2020 PARISH STEWARDSHI

P OF TREASURE

YEARLY COMMITMENT

RENEWAL

PDS Church OfficeINSTRUCTION

PACKET

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION 2Basic Information about the PDS ‘Treasure Renewal Campaign’Regarding the LettersGetting Started – Preliminary Steps

ADDING THE RENEWAL (CAMPAIGN) LETTERS TO PDS 4Definition and use of the LettersAdding the List FilesAdding the Family and Financial Easy Reports

PREPARING THE FUND & SETTING UP KEYWORDS 8New Year Fund SetupSet up Keywords for FundsSet up Talent KeywordsSet up Ministry KeywordsChecking Talent/Ministry Status List

THE RENEWAL (CAMPAIGN) LETTERS 11Printing the Commitment Renewal Letter

ENTERING PLEDGES 14Entering the Treasure Commitments with Keywords

THE TALENT/MINISTRY COMMITMENT CARDS 16Entering the Ministry and Talent Commitments for Members

THE FOLLOW-UP LETTERS 17Printing Follow Up Letter #1Printing Follow Up Letter #2

THE THANK YOU LETTER 20Printing the Thank You LetterCombining the Stewardship Fund KeywordsAdditional Follow-up Suggestion

APPENDIX A – Printing Envelopes and Mailing Labels 25

APPENDIX B – Ministry Volunteers – Follow Up Reports 26

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INTRODUCTION

Basic Information about the PDS ‘Treasure Renewal Campaign’

This PDS instruction manual is provided to you (along with the necessary electronic files available on the Archdiocesan website or uploaded to your ‘Box Account’) to assist you with the 2020 Stewardship of Treasure Renewal Campaign. This manual is specific to guiding you through the cycle of the campaign (installing all files, modifying the letters, keywords, entering pledge cards, following up, etc.) and using the PDS software. For instructions on executing the Treasure Campaign itself (timeline, specific tasks, bulletin articles, prayers of the faithful, etc.), please refer to the Stewardship of Treasure Renewal Guide located on the Archdiocesan website.

Please keep in mind the following general information:

The detailed instructions in this manual will take you through all the steps from downloading the files to printing out the letters. These steps are clearly marked and include screenshots.

All Letters can be modified by you except for the highlighted colored areas. There are 7 letters available for the treasure campaign: Annual Report, Pastor Letter (Segmented), Pastor Letter (Generic), Follow-up 1 (segmented letter), Follow-up 2 (non-segmented), Thank You (for Pledgers), and Thank you (for Non-Pledgers)

The Pastor Letter (segmented letter) is the preferred letter to use and can be programmed by you for a specific amount of increase. That suggested increase can range anywhere from 1% to 20%.

The Pastor Letter and Follow-up #1 Letter (both segmented) contain built in scenarios (a brief sentence automatically built in the body of the letter) for the level of pledging/giving that is currently taking place by the parishioner. For example, if a person has no pledge on file and gives less than $250 OR a person has a pledge on file but has made no donations. This sentence can be modified by you.

There is now the availability of an electronic web pledge form which can be placed directly on the homepage of your website. The instructions and files necessary for using this pledge form can be found online at the Archdiocesan website under the Stewardship of Treasure tab under ‘web pledge’ form at: http://www.seattlearchdiocese.org/Stewardship/PS/Renewals.aspx

For general questions or technical assistance relating to the use of your PDS software, please contact our Archdiocesan representative: Bryan Gummersall, bryan@ptechs.com or 206-255-5074

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Regarding the Letters

When you are ready to print the letters from PDS you will make changes in the letters to reflect your parish (i.e., the name of your parish, the name of your pastor/pastoral life director or chairperson, and the date). This editing is done in the Church Office Management program using the ‘MODIFY THE TEXT OF THE LETTER’ feature. See page 4 for the file names.

Getting Started – Preliminary Steps

There are several files needed to support the campaign letters. You will need to download them yourself from the Archdiocesan website. Click on the below link for instructions on how to download and store these files on your computer. All of the files are required for this process and should be saved to a folder on your computer desktop (remember where). Please save these files ‘as-is’ with the filenames and file extensions intact. This will ensure that they work properly. For the remainder of this document, we will refer to this location as the 2020 Stewardship Talent and 2020 Stewardship File Letters Folder. This refers to the location where you copied the letter files.

Please save these files ‘as-is’ with the filenames and file extensions intact.  This will ensure that they work properly.  For the remainder of this document, we will refer to this location as the 2019/20 PDS Letters.  This refers to the location where you saved the downloaded files. Spanish letter files have ‘_Spanish’ at the end of their filenames. Vietnamese letter files have ‘_Vietnamese’ at the end of their filenames.

Do not change anything where you see merge fields. These will look like the following example: <if FundTotals['Fund Totals Grand Total Due']>0.00> or <List: ST20Ministry>. These fields control merge information in the letter or control the actual letter that is printed based upon parishioner involvement in the prior year.

The Easy Letter function in PDS allows you to choose to print letterhead or not at print time. You will not need to choose a certain letterhead file or non-letterhead file as in past years. PDS Church Office Management also has label and envelope printing functionality built-in.

The LettersOn the following pages are the file names of all the renewal (campaign) letters for 2020. You will add individual Easy Report letters from those files that you downloaded from the Archdiocesan website. A caution: the files should only be added to the Church Office Management program by use of the Add Custom Report feature. They should not be opened in Microsoft™ Word or any other program.

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We have separate INSTRUCTIONS on how to download the 2019 -20 PDS files into a folder on your desktop. It is located under the Stewardship of Treasure tab entitled ‘Help Files – Download and Install PDS Files’. This is the best way to store the files for easy access to load into PDS. You can also find this document in the Parish Resources Box Folder. Please be aware that this document will instruct you on how to download the files to your desktop only. It will not setup the files in PDS. Follow Bryan’s Instructions on how to move these files into PDS (see page 5 in this document to do that).

ADDING THE RENEWAL (CAMPAIGN) LETTERS TO PDS

The PDS software allows you to add Custom Reports. You will be adding one Family Easy Report and five Financial Easy Reports. The following is a list of each letter report by name:

Letter Name Filename Report Type Action DateAnnual Report Cover Letter ST20ARCL Family SeptemberSegmented Renewal Letter ST20CP Financial Week of Oct 28thGeneric Renewal Letter ST20CPG Financial Week of Oct 28thFollow Up Letter #1 ST20FU1 Financial Week of Nov 11thFollow Up Letter #2 ST20FU2 Financial Week of Nov 18thThank You Letter - Segmented

ST20TY Financial Wk of Nov 11th/18th and ongoing

Note: Above letters available in Spanish and Vietnamese

Definition and use of the Letters

Annual Report Cover Letter: This letter to be used when mailing or emailing your annual report (or flyer) to your parish.

Segmented Renewal Letter: This letter includes last year’s pledge (if any) and this year’s current donations (if any). It also asks to consider an increase over last year. This suggested increase can be modified by you (you can modify the percent increase from 1% - 20%). It also includes the various scenarios based off the parishioner’s current pledge or giving (i.e., if a person has no pledge on file and gives less than $250 OR a person has a pledge on file but has made no donations, etc.). This is the preferred letter to use as it provides a current history of donations.

Generic Letter: A simple ask letter that contains no donor history of giving or pledges.

Follow Up Letter #1: This letter is segmented and is the first of the reminder letters sent out. The segmentation includes the current pledge from last year (if any), the current donations from this year (if any) and asks the donor to increase their gift by a certain percentage (the percentage is controlled by you).

Follow Up Letter #2: This letter is standard for all parishioners who have not responded with a commitment card and is the second of the reminder letters. This letter is NOT segmented but generic.

Thank You Letter: The thank you letter will be sent to families who have made a commitment to this year’s renewal. The letter is setup to print to those families who have pledge a dollar amount AND for those who have responded with a ‘No’ pledge card. We encourage you to send thank you letters out immediately after receiving commitment cards.

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Adding the List Files

There are six <List> report files (2 for English, 2 for Spanish, and 2 for Vietnamese) that must be copied from the 2020 Renewal Letters Folder to your PDS data directory. If you are on a stand-alone computer, this data directory resides on your computer’s hard-drive (usually drive C:\). If you are running PDS on a network, your data directory resides on the computer that is operating as the network file server.

To identify where your data directory resides, please click FILE | ABOUT. If you look at the entry next to Data Path =, you will see where your data is stored. In the screen example shown to the right, the data resides on the C:\ drive in the \PDSCHURCH subdirectory.

In the following instructions, pay close attention to the two options shown:

If your data resides on a stand-alone computer: START | COMPUTER and then open the location where the 2020 Renewal Letters Folder

resides. Highlight the following two files (hold down the CTRL button and click on the filenames):

List-ST20Ministry.rtm and List-ST20TM.rtmThe Spanish versions of these list files end with “_Spanish.rtm” and the Vietnameseversions of these list files end with “_Vietnamese.rtm”

Click on EDIT | COPY Navigate in Windows Explorer (My Computer) to your PDS reports data directory, usually

located at: C:\PDSCHURCH\DATA\REPORTS\PDS\ and then click on EDIT | PASTE. This should copy these three files into the PDS reports data directory.

If your data resides on a Network File Server: START | COMPUTER and then open the location where the 2020 Renewal Letters Folder

resides. Highlight the following two files (hold down the CTRL button and click on the filenames):

List-ST20Ministry.rtm and List-ST20TM.rtmThe Spanish versions of these list files end with “_Spanish.rtm” and the Vietnameseversions of these list files end with “_Vietnamese.rtm”

Click on EDIT | COPY Navigate in Windows Explorer (My Computer) to your NETWORK LOCATIONS and find

your Network File Server machine and the PDS reports data directory, usually located at: \\Server_Name\Share_Name\DATA\REPORTS\PDS\ and then click on EDIT | PASTE.

The Server_Name and Share_Name information is custom to each individual network. If you have trouble locating this, please see your network administrator for assistance.

This should copy these three files into the PDS reports data directory on your network file server.

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Adding the Family Easy Report

There is one family easy report that must be added using the following instructions –ST20ARCL. (Note: Spanish and Vietnamese also available)

From the Main Screen, Click on FAMILIES Click on REPORTS Click on FAMILY EASY REPORTS (Very important that you are on this category of

reports) Click on the ADD button on the bottom left of this window:

On the next screen, click on CUSTOM REPORT Open the location of the 2020 Renewal Letters Folder Locate the following file: ST20ARCL.CR and then click on OPEN This will add the report: ST (20) Annual Report Cover Letter to your list of FAMILY EASY

REPORTS.

Adding Financial Easy Reports

There are five financial easy reports that must be added using the following instructions: ST20CP, ST20CPG, ST20FU1, ST20FU2, and ST20TY. The directions that follow in this section will show how to add ST20CP. These steps will have to be repeated to add the remaining four financial easy reports: ST20CPG, ST20FU1, ST20FU2 and ST20TY. The Spanish versions of these filenames end with “_Spanish.CR.” The Vietnamese versions of these filenames end with “_Vietnamese.CR.”

From the Main Screen, Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on REPORTS Click on FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS (Very important that you are on this category of

reports)

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Click on the ADD button on the bottom left of this window:

On the next screen, click on CUSTOM REPORT Open the location of the 2020 Renewal Letters Folder Locate the following file: ST20CP.CR and then click on OPEN This will add the report: ST (20) Campaign Letters - Segmented to your list of FINANCIAL

EASY REPORTS Repeat these steps to add the remaining financial easy reports: ST20CPG, ST20FU1,

ST20FU2, ST20TY. Remember, the Spanish versions of these filenames end with “_Spanish.CR.” and the

Vietnamese versions of these filenames end with “_Vietnamese.CR.”

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PREPARING THE FUND & SETTING UP KEYWORDS

New Year Fund Setup

To prepare for the new commitment cards, advance Fund 1-19 to Fund 1-20. This creates a new fund period and sets up a new fund for families currently using the fund.

From the Main Screen, Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on PROCESSES on the left-side menu Click on NEW YEAR FUND SETUP Complete the requested backup before proceeding Choose the Fund to Process by clicking on Fund 1, then complete the other entries so that

your window looks like this:

Then click on the Process button to begin the fund advancement.

This process creates a new fund period and sets up the new fund for families currently using the existing fund.

Setting up Keywords for Funds

In order to track those families who have turned in commitment cards, you need to assign a keyword on their fund screen as you are entering their commitment card.You will need to set up five different fund keywords:

Send 20 Stewardship TY - A temporary keyword used to sort for the follow-up letter. Should be used for anyone who turned in a commitment card with a pledge.

20 Stewardship - A permanent keyword that will identify everyone who has turned in a commitment card this year to which you have sent a thank you letter.

No 20 Stewardship – A permanent keyword that will mark those families who turn in a pledge card yet are unable to make a commitment at this time. This keyword prevents them receiving a follow up

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letter. New No 20 Stewardship – A temporary Keyword that will mark those families who turn in a pledge

card yet are unable to make a commitment at this time. This keyword prevents them receiving a follow up letter. Used to sort for lists and the follow-up letter.

ST 20 Pledge Increase – Denotes a family that increased their pledge from the prior year.

IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT YOUR KEYWORDS ARE IDENTICAL TO THOSE USED BELOW OR THIS CAMPAIGN PACKET WILL

NOT WORK PROPERLY, including capitalization:

Send 20 Stewardship TY and 20 Stewardship and No 20 Stewardshipand New No 20 Stewardship and ST 20 Pledge Increase

To Set up Fund Keywords

On the top line of the menu ribbon bar, Click on FILE | Keywords | Family/Fund Keywords and

then FUND KEYWORDS Click on button and then add each of the keywords

listed When complete, click on the Save/Ok button and then on

the Close button

Note: You will probably have a longer list than that shown in this window and that is not a problem. Just make sure that you have added the five for THIS year.

To set up TALENT Keywords [If you do your Time/Talent Campaign at a separate time, please skip this section.]

(Talents are defined as natural talents, gifts and hobbies)To track those individuals who have responded to your talent/ministry campaign, you will need to enter the talent keyword(s) that you have included on your Talent/Ministry flyer. Prior to entering this information on each member’s screen, you will need to be sure that the Talent Keyword List is setup correctly.

On the top line of the menu ribbon bar, Click on FILE | KEYWORDS | MEMBER KEYWORDS | TALENT NAMES Click on and then add each of the keywords listed on

your flyer. When complete, click on the Save/Ok button and then on

the Close button.

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To set up Ministry Keywords

(Ministries are defined as those related to Church programs)To track those individuals who have responded to your talent/ministry campaign, you will need to enter the ministry keyword(s), for which they have signed up, in their Ministry tab on the Member screen in PDS. Prior to entering this information on each member’s screen, you will need to be sure that the Ministry Keyword List and the Status Names List are setup correctly.On the top line of the menu ribbon bar, Click on FILE | KEYWORDS | MEMBER KEYWORDS | MINISTRY NAMES Click on and then add each of the keywords listed on

your flyer. You may add others as well. When complete, click on the Save/Ok button and then on the

Close button.

Note: These ministry names will appear in the thank you letter for those that have returned a commitment flyer. It is important that these are clear and concise as they will be listed within each individual thank you letter.

To check the Talent/Ministry Status List,

The thank you letter will only list those ministries that have a status function of ‘Yes’ in the column labeled ‘Currently Involved’.. Please check which statuses are listed as ‘Yes’ in your Talent/Ministry Status Names list.

For Talents – Do Not Use Status. Only use status for Ministries

On the top line of the menu ribbon bar, Click on FILE | KEYWORDS | MEMBER KEYWORDS |

TALENT/MINISTRY STATUS NAMES from the pull- down list

On the window to the right, you can see that in our sample data, the following statuses have a value of ‘Yes’ for Currently Involved: Actively Involved and Chairperson.

To make changes, if needed, be sure that the statuses that you expect to show up in the thank you letters have a value of ‘Yes’ for Currently Involved. Please note that the description labeled ‘Interested’ normally has a value of ‘No’. If you’d like to include the ministries marked as ‘Interested’ in the thank you letters, you would need to change the ‘Currently Involved’ entry to ‘Yes’.

When complete, click on the Save/Ok button and then on the Close button.

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THE RENEWAL (CAMPAIGN) LETTERS

Printing the Commitment Renewal Letter

On the week of October 28th, you will send the Renewal Letter to all parish households. The main renewal letter is designed to address particular styles of giving during the current year.

If you would like to send a letter that addresses current pledge and giving, choose ST (20) Campaign Letters - Segmented.

If you want to send a letter that doesn’t address current pledge and giving, use ST (20) Campaign Letter Generic.

These letters are explained in the Regarding the Letters section on page 3

For ST (20) Campaign Letter - Segmented Based Upon Past Contributions: Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on REPORTS Expand the FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS sub-section Click on ST (20) Campaign Letters - Segmented Click the NEXT button until you get to the following screen:

Enter the two bump percentages you want to use for your letters. These should be whole numbers only and no other alpha characters. The example shown above will bump 5 and 10 percent.

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Press NEXT until you get to the SET THE LETTER LAYOUT SCREEN. It looks like the following:

You may change the Letterhead Style to one of the following: Fancy, Simple or No Letterhead.

You can also change the Letter Date Style & the Inside Address Styles if you choose. The Closing Style must be: NO CLOSING as the closing is contained inside the body of the

letter. Click on the MODIFY THE BODY OF THE LETTER button to modify anything in the text of

the letter and to modify the closing of the letter to the appropriate personnel for your Church. If you would like to exclude the portion of the letter that mentions ministry involvement, you

may remove the lines in the letter that read: <List: ST20Ministry>. Please note that it appears in multiple different locations in this letter.

A NOTE OF CAUTION: This letter uses IF STATEMENTS to choose the appropriate letter for each parishioner. There are actually multiple sections in the text of this letter. Be sure to edit all of the appropriate areas for Church specific content. Please do not change anything that is highlighted in colors as these are the conditional statements that control the output. The wording can be adjusted in the various segmented sections as long as the MERGED FIELDS and IF STATEMENTS are not altered.

Click on OK to save the changes that you’ve made to the body of the letter. Click on the NEXT button when you’re finished with this dialog.

On the Funds to Print dialog, please select a date range of 01/01/2019 thru 12/31/2019 and

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add Fund 1 to the list of funds to print. Your screen should look like this:

Click on the Next button This will bring up the SELECT THE FAMILIES SCREEN where you can add appropriate

selections for your Church database. NOTE: Please be sure to UNCHECK the button next to the statement SKIP FAMILIES

THAT DON’T HAVE SELECTED FUNDS:

Then click the PREVIEW button. You will now see a preview of the letters that will print. Click on the PRINT button to

actually print out the letters remembering that this will be for your entire Parish. Note: We strongly recommend you print a few letters (select a few families from family selection tab) to review before you print entire batch.

For Generic Renewal (Campaign) Letter To All Parishioners:

See instructions above under “For ST (20) Campaign Letter - Segmented Based Upon Past Contributions”, except you will use the ST (20) Campaign Letter - Generic letter.

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ENTERING PLEDGES

The follow-up mailing is based on your input into PDS Church Office for this year’s Stewardship 2020 commitment renewal. Entering terms/rates & keywords into fund 1-20 will keep track of who has and who hasn’t yet pledged. Prior to keying in the new commitment cards for the Stewardship 2020 renewal, you will need a fund 1-20 for each family.

Enter Pledges with Keywords From the Ribbon Main Menu,

Click on CONTRIBUTIONS button Click in the Quick Search area and select the family whose pledge you will enter. Using the Funds Used pull down button, choose 1-20. If the family does not have a fund 1-

20 in the Funds Used pull down list, add it by clicking on ADD FUND button. Using the Keyword 1 pull down arrow, choose one of the TEMPORARY KEYWORDS, Send

20 Stewardship TY, or New No 20 Stewardship like this:

NOTE: FOR THOSE FAMILIES WHO HAVE INCREASED THEIR PLEDGE FROM LAST YEAR - Using the Keyword 2 pull down arrow, select ST 20 Pledge Increase.

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In the Terms & Rates area of the screen, add the pledge for this family. Here is an example of a family pledging $150 monthly:

Click on the Save button and then the Close button Then proceed with entering in the commitment card information in Fund 1-20, for each

family.

NOTE: There is also a Quick Posting process for entering Rates/Terms. To use this process instead, go to:

* CONTRIBUTIONS* QUICK POSTING* PLEDGE CARD ENTRY* CHOOSE INDIVIDUAL ENTRY METHOD

Ongoing - continue to enter the commitment cards as you receive them

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THE TALENT/MINISTRY COMMITMENT CARD [If you do your Time/Talent Campaign at a separate time, please skip this section.]

Your follow-up mailing will be based on your input for this year’s Stewardship commitment renewal. Entering ministry keywords on the Member’s Ministry screen in PDS will keep track of who has made a pledge of time or talent. Prior to keying in the new commitment cards for the Stewardship 2020 renewal, you must have set up the Ministry Keywords.

Enter the Talent/Ministry Commitments for Members From the Main Ribbon Menu,

Click on FAMILIES Click on Quick Search area and select the family whose commitment you will enter.* Click on MEMBERS button and locate the correct family member.* Click on the MINISTRIES/TALENTS tab* Using the button, enter the Talent/Ministry keyword(s) for this member (Ministries are on

the top half; Talents on the bottom half). Be sure to enter the proper status for each. In our sample data, we used ‘Actively Involved’, ‘Chairperson’ or ‘Volunteered’, which have the proper setting for Currently Involved. (see example below):

* The ministries listed with the proper status will be included in the thank you letter for this family.

* After completing this MEMBER, move on to other members in the family, adding appropriate MINISTRIES to their individual screens.

* Then proceed with entering in the commitment card information for the other families.OngoingPlease continue to enter the time and talent cards as you receive them. Then send a Follow Up letter asking those who have not yet done so to turn in a commitment card.

For information on useful reports for following-up with the individual ministry interest of your parishioners, please see Appendix B on page 25.

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THE FOLLOW UP LETTERS

The week of November 11th, you will send the 1st follow up letter to those who have not yet returned a card. The directions below will assist you with the selection process.

Prior to beginning this process, complete all steps involved in entering commitment cards and keywords – so you do not send a follow up letter to a family who has already made a pledge.

Printing Follow Up Letter #1 (Segmented Letter) Send out a follow-up letter the week of November 11th to ALL parishioners who have not returned a commitment card.

A NOTE OF CAUTION: This letter uses IF STATEMENTS to choose the appropriate letter for each parishioner. There are actually multiple sections in the text of this letter. Be sure to edit all of the appropriate areas for Church specific content. Please do not change anything that is highlighted in colors as these are the conditional statements that control the output. The wording can be adjusted in the various segmented sections as long as the MERGED FIELDS and IF STATEMENTS are not altered.

For ST (20) Follow Up Letter #1: Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on REPORTS Expand the FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS sub-section Click on ST (20) Follow Up Letter #1 and then click the NEXT button until you reach the

following screen:

Enter the appropriate step percentages and click NEXT until you reach the SET THE LETTER LAYOUT screen, which looks like this:

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You may change the Letterhead Style to one of the following: Fancy, Simple or No Letterhead.

You can also change the Letter Date Style & the Inside Address Styles if you choose. The Closing Style must be: NO CLOSING as the closing is contained inside the body of the

letter. Click on the MODIFY THE TEXT OF THE LETTER button to modify anything in the text of

the letter and to modify the closing of the letter to the appropriate personnel for your Church. Click on OK to save the changes that you’ve made to the body of the letter. Click on the NEXT button when you’re finished with this dialog. On the Funds to Print dialog, please select a date range of 01/01/2019 thru 12/31/2019 and

add Fund 1 to the list of funds to print. Your screen should look like this:

Click on the Next button This will bring up the SELECT THE FAMILIES SCREEN

where you can add appropriate selections for your Church database.

NOTE: Please be sure to UNCHECK the button next to the statement SKIP FAMILIES THAT DON’T HAVE SELECTED FUNDS:

You will also need to add entries to the ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS tab so that your screen looks like:

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Please ensure that you have lines #1 and #2 in correctly, that the top line has ANY instead of ALL, and that the EXCLUDE RATHER THAN INCLUDE THE SELECTED RECORDS box is checked. This selects only those families that should receive a follow up letter.

Please also check the USE OPTIMIZER button as this will speed up the selection process. Then click on the PREVIEW button. You will now see a preview of the letters that will print.

Printing Follow Up Letter #2 (Non-Segmented)

The 2nd Follow up letter is the same for all parishioners. Send out the 2nd Follow-up letter on November 18th to ALL parishioners who have not returned a commitment card.

For ST (20) Follow Up Letter #2: Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on REPORTS Expand the FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS sub-section Click on ST (20) Follow Up Letter #2. Use the date range of 01/01/2019 thru 12/31/2019 NOTE: Please be sure to UNCHECK the button next to the statement SKIP FAMILIES

THAT DON’T HAVE SELECTED FUNDS Use the ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS tab so that your screen looks like:

Please ensure that you have lines #1 and #2 in correctly, that the top line has ANY instead of ALL, and that the EXCLUDE RATHER THAN INCLUDE THE SELECTED RECORDS

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box is checked. This selects only those families that should receive a follow up letter. Please also check the USE OPTIMIZER button as this will speed up the selection process. Then click on the PREVIEW button. You will now see a preview of the letters that will print.

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THE THANK YOU LETTER

The thank you letter will be sent to families who have turned in a commitment card for this year’s commitment renewal. Mail to parishioners no later than November 11th, 18th and as needed.

Printing the Thank You Letter

From the Main Menu Click on CONTRIBUTIONS Click on REPORTS Expand the FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS sub-section Click on ST (20) Thank You Letter and then click the NEXT button until you reach the SET

THE LETTER LAYOUT screen. It looks like the following:

You may change the Letterhead Style to one of the following: Fancy, Simple or No Letterhead.

You can also change the Letter Date Style & the Inside Address Styles if you choose. The Closing Style must be: NO CLOSING as the closing is contained inside the body of the

letter. Click on the MODIFY THE BODY OF THE LETTER button to modify anything in the text of

the letter and to modify the closing of the letter to the appropriate personnel for your Church. Click on OK to save the changes that you’ve made to the body of the letter. Click on the NEXT button when you’re finished with this dialog. On the Funds to Print dialog, please select a date range of 01/01/2020 thru 12/31/2020 and

add Fund 1 to the list of funds to print. Your screen should look like this:

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Click on the Next button This will bring up the SELECT THE FAMILIES SCREEN where you can add appropriate

selections for your Church database. You will also need to add entries to the ADDITIONAL SELECTIONS tab so that your screen looks like:

Please ensure that you have the selection lines in correctly AND that the top line uses ANY rather than ALL. This selects only those families that should receive a thank you letter.

Please also check the USE OPTIMIZER button as this will speed up the selection process. Then click on the PREVIEW button. You will now see a preview of the letters that will print. Click on the PRINT button to actually

print out the letters remembering that this will be for your entire Parish.

A NOTE FOR THOSE THAT DO NOT WANT TO LIST MINISTRY INFO IN THE THANK YOU LETTERS:

The thank you letter includes a ministry section as well. If you have done your Time & Talent campaign previously or plan to do it at another time during the year, you can remove the ministry information from the thank you letter. To list only the Stewardship pledge info in the thank you letter, please MODIFY THE TEXT OF THE LETTER and delete the following lines:

<List: ST20TM>

Note: it appears three times in the text of the letter. Please be sure to remove it in all three locations.

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Then click on the Save/OK button.

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Combining the Stewardship Fund Keywords

After you run each set of thank-you letters, combine the temporary keyword, Send 20 Stewardship TY to the permanent keyword, 20 Stewardship. This will tag each family that has turned in a commitment card this year.

Combine the temporary keyword New No 20 Stewardship to the permanent keyword No 20 Stewardship.

Insert the Send 20 Stewardship TY and New No 20 Stewardship temporary keywords back into the Fund Keyword list.

See instructions under “Setting Up Keywords for Funds” for more details on the Funds Keyword list.

From the Main Menu, Click on the FILE Select KEYWORDS Select FAMILY/FUND KEYWORDS Select FUND KEYWORDS Click on COMBINE KEYWORDS. This will bring up the following screen:

Select Send 20 Stewardship TY from the left-side window and 20 Stewardship from the right-side window and then click the ‘Add to List of Changes Below’ button

Click the COMBINE/OK button. This will combine the keywords. While dialogue box is still open, click on the GREEN circle and re-insert the Send 20

Stewardship TY temporary keyword back into the Fund Keyword list. Repeat this process to convert the temporary keyword New No 20 Stewardship into permanent keyword No 20 Stewardship

See instructions under “Setting Up Keywords for Funds” for more details on the Funds Keyword list (Page 8/9).

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When the next batch of commitment cards arrives, repeat the process. Enter the temporary keyword, Send 20 Stewardship TY or New No 20 Stewardship, into the family’s fund, along with the pledge information.

So the process looks like below.

NOTE: As commitment cards begin to come back to you in smaller quantities, it might be easier to note their I.D. number and sort the Thank you letter by ID using these numbers.

Additional Follow-up Suggestion

If you have already sent follow-up letters (Letter 1 and/or Letter 2), we also suggest another follow-up letter (or email or phone call) to those who turned in a pledge card last year but have not turned in a pledge card for the upcoming year. This follow up is best to do a week or two after the completion of the treasure renewal (for most of you this would take place at the end of November or the beginning of December). This particular follow-up is easy to do using the PDS “List of Lost Pledgers” report.

List of Lost Pledgers Report CONTRIBUTIONS REPORTS FINANCIAL ANALYSIS REPORTS LIST OF LOST PLEDGERS/NEW PLEDGERS Click on the NEXT button until you reach the ‘Select Funds to Print’. The date range should

be 01/01/2020 to 12/31/2020 and the ‘Funds to Print’ should be set for Fund 1. Click NEXT and the screen should be set in the following manner:

o Under ‘Print Options’, check the box for ‘Print Lost Pledgers’o Under ‘Modification Options’, check the box for ‘Add Family Keyword’ (add in a

keyword such as ‘not current 20 pledger’). This will allow you to mark those who pledged last year but not this year

o Under ‘Previous Beginning and Ending Date’, the date range should be 01/01/2019 to 12/31/2019

Click NEXT and make sure box for ‘Include Active Families’ is checked. Then click on PREVIEW. Your screen should now look like this:

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Important: The dates circled on the top should compare the previous year with the current year. The names circled on the bottom will be all of the people who turned in a pledge card last year but have not turned in a pledge for the upcoming year. They are now individually marked with the keyword you applied above so a targeted letter (or email or phone call) can be sent as an additional follow-up.Click here to see directions on how to run the List of Lost Pledgers letter for Lost Pledgers.

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APPENDIX A – Envelopes and Labels

The new PDS Church Office Management program has built in label and envelope layouts available under FAMILY REPORTS and FINANCIAL REPORTS. When running the labels or envelopes, you MUST use the same criteria as the letter that you are trying to match them with.

If the letter you are printing labels or envelopes for was run under FAMILY EASY REPORTS, you should use: FAMILIES | REPORTS | LABEL/ENVELOPE REPORTS and then choose either FAMILY MAILING LABEL or FAMILY MAILING ENVELOPE.

If the letter you are printing labels or envelopes for was run under FINANCIAL EASY REPORTS, you should use: CONTRIBUTIONS | REPORTS | LABEL/ENVELOPE REPORTS and then choose either FAMILY MAILING LABEL or FAMILY MAILING ENVELOPE.

Please review the individual instructions for each letter, as you will want to make sure that you use EXACTLY the SAME criteria on the SELECT THE FAMILIES SCREEN and the FUNDS TO PRINT screen as were used on the original letter report. Please also make sure that the SKIP FAMILIES THAT DON’T HAVE SELECTED FUND(S) box is unchecked.

The program allows you to choose differerent label and envelope layouts, based upon your specific needs. To change these, you will modify the following screens:

OR

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APPENDIX B – Ministry Follow Up Reports

There are several different reports within PDS Church Office that will help with follow-up activities related to ministry volunteers. One of the better reports for follow-up activities is the Ministry Planning Worksheet.

Go to FAMILIES | REPORTS | STEWARDSHIP | MINISTRY – TALENTThen PREPARATION | LIST OF MEMBERS

Another report that is useful for evaluation is the Ministry Involvement Date Comparison for Ministries report.

Go to FAMILIES | REPORTS | STEWARDSHIP | MINISTRY – TALENTThen EVALUATION | MINISTRY INVOLVEMENT DATE COMPARISON

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