A Trigger Action can be used to create a mail merge to a Word document. This is especially useful for Thank You letters, event attendance confirmations, or volunteer forms, etc. 

This article guides you through:

• Creating the Trigger
• Adding the Conditions
• Preparing the Word document template
• Adding the Action
• Printing the Documents

Create the Trigger

A Word Document Action can be used for the majority of Trigger Types - see the availability in the Triggers article. To create the chosen Trigger:

• Open Data Management > Triggers
• Click on the + button to the right
• Add a Description and choose your Trigger Type from the drop-down list
• Click on Save Changes 
• The Trigger is now saved and you can start to add the conditions and action(s).
• By default it is set as Active - it is advisable to set to not active whilst the Trigger is being built

Add the Conditions

The Conditions are the criteria that must be met for the Trigger to be passed to the Actions stage. These are based on a List, or series of Lists. The List Types that can be used with the particular Trigger Type can be found here: Triggers

To add a Condition:

1. Click on the Add Condition button
2. Choose the List Type you want to add and click Add
3. Set it so that the Constituent must be either in or not in the particular List
4. Click on the drop-down list and scroll through to locate your List (you can also free type in the box and it will start to search the Lists for you), once selected it will be set.  

Continue with steps 1- 4 until all the Lists needed are added and then click Save Changes.

Preparing the Document

When creating your document, letter or acknowledgement, at the points where you would like to feature detail from Donorfy, add a brace { and insert your keyword as a placeholder, then close with a brace } 

For example,

• to add the Constituent's Label Name add {Label Name} 
• to add a financial amount, e.g a donation, add {Amount} 

It's advisable to keep the placeholders in the document as close to the Donorfy field names as you can do so it makes mapping the fields easier and also means that when reading the document template it's more apparent as to what will be included.

Once your template document is completed and saved it can be uploaded to the Trigger Action.

Adding the Action

To add the document to the Trigger, click on Add Action

Next, select the Create a Word Document option and click on Add

Give your Action a suitable name

Upload your document template to the Trigger either by dragging and dropping into the grey hatched area, or clicking into the area and then locating your document template from the computer file locator window. 

Once added, the document template will show as the current file and a set of mappings will be displayed.

Click on to each of the items to be mapped and select the relevant Donorfy field. 

Once all of the mappings have been completed, click on Save Changes.

There is an option to set the Acknowledged on Date, as today, for Transactions that are being thanked via this method.

To set this, close out of your Trigger and re-open it and navigate back to the Actions section. 

Click on the Edit button for the Action. The 'This document is to acknowledge a transaction' option is now available to be set as required.  

The option to Only run if all previous actions are successful will also be available to set at this stage also.

Click on Save Changes

There is no limit on the number of documents that can be added as Actions.

The Trigger can now be set as Active and Tested. 

Printing the Documents

When a Constituent passes the Conditions tests, a document will be made available to download from Data Management > Documents to print

A List of available downloads will be presented. This List can be filtered to show which items have been downloaded already or are still to be downloaded. 

Locate the Constituent requiring the document from the list of Constituents presented and click on the Download button. 

This will now download a Word document to your Downloads folder on your computer. 

When the document is opened, the data fields that were mapped for merging will now contain the details from the Constituent profile/timeline item.

The document can now be printed and sent to the Constituent.

If your Trigger Action was set to Yes for This document is to acknowledge a transaction the Transaction will now feature an Acknowledged on Date.