When generating a letter, Bloomerang automatically skips constituents with bad, incomplete, or missing addresses. You can view the constituents that Bloomerang skipped, and decide how to handle those constituents by fixing them, filtering them out, or continue generating the letter anyway.
View Skipped Recipients
Even the best database has some constituents with bad, incomplete, or missing addresses. Of course, you don't want to send letters that will never reach your constituents, and Bloomerang CRM automatically skips those constituents when generating your letters. To view the skipped recipients and the reason for the skip, click Skipped Recipients. If there are more than 100 skipped recipients, Bloomerang CRM shows only the first 100.
Address Issues
Constituents are skipped if their address has any of the following issues:
Bad address: The constituent's address has been marked as bad by a user or by an NCOA update.
Incomplete Address: The constituent's address is missing either the street address, city, state, or ZIP code.
Missing Address: The constituent's address is empty.
You can still generate letters for constituents that have bad, incomplete, or missing addresses. To do this, click Details, then select the option Allow Bad, Incomplete, or Missing Addresses?
Merge Field Issues
Blank [Merge field name]. The letter or email contains a merge field which does not have a value for at least one constituent. For example, if a transaction letter has a merge field for Campaign, but a constituent has a transaction with no Campaign, this will cause the constituent to be skipped.
Multiple values for [Merge field name]. The letter contains a merge field that has multiple values for at least one constituent. For example, if a transaction letter has a merge field for "Date", but a constituent has more than one transaction, Bloomerang CRM will skip the constituent.
To generate letters or emails with blank merge fields, click Details, then select the option Allow Blank Merge Fields?
Handle Skipped Recipients
You can handle skipped recipients while generating your letters by fixing the addresses, filtering them out, or you can handle them later by continuing to generate your letters.
Fix Address Issues and Blank Merge Fields
To fix bad, incomplete, or missing addresses:
Open Bloomerang CRM in a new tab by right-clicking the Home button and clicking Open Link in a New Tab.
Go to a skipped recipient's Profile.
(Optional) To update an address, click the Edit button for the bad or incomplete address. Update the address, uncheck the Bad/Invalid Address button if it is checked, and click Save.
(Optional) To add a missing address, click the + icon under the Address section, add an address, and click Save.
(Optional) To update a blank merge field, navigate to the field, update its value, and click Save. For example, if you are running a transaction letter with a merge field for Campaign, navigate to the transaction and select the appropriate Campaign.
Repeat steps 3, 4, or 5 for each skipped recipient.
Go back to the letter template that you were working on and click Save and Preview.
Fix Multiple Values for Merge Fields
If a constituent is skipped because they have multiple values for a merge field, this usually means that they have more than one transaction or interaction that meets the selected filters. For example, if a letter has a merge field for Date or Fund, but a constituent has multiple transactions that meet the selected filters, with different values for Date or Fund, then the constituent will be listed under Skipped Constituents, and the merge field issue might indicate "Multiple values for Date," or "Multiple values for Fund."
To fix the merge field issue, consider doing any of the following:
Narrow down your filters to isolate the transaction or interaction for which you are generating the letter.
Generate one letter per transaction or interaction.
If you are creating a transaction letter and you would like to generate the letter per constituent or household, remove the merge field and add a data table instead. Then add the field as a column in the table.
Filter Out Bad Addresses
If there are more than 100 skipped recipients, and you'd rather filter out the bad, incomplete, or missing addresses, do the following:
Run a report of bad, incomplete, or missing addresses. You can save this report for use with other letter templates.
On the letter template, click Filter.
Exclude the report from the letter's filters by doing the following:
In the Exclude section, click Add Filter or OR.
(Optional) If you are in a Transaction or Interaction letter, search for and select Constituent.
(Optional) If you are in a Constituent letter, proceed to the next step.
In the Include section, click Add Filter.
Select Is In a Constituent Report.
Click Select a Report, then select your LYBUNT report.
Click OK until you return to the main page.
Click Save And, then Preview to continue generating the letters. If there are still Skipped Recipients, they should no longer include bad, incomplete, or missing addresses.
Work through any remaining skipped recipients, then click Save and Preview.
Generate the Letter
To continue generating the letter for valid recipients and deal with skipped recipients later, do the following:
After you have fixed any address and merge field issues, open your letter.
Click Filter, then exclude the constituents who have already received the letter by doing the following:
In the Exclude section, click Add Filter.
(Optional) If you are in a Transaction or Interaction letter, search for and select Constituent.
(Optional) If you are in a Constituent letter, proceed to the next step.
In the Include section, click Add Filter, then search for and select Has Interactions.
Click Interactions, then select Specific Interactions.
In the Include section, click Add Filter, then search for and select Subject. Enter the subject of the letter, then click OK.
In the Include section, click And, then search for and select Date. Enter the date that the letter was run, then click OK.
(Optional) Add more filters as needed to isolate the mailing.
Click OK until you are back on the main page.
Click Save And, then Preview to continue generating the letters.