Social Good Software

Creating amazing guest experiences through innovative software solutions for the social good community

Data Bridge

Emails you need to set up for Digital Membership cards

By

Introduction

There are many transactional emails for Digital Membership Cards that we can configure with Email Designer. Because of that, we create this documentation for you to fully understand the functions and importance of these emails.

Knowing how these emails work and when to use it will help you better understand what emails you need to set up with your Digital Membership Cards and which one applies for your Membership Portal.

Different emails for Digital Membership Cards :

Launch Email

Useful in announcing your new Digital Membership Cards to the entire membership base of all active members of your organization. 

  • It is an automated email that you send out to the entire membership base of active members. You can use this launch email to inform members about the new Digital Membership Cards that the organization is officially launching or about the Membership Portal.
  • It is a one-time email announcement that you can send out to your active members. Receivers of this email are between 2,000 to 50,000 constituents depending on how many members your organization has.
  • Launch email will not be of use anymore after sending it to all active members. But there is an exemption which is when the organization resends it to their Board Members in the following year. You can turn on this email for that particular one-time communication.

Automated Welcome Email

Use to welcome all your new members who purchase online, advance, and daily sales. You need to have a sales order to be able to send this email.

  • An email that runs continuously in which once triggered will automatically send out to welcome those individuals who signed up and become new members as well as those who renewed their membership.
  • It is an automated welcome email that requires a sales order. If someone purchases through online, advance and daily sales, he/she will get a welcome email informing that he/she  purchased this particular membership.

Back Office Gift Email

Welcome email for the recipients or givers of the members who purchase through the back office. Useful for automatically sending out gift emails with gift messages.

  • It is an automated welcome email that you can send to the recipient and gift-givers of the members. Members who purchase through the back office that contain gift messages that can customize are the receiver of this email.

Automated Gift Email

Welcome email for recipients or givers of the members who purchase online, advance, and daily sales. Useful for automatically sending out gift emails and gift messages.

  • An automated welcome email sent to recipients and gift-givers for purchasing online, daily, or in advanced sales. It contains a gift message that can customize depending on how the organization wants to set it.

Back Office Email

An email that welcomes all your new members who purchase via mail-in or you enter manually. A sales order is not necessary to send this email.

  • A welcome email that automatically triggers to welcome new members who purchase through mail-in, entered manually, or through the batch. Sales order is not necessary for this kind of email to receive.

Reminder Email

Send out reminders for your members 120, 60, 30, 15, 7 days before the membership’s expiration date.

  • An automated email that you can send out to remind members to renew their membership. You can set it up once to send out on certain days before the expiration date.
  • You can also customize the specific day you want to send the reminder email.

Lapsed Membership Email

Send out follow-up for your members 7, 15, 30, 60, 90, 120 days after their expiration date.

  • A follow-up email that you can set up once and send out at a specific time after the expiration date of membership to those members who haven’t renewed.

Manual Tagging Email

Useful for those that want to receive the email again regardless of the method of how they purchased their membership. To be able to trigger the email, you have to do manual tagging with note type.

  • A welcome email that you can trigger by tagging a membership. Use this email when a member requests to resend the welcome email due to some reasons like they lost the original message, lost access to their email or just wants to email them again the welcome email.
  • Manual Tagging is useful whenever there are requests to receive their welcome email again regardless of the method they use to purchase their membership. It also required notes for this email to be triggered. 

Auto Renew Email

Send auto-reminders for payments on credit cards being used for auto-renewing memberships. This can go out relative to the expiration date.

  • This email is for everybody who is auto-renewing their membership.
  • Auto-renew email is sent out informing members who use credit cards for payment about their membership renewal which will automatically charge to their cards. 
  • This email can go out before or after the credit card gets charged. It is up to you when you want to send the auto-renewal email but we recommend sending this email out 2 weeks before the credit card gets charged to catch any changes on the card.

Below is a matrix that you can use as a guide. It will let you know what activities each of these emails covered.

Emails for Digital Membership Card

Summary

You now have an idea what are the different emails for Digital Membership Card that you can configure with Email Designer. This will make it easier for you to identify which email is applicable for a certain activity and which one is sent out for a specific transaction.

If you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to create a query for mail provider using Altru

By

Introduction

Below is a detailed process of creating a list that can sync over to either Constant Contact or Mailchimp. Take note that you will undergo the same process of creating a list of individuals whether you are using Constant Contact or Mailchimp and whether it is the main list or a sub-list. Make sure to include all the recommended information whenever you create a query for a mail provider.

The process starts by creating an attribute needed for the query and then going through the process of creating the query itself. Refer below to fully understand the process and to know what are  the needed information:

Process of creating an Attribute

1: Go to Altru and click on Administration then proceed to Attribute Categories.

2: Click Add which will prompt you to a dialog box.

3: Make sure to create a category for a specific segment and if you have a sub-list then you need to tag it differently. Supply the needed information in the Dialog Box based on the details below before you click Save.

Name: Base it on the particular segment you are working on
Record type: Constituent
Data Type: Yes/No
Make sure to ✅ Allow only one per record.

Note: You can add sub-lists as you want which is based on the main list but it still needs to undergo the same process above.

Steps on how to create a query for mail provider in Altru

1: After creating the Attribute, you can now proceed to Analysis and click on the Information Library.

query for mail provider

2: Click on Add an ad-hoc query which will redirect you to another Dialog Box.

query for mail provider

3: Select Constituents then click OK.

query for mail provider

4: You can now add fields to your query. Below are the recommended fields needed to make the syncing of information with Mailchimp or Constant Contact work. Just note that if you have a segment that you want to create, all you have to do is to follow the same process but make sure to include the specific segment you are working with. 

query for mail provider
query for mail provider

Note: You can rearrange the fields based on your preference.

5: Click on the Set save option to name your query, write a description, select its category and designate a folder then Save and close.

query for mail provider

6: Great! You have officially created a query. You can now use the OData Link with the Data Bridge. 

query for mail provider

Adding Sub-list to the current query for a mail provider

To add a specific segment to your query, you need to go through the same process and add the particular segment you want to include. You can also go to Edit Definition if you already have an existing query and add the specific segment.

1: Go to Edit Definition and proceed to Attributes. 

query for mail provider

2: Double click the sublist that you want to include.

3: Select Value before dragging it to the Results field to display.

4: Lastly, add the logic applicable for your sublist.

query for mail provider

You now have your attribute and a query for your mail provider. If you have more questions please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to create an unsubscribed attribute with Altru

By

Introduction

To determine those individuals who unsubscribed, you just need to create an unsubscribed attribute with Altru. Do it once and it will be shared among all of your lists of members.

Steps on how to create unsubscribed attribute with Altru:

1: Open ALTRU and click ADMINISTRATION.

unsubscribed attribute with Altru

2: Proceed to ATTRIBUTE CATEGORIES under Data

unsubscribed attribute with Altru

3: Click ADD to create new attribute.

unsubscribed attribute with Altru

4: A dialog box will pop out. Input the following and click Save.
Name: Unsubscribed
Record type: Constituent
Attribute group: N/A
Data Type: Yes/No
Note: Make sure to click on the ‘Allow only one per record’ checkbox.

Once done with the steps above, you can now connect it all together with the Data Bridge which is very useful in attaching those unsubscribe attributes.

If you have more questions, please reach out to us through our support channel.

You can also check the tutorial on How to create an attribute for a segment with Altru.

How to create an attribute for a segment with Altru

By

Introduction

If you have lists of constituents in Altru, you also need to create an attribute for that segment. Every list must have an attribute assigned to it. Attributes are useful when you send an email and you only want those individuals who belong to a particular group to receive your message.

Things to consider when you name an attribute for a segment:

  1. Who those individuals are.
  2. What group they belong; and
  3. It must be readable and maintainable in the future.

Steps on how to create an attribute for a segment with Altru:

1: Open ALTRU and click ADMINISTRATION.

2: Proceed to ATTRIBUTE CATEGORIES under Data.

3: Click ADD to create a new attribute.

4: A dialog box will pop out where you need to supply the needed information. Click on Save.
Name: (best describe the list)
Record type: Constituent
Attribute group: None
Data Type: Yes/No
Note: Make sure to click on the ‘Allow only one per record’ checkbox.

create an attribute for a segment

Create an additional attribute by repeating the process from step three then provide the needed information.

Summary

Creating an attribute is needed if you have lists of individuals who belong to a particular group. It is helpful to your organization because you can use this list for your marketing campaign. Sending emails to your target group of people will be a lot easier and faster when you have your attribute.

If you have more questions, please reach out to us through our support channel.

You can also learn how to create an attribute for your email list. And, we also provide a guide on how to create an unsubscribe attribute.

How to create a SYNC Operations note type

By

Introduction

Learning how to create a sync operations note type in Altru is beneficial to your organization because it helps record the operations that happened in particular constituent information. It is useful as it gives the history of all the operations done on a particular record. 

Whenever the organization’s data sync, you will be able to determine what operation took place, updated, and moved over in a certain constituent record. With note type, you will be able to see all the operations that happened on a particular constituent record.

Steps to create a SYNC Operations note type

1: Open ALTRU and click ADMINISTRATION.

How to create a note type

2: Proceed to CODE TABLES under Data

create a sync operations note type

3: Click on FILTER then the DROP-DOWN MENU

create a sync operations note type

4: Select BIOGRAPHICAL and click APPLY

create a sync operations note type

5: It will show a list of biographical types that can be set up. Click on CONSTITUENT NOTE TYPE then ADD.

How to create a note type

6: A dialog box will pop out. Add a name to the description area for a new note type then click OK.

create a sync operations note type

Summary

You now have a newly created note type that you need to add to a particular constituent record. This will make sure that every time you perform a data sync, it will be easier to query and simpler to check the operations previously done. Note type is also useful for data restoration since it contains the original information for previous data syncs.

You can also check the tutorial on how to create a membership note type and how to create a custom note type with Altru.

If you still have questions or need clarifications, please reach us at support@socialgoodsoftware.com.

How to clean up a constant contact list

By

Introduction

Having clean data is necessary as you can use these lists for marketing or any promotional activity from your organization. Make sure to clean your records from tools like Constant Contact and Mailchimp before you sync it over to have consistent data within Altru. Learn how to free your Constant Contact list from bad records without exerting a lot of effort in sorting and cleaning your data using the Data Bridge.

Cleaning up a Constant Contact list

1: Log in to your Social Good Software account.

2: Proceed to Data Bridge.

3: Click on create widget button.

4: A dialog box will pop out wherein you need to put on the name of the Widget before you click Next.

5: Select the widget type then click Next.

6: You now have a new Widget. Click on it and authorize it to go into Constant Contact.

7: Once it was authenticated, on the Widget Settings under Mailing List select the list that you want its data to be clean up. In this illustration, we will go with New Members.

8: Proceed to the Data Cleanup where you can see your first 500 rows of record based on the selected mailing list and start cleaning it up.

9: On the left side of the window located the options that you can enable and disable. Each of these options has different rules that you can take advantage of to have a consistent record. You can also test your configuration to see what works for you and Save Settings.

10: If everything looks good, export as a CSV or XLS format to perform a spot check. The option to export the data is located at the bottom part of the window.

11: Open the document to see if all the data is nice and clean; spot check if necessary. If you found inconsistent data, you can fix it manually.

12: You can now reimport this clean list of contacts into Constant Contact. 

Summary

These options are specially made with the intention of helping you clean your data from tools like Constant Contact. Repeat this process to all your lists before you sync it over to Altru to free your records from any bad data.

If you have more questions, please reach out to us through our support channel.

How to create a constituents query

By

Below is a basic query to pull most used constituent data.

Basic query for constituents

You may add additional restrictions in the “Include records where” section depending on the results you want to pull. For example, if you would like to fetch records for constituents that have been added this year, you should include the “Date added” restriction: