Donor Manager Software

As WBT users know, there are a new style of giving report that is HTML based rather than RTF based.

The Donor Manager will be adding support for the new style report, and Orlando and I have indeed been working on that. So, it is indeed coming!

I'm happy to announce that the Donor Manager now has support for the new HTML contributions reports for WBT / SIL / JAARS staff. This support was added beginning with version 5.37.

5.37 is currently available for download via Live Update only. In the next day or so (assuming that this release is stable) I'll also make it available for download manually for those who prefer or require that option.

As I write this (June 22), I've been releasing small updates to version 5.37 to address various small issues in the WBT HTML giving statements that people report to me.

Thanks for all who have taken a close look at how their giving data is being processed here and reporting these issues / bugs to me.

I'd encourage you to be sure to do a "Live Update" every once and a while to make sure that your program is up to date.

How often is "every once in a while." Well, this week that has meant every day (now that is unusual!). But, it takes just a second (if you are online).

Thanks again for your help!

John, your current update link on the web site shows 5.36 as the current version. I'm trying to get 5.37 for a person who's live update is not working.

That's true. I'm waiting to get a few more bugs out of the new WBT gift installer before I upload a full version of the program.

But, you can just copy your donor.exe from a "live updated" computer to the one that can't live update and that will get her in business.

Our latest e-mail from HQ said, "If you run Live Update, you will be able to import the donor information from your May and June member statements."

I've run Live Update, and nothing happens.

I can't find in the User's Guide how to download the info from the html format that we're receiving our info as now. I can't figure out how to save the html page in my donor manager folder so I can process it.

I'm stumped. How do I do this?

Thanks for working with WBT! I've been using DM manually for years, and couldn't wait till it worked for WBT, too!

When you say the "Live Update" doesn't do anything, let me ask a few questions:

Do you get any message at all? An error message, a status message, anything?

What version of the program are you currently running?

Once you get version 5.37.05 (preferably), you should see a new option in the list of organizations ... the new option is WBT HTML.

Once that option is selected, it should process the file.

Now, let me add this warning. There are some contributions that this routine has trouble with, so be sure to check it against your statement and send me an email if you find some problems so I can get as many bugs out as possible.

I've just released a Donor Manager update that addresses a number of issues in the WBT HTML giving statment format import routine.

Version 5.37.10 fixes (hopefully!) the following bugs:

• The problem of losing the last digit on zip + 4 zip codes has been fixed
  The routine handles anonymous contributions better. Some worked ... some didn't! Hopefully, all work now.
  Multiple gifts from the same donor: under certain circumstances, the routine didn't always recognize the second gift properly. I think that has been addressed now
  Some people said the Donor Manager reported very high contributions (like $ 5 - 10 million). While we hope that the Donor Manager was being prophetic, it was a bug that occured in certain circumstances. I think I've addressed that in this release
  Other relatively minor issues

As you work with this update, be sure to keep an eye out for things that just don't look "right." And Orlando has announced that they will be fine tuning the layout of the statement over the next few months, so there is a real chance that layout changes may "break" the gift importer.

If that happens, check here first to see if someone else has reported the bug and the status of the update. Or, feel free just to report it directly to me at john@donormanager.com.

Now, some people have reported having problems with the "Live Update." I think it may be a proxy / firewall issue for most people, but if you are having problems with the Live Update, I have also posted this release for manual download from the downloads page on this site.

I'm getting a few reports today reporting some problems with some transaction on the 5.37.10 update.

I'm taking a look at them and will try to have a fix in the next day or so.

Also, there were some problems with the "live update" reporting a decompression / installation error that I think (I hope) have been fixed.

Greetings all.

Thanks for all who sent in bug reports relating to 5.37.10. I've confirmed the following bugs in this version:

zip + 4 / zip + 3 ... I thought this was fixed before. I think it really is now!

multiple gifts from one donor ... for some of you this is still causing problems. I'm looking into the source of the problem.

donor id number loosing a digit ... this bug is confirmed. You will have to re-match donors again next month (sorry!).

I should have an update out that addresses these issues in the next few days.

Greetings all.

I've just posted version 5.37.11 for download via "Live Update" or by manual download.

This fixes some HTML gift importing issues, but I'm not sure that I've got the "multiple gifts in one month from the same donor" problem licked.

I'm working on that one and will post an announcement here when I upload a fix for that as well.

Well, it appears that some things got fixed in 5.37.11, and others are not quite yet there.

So, I'll keep trying to track these little bugs down and post another update in the next day or so. At this point, I'd advice folks just to hold off on an automatic gift posting until the next update comes out.

If you do decide to post a month and something doesn't come out right, you can always clear a month and post the batch again once the next update comes out, though.

Current issues being reported:

still some problems with multiple gifts in the same month
some problem posting to the gift history in certain circumstances
some new codes in the "comments" that I haven't seen before

So, I'll keep plugging away at this. I am so grateful for those who are reporting these issues, and taking the time to try to spot the "patterns." Their clues really help me know where to start looking.

I'll continue to post updates here as each release comes out.

I've just imported my July WBT HTML report into Donor Manager (v.5.37.11). All appears to work; it says data is posted; but the data does not appear in any reports, nor in partner details.

Dan Lord

BTW, I just posted this to help you in your debugging. I will patiently wait for the next version. I don't currently depend on DM. I am still using my home-built Access DB, with the intent of moving my data over to DM someday.

Thank you for all the work you put into this. I appreciate it.

Dan,

I just finished fixing the bug where the contributions don't appear to be posting properly.

It was weird. I fixed a bug in one place, and it caused a problem way over there!

Anyway, once 5.37.12 (or later) gets posted (probably in the next day or so), you just need to repost the contributions for that month and they should show up in the giving history.

Thanks for your help!