These steps are for CoolFocus 5.
In CoolFocus 3 you ran a list and merged it into your own Word letter. In CoolFocus 5, your letter becomes a document template. You set it up once. After that, each year CoolFocus fills in every donor's name, address, gifts, and total when you print.
Setting up a template takes an administrator, because it needs the Manage Templates permission. Anyone who can print from the Donors list can run it.
Start from the Giving Statement design (recommended)
This keeps the parts that are hard to rebuild by hand: the gift table, the total, the dates, and the tax sentence. You only swap in your own words.
Go to Give → Email & Print → Document Templates and click Create New.
Choose Giving Statement.
Click the gear icon (Template details). Give it a name, for example Year-End Statement – Cash. Keep Active and Show on Actions on, and click Save.
Click into the letter and replace the wording with yours. You can copy paragraphs from your Word letter and paste them in.
To add a donor's details anywhere in the text, type
{and pick a field, for example First Name.Leave the gift table, the total, and the tax sentence where they are. They fill in for each donor.
Switch to Preview, choose a donor under Preview with, and read it through.
Already have the letter in Word? Upload it
Go to Give → Email & Print → Document Templates and click Upload Word doc.
Choose your .docx file and click Import.
If the letter has a table, CoolFocus asks whether it should become a live list of the donor's gifts. For a cash letter, choose Convert to live Contributions table and click Continue. To keep the table exactly as you typed it, click Keep all as HTML.
CoolFocus changes your CoolFocus 3 merge fields (the «First_Name» kind) into CoolFocus 5 fields where it can. Any it doesn't recognize are listed and left as plain text. Click Open template.
For each field left as text, delete it, type
{, and pick the matching field.
The { list has the donor's own details. It doesn't have the statement's dates or total yet. If your letter needs those, start from the Giving Statement design and paste your wording in instead.
Fields you'll likely want
These are already in the Giving Statement design:
Addressee: the name for the envelope ("Scott and Angela Pierce" for a couple)
Greeting Name: for "Dear …" ("Scott and Angela")
Start Date and End Date: the dates you choose when you print
Total Amount: the donor's total for those dates
Tax Statement (goods or services): the right tax sentence for each donor
The { list adds name, address, and email fields, Current Date, and Full Address.
Logo and signature
The Letterhead block prints the logo saved in Settings → Organization Settings.
For a signature, type
/, choose Image, and upload a scan of the signature (PNG or JPG, up to 10MB).
Print your statements
Go to Give → All Donors, or open a segment of the donors who should get one.
Click Print, then Documents.
Choose your template, set the Date (for example, January 1 to December 31), and click Print.
You get one PDF with a statement for each donor. Giving statements list cash gifts only, and in-kind gifts never appear on them.
Gifts-in-kind statements
In-kind gifts have their own letter, so your cash and in-kind statements stay separate, just like your two Word documents.
Go to Give → In-Kinds and click Filter. Choose Date Received, then Last year (or Between... for your own dates).
Click Print, then Documents, and choose In-Kind Summary. Each donor gets one letter listing their items, with the date and description of each.
To use your own wording, change the text on the Customize screen. Then click Save as Template and name it, for example Year-End Statement – In-Kind. Next year, it's in the same list.
The in-kind letter lists items, not dollar values. In-Kind Statement (Print) is a shorter letter without the item list.
Want help with the first one?
Send us your Word letter from the Help button, and we'll set it up with you.