Let’s face it, rescues cannot live on adoption fees alone — donations are our life blood! But then there’s the tedious part of getting a donation — sending receipts, tracking the donations for end of year receipts, and all that fun stuff. Well, Buzz makes it easy to track donations, send receipts and much more – all automatically!

So, let’s set up the notifications you will get when a donation is made (so you can jump for joy) and the receipt to be sent to the adopter.

1. First, you need to go to your Dashboard and choose Donations >Settings.
2. To get to the emails which need to be set up, click on Emails and lo and behold, the Donation Receipt link will appear!

Donation Receipt Email

1. The Donation Receipt is an email which is automatically sent to your donor when a donation is completed. Buzz provides a generic email so you have something to get you going until your own custom email is set up, but can you say “BORING”?

   This is a great chance to engage your donors and promote your rescue! Never miss an opportunity to connect with a donor, right? So, let’s get to it!

2. There are two ways to get to the email to edit it: (1) on the left side under Donation Receipt, and if your eyes are really good, there is a tiny “edit” link; or (2) for us blind babies, there is a big icon on the right side under Edit Email.

   Either way will take you to the screen where you can edit the email to your liking.

3. We suggest you leave the first part of the email which shows the details of their donation in order to comply with IRS requirements.

   But after that, let your imagination and great email crafting abilities fly!

4. Why not add a picture of one of your dogs at the top? Or maybe a customized thank you? Not required, but it is an eye-catcher! You can add the photo or whatever through the Add Media link at the top. (If you don’t know how to use the Media Library, please see our information sheet on Adding Images.)
   HINT: Your logo will automatically appear at the top of the email sent to the adopter, so you don’t need to add it in here.
5. Now on to adding the text which will make your donor want to come back and donate again in the future.
   • But first, a note about dynamic or template tags. Below the portion where you will edit the email is a list of things inside brackets ({ }) which can be entered in the email. What these do is pull in text from your website or the donation itself and add it in. For instance, {sitename} will add the name of your rescue.
   • Also, by repeating the donation amount – {amount} – in the body of the text, it personalizes it a bit and makes it seem not so much like an auto-generated receipt.
   • You don’t have to use dynamic text, but it’s there for you if you want to. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.
6. Edit away until you have the perfect email that shows your donor how much you love them! (Don’t worry if you don’t get it right on the first try, you can always come back and fine tune it!)
   HINT: Remember to put your Federal Tax ID Number (EIN) somewhere in the receipt to stay compliant with those pesky IRS rules and regulations. Usually, just inserting it at the bottom of the email works just fine.
   HINT: To help your donors stay out of trouble with the dreaded IRS, you may also want to state that no goods or services were received in return for the listed donation.
7. When you are done, scroll down and click the Save Changes button to have the brains at Buzz commit it to memory.
8. After you’ve clicked the Save Changes button, you can then preview the email you have crafted by clicking the – you guessed it—Preview Email button.

Admin Notification Email

1. You are next going to want to click on Admin Emails to get to the notification you have a new donation so you can do the Happy Dance.
2. Once again, you can either get out your magnifying glass to click on the edit link under Donation Receipt or do it the easy way and click on the big Edit icon.
3. This will bring up the generic notification email already on your website.
4. While it’s pretty bare bones, we’re not sure how much editing you really need to do here since it only goes to your rescue.
   HINT: If you have set up Tribute donations (more on that in the informational sheet Setting Up Tributes), you may want to include that information in the notification so you know if you have to send someone a note or card. Once again, there is dynamic text (remember that stuff in the brackets) below the email text box which can help with that!
   HINT: Also, if your donation form allows the donor to send you a note, then you might also consider adding the dynamic text for that.
   HINT: If you do Fund accounting, you can also add the dynamic text which shows to which fund the donation should go. (If you don’t know what fund accounting is, then you probably aren’t doing it , so no worries!)
5. When you get done, click on Save Changes (again) wake up the neuropathways of the brains at Buzz to save it to your website. From there, you can click Preview Email and see how it looks!

If everything looks good to you, then you’re done with this portion! You can now walk away knowing you have a great email receipt that will automatically generate for each donation and not have to worry about it again! Way to go!

Email Settings

1. Before you can send doors those wonderful emails you have crafted, you have to tell us a few things. So, you need to bring up the Email Setting screen by clicking on the link for it.
2. If you want your logo to appear at the top of the donation receipts – always a good idea – then add it here using the Media Library by clicking on the add or upload file bar.

   Once uploaded, it will show just under this section.

3. The other two sections should be preloaded for you based on the information you provided when you registered with Buzz. But please do check it to make sure we got it all right! If you do want to change the From Name or From Email (which is what appears on the Donor Receipt emails), this is where you will change it.
4. After uploading your logo and making changes (if any) to the information, just click on the Save Changes bar. (The lazy buggers at Buzz tend to fall asleep on the job sometimes waiting for updates, so this acts as an alarm clock for them to save this to your website!)

Contact Information

I promise this one last little thing is more of a housekeeping item and will take you no more than a minute! Go to Contact information by clicking on that link. Then, just verify your mailing address or, if the text area is blank, enter the information.

Remember to click the Save Changes button when your done and Voila! You’re done with this section. (We told you this part would be quick!) and, better yet, you are all done with setting up the emails and notifications! Take a break, relax, then come back and join us for setting up the Tribute section for donations!