Communication Letter Screen

To add a new letter to use with the communication, enter a unique name to help identify the letter.

To use an existing letter, select Use previous letter. A search screen appears so you can find and select the letter to use.

This box displays the constituent selections selected to receive the letter. To edit the selections for an existing letter or add selections for a new letter, select Add.

For information about how to manage the constituent selections to receive a letter, see Select Recipients for a Communication.

By default, Altru excluded constituents marked as deceased or inactive from the letter recipients. To include inactive constituents, such as to target lapsed donors, select this checkbox.

For an appeal mailing, this section appears.

From Marketing and Communications, your organization can configure the default exclusions for your communications. Under Recent activity, the default exclusions based on recent communication and revenue activity appear. Under Solicit codes and selections, the default exclusions based on solicit codes and constituent selections appear. Edit the exclusions as necessary for the letter.

For information about how to edit recent activity exclusions, see Edit Recent Activity Exclusions.

For information about how to edit solicit code and selection exclusions, see Edit Solicit Code and Selection Exclusions.

Select whether to merge the recipient information with a letter or export the recipient information as a comma-separated values (*.CSV) file.

If you print your letters in-house, select Merge recipient information with a letter. When you select this option, Altru automatically generates a (*.CSV) file of recipient information along with your merged content. Your browser downloads a .zip file that contains both the merged letters and the (*.CSV) file. If you use a mail house to create your letters, select Export a .CSV file of the recipient information.

If you select Merge recipient information with a letter, select whether to send the letter through the mail, email, or both. If you select Mail and Email, Altru sends the letter to recipients through the channel determined by the constituents’ communication preferences.

If you select Mail and Email, this field is enabled. Select the channel to use for recipients with no selected communication preference.

Select the merge fields to use with the mailing.

By default, Altru uses merge fields commonly used with appeal mailings. To view a list of the merge fields included in the export definition, select Preview. To edit the merge fields, select Edit and manage the export definition. For information about how to manage export definitions, see the Query and Export Guide.

For an appeal mailing, the Ask ladder field appears. Select the ask ladder to determine the ask amount to include in a recipient's letter based on giving history. For information about ask ladders, see Ask Ladders.

To create the content for each selected channel, select Add. For information about how to define the letter content, see Letter Content.

To view the letter’s content as mail output, select Preview. Altru downloads a sample of the content as a Microsoft Office open XML document (*.docx) file that you can preview in a word processing program such as Microsoft Word or Google Docs. You cannot save changes made to preview.

To edit the content defined for a letter, select Edit. To delete the content, select Remove.

This section displays the selections of constituents to receive the letter. For an appeal mailing, this section also displays any exclusions based on solicit codes, selections, and recent communication or giving activity.

To edit the letter recipients or exclusions, select Edit.

This section displays the channels selected for the letter's content and whether you have defined content for each channel. From this section, you can add or preview content as necessary.

To edit the letter's channels or content, select Edit.

To create or select multiple letters to use with a communication, select this button and compose an additional letter.