Custom auto-responders (thank you emails)

A thank-you email is an email message which is sent off to a supporter once they have completed any page in the software, for example signing a petition or making a donation to your organisation. You can read more about them here.

Most of the time it may be sufficient to only set up one default message, as even a single message can be customised to some extent by inserting data about the supporter or about the donation being made, for example.

For further customization, you can create entirely different messages which will be sent instead of the default if certain criteria are met. These are “Custom Auto-responders”.

Creating a custom Thank You email

Once you have created your Default message (which will go to all supporters unless they meet any additional criteria) you can start adding additional Custom messages using the green + symbol symbol.

Note: donation pages do not have a default message. Instead they have a Single Gift message with the option to also add a Recurring Gift message or Custom message.

Some items in your Default message need to be provided, even if you intend to finish the content of this message later. You should make sure you have added a “Subject line” and a plain text version of your message, then click Save.

If anything is missing, you’ll see an error message at the top of your editor window. Otherwise, you’ll see a pop-up where you can set the type of thank you email to create:

Custom thank you email types

The thank you email types available will depend on the page type.

Custom types allow you to add filters for supporter field. Donation pages also allow you to filter on donation amount, currency, recurring donation frequency, if a new supporter, if donated in memoriam, and based on Appeal code, Direct gift, Payment type and fields Other 1-4. It also allows filtering based on event ticket for event pages.

Recurring gift types are only available for donation pages. They do not have filters on and should be used if there is a possibility that the supporter could submit a recurring gift.

Custom thank you email fields

Once you have selected your thank you email type, your new message will appear as an additional tab:

The fields you need to complete are similar to the default thank you message, except you should also provide:

Name of Rule: For your own reference you should give the custom thanks email a name
Short Name: Once saved, the value you provide here will replace the tab name (“Custom” by default) and allow you to distinguish between messages. It is important to make sensible choices here, especially if you are working with many custom messages.
Priority: Each message has a unique priority number. This is useful if you have rules that overlap in their selections of supporters. The highest priority is 1.
Filters: Filters are then used to decide when to send this message instead of the Default message. More about these next

You would then continue to add the Subject, Sender, Receipt and message as usual. The message editing aspects of creating the custom auto-responder is identical to that of the default message. Remember to generate the plain text again if you make edits to messages after they were originally created. This will ensure that supporters using any kind of email client will receive the same content.

Supporter field filters

Supporter field filters allow you to send thank you emails that depend on submitted data (supporter fields). For example you could send a different thank you email if the supporter ticked a box to say they are interested in finding out more about membership. The fields you need to consider are:

Apply to: If you are using a donation page, you apply the rule to Single gifts or Recurring gifts.
Filters: this is where you choose the type of filter. In this case it is “Supporter field”. Click the green [+] button to attach the filter
If submitted value of: choose the field you want to filter on
You can then add the operator, either Equals, Not equals, Starts with or Ends with
And finally you would type in the value you want to filter on

You can add multiple filters which string together via an “AND” rule, which means each condition must be true for that thank you email to be sent.

Donation amount filters

If you choose a donation amount filter, you can filter for donations that are higher than, less than or between your custom values.

Donation currency filters

If you are accepting multiple currencies, you can create filters that apply to different currency values.

New supporter filters

This is pulled based on the supporter’s email record being new to the account.

In Memoriam filters

This filters according to if a donation was made in memoriam.

Appeal code filters

This allows filter options based on the appeal code associated with the transaction.

Direct gift filters

This offers filter options depending on if the direct gift is higher than, lower than, or in between specified values. Additional operators have been added to the Direct Gift filter in custom autoresponders. This list now includes equal to, not equal to, starts with and ends with.

Recurring Frequency

Recurring frequency filter has been added in to allow for further customization of recurring payment autoresponders.

Other 1-4 Filters

For Custom Fields Other 1, Other 2, Other 3, and Other 4, additional filters can be added to specify according to the value being equal, not equal, starts with, or ends with a specified value.

Payment Type

For payment type, additional filters can be added to specify according to the value being equal, not equal, starts with, or ends with a specified value.