and end dates.

To create a new campaign, click the Add button in the Navigation Bar. You are

required to fill in the Campaign field and the Start and End dates. If you use the

same campaign name each year, such as Capital Campaign, we suggest adding the

year to the name of the campaign, such as Capital Campaign 2009, to distinguish

campaigns through the years.

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The campaign will be set as an Active Campaign as long as today’s date falls in between

the Start and End Dates. The campaign must be active to be available on the Enter a New Pledge

Receipt or Enter Donation Receipt screen. Once the End Date has passed, the campaign will

become a Past Campaign and will have a green Past Campaign flag at the top of the record.

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The Manager field is controlled by the Users authority file. To access the author-

ity file, right click in the field or press F7 on the keyboard. The Users authority

file may be edited by going to the Main Menu | Setup | Authority Files | Com-

mon Screens | Users.

You may choose a Fund that will act as the default fund when entering a donation

or pledge towards this campaign. If some donations should be credited toward a

different fund, you may select that fund when entering the pledge or donation.

You are not locked into using the fund chosen on this screen.

The Purpose field may be used to enter a description of the goals of this campaign.

There are three more date fields for First Receipt, Last Receipt and Last New

Member that will be filled in automatically when donations are received or new

memberships are added as a result of the campaign.

The lower part of the screen has information about campaign activities.

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Figure 23-1 Campaign Management screen

Campaigns and Pledges 505

CAMPAIGN ACTIVITIES

After creating the Campaign, you may want to generate a list of solicitation

activities for your fundraising campaign. These can be any type of activity, from

a mailing to a fancy dress ball, that your institution is using to raise money for

this campaign. You can enter an activity name by clicking in the Activity field

while in Add Mode or Edit Mode. If you wish to enter details about the Activ-

ity, click the file folder icon to the left of the name. The New Members field

will be automatically filled in with the count of members who joined as a result

of the campaign. When entering a new membership, be sure to choose the cam-

paign and activity so that PastPerfect can fill in this field.

Next, in the Cost field, enter the amount for how much the activity will cost your

institution to hold. In the Goal field, enter the amount for how much you hope to

earn from this activity. The Pledged and Received fields are updated automati-

cally when you enter a pledge or donation payment from either the Contacts

screen or the Pledges & Receipts screen. You must be sure to choose the campaign

and activity on the pledge or donation screen when entering it.

If no activity is chosen when posting a pledge, donation or new membership to

this campaign, the transaction will be recorded under the Miscellaneous activity

at the bottom of the screen.

CAMPAIGN GOALS

The Progress to Goal thermometer on the right side of the screen is automati-

cally generated from information you enter on this Campaign Management

screen, as well as the pledge and donation amounts you receive. See Figure 23-2.

The sum of the Goal fields determines the overall goal of your campaign. As

pledges are entered, the red bar will move up on the thermometer. As donations

are entered, the green bar will move up on the thermometer. Once your pledges

and donations match or exceed the goal amount, the red and green bars will

reach the top. At the bottom is the calculation of the Net amount. This is the

amount of donations you have received, minus the sum of the costs you entered

for the activities.

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MORE SCREENS

Three options are available under More Screens. The first option, Excel Spread-

sheet for Costs, gives you access to an Excel spreadsheet that you can custom-

ize to track accounting and other information about each activity, seen in Figure

23-3. If your PastPerfect system is equipped with the optional MultiMedia

Upgrade and you have MS-Excel, you may click this button to view the Excel

spreadsheet. The default for this spreadsheet is set up under the Main Menu |

Setup | Contacts | Campaigns & Pledges | Default Excel Spreadsheet for Costs.

Figure 23-2

Progress to

Goal

Amount Pledged shows up in red.

Amount Donated shows up in green.

Net amount is the

amount donated minus

the costs for activities.

Figure 23-3

Excel

Spread-

sheet for a

Campaign

Campaigns and Pledges 507

The In-kind Donations button will open another screen that shows a list of all the

in-kind gifts that have been received as part of this campaign.

Update History will show you the date, time, and user name for each time the

campaign record was updated.

ACTIONS

Setup Pledge Thank You Letter - You may modify this letter for this specific

campaign. This letter is sent from the Enter a New Pledge screen when post-

ing a pledge, or the Pledge Detail screen after a pledge is posted, thanking the

contact. The Default Pledge Thank You Letter should be created first by going

to the Main Menu | Setup | Contacts | Campaigns & Pledges | Default Pledge

Thank You Letter.

Setup Pledge Payment Reminder Letter - You may modify this letter for this spe-

cific campaign. This letter is sent from the Enter a New Pledge screen when post-

ing a pledge, or the Pledge Detail screen when a pledge payment is coming up. It

reminds the contact of the payment due. The Default Pledge Payment Reminder

Letter should be created first by going to the Main Menu | Setup | Contacts |

Campaigns & Pledges | Default Pledge Payment Reminder Letter.

Change Campaign Name - The name of the campaign may be changed before you

post any pledges or donations using this campaign name, and before any member-

ships are created with this campaign name. If you change the name after you have

entered pledges, donations or memberships to this campaign, you will need to

manually change the campaign name on each pledge, donation, and membership.

Click this button to enter the new campaign name.

Print - The Print button in the Navigation Bar of the Campaign Management

screen allows you print information about: This Campaign, All Campaigns,

Current Campaigns, and Past Campaigns. The printed report will contain the

campaign name, dates, manager, number of new members, cost, goal, pledges,

donations received, and net amounts for all activities. You can also print the mem-

bers, cost, goal, pledged, received, and net amounts for each activity by selecting

the Include Details box.

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If you need a report that shows each donation, in-kind gift, or membership posted to a

specific campaign, use the Donations, Dues & In-kind Gifts report. This report may be run for one

campaign at a time, and for all activities or just one activity at a time. The report is run by going to

the Main Menu | Reports | Dues & Donations.

PLEDGES

Part of your fundraising campaigns may be to collect pledges. Pledges are a use-

ful tool for gauging how much money you will be collecting over time, assuming

all pledged money is collected. PastPerfect can track your pledges, allowing you

to send reminder and thank you letters to contacts after they pledge an amount.

Using the schedule of payments on the Pledge Detail screen, you can easily see

when a contact’s next payment should be, how much it will be, and how much has

already been paid. When a contact makes a payment toward a pledge, it is entered

under the Donations screen view. The Campaigns screen will show you how much

money has been pledged and how much has been received for each campaign.

To begin, pledges are entered on the Pledges Screen View of the Contacts section,

seen in Figure 23-4.

Figure 23-4 Pledges Screen View

Campaigns and Pledges 509

To enter a new pledge, click the Contacts button on the Main Menu. Find the

record for the contact who is giving the pledge and click the Pledges button on the

Sidebar.

To enter a pledge:

1. Click Enter a New Pledge under Actions on the Sidebar. The screen in

Figure 23-5 will appear.

2. Select a Campaign and Campaign Activity from the drop-down menus.

By entering these fields, you ensure that you can track the pledge on the

Campaign screen. To create Campaigns and Campaign Activities, please

see the Creating and Managing Campaigns section of this chapter.

3. Select a Fund from the drop-down menu. This may be the same fund linked

to your campaign, or a different fund. Please see Chapter 20 - Contacts for

information about setting up funds.

4. Select a Solicitor, if any, from the drop-down menu. The names on this list

can be changed by going to the Main Menu | Setup | Authority Files |

Contacts.

5. Enter a Pledge Date. Today’s date is entered automatically, but you may

enter any date you like.

6. Enter the Amount (the full pledge amount), then enter the date the first

payment is expected in the 1st Payment Date field. A value must be

Figure 23-5

Enter a

New Pledge

screen

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entered into these fields for the pledge to be posted. You may also enter

the Number of Payments that can be expected, as well as the Payment

Interval. Based on these fields, PastPerfect will generate the schedule of

payments for this pledge.

7. Enter the In Memory of or In Honor of names, if appropriate. If there are

any notes related to this pledge, enter them in the Notes section.

8. If you do not wish to send a reminder letter, check the Don’t Send

Reminder box. A reminder letter will not be generated if you print the

letters in a batch from the Reports section of the program. Otherwise,

leave that box empty.

9. Click Post.

Please note that posting the pledge simply creates a pledge record. If the contact

is also making the first payment on a pledge, you will need to enter the payment

under the Donations screen and apply it to this pledge. When posting a donation

for a contact who has an open pledge, you will be asked if you want to apply the

donation to the specific pledge. The pledged amount will be added to the appro-

priate campaign screen, in the Pledged column. After a pledge has been posted,

the Thank You Letter and Reminder Letter options become activated.

PLEDGE LETTERS

The Pledge Thank You letter should be sent to the donor thanking them for the

pledge. Reminder letters function much like an invoice or gentle reminder that a

pledge was made and a payment is due on a specific date. For each pledge there

is only one Thank You Letter, but there can be multiple Reminder Letters, one

for each payment.

The Pledge Thank You Letter should be sent when the pledge is made. This letter

is composed by going to the Main Menu | Campaigns | Pledge Thank You Letter.

Please see Chapter 22 - Letters, Labels & Email for more information about compos-

ing letters.

The Pledge Reminder Letter may be sent when the pledge is made if the first

scheduled payment is due. However, this letter may be printed at a later date from

the Pledge Detail screen. This letter is composed by going to the Main Menu |

Campaigns | Pledge Payment Reminder Letter.

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PLEDGE DETAIL SCREEN

The Pledge Detail screen is accessed by double clicking on a pledge in the list of

Pledges Made on the Contacts Pledges Screen View. This screen, seen in Figure

23-6, gives you the option to print your pledge letters, in addition to giving you

access to details associated with a single pledge, including: the contact’s name,

company, campaign, activity, solicitor, schedule of payments, etc.

On the right side of the Pledge Detail screen is a spreadsheet with the Schedule of

Payments where you can view the amount promised, the date the payment is due,

the amount paid, and the remaining balance. PastPerfect automatically calculates

the totals at the foot of each column.

Making changes to the Schedule of Payments will alter the payment informa-

tion in the middle part of the left side of the screen. You may add, edit or delete

payments in the schedule by using the buttons at the bottom of the Schedule of

Payments. Deleting payments will increase the amount in the Write-off Amount

Figure 23-6 Pledge Detail screen

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field and place today’s date in the Write-off Date field. To write off a pledge com-

pletely, delete all of the unpaid payments.

Sending Payment Reminder Letters

These letters are set up first as the Default Pledge Payment Reminder Letter

under Main Menu | Setup | Contacts | Campaigns & Pledges. They are com-

posed for each campaign on the Campaign screen, using the Setup Pledge Pay-

ment Reminder Letter button. The letter you composed on the Campaign screen

can be viewed on the Pledge Detail screen by clicking the Default Reminder

Letter button. Looking at this letter, you will see that some merge fields such

as <Payment_amount> and <Payment_date> still appear in brackets. They will

be replaced in the next step. You may make changes to the letter at this point,

which will be used in all the reminder letters sent to this contact. You will want

to preview this letter before printing the Selected Payment Reminder Letter.

Since a pledge may be paid off in multiple payments over time, a separate

reminder letter is created for each payment. From the Pledge Detail screen select a

pledge payment from the Schedule of Payments list on the right and then click the

button Selected Payment Reminder Letter. The letter will display in MS-Word,

where it can be printed. As long as you have previewed the Default Reminder Let-

ter, the merge fields will be filled in appropriately for this payment.

You can also print all pledge payment reminder letters for any pledges due within

a specified date range from the Reports menu. From the Main Menu click on

Reports |Pledges | Pledge Reminder Letters | Run Selected Report.

Figure 23-7 Pledge Detail screen

Click here for the Default Reminder Letter,

which you can customize for this contact.

After selecting a payment, click here for that

Payment Reminder Letter.