You can generate year-end tax summaries to specific contacts like those that gave to a particular campaign.
This article is an overview of using the standard Mail Merge function to send all eligible contacts a Year-End Tax Summary via mail. Kindful has a more streamlined tool that will work for most cases, which is linked below.
This process can be applied to various other scenarios to help target specific sets of donors (e.g. only recurring donors, only donors to a particular campaign, etc.)
Overview
Kindful makes generating your year-end tax letters a breeze. This article goes over the process of generating tax summary PDF files to send to all of your donors who have given in a year.
Linked Articles:
- Using Kindful's Tax Summary Tool
Getting Started
First, be sure to verify that your contacts have mailing addresses. You can do this by going to the Contacts page and using these four filters:
- Has Transaction in Year: "previous_year"
- Or
- Has Address: No
- Address Deliverable: No
Please reference this Help Center article for more information on this topic:
https://support.kindful.com/hc/en-us/articles/215351358
Creating A Filtered View of Contacts
Next, to start your specific filter of contacts, head to the Contacts page, and filter the following:
- In Calendar Year, Total Transaction Amount Greater Than: "previous_year", 150 (for example)
- Address Deliverable: Yes
Press Select All on the right sidebar.
After all contacts on the list are selected, press Mail Merge on the right sidebar.
There are two template options for year-end summary letters.
The Prior Year Tax Summary #9 Envelope Template will print letters that can be folded into thirds and placed directly into #9 envelopes with windows.
The second option, Prior Year Tax Summary Template are for standard #10 business envelopes. Donor mailing info will need to be placed on the envelope front separately (i.e. printed or labeled).
After you've chosen which template, press Create. This will take you to your Mailings page in Kindful. You do not need to wait for the options (Print Envelopes, Print Labels, etc.) to generate. Now, click the back button on your web browser, often located in the upper left-hand corner of your browser window.
If you wish to also include a Cover Letter for this particular set of Contacts to go with your Tax Summaries, follow these steps.
To Learn how to include a Cover Letter with your
Printed Tax Summaries via this flow, please read on.
How to Create a Cover Letter
To create a Cover Letter, head to Communication > Templates. Click the option to Create a New Template and configure it as shown here (example):
{{FORMATTED_LETTER_NAME}}
{{ADDRESS}}
{{CITY}}, {{STATE}} {{POSTAL_CODE}}
Dear {{FORMATTED_LETTER_INFORMAL}},
Thank you for your support in 2019. We have seen incredible growth since beginning our mission in 2016. Your contributions helped us do so much this past year:
- We were able to feed 187 families
- We provided clean water for three villages
- Great advancements were made with our partners around the world
- 100 acres of farmland were seeded
- We were able to invest in 17 new agents to help us further our mission
- Global Reconstructing Partners was finally started
- All of our sites saw gains in terms of people reached
Needless to say, 2019 was a big year, and you were a huge part of it. And for that, we say Thank You.
Your 2019 Tax Summary is included.
We look forward to seeing more incredible things in 2020, and in the years to come. Thank You, again, for being a part of this story.
Until next time,
{{SIGNATURE}}
-----------------
Below is an example of a Cover Letter generated.
How to Include a Cover Letter with Your Tax Summaries
We advise not including any tags containing financial information in this Cover Letter, as donation information will be addressed in the Tax Summary.
A great feature of our Tax Summary Tool is the ability to include a Cover Letter with your Summaries. Here is how to include a Cover Letter when printing all of your tax summaries.
Follow the steps to generate the prior year tax summary template, as shown above (shown here again for clarity), and then to create the Cover Letter.
Filter the following:
- In Calendar Year, Total Transaction Amount Greater Than: "previous_year", 150 (for example)
- Address Deliverable: Yes
Press Select All on the right sidebar.
After all contacts on the list are selected, press Mail Merge on the right sidebar.
There are two template options for year-end summary letters.
The Prior Year Tax Summary #9 Envelope Template will print letters that can be folded into thirds and placed directly into #9 envelopes with windows.
The second option, Prior Year Tax Summary Template are for standard #10 business envelopes. Donor mailing info will need to be placed on the envelope front separately (i.e. printed or labeled).
After you've chosen which template, press Create. This will take you to your Mailings page in Kindful. You do not need to wait for the options (Print Envelopes, Print Labels, etc.) to generate. Now, click the back button on your web browser, often located in the upper left-hand corner of your browser window.
Clicking the back button in your browser will return you to your previously filtered Contacts page (with the Has Transaction in Year filter included) and will show the same results. Repeat the process to Select All on the right sidebar, and then after all contacts on the list are selected, press Mail Merge on the right sidebar. This time, choose your newly created Cover Letter Template and click Create.
This will take you to your Mailings page, and you will now have two line items to use here. The first will be your cover letter file, and the second will be your Tax Summary.
Doing the steps in this specific order will ensure the order of your list of Tax Summaries matches that of your Cover Letters.
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