What's New in DM 6.38

released September 9, 2023

  • .01:  this version includes a major update to the "advanced report previewer" that fixes a long standing problem with previewing and printing reports on computers with high resolution screens, including most modern laptops).  This feature can be turned on at Settings -> Report Printing Options -> Use Advanced Report Previewer -> Yes.   Highly recommended as it includes a number of very nice enhancements to the reports.

 

What's New in DM 6.37

released August 31, 2023

  • .01:  this update fixes a bug in the filter routine for "does not have an email address."  This filter is available for reports, exports, envelopes, and mailing labels.

What's New in DM 6.36

released May 4, 2023

  • .00: this update fixes a bug in the "unthanked gift reports"where the program sometimes doesn't list all of the gifts that have not yet been thanked.

What's New in DM 6.35

released March 3, 2023

  • .01:  this update includes a gift importer (beta) for Teen Missions CSV files
  • .01: There is also a gift importer for CSV files that can be downloaded from tntWares Donor Hub service. Since Donor Hub is used by many organizations, this makes Donor Manager imports much easier for those client organizations.
  • .02: this update adds a gift importer for the E Free Church of Canada Donor Hub contribution reports
  • .05: this update adds a testing version of a name and address exporter to transfer DM data to MPDx, tntConnect, and other similar databases.  Feedback is invited. This option is on the home screen under "Data Tools."
  • .07: this updates adds "check number" (or other reference) to the annual giving statement report

What's New in DM 6.34

released January 2023

  • .01: this update includes a fix for a bug seen by some users where the "annual giving statements" routine did not find one of the data tables

What's New in DM 6.33

released October 2022

  • 01: this update allows the user to define additional contribution methods (for those using manual gift entry)
  • .02: this updates fixes a minor bug in the live update routine

What's New in DM 6.32

released September 20, 2022

  • 01:  this update has a new gift importer for WBT / SIL Workday CSV files.  This file format changed in Dec 2020.  You'll need to change your import type to "WBT Workday CSV Dec 2020" to get this new importer to work.
  • .02: this update includes a minor change in the "Export all Fields for E-Mail" routine.  It now includes the "Source" field for each partner.
  • .03:  this update deletes orphaned group records when a partner master record is deleted.  Previously, these group records remained.
  • .04:  this update fixes a bug in the envelope and label printing routines. If the "by last name" sort order is selected, it did not always sort properly and brought unexpected results.  It now looks at the "File As" field to know how best to sort.
  • .05 & .06: This update has no new features, but corrects a version number error in 6.32.04.
  • .07: this update includes a new utility routine on the pull down "Tools" menu that causes the giving grid (year by year, month by month) to be recalculate if it happens to get out of sync with the giving details.  This should not happen, but sometimes it does and this routine gets these two giving tables back in sync.  I suggest making a backup before running this routine. 
  • .08: this update fixes a bug in the gift -> donor matching routine that would sometimes try to connect a donation to the wrong donor
  • .09: this update fixes a bug that causes a crash when adding or editing a partner "touch" record, and hitting <Pg Up> or <Pg Dn>
  • .10:  this update extends the previous bug fix (.09) to some other places in the program that were missed the first time.
  • .12:  this update changes how multiple gifts given on the same day to a donor are handled to give greater flexibility.  It also fixes a bug in the "recalulcate the giving details list from the giving history grid" routine.

What's New in DM 6.31: A major change in how the "Backup On Exit" works

released December 10, 2020

  • 01:  There is a major change in how the program does "backup on exit." 

    Previously, the program would make copies of most of the major data files in your desired backup folder each time you quit the program if you made any changes.

    However, each time the program would make a backup, it would overwrite whatever files were in that folder.  So, if there was some data corruption that you didn't notice, there was only a small chance that you could recover the data.

    As a result, these backups were often useless.

    In this update, the "backups on exit" are made as a zip file, with the date as part of the file name.  As a result, you wil have layers of backups, each dated. 

    I would recommend that you set your "Backup on Exit folder" (set in Settings -> Auto-Backup Options" to be a folder that does a clould backup (like OneDrive, DropBox, Google Drive, or whatever you use.  That would give you a series of effortless cloud backups as well as a local backups.  

    You will want to clear older backups from these folders from time to time so not too much space is taken by these backups.

    Click here for a short video on how to set this up.
     
  • This update also includes some cosmetic changes in the user interface to improved readability, including some font changes and more spacing between lines in data grids.
  • .03: this update fixes a problem in the "review special days" grid that showed the word "memo" rather than the partner's name.
  • .04: this update includes a new gift importer for gifts from Kindful CMS (for Spoken Worldwide)
  • .05: this update includes a few minor interface changes
  • .06: this update includes a new option to the "review gifts for a month" report.  In addition to a comprehensive report with partner names and addresses, you can also select a "simplified" report format with just one line per gift.  Currently, this is only available from the "Review Monthly Giving" screen.
  • .07: this update fixes a bug in the manual gift posting routine that gave an error saying it could not determine what month to post a manually entered gift to.  This problem has been resolved.
  • .08: this update adds the field "giving method" to the "export giving details to Excel by  Fund ID."
  • .09: this update includes a new gift importer for Kindful CMS CSV files
  • .10: this update fixes a bug in the e-mail list filtering routine

What's New in DM 6.30

released October 1, 2020

  • .01:  this update adds additional checking for WGM contribution reports where there is sometimes extra blank lines in the report.
  • .02:  this update has a minor fix in the WBT UK gift importer to format contribution dates better
  • .05:  this update fixes a problem in the Assemblies of God gift importer.  They recently changed the format of some donor id numbers, and this update is now able to handle these new numbers.
  • .06: on the "reminders" screen, there is a new button that allows you to jump back to the partners detail screen with one click.
  • .08: this update includes a beta gift importer for a new ministry to test
  • .11: this update adds a beta gift importer for CSV files from Donor Perfect
  • .13: this update fixes a bug that caused an error when running the "Donations by Fund ID" report
  • .14:  this update fixes 2 bugs.  One bug prevented custom group filtering from working properly if there was a "-" character in the 4th position in a group name.  The second bug caused the donor record to change to a different partner after editing a "touch" or "reminder."
  • .15: This update fixes a bug in the "Report gifts between 2 dates."  The "export to Excel" seems to be working OK, but I'm not yet satisfied with the layout of the report.  Feedback from users would be helpful here.
  • .16: this update includes a new report on the "Giving Analysis Reports" page.  This report is like the SYBUNTY report, but allows you to specify a custom range to list donors whose most recent gift is more then X months ago, but less than X months ago.  The default range is more than 3 months ago, but less than 5 years ago, but you can change that as you wish.  Feedback on this new feature is invited and welcome.

What's New in DM 6.29

releaseed June 28, 2020

  • .01: This update includes an update to the CCCU gift importer
  • .01: This update includes a new report that shows contribution details for each donor.
  • .04: This update includes a new "Export all gift detail to Excel" option on the Reports pull down menu.
  • .04: This update also has some additional improvements to the new report "Contribution Details for all Partners."
  • .14: This update includes new gift importers for WBT importing from WorkDay.  Be sure to change the import type to WBT WorkDay CSV.
  • .15: This update fixes a bug in the "gifts by date range" report.
  • .16: This update fixes a bug in the manual gift entry screen that cause the error "Variable ref not found."
  • .17: this update fixes a bug in the Nappanee Missionary Church gift importer that caused problems with multi-line addresses
  • .18:  this update renames the tntMPD gift importer to tntConnect to reflect the name change of the tnt program. 
  • .19:  this update includes a new reporting option:  giving history by fund id.  This is on Monthly Giving Reports -> Giving by Fund ID
  • .20:  this update fixes a bug in the WBT WorkDay gift importer that did not properly recognize gifts more than 999.99.
  • .23:  this update includes a new gift import routine for Christar CSV files.  Set your organization type to be "Christar CSV as of May 2020" to get the correct installer.
  • .24: this update fixes an error in the previous update which caused the program to report an available upgrade ... but it would never get the new version.  This was a simple typo on my side in the version number. 
  • .24: this update fixes a bug in the "Recent Contributions" report that caused a error.
  • .24:  this update also fixes a bug (2 actually) in the "Giving Statement" report that caused an error.
  • .26: this update fixes a bug in the WBT UK CSV importer
  • .28: this update fixes a bug in program startup that triggered an error relating to the database schema for some users
  • .28: this update includes a new gift importer for MAF Canada.  It is looking for a csv file, so the xlsx files that staff receive need to be opened in Excel and resaved as a csv file.
  • .29: this update improves the gift import routine to include phone number updates from some organizations.

  • What's New in DM 6.28

    releaseed April 10, 2019

    • .01 / .02:  This update has bug fixes that resolve an error when exporting "Recent Gifts" to Excel.

    What's New in DM 6.27

    released December 3, 2018

    • .01:  a new routine is provide for testing purposes by World Gospel Mission staff. This allows you to take a file provided by Raiser's Edge that contains a list of the support pledges in RE, and compares it with what you have in DM.  It then produces a report that makes it easier to reconcile these two.  In the pull down "Tools" menu look for "RE Comparison Report"
    • .02:  an updated gift importer for Allegro .tab files is available to handle recent changes in the format of the gift file.
    • .03: this update includes a new gift importer for the Graduate Institute of Applied Linguistics.  To use this updated importer, change your import type to "GAIL August 2018."   Feedback is invited.
    • .04: this update includes a new gift importer for Sound Choice csv files.
    • .05: this update includes a new gift importer for Salem House of Prayer based on a QuickBooks CSV export.
    • .06: an updated gift importer is in this version for the E Free Church of Canada.  This assumes that you will provide an Excel 5.0 / Excel 95 file.  Change your import type to E Free Aug 2018 to get this latest importer
    • .06:  this update includes a new gift importer for the North American Mission Board CSV contributions file.  As this is new, feedback is invited.
    • .08: this update includes some changes to the fonts and colors used in the program to render sharper on Macs running under WINE.
    • .10: there are a number of minor cosmetic updates to this update, as well as some improvements to the "not yet thanked" routines and reports.
    • .11: in the program settings, the CCCU flag has been removed as it no longer applies to CCCU staff.
    • .12: this update fixes a cosmetic bug on the home screen if the user has more than $ 1,000 support pledged than needed.
    • .13: A new gift importer for CEF Canada is ready for testing.  It is expecting a .csv file, so if you are provided an .xlsx file, you will need to open it, then save it as a .csv file before you import the contributions.
    • .13: This update has an updated gift importer for TMS Global.

    What's New in DM 6.26

    released February 13, 2018

    • 01: When doing a backup on exit or creating an Excel file on exit, if the destination folder did not exist, the program exited with an error with an unhelpful error message.  More error checking has been added to help reduce these errors
    • 01: when marking gifts as thanked or unthanked on a donor page, the program would not record these properly in certain circumstances.  I believe that these errors have been fixed.
    • 01: There is an update to the Nappanee Missionary Church gift importer to handle the revised contributions report.  You need to change your gift import type to "NMS Feb 2018."
    • 01: This update includes a testing version gift importer for Mavuno Village.  The contributions come as an xlsx file which needs to be saved as a csv file before importing.
    • 01: This update includes a testing gift importer for files from Aware3 online contributions.  Feedback is welcome.

    What's New in DM 6.25

    released October 7, 2017
    • .01: There is a new (beta) gift importer for Commission to Every Nation Canada. Since the gift reports come from the office as a multipage xlsx file (and DM doesn't know how to handle those), you must first find the month that you want in your file, then save the file as a csv (using a logical name like "september 2017 gifts").  Excel will complain about losing data (on the other pages), but that is fine.  Then close the file in Excel and point DM to this new .csv file.   Feedback from users is invited
    • .02: this update includes a new gift importer for "Partners in Joy."
    • .03: this build includes an updated gift importer for TMS Global (look for TMS Global csv Sept 2017)
    • This also has a new gift importer for Nappanee Missionary Church.
    • .04 This update has a revised csv importer for Partners in Joy
    • .05 This update includes a new gift importer for Send International to support the new Virtuous system.  The importer is expecting a csv file.
    • .06 This update includes a revised gift importer for TMS Global. 

    What's New in DM 6.24

    released August 9, 2017

    • This release includes a new gift importer for Partners International using the new .csv format file.  Change your organization type to "Partners International CSV 2017" to use this new importer.
    • .02: this adds a new routine to the "data maintenance tools" to search for and eliminate duplicate website entries for partners.
    • .04: this update improves the Partners International gift import to include the gift "Dimensions" in the fund id and gift comments.

    What's New in DM 6.23

    released July 4, 2017

    • This release includes an updated gift importer for SEND / Silent Partner.

    What's New in DM 6.22

    released January 30, 2017

    • There was a bug in the 5 year summary chart that sometimes generated an error, especially near the beginning of a year.  If you are requesting the chart and there is no data for that new year, the chart omits the new year and gives the previous 4 years only.  Feedback on this is invited.

    • There was a bug in the "View Timeline" feature on the E-Mail / Social tab that sometimes showed up when requesting DM to show you the partners Facebook timeline.   That has been fixed in this update.

    • A new gift importer has been added for contribution reports generated by EasyTithe.com. 

    • .02:  The CMDA gift importer has been updated.

    • .05: The pack routine was updated to fix a bug that kept the social networks / email addresses file from being processed properly.  In addition, the <Send> email button routine has been updated to fix a bug where it would sometimes show email addresses that had been already deleted.

    • .06: This update includes a gift importer for Send International for their Silent Partner Cloud edition giving reports.  This is looking for a .csv file of the "Account Activity Details."  Look for "Send International Silent Partner CSV" on the import type selector. Feedback on this new gift importer is welcome.

    • .07: this update has a bug fix in the filtering on the partner listing screen.  If a custom group started with the letters "PD" the filter failed.  This bug has been fixed in this update.

     

    What's New in DM 6.21

    Released December 8, 2016

    • .01: this update includes a new gift importer for CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Society)

    What's new in DM 6.20

    Released 18 May 2016

    • .01: This update includes a nice new report:  "Recent Contributions."  This report allows you to give a starting month, and then the program will list each partner who gave since that month and each of their gifts.  Very handy for when you get behind in writing those thank you notes and emails.   As this report is new, feedback on how to make it more useful to you would be appreciated.
    • .02: when doing a "smart search" (by prefacing your search with a period or other punctuation mark), the search now also looks in phone numbers.
    • .03: when reviewing partners related to a church or organization, the list now omits deceased partners.
    • .04: this update fixes a bug in the sort order of the "Unthanked Gifts" report to make the report alphabetical order correct.
    • .05: a bug in the "Late Donors with Trailing 12 months" analysis was fixed.
    • .06: a bug in the "print some envelopes with a name range" has been fixed.
    • .06: some improvements have been made to the "generate a "file as ..." name" routine to handle additional name format situations
    • .09: general bug fixes and a new "export to Excel" option on the "recent gifts" report.

    What's New in DM 6.19

    Released 9 April 2016

    • This update includes significant improvements to the "active record" tracking in the program.  In the past, if you were looking at some of the screens, clicked on a partner name and then look at the detail record, sometimes the program would lose track of which partner you were interested in.  This update addresses that issue and will hopefully make this part of the program more reliable.
    • A bug was fixed in the "Search for a partner ..." feature that sometimes caused an error
    • The "Export data for MailChimp" now includes the first 250 characters of the "notes" field.  Previously, this information was not included in the CSV export.
    • You can now choose to sort your partner names alphabetically based on First Name, Last Name, or Last Name, First Name.  To change the sort order, go to Settings -> Data Defaults -> Sort Order
    • A bug was introduced in DM 6.19.04 that caused an error on startup if you were also importing DM 5 data on the first run of the program.  This has been fixed in this update.
    • This update also fixes a bug in the DM 5 -> DM 6 migrator that sometimes caused an error during the partner master file migration.
    • There are several layout improvements in giving analysis reports to improve readability.

    What's New in DM 6.18

    Released 7 March 2016

    • Several new filters have been added to the list of preconfigured filters available when viewing a donor list and donor reports
    • A number of cosmetic bugs have been fixed.
    • When viewing the Donor List using the "Profile and Lists" view, the "Send Newsletter" checkbox has been added to the list.
    • Some new information tiles have been added to the home page for "Support Goal" and "Support Yet to be Raised."
    • This update ensures that the field "Short Name" (used when making pack and go files and backup files" is properly created and available.
    • There is a new gift importer for Samson Ministries

    What's New in DM 6.17

    released 8 January 2016

    • New gift importers for several organizations have been released for testing, including the World Baptist Fellowship.
    • A change in terminology:  The program previously referred to "prospects."  It now uses the phrase "potential partners."  In addition, several new filters have been added to let you filter by "potential partners" and also "potential partners on my active partner development (pd) list."
    • A new browse "view" has been added to the partner list to make it easier to see information related to the potential partners.  This is similar to the "Potential Partners" screen on the "partner development" tab, but integrates it in more closely to the main partners browse screen
    • A new field has been added:  PD Goal.  This make it easy to mark a potential partner for a first time invitation to join your support team, asking a lapsed partner to rejoin your team and start giving again, challenging an existing partner to increase their support, or tagging a partner for a special gift appeal.   Feedback on this is invited!
    • A number of bugs have been addressed
    • Numerous screen and report improvements
    • An important update to the WBT HTML gift importer.   Change your gift import type to "WBT HTML January 2016 version" to use this new version.
    • The "merge my names to envelopes using Word" feature has been improved.  Some bugs that prevented a new envelope template from being created for some users has been fixed, and more feedback on the merge process is given as the merge is happening.
    • Fixed a bug in the "touches by date range" report that was showing touch records that had been deleted
    • Fixed a bug in the Partner Detail Screen that caused the screen to lose its filter if a new touch record was added.

    What's New in DM 6.16

    released 5 November 2015

    • Updated gift importers for several organizations:
      • Pioneers:  new tntMPD format gift importer ... select "Pioneers tntmpd Nov 2015"
      • Wycliffe Associates:  new CSV format gift importer... select "Wycliffe Associates CSV Nov 2015"
    • Minor adjustments to the Wycliffe Unity CSV gift importer

    Note: versions 6.14 and 6.15 were not released publicly.

    What's New in DM 6.13

    released 28 August 2015

    • New Organization: support for Allegro Solutions contributions files has been added (tab delimited)
    • New Currency:  The currency symbol R has been added for Rupees
    • Various bug fixes and UI improvements.
    • Windows 10:  some Windows 10 systems have trouble with the advanced report previewer (a 3rd party tool added a few versions back), so the code that starts this up has been moved to prevent a lock up when starting the program.

    What's New in DM 6.12

    released 21 May 2015

    • Fix: there were several bugs in the bulk email routines that affected a certain subset of users.  The result was that if they generated a bulk email source file (like for Mail Chimp or other email sending service) they did not get all of the names that they should have in the export file.  This has been fixed.
    • Fix:  if editing an email address from the partner master screen, and the edits were done in the "E-Mail" field in the upper half of the screen (rather then the "Social / E-Mail" tab in the bottom half of the screen), the program often did not correctly handle the deletions of email addresses.   As a result, a user could delete an email address from a parter, but then it would show up in an email export.  This has been fixed, but feedback is invited.
    • There are a number of minor updates to various reports and gift importers.

    What's New in DM 6.11

    released 18 March 2015

    • New: for Mac users who have been running the DM under WINE, the Pack and Go routine has been disabled for a while (the zip utility that I was using just would not work under WINE).   I have found a new zip utility for Mac users that DOES work under WINE, so Pack and Go is back for Mac users.  Feedback on this is invited.  Soon, this update will make it's way to the "Backup & Restore" options.
    • New: This update includes a new gift importer for OM USA
    • New: this update includes a new gift importer for The Mission Society (this one is self-generated by a TMS staffer, so feedback from other TMS staff is invited)
    • New: a partner export format specifically for use with Mail Chimp
    • New: on the partner listing there are now 5 sort order options:  Alphabetical, Post / Zip Code, Support Amount, PEO Status, and PD Status
    • New: there is a new report available from the "Potentially Lost Supporters" screen.  Feedback on this is invited.
    • Fix:  a bug in the pull down settings menu related to bulk envelope options has been fixed
    • Fix: a bug in the touch history report that often triggered an error has been fixed
    • Fix:  some users have had trouble with a corrupted monthstat data table error on startup.  The DM now recreates that table "on the fly" if needed on startup
    • Update: The WBT HTML gift importer to handle some format changes done by Orlando

    What's New in DM 6.10

    released 17 February 2015

    • This update includes many updates in gift importers for various organizations.  I'm still working with a number of users to sort out issues due to their missions updating their gift report formats
    • New: I have added a new field for a "short name" to be added to pack and go backup file names.  So, instead of a pack and go named "donor_data_date.zip" it will now be named "dm_data_john_smith_feb_15_2015.zip."  You can customize your "short name" at Settings -> My Information
    • A number of Mac and Linux users who are using DM with WINE report that they often get an error when previewing reports:  "Insufficient GDI resources."  For these users, I have added the ability to turn off use of advanced report previewer that is causing this error.  Find this option at Settings -> Report Options -> Use advanced report previewer -> No
    • I have updated some more screens to be more "small screen / netbook" friendly
    • The "monthly giving report" has been updated to allow you to choose 2015
    • I have changed how the program filters work for e-mail and paper newsletters.  Previously, if you selected "Paper" newsletters for a report filter, you got only the users who you had tagged for "Paper" newsletters. Now, you will get users tagged for "Paper" newsletters and "Both."  The same logic was applied for e-mail newsletters.
    • Fix: support summary page was not showing newsletter recipient information properly
    • New: the email groups page now shows the total number of people in each email method group
    • New: There is a new option on the tools menu called "Where is my data?"  This is useful for situations where you are not quite sure where your data files are. 
    • Fix: This update fixes a serious bug in the "restore data from a folder" that often caused the restore to fail, while it reported success.  Feedback on this is invited

    What's New in DM 6.09

    released 28 January 2015

    • Updated the gift importer for Wycliffe Canada
    • Updated the gift importer for Interserve
    • Updated the gift importer for United World Mission
    • Fixed a bug in the statement printing routine that occured if only a few partners were selected
    • Fixed a bug in the "Recent New Partners" tile on the home page that triggered an error if clicked.
    • Made some changes in the layout of the "backup options" page

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.08

    released 29 December 2014

    • Annual giving statements are now available for those who use the program to send end of year contribution reports to their supporters.  Your feedback and suggestions on how to make this more useful to you are welcome.
    • Additional screen changes have been made to make the DM more friendly to smaller screens.   There are still some unresolved issued on the partners detail screen for those with particularly small monitors / laptop screens.
    • Bug fix: some users have had trouble adding new Fund ID codes. A new blank code was being added, but the screen was not refreshing properly to show that.  This has been fixed in this update.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.07

    released 15 December 2014

    • Fixed a bug in the "print the reminders report" that caused a crash
    • Modified the "Giving analysis with trailing 12 months" report where some column totals did not show properly.   In addition,  you can now optionally mark "unthanked" gifts in yellow on the report (as on the giving history grid).
    • The spacing of the menu titles have been "tightened up" for users who have smaller screens.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.06

    Released 29 November 2014

    • This update includes a new gift importer for the E Free Canada.
    • It also includes a few UI updates and better handling for international character sets.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.05

    Released 27 October 2014

    This update includes significant enhancements to the "Partner Pledge Giving Levels Analysis" screen introduced in version 6.04.

    This screen includes additional information, most significantly a list of the partners at each of the support pledge levels.

    Also, you can define your own giving levels if you do not like the predefined ones or want to segment them differently.

    Also, there are 2 new reports ... one allows you to print a list of partners at a single giving level, and the other prints all partners with support pledges grouped by pledge level.

    You can find this at Partner Development -> Analysis -> Pledge Level Analysis.

    In addition, the program has a new report previewer that adds a lot of nice features.

    You can preview many page thumbnails at once, you can select your destination printer right from the report toolbar, you can also save your report as a pdf, doc (rtf), or xls file, and you can generate a pdf and email it from within the DM app (if you are using an email program on your computer ... not with a webmail client.)

    This is a separate download (about 1.3 mb) and generally installs very quickly.

    Feedback and suggestions are very welcome.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.04

    Released 23 October 2014

    This update includes a new screen: Partner Pledge Giving Levels Analysis.

    This does some analysis on your pledged partners, showing how many have pledged support at what amount per month.  It can help you see some interesting trends in your PD ministry.

    You can find this at Partner Development -> Analysis -> Pledge Level Analysis.

    Feedback is appreciated.

    In addition, there are a number of report layout improvements.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.03

    Released 22 October 2014

    This update includes several new reports to show "Touch / PD Activity" history.  You can choose several time period options and sort options.   These new reports are under Reports -> Other Reports -> Touch History and are also listed on the "home" page menu.

    When viewing a partner's detail screen, you can now use <PgUp> and <PgDn> on the keyboard to move from record to record.  You can also use <Control-Home> and <Control-End> to move to the first record or the last record.

    The "Hide Deceased Partners" check box is also available on the partners detail screen in addition to the partners list.

    A new filter option (when viewing the partners list) is available: Show deceased partners only.

    There is a new setting:  "Show country name on reports if different than your default country."   For people with a significant number of partners from different countries, this can be very helpful.  It will add the country name to the address / city on most reports if it is different than your normal, "default" country.  This can be turned on and off at Settings -> Report Options.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.02 / build 202

    Released 5 October 2014

    This update includes some new "quick access" menu drop downs for each of the main menu items along the top of the screen.

    Feedback on this is invited..

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.02 / build 201

    Released 4 October 2014

    New or improved features in this update:

    • A new gift importer for WBT Australia has been included to support the .txt files currently being used.   Feedback is invited.
    • The "Description" field in the "Social / E-Mail" networking tab has been increased in size to hold more information.

    This update includes the following bug fixes:

    • There is was a bug in the "backup to a folder" routine that caused the backup to go to the wrong folder.  Instead of backing up to the folder that you selected, it backed up to the folder you were using for "Quick Backups."  This has been fixed and it now backs up to the folder  you have selected.
    • There is a bug in the "Monthly Giving with trailing 12 month analysis" report.  This bug caused the report to repeat the first donor's information for each donor, but only the first time the report was run. It ran properly on subsequent runs.  This has been fixed, and a number of layout improvements to the report have been done as well.
    • There is more error checking done on program start up to reduce common start up issues.
    • When doing address updates when posting contributions, a cosmetic bug in the record count has been fixed.
    • There was a bug in the "touch analysis" screen that caused the partner master file to lose the connection to the touches for each donor for the duration of that session. That has been fixed.
    • When selecting <Print Single Envelope> from the partner details screen, an error was generated if you had not previously selected a printer driver to use for single envelopes.  Now the program gives an friendlier information dialog instead of triggering an error.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 127

    Released 27 September 2014

    • This build includes a number of small bug fixes, and interface improvements
    • The Main Menu has been re-arranged a bit, and some items have been renamed for greater clarity
    • Two new reports have been written to support partner list segmentation according to the PEO strategy, and also according to the PD phase.   Both should be quite useful and feedback on how to improve these reports is appreciated.
    • The Partner Giving Analysis report has had significant layout and field changes to make it (hopefully) more useful.
    • The program will now "hide" deceased partners by default.  You can change this using a check mark on the main partner list screen.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 126

    Released 18 September 2014

    • Build 126 includes some improved error checking in the bulk email routines.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 124

    Released 16 September 2014

    • Build 124 includes several small bug fixes, plus some enhancements to the backup routines.
    • It also includes a new top menu item "settings" to give easy access to program settings.
    • A bug in the e-mail / social network addresses screen was fixed.  If you change the primary email address in the social / email tab, it now updates the main email address in the top part of the partner detail screen also.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 122

    Released 15 September 2014

    • Build 122 includes a new gift importer for World Team (based on a csv file saved from an Excel file).
    • It also includes some additional error checking on some routines that would occasionally trigger an error message.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 120

    Released 26 August 2014

    • This update includes additional enhancements to Facebook integration from the partner detail screen, and a new, special list of Facebook friends in the Partner Development section of the program.
    • The 6 year summary report has an additional layout option.  You can get a simple, one line per partner list, or a more expanded report with address / phone / salutation information.
    • A bug that would arise in certain situations in the backup routine has been fixed.
    • Several report layouts have been improved and updated.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 119

    Released 19 August 2014

    • This update includes a bug fix in the name and address import from xls / csv routine that caused a crash in the last stage of the import.
    • The backup routine now checks to make sure that you are not backing up to the DM data or DM program folders.
    • There are a few additional report adjustments.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 117

    Released 12 August 2014

    • This update includes another change to the 12 month giving analysis report.  It now includes the date of the last touch for that partner.
    • The "Date of Last Touch" report used only report partners that had an email address (I do not remember why it was set up this way).  This filter has been removed to make this report more useful.   In addition, the sort order of this report has been adjusted, as well as a few layout details.
    • There have also been some layout and sorting improvements to the 6 Year Giving Analysis report.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 115

    Released 11 August 2014

    • This update includes a change to the 12 month giving analysis report.  You can now specify the month you would like this report to use as the "finish" date.   So, for example, if it is March and you'd like to see the last calendar year details, you can do that.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 114

    Released 11 August 2014

    • On the home screen, and on the Partner Development scoreboard screen, there is a title that shows "Total Number of Supporters."  In the past, this number was determined by the total number of partners who had ever made a contribution.  In this version, it is redefined to be those who have a currently support pledge.
    • The "Special Days (Birthdays, Anniversaries, etc.) screen has been updated, has more filters, and the corresponding report has been updated as well.
    • A bug was found in the "12 month giving analysis report" that caused the sort order to be wrong in certain situations.  This has been fixed.
    • A bug in the group filters was found.  If you find that your custom groups do not seem to be pulling up the right names, use /Tools -> Rebuild Group Information to regenerate this information.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 113

    Released 9 August 2014

    • There is a new screen:  Facebook addresses.  This screen (on the Partner Development screen) lists all of the Facebook profiles that you have entered into the Donor Manager.  Double click on a name and it will open that person's Facebook profile
    • The "Search" box has been moved to the upper right of all screens so you can find a partner record from any screen in the program now.  
    • Remember, you can also do a "smart search" here by putting a period (.) at the beginning of a search.  This causes the program to search in all parts of a partner's record, rather than just alphabetically by last name / surname.   Very handy when you remember that someone's first name is "Abigail" but can't remember the surname, or when you know their email address is "addy5687@gmail.com" but can't remember the name.  Just search for .abigail or .addy5 and it should find the record.
    • The "home" screen has been re-arranged slightly since the "Find Partner" box has been moved to the upper right corner of the screen.
    • There was a bug in the giving history grid on the partner details screen that caused the grid to flicker when editing.  This has been fixed.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 111

    Released 7 August 2014

    • This update includes enhancements to the "import from Excel / CSV file" routine, used when doing an initial import of names and addresses.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 108

    Released 5 August 2014

    • This update includes additional refinement and features to the social networking support that was added in build 107.  It also adds support for adding multiple websites, blogs to the "E-Mail / Social" tab, and allows you to customize the salutation for each email address.
    • In the E-Mail section of the program, a new option has been added to "Export to CSV file."  This is essentially the same as the "Export to Excel" except the format of the file generated.  CSV files are especially helpful if you use MailChimp or Constant Contact or some other similar service.   Feedback on this (and the fields that are exported) is helpful.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 107

    Released 4 August 2014

    New Features:

    • Social Networking Addresses
      This update adds a new tab on the partner details screen: e-mail and social networking.  This allows you to have  unlimited email addresses for partners, and unlimited social networking profiles.  Currently the program supports Twitter and Facebook.  Linked in support is coming, as is support for blogs and other websites.  Suggestions for others are welcome.
    • Several bugs in groups has been fixed, and the sorting order on several screens has been improved.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6.01 / build 104

    Released 3 August 2014

    New Features:

    • Newsletter Sending Method:
      A new field has been added to the partner master record:  Newsletter Method.  This allows you to specify how you want to send newsletters to this partner:  e-mail only, paper only, both, or none.    You can also add additional methods or filters to this list (for example, "Paper - International" which excludes your home country).   You can set this on a record by record basis in the partner details screen, and you can manage the mailing method groups as a whole from the "groups" screen.     Feedback on this new feature is welcome. 
    • Additional Filtering Options:
      When filtering reports / labels / envelopes, you can now include or exclude custom groups.  You can also filter by Newsletter sending method, PEO Status, and PD Status.
    • Export to Excel from List Screens
      On a number of list type screens, you will find an "Excel" icon in the upper right corner.  If you click on this, it will export the current information (filtered if you have a filter in effect) to an Excel file. 
    • Enhanced Backup Options
      The backup routines have been enhanced for greater flexibility and to support Mac users better.  You can now specify the folder where you would like the "quick backup on program exit" files to go.  Previously, it defaulted to a folder under "My Documents"  but for Mac users, that folder is in a different place.   This will also help those who want to have the program backup to a DropBox or OneDrive or TrueCrypt folder or other location.
    • New Screen under Partner Development
      There is a new screen listing all of your pledged financial partners.

    Important Bug Fixes that require some action from  you

    Follow this link to special instructions on these bug fixes.

    • Additional enhancements have been made to the automatic generation of the "File As" field.  If you find some partners records are not where you expect to find them on an alphabetical list or report, use the pull down menus Tools -> Regenerate File As Names.
    • There are some bug fixes to the contribution history screens.  I recommend that you use the Tools -> Recalculate Giving Statistics to make sure this is up-to-date.
    • There have been some bug fixes to the Groups feature.  If you have some partners not showing up in groups where you expect them to be, use Tools -> Rebuild Group Information routine.

     Other Bug fixes

    • This update fixes a bug in reporting on some reports that caused an error if certain group filters were in place.

    Known Issues

    • The Pack and Go feature does not work on a Mac running the Donor Manager under WINE.  The zip utility that I am using is not supported there, so Mac users cannot use Pack and Go until I find another zip utility that will work.  However, you can use "backup to a folder" and "restore from a folder" to move data back and forth.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 97

    Released 30 July 2014

    • This update makes the key result indicator "tiles" that appear on the "home" page and the main "partner development" page clickable.  (most of them, at least).  Click on them and they will take you to a screen in the DM that shows how that number was calculated.  I don't yet have it working for LYBUNTY and SYBUNTY yet.
    • Some additional error checking was added on program startup to handle various data configurations better.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 95

    Released 29 July 2014

    • This update adds some additional data file error checking on startup for those migrating from older versions of Donor Manager 5.
    • Some additional checks were made to the routine that generates the "File As" name from the partner full name to handle more special cases.  If you have partners whose names appear "out of order" because the "File As" name didn't get it right, you can use (from the pull down menus) Tools -> Regenerate File As Names.   If there are additional exceptions where the DM doesn't get it right, please send me the name of the partner so I can perhaps write a "special case" for it in a future update.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 94

    Released 29 July 2014

    • This update fixes a bug in the "Manage Group Names" part of the program that was preventing new group names from being edited.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 93

    Released 28 July 2014

    • This update includes a new screen in the "Partner Development section of the program titled "Potential Lost Supporters."   This screen lists partners who have made financial pledges, but have not made recent payments on that pledge.
    • Some improvements to the DM 5 groups migration routine were done to more accurately migrate group data.  If you have previously migrated your data from DM 5 to DM 6 and have found that your DM 5 "Custom Lists" have not migrated completely to DM 6's "Custom Groups", then use the /Tools /Rebuild Group Information command to regenerate this group information.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 89

    Released 26 July 2014

    • This update includes significant enhancements to the way the program determines the "File As" names to handle different ways people enter their partner names.   To regenerate the "File As" name there is an item on the drop down "Tools" menu (File -> Edit -> Reports -> Tools)
    • A number of error checking improvements have been made
    • The Backup screen has been updated to make clear what folder the Quick Backups are being stored in.
    • A number of additional screen changes to improve readability on some screens.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 86

    Released 22 July 2014

    • This update includes a number of screen changes to improve readability and to reduce "clutter."
    • Program users who want a UK style address will now see some additional changes in screens to fit that style better
    • I have done some updates to the quick search function in manual gift entry as well as on the browse screens to improve searching accuracy.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 81

    Released 16 July 2014

    • This update fixes a bug in the email merge file generation routine.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 80

    Released 16 July 2014

    This update has a few interface changes, and a few bug fixes:

    • In some situations, when trying to filter by "Partner Type" the drop down list would not have any options.  This has been fixed.
    • When using automatic gift importing, if the gift transaction file had a line with a blank date, the DM would generate an error message.  The code has been updated to handle this (rare) situation.
    • When posting contributions, the program would sometimes generate an error while posting and complain about the alias "giftdetail2" not being found. This has been fixed.
    • When adding a new partner "on the fly" during contribution posting, the "File As" field was not being created properly.  This has been fixed.
    • When restoring data from a backup zip file, an error was generated after the restore was complete.  It did not affect the restoring of the data (that worked OK), but it prevented the program from automatically restarting with the freshly restored data.  This has been fixed.
    • In certain situations, the program would give an error when trying to add a photo to a partner record. This has been fixed.
    • On the DM "home" screen, the "Data Transfer" routine (formerly known as "Pack and Go" now has the words "Pack and Go" as part of the menu to reduce confusion.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 78

    Released 15 July 2014

    This update concentrates on fixing some bugs in the report filtering routines.

    It adds back the "Advanced Filtering" options.  Feedback on this is very welcome.  However, it does not  yet have the ability to use advanced filters and custom groups together yet.   This is coming, though.

    In addition, it fixes some bugs in the group statistics calculation.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 77

    Released 14 July 2014

    This update adds a few new features: 

    • You can now get a list of partners who have given their first gift recently.  This will help you identify key people to interact with. 
    • You can also get a list of partners who have recently made their largest single gift.

    This is especially important if you are using automatic gift posting as you might not notice this otherwise.

    At present, you cannot print a report on this information, but that is also coming soon.

    There are also several bug fixes:

    • The donor giving history chart (for each donor) was only showing 24 months of giving data.  It now is showing the past 3 years of data.
    • A few reports had minor sorting errors fixed

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 74

    Released 12 July 2014

    This update includes a number of bug fixes and a few screen updates, including:

    • when looking at the partners detail screen, you can now use <page up> and <page down> to move from record to record using the keyboard (rather than mouse)
    • When doing manual gift entry, after you enter a contribution amount, the program now focusesses on the "Save Gift" button.
    • At times, an "alias not found" error would pop up when editing contributions in the donor giving history grid.
    • Some initial errors that would come up in some situations right after a DM 5 data migration have been corrected.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 72

    Released 9 July 2014

    This build ads several new features:

    • There is a major new section titled "Charts."  This gives you graphics / charts of several statistics from your partners database.   Suggestions for additional charts are most welcome.   Printing of Charts is coming in a future update.
    • There is also a new tab on the Partner Details screen titled "Graph."  This shows a simple line graph of a partner's giving pattern for the previous 36 months.  This helps you visually see a partner's giving history and giving pattern.
    • When looking at the Partners List page, there now some additional filters available in the drop down filter box.

    In addition, there are some bug fixes:

    • in certain circumstances, the "search by last name" feature would not find recently added partners in the "Manual Gift Entry" routine.  This has been fixed.
    • When filtering by "OK to E-Mail" the program did not always filter properly.  I think I have this fixed, but feedback is welcome if you are not getting results that you expect.

    In addition there are a number of minor screen layout changes.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 71

    Released 6 July 2014

    This build adds several new features:

    • When you exit the program, the DM now makes 2 Excel files in your "My Documents" folder.  One is called "Partner Names" and the other is called "Partner Names Giving History."   (previously, only the first file was made).    The new file has your giving history in it, with one line in Excel per year.   Feedback on this new feature is welcome.
    • When you make a change in a partners "PD Phase" (Partnership Development Phase) or their "PEO Status" (Participant, Engaged, Owner) an entry is made into the "Touches" table to record the date of this status change.   A touch entry is also made if you make a "bulk status change" from the "Partner Development" part of the program (where you can easily make bulk changes to the PD Phase or the PEO Status to many partners at one time.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 70

    Released 6 July 2014

    This build fixes a bug in the "link a partner to a church" routine where the link often failed to be saved to the database.  

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 68

    Released 5 July 2014

    This is a bug fix update that addresses the following issues:

    • problems editing the giving history grid on the donor details page has been fixed
    • a cosmetic problem on the total pledged support tile has been fixed
    • you can now edit the "default country" information on the program settings / default data page
    • A few adjustments to the "migrate data from DM 5" routines

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 66

    Released 4 July 2014

    This is a bug fix update.   It fixes a cosmetic problem on the "support totals" box on some pages.

    It also fixes a problem where moving from record to record on the "Partner Details" screen always reset the tabs in the lower half of the screen to the first tab.  The active tab will stay the active tab now.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 65

    Released 2 July 2014

    This build includes a number of styling changes to the user interface, updates to the filtering routines (to add new options and to fix a few bugs), and 2 new sections to help with partner development.  These new screens let you easily see a list of partners who are in each of your development phases using 2 models:  the PEO (Participant / Engaged / Owner) model, and the more traditional MPD model.   I find both handy.

    And, on the "Partner Development" page there is a new "dashboard" with some key indicators.  Feedback on this is very welcome.

     

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 / build 61

    Released 17 January 2014

    This build includes a fix to the filtering routines.  Previous versions were not always respecting the "send newsletter" flag when doing reports / exports / etc.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 56

    released June 10, 2013

    This update includes 2 new gift importers:  One for TEAM (in CSV format) and another for Interserve MPX (xls) format files.   The Interserve xls file needs to be in Excel 95/5.0 format.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 55

    released June 10, 2013

    In this update the main donor information screen adapts better to the computer's screen resolution.   If the user's screen has an older, narrower resolution, some DM screens adjust themselves to show the information better.   Minimum resolution, though, remains at 1024 pixels wide and older computers with an 800 pixel resolution may not have good results.

    In addition, some bug fixes were done to the photos routine to better handle certain situations.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 54

    released June 7, 2013

    This update adds several new functions to the Donor Manager 5 -> Donor Manager 6 data migration tool.  This allows it to better handle name sorting and improves the import of the former 10 user definable "lists" to the new "groups" feature in DM 6.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 53

    released June 6, 2013

    This updates fixes several bugs in the CSV names and addresses importer.

    In addition, there are several enhancements and refactorings in the search routines.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 50 & 51

    Released June 4, 2013 / June 6, 2013

    This update further enhances reporting filtering.

    It also adds a significant addition to the partners details screen, letting you see a list of partners while looking at a partner's details.

    There are some new features to the "unthanked gifts" routines, including the ability to generate a mail merge file to use for thanking "unthanked gifts."

    The "do an initial import of names and addresses from Excel" routine has been enhanced to also import from CSV files.

    A new field has been added:  "File as" to enhance sorting options

    A new table has been added to track address changes.  Formerly, this information was included on the "More Info" tab of the partner details screen, but now has its own tab.  This "clean up" the "More info" tab by removing this older address information.

    Numerous other small cosmetic changes and bug fixes.

    Feedback is, of course, very welcome.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 48

    released May 23, 2013

    This update fixes some bugs in the group filtering routines, and enhances the "import names and addresses from Excel."

    It also includes a gift importer for Grace Ministries International.

    What's New in Donor Manager beta 47

    released 21 May 2013

    This update fixes a bug in the initial start up program that sometimes caused the data files to not be created properly.

    In addition, it includes an updated gift importer for TEAM.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 beta 40

    released 21 September 2012

    This update fixes a bug in the "group names" screen where the names were not being updated properly after editing.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 beta 39

    released 20 September 2012

    This beta includes mostly user interface update.  No new features.

    However, this version seems very stable and we may be very near the end of the beta period.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 beta 37

    released 12 September 2012

    This beta includes updates to WBT and AG gift importers.

    It also adds a new screen to make it easier to "undelete" deleted master records.  This option is on the pull down "tools" menu.

    What's New in Donor Manager 6 Beta 33

    released 7 June 2012

    Beta 33's major new feature is the reestablishment of report filtering.  As far as I can tell, the basic filtering is working properly with a few "cosmetic" issues to address.

    The advanced filtering from DM 5 (where you could define and save your own ad-hoc filters) is not yet enabled.

    In addition there are several minor user interface changes.

    Links to online documentation and online tutorial videos has been added to the main menu.  The tutorial videos and documentation is not yet available.

    What's New in the Donor Manager 6 Beta 31

    The main goals of the first major release of the DM 6 are to implement a new, full screen interface (rather than the fixed size window of DM 5), and to move the underlying platform from Visual Foxpro 6 to Visual FoxPro 9.

    Once that is done and the program is fairly "stable," then I'll start implementing the things on our "wish list."

    Your feedback is especially appreciated in these areas:

    • overall impressions of the interface
    • reports of cosmetic / screen layout problems on various screen resolutions
    • problems or crashes
    • issues relating to running the DM on a Mac or Linux
    • general feedback concerning screen layout and the placement of various controls
    • There is a discussion board on the donor manager website specifically for this beta.  Feel free to post bug reports and comments there, or you can do it by email to me:  john@donormanager.com.

    Beta 31: May 20, 2012

    • Support for Wycliffe UK CSV gift import files has been added.
    		•