It's been a couple of years since we've kicked off a reviews campaign with our customers. Many of you have already taken the time to write reviews on some of our different online listings, and we greatly appreciate that!
You can expect to receive a few emails over the next week or so from the team at Gartner Digital Markets. They will also be sending along an e-gift card for those that post reviews. If you would like to get a head start, here are the pages we are requesting both our political and nonprofit customers to write a review on. Thank You!
Capterra (Nonprofit): https://www.capterra.com/p/101648/Trail-Blazer/
Capterra (Political): https://www.capterra.com/p/55438/Trail-Blazer/
Software Advice (Nonprofit): https://www.softwareadvice.com/nonprofit/trail-blazer-profile/
GetApp (Nonprofit): https://www.getapp.com/nonprofit-software/a/non-profit-manager/
GetApp (Political): https://www.getapp.com/marketing-software/a/trail-blazer-campaign-manager/
For our nonprofit customers, it's time to start preparing your year-end tax statements. Getting a head start with building your templates with the appropriate text, merge fields, and images, will save you a lot of time when the time comes to generate and mail the letters to your supporters. These resources should help to get you from A to B, but please don't hesitate to contact our support team if you need a hand.
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUVSUTciwaU
- Article #1: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=313&cat=0&qq=tax
- Article #2: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=246&cat=0&qq=tax
We hope that everyone had a good Thanksgiving!
Today's tip: take advantage of our NCOA refresh services to get the most up-to-date address record for contacts in your database. This can be done on your entire universe of contacts, or a specific segment. Our Additional Services page details the cost: https://www.trailblz.com/Support/AdditionalServices
To put in a request for this, please send an email to our Support Team: support@trailblz.com
We'll be able to provide you with a cost / time estimate, and an invoice.
Our office will be closed next Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.
Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season.
In observance of National Cyber Security Month (October): https://nationaldaycalendar.com/national-cyber-security-awareness-month-october/
We wanted to provide our customers with some tips for securing your database.
If you aren't yet taking advantage of our integrated donation form, we would love to help you get it setup! This form has many benefits:
- money is processed directly into your bank account
- the donor can stay on your website throughout the entire process
- the donor will receive a custom thank-you email
- the data will automatically be collected into your database
First, you'll need to activate a merchant gateway account that we integrate with: https://www.trailblz.com/Credit-Card-Payment-Merchant-Gateway
Second, you'll need to generate the iFrame code and insert it into a donation landing page on your website.
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYJOszM9CoU
- Article: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=214&cat=0&qq=iframe
Third, create a custom thank-you email responder:
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQhVau54b48
- Article: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=329&cat=0&qq=responder
Here's an example from our nonprofit demo site (feel free to test it with a fake credit card number): http://www.pandamonium.us/donateV2.html
The upcoming election is just a few short weeks away for many of our customers. Take advantage of our mobile poll watching app to track who has voted: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=304&cat=0&qq=poll
This will allow you to pull up your different precincts:
Flag a voter as having voted:
And search for them in your database by the attribute that gets created:
Give us a call if you need a hand setting this up.
For customers located in Colorado: the state voter database has been updated.
Tutorial for importing from a state db: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=335&cat=0&qq=state
This Knowledge Base tutorial walks through the steps to access your Trail Blazer database on your Mac computers via the free Microsoft Remote Desktop 10 application: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=1384&cat=0&qq=mac
It also digs into important configuration steps so that you can import and export between your Mac and Trail Blazer, as well as how to print to both your local printers and as PDF files.
Has your organization taken advantage of our free training program? If not, we highly recommend that every person that needs to learn the Trail Blazer software on your team attends our Intro Training Class: https://www.trailblz.com/LearningResources/Events
After you've completed intro training you will have access to ongoing tech support and further training in any topic of your choice.
The latest iteration of the Trail Blazer IQ web app is now available. Your team can access the login page here: https://trailblazeriq.com/admin/#/workspace
Please contact tech support if you need your workspace name.
Sneak peak:
To Our Customers,
Many of you have worked with Mark Panger over his many years with Trail Blazer. Mark announced to us a while ago that as of September 1, he will be moving to half-time. With full retirement coming in several, all too soon, months. Along with this reduction of time will be a shift in his duties.
Mark will be focusing on the behind-the-scenes operations of Trail Blazer and will immediately phase-out of direct customer support. He will help cover phones for many days at lunchtime, but otherwise, his day to day will be supporting the support staff and management at Trail Blazer.
Mark started with Trail Blazer in 2006 after working with an organization that was using Trail Blazer. He liked it so much he joined us! Over the years Mark’s roles have included
· training,
· support,
· data migration,
· sales,
· FEC compliance,
· controller,
· and, of course, lead bottle-washer.
We are delighted that Mark will still be available as a resource to our company and especially our customers. But even more, delighted that he will get to spend more time with his grandkids and his volunteer activities.
In today's release of the desktop version, there are a handful of notable changes:
- - Deposit Multi-Select items for Deposit: when doing a deposit you can use the normal [Shift] and Control keys to select multiple lines for deposit
- - Deposit - Filter by Batch Mode: you can now filter by batch mode for a quicker selection of items for deposit
- - Custom Genders: you can now create your own custom gender types (either by going to the System Manager > Lists area, or from within a contact's record card > Profile tab > Gender drop-down)
- - NO Thank You Donors: if you create an attribute that starts with the words 'No Thank' you can then filter out those people by default in the Contributions - Thank You Letter List
Please call or email our Support Team to learn how to take advantage of these new upgrades.
Are you utilizing the Trail Blazer Mobile Basecamp app to the fullest? One feature that many of clients like to use is the ability to access saved search favorites for tasks like call lists. For instance, you may want to reach out to new donors while you're on-the-go.
First, you'll need to create and save a search favorite in your database: https://www.trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=204&cat=0&qq=favorite
That saved search will then become available on the free Mobile Basecamp app via your iPhone or Android device. Here's an example:
Please contact our Support Team if you need a hand setting this up: 1-866-909-8700
Check out our latest YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cNbEoNxqGN4
This video provides a comprehensive overview of our Campaign Manager product, so it is primarily for political clients, but there is a lot of good stuff for nonprofit clients as well.
It's a crazy time for our world, to say the least. With all the uncertainty, we want to reassure you that our team is here to support you with all of your Trail Blazer needs.
Our office hours are still the same (8-5 Central Time M-F) and 24/7 emergency support. Our team will primarily be working remotely. Please don't hesitate to call or email us for any support-related questions, to schedule a training, etc.
Be well.
Phone: 1-866-909-8700
Email: support@trailblz.com
Knowledge Base: www.trailblz.com/kb
YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/trailblazersoftware
We've received quite a few inquiries on how to access Trail Blazer from home. The links and tutorials below will help you to get up and running on Mac, PC, smartphone, and tablet. Please call or email tech support if you need assistance.
Download and login on a PC: https://trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=2&cat=0&qq=pc
Download and login on a Mac: https://trailblz.com/kb/?action=view&kb=255&cat=0&qq=mac
Quick links for downloading on the App Store and Google Play store: https://www.trailblz.com/Download
You can either contact your database admin(s) or tech support if you need your Database Name.
If you're in the field talking to a prospective donor, you can now enter pledges using the free Mobile Basecamp app. You can download the app on your iPhone or Android device here: https://www.trailblz.com/Download
Today's tip: you can easily summarize the different columns in your database by clicking on the column header and selecting 'Summarize'. See the two images below for a how-to.
Step 1
Step 2
When working on an email it's useful to make sure your spelling is correct before hitting send (especially for large email campaigns that you're sending from your database). To enable a spell checker you can follow these steps:
Step 1
Step 2
Have you cleaned up your duplicate records in a while? If not, it's a good thing to do on a regular basis, especially if you have a lot of new data being added to your database. Here's how:
Articles: https://trailblz.com/kb/?action=search&qq=dupe&cat=0&con=0
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yue7DjNA_8