Dedications (or tributes) are payments made where the payer indicates that the payment (or donation) are to note a certain event, occasion, or message. Example of these are donations in honor or memory of someone, or for the speedy recovery of someone, or for a special birthday. Usually, the payer wants a third-party to be notified of the payment/donation. Most congregations do not allow dedications for non-discretionary payments (such as dues), however ShulCloud technically allows it).
There are two kinds of financial transactions in ShulCloud - those that are dedicated, and those that are not. ShulCloud can interact with dedicated transactions in several ways, including creating communications to donors and recipients (honorees), and creating lists of dedications/tributes.
Entering Dedications/Tributes
Dedicated transactions can be entered by ShulCloud administrators, or by members and public visitors to your site.
Dedications entered by Administrators
When entering a transaction on the Transaction Add page that is either a charge or a donation, you can make dedication by clicking the grey pencil next to the word Dedication. There are three elements to a dedication:
- The dedication and message
- The donor
- The recipient (honoree)
You will next see this page:
The first step is to indicate which type of dedication this is. The list of dedication types is customizable in My Lists | Dedication Types. Next, fill in the information in the text box. Write the dedication as a continuation of the dedication type (e.g., “your 80th birthday”; “your dearly departed sister Anna”. Dedication notifications are usually set up to include a line that would read something like “A tribute has been made to the Temple in honor of your 80th birthday”.
If you want to have a different date for the dedication than the transaction date, you may change it on this screen.
In Settings under the Dedications and Honorees section, you are able to select which field template will be used for the default formatting of donor’s name. When entering the dedication, you an override the donor display name so it will appear as the donor prefers.
The last element of entering a dedication is indicating the recipient (or honoree). As shown above, a recipient can either already be in ShulCloud (as would be the case when the receipient is a member), or someone not in ShulCloud. Enter the name of recipient in the Search Person field, and select the correct person from the drop-down list. If the person is not in ShulCloud, fill out the contact information so that ShulCloud can send dedication notifications to the recipient. Note that if you leave out the email or postal address, that method will not be available for notifications.
After selecting a person in ShulCloud as the recipient or entering an email address for someone not in ShulCloud, a checkbox will appear enabling you to send an immediate email notification to the recipient:
The template for the Dedication email notification can be found in My Lists | Template Text. Selecting the option to Send Email Now will cause an email to be sent when the transaction is saved (regardless if an email is going to the donor about the charge/donation).
Dedications Entered by Members and Guests
Assuming public donations are enabled in Settings (they are by default), web site visitors can make donations at the donation/payments page. The relevant settings are:
The first setting controls if public site visitors can make donations, and the second setting determines if logged-in members are able to donate (for non-administrative visitors, donations occur on the payment screen).
For visitors who are not logged in, the following screen appears and reaching the donate page:
If the visitor has an account in the system (i.e., members), they are prompted (at the top left) to enter their login credentials. If they do not have a login (or if they choose not to use it), they must enter their name and email on the top right (phone can be made optional in Settings). Next, the donor will choose the type of donation - this corresponds to the charge types that are selected to show in the donation drop-down (My Lists | Charge Types). After entering the payment amount, they can select payment intervals, and if they want to add a note with regard to their payment. This note is NOT the dedication. If the donor wishes to add a dedication, they can select a type from the drop-down list:
After selecting a dedication type, the following additional fields will appear:
The tribute text field should be used to indicate the continuation of the dedication type as it should appear in the dedication/tribute (e.g., “in honor Jane Doe on her special birthday”, or “in memory of your beloved brother John”.
The donor must fill out the remaining fields. If they don’t know either the email address or postal address, they will be required to click “Unknown” to acknowledge that they are not providing that information. The next screen will take them to the payment section - dedications/tributes can’t be billed to account, they must be paid immediately.
Working with Dedications/Tributes
Once dedications are entered into the system, ShulCloud can interact with them in various ways. On the Admin menu, Dedications will allow you to see all dedicated transactions. You can filter the list, and you can print or export it. There is also a button for Newsletter view, which will provide a sorted list (based on the filters in effect) that is suitable for copying and pasting into a word processing or desktop layout program that is used to produce your newsletter (this format is NOT intended to be camera-ready).
Dedication notifications can be sent from the ShulCloud Mail system, to either donors or honorees (recipients). On the initial Mail screen, select if the notification is to be paper or email, and then select Dedication Notifications.
Once Dedication Notifications are select, you can select if this communication should be going to Donors or Honorees (recipients), the date range of the donations, a range of amounts (optional), and the charge type (fund) of donation (optional). You can also select the prior notification status (if the honoree was previously notified of the dedication or not). Once you arrive at the point when you compose the content of the message, you will find a large number of “tags” that function as mail-merge fields, to use in building your message.
Please see the help documents regarding the Mail system for more specific instructions to create mails.