Prospect Development:

Did you know that you can check the current status of your submitted gift agreements by selecting the list view from the Opportunities object from the top of the ACE menu?

To view all of your submitted proposal EGA statuses, follow the steps below:
1. Click on Opportunities
2. Select My Submitted Proposal EGAs from the drop-down arrow.

3. View the details related to the Gift Agreement Submitted Status and Gift Agreement Workflow Status by Opportunity Name or Proposal Organization.

Business Intelligence:

• The Business Intelligence team will begin user testing for giving society memberships, pending a data refresh of the ACE testing environment. A sample of end-users will review giving society membership assignments and give feedback for optimizations prior to a planned release at the end of the fiscal year. 

Constituent Management:

• In April, the Constituent Management team completed 15,197 updates. Currently, demo-bio update requests are being processed with a 24–48-hour turnaround time due to ongoing campus giving campaigns.  
  • Constituent Updates – 1,030 
  • Deceasing – 185 
  • Involvements – 2,957 
  • Social Media – 153 
  • Organization Name – 5 
  • Organization updates – 258 
  • Address – 2,752 
  • Relationships – 599 
  • Knowtify – 218 
  • Email – 2,576 
  • Constituent Name – 1,583 
  • Phone – 1,759 
  • Salutation – 37 
  • Service Indicators – 406 
  • Affiliations – 679 
• The Constituent Management team has processed multiple spring fund drives and day of giving initiatives for our campuses including UTM Captain’s Challenge, UTHSC Giving Day and the UTK Family Campaign.  

Digital Strategy & Innovation:

• DSI has completed the optimization of the Engagement Center pledge reminder email journey in Marketing Cloud – with custom dynamic campus branding. Since the optimizations began the team has seen a 6% conversion rate. 
• DSI began an engagement with Microsoft to mitigate inbox placement issues. We are seeing a record high 99.9% inbox placement across the board. 

Business Intelligence

• Enhancements to the constituent finder are in progress with a projected completion by the end of the fiscal year.

User Experience

• Data integrity/clean-up projects are underway utilizing Demand Tools.
  • Duplicate Records Cleaned:
    • 325,000 address records
    • 59,112 duplicate email addresses on the same constituent record
    • 69,581 duplicate address relations on the same constituent record
  • Email Verification:
    • All 469,642 of our active, preferred emails have been verified through BriteVerify.
    • The next step will be to review records with invalid emails.
  • Data Normalization:
    • 48,796 phone numbers have been updated to a uniform format to normalize how the data displays on records and reports.

Constituent Management

Questions? Contact Central Constituent Management directly at (865)974-0381.

• From November 2024 through March 2025, Constituent Management has completed 31,000 updates including student data, TeleFund demographic/biographic updates and miscellaneous constituent update requests.
• The Records Management division of Central Constituent Management has completed over 41,000 constituent record updates to include:
  • Constituent Updates – 5,756
  • Deceasing – 369
  • Involvements – 7,105
  • Social Media – 287
  • Organization Name – 28
  • Organization updates – 377
  • Address – 6,695
  • Relationships – 1,225
  • Knowtify – 344
  • Email – 7,851
  • Constituent Name – 4,925
  • Phone – 4,875
  • Salutation – 27
  • Service Indicators – 746
  • Affiliations – 459
• On average, 100 demo bio requests are received per day. Constituent Management is currently processing demo bio update requests with a 24 hour turnaround time.
• Refresher training on how to submit update requests is available in the Knowledge database in ACE. The most popular demo-bio update requests have been configured for your convenience. On the rare occasion that the “other” field is needed, please provide detailed information. The refresher training is vital to helping stakeholders enter requests correctly. The trainings cover:
  • How to request an update for a constituent or organization.
  • How to request an update to a record.
  • Updated features that have been released.

Digital Strategy & Innovation

• DSI is in the process of rolling out new Blackthorn event group functionality. This feature will allow us to replicate the legacy events calendar experience with specific event groupings (ex. student events, athletic events, regional events) that are featured on unique calendars in addition to an overall main campus advancement event calendar. This should be complete by the end of April.
• DSI has partnered with Second Mile, a Knoxville web development agency, to design and implement a new class notes experience on WordPress. We expect this to be available on all campus websites by September 2025. 

Business Intelligence:

• Gift and endowment reporting is being validated by a sample of end-users, and resource materials are being developed/created for its planned release in DASH by Monday, March 31. A UT System communication will be sent with additional information in the coming days.
• The FY25 Incentive Scorecard dashboard is now in production and can be accessed on the ACE homepage. If anyone has questions, please email [email protected].  
• The Retention Rate dashboard is now in production and can be accessed on the ACE homepage. The layout and functionality is similar to the legacy dashboard prior to the ACE conversion.  
• A new dashboard enhancement will be rolling out in early spring. The fundraising dashboard will now feature KPIs for new, retained and reactivated donor metrics by campus and school. 

Constituent Management:

• As IRS tax deadlines approach, any 2024 gift receipts or giving summary requests can be emailed to [email protected] or call (865) 974-0381.  

Digital Strategy & Innovation:

• A new Blackthorn event refund request form has been created to help streamline the refund process for event organizers and processors. Event organizers can request either individual or bulk refunds.  

User Experience:

• If you would like to subscribe to reports or receive automated notifications from ACE you must verify your email address. The User Experience team has provided instructions to verify your email address in ACE.  Users without a verified email address will be unable to receive automated reports.  
• ACE users can access ACE and view dashboards on Tableau via the mobile app while on the go. The User Experience team has created tutorials on how to set up and access the mobile support tools.  
  • Set up Salesforce Mobile
  • Set up Tableau Mobile

Business Intelligence:

• Gift and Endowment reporting is being validated by a sample of end-users, and resource materials are being developed/created for its planned release in late March.
• The FY25 Incentive Scorecard dashboard is scheduled to launch by the end of March.
• The Retention Rate dashboard will launch by the end of March. The layout and functionality will be similar to the legacy dashboard prior to the ACE conversion.
• A new dashboard enhancement will be rolling out in early spring. The fundraising dashboard will now feature KPIs for new, retained and reactivated donor metrics by campus and school.

Constituent Management:

• The February payroll deduction file was received by the payroll office and has been imported and posted in ACE.
• As IRS tax deadlines approach, any 2024 gift receipts or giving summaries requests can be emailed to [email protected] or call (865) 974-0381. 

Digital Strategy & Innovation:

• The new online payroll deduction forms have effectively streamlined the giving process for users. There have been 350 submissions across all of the new forms since Feb. 10.
• The old payroll forms have been closed and the new payroll deduction form web addresses are below. Please update as needed.
  • giving.utk.edu/payroll
  • giving.uthsc.edu/payroll
  • giving.tennessee.edu/payroll
  • giving.utsouthern.edu/payroll
  • giving.utm.edu/payroll
  • give.utc.edu/payroll

User Experience:

• The User Experience team is working to streamline the process of requesting ACE data for non-Foundation UT Employees and other volunteers.

Kindsight:

On February 28, we officially kicked off our partnership with Kindsight. This partnership is a collaborative experience. We have formed three workgroups that will spend the next three to five weeks assessing the needs and challenges in data integrity, document management and reporting. Our work groups include:

Business Intelligence:

• Gift and endowment reporting has entered the conceptual validation phase. Once completed, a small batch of users will be brought in to fully validate the report before release.

Constituent Management:

• The first DASH payroll deduction file was successfully posted for the month of January.

User Experience:

• The User Experience team has created data upload templates to create a more streamlined process for data upload requests. The report requests and templates can be found here.

Business Intelligence:

• Requested reports and data files are being processed. Thank you for your patience as the team works through requests!  
• A retention rate dashboard has entered the testing phase to ensure functionality and accuracy.  
• Gift and endowment reporting information is being prototyped for advancement and university users and is expected to release in late March 2025. This will replace IRIS reporting functionality contained in ZFREG003 and ZPS_UTFI_Gifts.  
• The incentive scorecard dashboard is currently being worked on to reflect metrics and goals for the current fiscal year.  
• Your feedback and suggestions to improve existing dashboards and reports are appreciated. The team is reviewing the functionality of current dashboards and taking suggestions into account when prioritizing future enhancements.  

Constituent Management:

• ACE daily gift and payment activity is successfully interfacing with DASH, enhancing our data integration and efficiency.  
• Designation requests are up-to-date and are successfully creating and updating as of Jan. 15.  
• Demo-bio updates are being processed and data cleanse projects are underway to enhance the end-user experience when searching for data.  
• 2024 Giving Summaries have been sent. If you have questions, issues or need a reprint please email [email protected] or call (865) 974-0381.  
• The first file from DASH with January employee payroll deduction has been received from the UT Payroll Office. Work is underway to import and post the gifts to ACE. 

Digital Strategy & Innovation:

• The DSI team has built a new online payroll deduction form on top of ACE, streamlining the process for users.  
• The UT Southern FIRE week campaign was the last to be converted to the ACE platform and has successfully launched. The UT System Family Campaign and Big Orange Give campaigns are also underway.  
• The DSI team began beta testing for college branded giving forms in GiveCampus that will offer campuses and colleges a more customized experience for donors. Stay tuned for details on an official roll out in the coming months! 
• Calendar year 2024 online gifts have been processed. Online giving statistics increased significantly during the month of December.  
  • 4,228 transactions (+5.6%) 
  • Online gift total: $2,301,371.39 (+64%) 
  • Average gift: $544.32 (+56%) 
    Percentages are YOY increases from the same period in 2023. 

Prospect Development:

• Prospect Development continues to review proposals, draft and process gift agreements, as well as request related accounts in DASH and designations in ACE. Accounts are successfully being created in DASH and 2025 executed gift agreements and proposals are being processed. If you have any questions about proposals or gift agreements, please contact Prospect Development for assistance at [email protected].  
• Members of the Prospect Development team are currently testing the Kindsight iWave (prospect research software) integration in ACE-test with a full integration in production expected by April. This integration will reduce manual entry of data and enhance user ability to access updated research data.  

User Experience:

• The User Experience team has added a tool to help identify duplicate records. This addition will also help improve overall functionality and data integrity.  
• In addition to the new tool, the team has added nine new fields within constituent records. These changes were made to enhance the end-user experience. The new fields include:  
  • Preferred Degree
  • Most Recent Visit
  • Most Recent Wealth Rating
  • Most Recent Wealth Rating Date
  • Most Recent Current Employer & Job Title
  • Total Years of Giving Lifetime  
  • Current FY Giving 
  • Last FY Giving 
  • Total Outright Gifts 
• The User Experience team is in the process of creating templates and enhanced descriptions for data upload requests.  
• User Experience is in active conversations with the University’s DASH reporting team to enhance capabilities and data consistencies for faculty/staff ACE constituency record creation and updates. 

Acknowledgement Letters

• IRA and DAF acknowledgement letters have been implemented and are being issued weekly.
• The new process of gift posting confirmation was implemented in November 2024. All DAF gifts from October have been acknowledged and confirmations are continuing to move forward.
• IRA acknowledgement letters have been issued beginning in October.

Gift Receipts

• Constituent Management set an aspirational goal of processing and receipting all Big Orange Give contributions before Thanksgiving. Reaching the goal, the team processed, posted and receipted 10,517 gifts before Thanksgiving!
• Training material for gift receipt exclusion has been released. This training is helpful for donors that do not want to receive gift receipts, and it can be used by processing staff at each campus.
• A new process for handling of approved Cayuse grants to be posted in ACE as grant intentions have been introduced. Each campus will post grant intentions effective November 2024.

Calendar Year-End Information

• Calendar year-end dates have been set and communicated throughout the System. Constituent Management will have holiday office hours and will be accepting deliveries on:
  • Monday, Dec. 23, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. EST
  • Friday, Dec. 27, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. EST
  • Monday, Dec. 30, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. EST

Data Loads

• Data cleanse projects completed since November 1:
  • 738 payroll deduction faculty/staff records
  • 4,206 UTK Student interface interim updates
  • 1,505 UTFI Formstack file updates
  • 185 4-H Foundation records created

User Interface Enhancements

• In Progress: Contact report “owner” field is being updated from ACE DTS to the appropriate staff record.  The past five fiscal years have been completed, and we are working to complete the entire contact report data set by November 15. Previously, all proposal “owners” have been updated. 
• A Contact Report component has been added to the page layout for Constituents and Organizations. It is located in the left sidebar. You can now add contact reports from this component. 
  • On a constituent record it is listed below the Affiliation and Active Committee lists.  
  • On an organization record, it is located below the Affiliation and Opportunities lists.  
• Questions on how to run a Donor Giving Detail report? A guide has been published in Knowledge on how to run this report (link to Knowledge Article and link to Scribe).  
• A guide has been published in Knowledge on how to locate information in ACE about Designation Departments, Colleges and Campuses. This is useful for running/requesting reports on giving data (link to Knowledge Article and link to Scribe). 

Dashboards

• Completed: To make additional information easier to access, hyperlinks have been added to contact report, proposal submitted and proposal funded dashboards. 
• In Progress: Donor Retention Rate Dashboard 

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: User Experience is processing data upload requests as they are received.  

Gift Agreements

• In Progress: Gift agreement, pledge and gift documents have been converted, and the team is now loading these documents into ACE. 
• EGA Tip: Please double check that both Donors/EGA Signatories have a preferred email address in ACE before you start drafting the gift agreement. You can view this under the contract roles and by hovering over the Donor’s name. If the donor does not have a preferred email in ACE and you select an electronic signature delivery, the DocuSign request will not be sent as an email is required to send the signature request. 

• Historical gift agreements can be accessed by contacting the Prospect Development team at [email protected].   

Sponsorship Policy and Procedures

• Completed: Constituent Management, Digital Strategy and Innovation and Prospect Development have partnered to update the policy and procedures regarding the sponsorship policy and benefits per the guidance from UT Foundation General Counsel. 
• Completed: Frequently asked questions (FAQs) regarding the updated sponsorship policy. 
• A full description of the updates to the sponsorship policy and procedures is here.  

Prospect Development

• Proposal Tip: Development officers can select and change the proposal stage to in-preparation, submitted, declined or withdrawn. Proposals are funded when a transaction is entered into ACE and the proposal number is attached to the transaction. You can view opportunities attached to the proposal-related record under opportunities. If you have questions regarding proposal funding, please contact Terri Clark and Charlotte Brothers.  

Reporting

• Completed: UTK, UTC and UT Southern endowment files. 
• Completed: Mocs Give Day post-campaign reporting. 
• Completed: Engagement Center call files for UTK, HSC, UTM and UTIA including first-time, mid-lapsed, previous fiscal year and recently lapsed segments. 
• Completed: Direct mail files for UTK, UTIA and UTAA including calendar/tech decal and October and November anniversary segments. 
• Completed: Direct mail file for UTM for calendar year end. 
• Completed: UTK/UTIA CYE LYBUNT lists. 
• Completed: Rescheduled weekly and monthly reports to run later in the day to prevent scheduling conflicts. 
• In Progress: Generating over 100 different email and texting segments for the upcoming Big Orange Give Day campaign. 
• In Progress: UTM, UTHSC and UTIA endowment files. 
• In Progress: Blackbaud/Target analytics survey data submission. 

Pledge Reminders

• Completed: Process to generate weekly files for standard email (due date 15, 45, 75) and printed reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM. 
• Completed: Printed Engagement Center pledge reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM.  

Marketing Cloud

• Completed: First anniversary emails delivered to 6- and 12-month donors for UTK and WUOT. 

Blackthorn

• Completed: Development of post-event surveys to be delivered after an event has been completed. This option is now available upon request. 
• Completed: Roll out of changes to Blackthorn Event Request Form, including ability to indicate sponsorships and opt-in to post-event surveys and reminder emails.  

GiveCampus

• Completed: Preparations for the launch of UTK’s Big Orange Give on Nov. 13. The fourth UT day of giving to launch in GiveCampus and the largest to date with more than 50 matches. 

Data Loads

• Completed: 4,200+ opt-ins for text messages loaded to constituent records raising total to 11,000+ constituents with Text Messages Allowed box checked on their record.  

User Interface Enhancements

• In Progress: Contact report “owner” field is being updated from ACE DTS to the appropriate staff record. The past five fiscal years have been completed and we are working to complete the entire contact report data set by November 15.
• The ACE Knowledge Base search function has been optimized to allow easier access to trainings and video tutorials. View how to access the ACE Knowledge Base here.

Dashboards

• Completed: Hyperlinks have been added to contact report, proposal submitted and proposal funded dashboards to easily access additional information.

Gift Processing

• Completed: Processed and receipted Mocs Give Day, WUOT Fund Drive, WUTC Fund Drive, UTM/HSC Family Campaigns and the Equine Rehabilitation Certification Fund. This caused some delays in receipting, but we will be back on track to our regular 3 to 5 business day posting and receipting of gifts on Monday, October 14.

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: User Experience is processing data upload requests as they are received.
• Completed: Central Advancement Services completed the first stage of matching alumni who are subscribed to campus LinkedIn pages. This resulted in over 5,553 alumni who switched from AE0’s to AE1’s and are now engaged to UT campus communications. LinkedIn subscriptions are considered a “mode of engagement” that CASE uses in their alumni engagement counting standards.

Documentation

• Completed: All documents associated with allocations in ANDI have been converted to ACE designations.
• In Progress: Gift agreement, pledge and gift documentation are currently in process and we are working to complete these uploads after Big Orange Give on November 13.
• Historical gift agreements can be accessed by contacting the prospect development team at [email protected].

Reporting

• Completed: UTK endowment files
• In Progress: Generating over 100 different segments for the upcoming Big Orange Give Day campaign.
• In Progress: Mocs Give Day post-campaign reporting.
• In Progress: UTM, UTHSC, UT Southern, UTC, UTIA endowment files

Pledge Reminders

• Completed: Process to generate weekly files for standard email (due date 15, 45, 75) and printed reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM.
• In Progress: Printed Engagement Center pledge reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due for UTK, UTIA, UTAA, and UTM will be completed on October 18.

Marketing Cloud

• Completed: New reports aggregating email statistics by sending unit available by request.
• Completed: Created Hurricane Helene suppression lists in Marketing Cloud using filtered data extensions to be applied widely in the weeks following Helene’s impact.

Blackthorn

• Completed: Blackthorn check-in app is available to use by request.
• Completed: Developed a process to batch resend Blackthorn confirmation emails before a large-scale event to remind attendees they are registered and resurface QR codes for on-site check-in.
• In Progress: Development of post-event surveys to be delivered after an event has been completed. Testing has begun in Blackthorn to send automated or manually released post-event surveys.

GiveCampus

• Completed: WUOT’s fall fund drive in GiveCampus as a campaign, which allowed for dynamic tracking of totals, live donor name feed and the opportunity to promote a matching gift.
• Completed: In response to Hurricane Helene, we have adjusted the language on standing VOLstarter projects and prepped a giving link to send support through UT Extension offices in affected areas.

Data Loads

• Completed: All spring 2024 graduates from UTM, UTC, UTK and UTHSC have been loaded in ACE.
• Completed: UTK students enrolled for fall 2024 have been loaded into ACE.
• Completed: UTK parent data has been uploaded into ACE.
• Completed: Faculty/staff data has been uploaded into ACE.
• Completed: All constituent donor ID’s are now 10 digits which allows for easier search on new records created in ACE.

User Interface Enhancements

• Completed: Proposal “owner” field has been updated for all proposals in ACE.
• In Progress: Contact Report “owner” field is being updated from ACE DTS to the appropriate staff record.

Dashboards

• In Progress: The Transaction Summary dashboard is being tested with a small group of users to confirm functionality and accuracy.

Gift Processing

• Completed: Upgrades to the financial interface functionality have been implemented. Staff are monitoring the data and behavior to ensure accuracy and efficiency.
• Completed: Upgrades to the GiveCampus API have been implemented to align transaction date with bank deposit date.

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: User Experience is processing data upload requests as they are received.
• In Progress: Alumni engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. Details will be shared in the coming weeks.
• In Progress: Requests that include demo/bio updates will be prioritized and updates shared as they are completed.

Scheduled Reports

• Completed: First round of UTK student scholarship thank you letter reporting.

Pledge Reminders

• In Progress: Process to generate weekly files for standard email (due date 15, 45, 75) and printed reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM.
• In Progress: Printed Engagement Center pledge reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM.

Marketing Cloud

• In Progress: Beta testing new reports aggregating email statistics by sending unit.

Blackthorn

• In Progress: Beta testing the Blackthorn check-in app.
• In Progress: Development of post-event surveys to be delivered after an event.

GiveCampus

• Completed: New process in ACE to identify designations that should be added to the main GiveCampus giving form for each campus.

New Graduate Loads

• In Progress: All spring 2024 graduates from UTM, UTC and UTK have been loaded in ACE. As of August 8, the graduate file from UTHSC has not been received.
• In Progress: UTK students enrolled for fall 2024 are being loaded with an expected completion date of August 16. UTK Banner staff is helping to generate “in progress” degree data and will load once it is finalized.

User Interface Enhancements

• Designation Records: When viewing related lists on the designation record, adjusted gifts/pledges have been filtered out. Lists will now only display the active version of the gift, pledge or payment.
• Adjustment Requests: A “Requested on Behalf of” field has been added to the adjustment request process.
• Homepage: Open Cases list on the homepage now includes requests made “On Behalf of” user. The list previously only displayed requests submitted directly by the user.
• Organization Salutations: an Organization Salutation related list has been added to the “Organization Details” tab of the organization record.
• Contact Report and Proposal Owners: User Experience has begun updating the “Owner” field on Contact Report and Proposal related lists to replace the “ACE DTS” value from conversion. Most Proposal records have already been updated and Contact Reports will be updated by the end of August.

Dashboards

• In Progress: The Transaction Summary dashboard will be released on Friday, August 2.

Gift Processing

• Completed: Processing fiscal year end gifts.
• In Progress: Currently testing the financial interface functionality for adjustments. Completing this work is a top priority and staff will continue receiving updates as work continues.

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: Alumni engagement data will continue to be loaded as files are received.
• In Progress: Alumni engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. More details will be shared in August.
• In Progress: Requests that include constituent demo/bio updates will be prioritized and updates shared as they are completed.

Scheduled Reports

• In Progress: First round of UTK student scholarship thank you letter reporting.

Blackthorn

• Completed: A new report template that will pull in the 21 newly mapped for submission answer fields into the “Attendees with Event block 1.” Reporting documentation has been updated in the Blackthorn: Reporting Scribe.
• Lindsey Reinstrom (Blackthorn Reporting) will be hosting two office hour sessions to go over questions for this new feature.
  • Friday, July 26, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. EDT
  • Friday, August 2, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m. EDT

Documentation

• Completed: The demo/bio documents upload to ACE has begun. If access to ANDI is needed to view transactions documents prior to ACE launch, please contact User Experience at [email protected].

Pledge Reminders

• In Progress: Process to generate weekly files for standard email (due date 15, 45, 75) and printed reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA and UTM.

New Graduate Loads

• In Progress: Spring 2024 graduate level student files from UTK had to be reformatted. OIT is generating the new file. As this will be our initial load, the process will go through testing in our QAS environment. Once successful, this data will move into production.

Gift Receipts

• Completed: Backlogged gift receipts were sent the week of July 1 and gift receipts are sending on schedule with the normal processing time. All receipts that need to be printed are currently being processed in Central Services. The constituent management team will work with advancement services teams at UTC, UTHSC, UTM and UTS on the new process to generate printed receipts starting in FY25. UTK and UTIA printed receipts will continue being generated through Central Services.

Dashboards

• In Progress: The Transaction Summary dashboard is in the final round of testing to ensure its performance meets user requirements. The next dashboards will be released in FY 2025.

Gift Processing

• In Progress: Currently processing fiscal year end gifts.
• In Progress: There are ongoing discussions with our implementation partner to enhance the financial interface functionality for adjustments. Completing this work is a top priority and staff will continue receiving updates as work continues.
• Completed: Fiscal year 2024 processing is complete for the following: 4-H gifts; UTIA Garden Gala event transactions; grants received for UTK and UTIA; all online, electronic gift transmittal forms, WUOT, stock/wire transactions, USPS mail gifts, Big Orange Caravan and GIK’s; and all gifts received through June 30.

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: Alumni engagement data will continue to be loaded as files are received.
• In Progress: Alumni engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. A more exact timeline will be released in the coming months.
• In Progress: Requests that include constituent demo/bio updates will be prioritized at the start of the new fiscal year.

Scheduled Reports

• Completed: There are 166 scheduled reports. If there are additional reports needed, please send in a request.
• Completed: Weekly standard pledge reminder reports.
• Completed: First round of UTK tailgate reporting segments.
• Completed: Consolidated acknowledgment reports generated for previous months.
• In Progress: First round of UTK student scholarship thank you letter reporting.

Blackthorn

• Completed: Additional Blackthorn licenses have been purchased and staff who have requested access have been notified. If you need access to Blackthorn to pull reports and access attendee records, please completed the DSI feedback form.
• In Progress: There is continued work with Blackthorn to improve their reporting solution.

Marketing Cloud

• Completed: Weekly email update file provided by the business intelligence team is being uploaded in Marketing Cloud to ensure active preferred email in ACE is used in Marketing Cloud.

Philanthropic Commerce

• Completed: Tested and implemented a promo code in Formstack to be used by people who voted on the new UTK t-shirt initiative. With the promo code, purchasers receive 10% off, and the code has been used in 15% of purchases.
• Completed: Launched the first Vols T-Shirt initiative on the new platform.

GiveCampus

• Completed: FY25 appeal codes updated on 49 existing giving forms, events or commerce forms.

Documentation

• Completed: All documents that were associated with an allocation in ANDI have now been uploaded in ACE.
• In Progress: The demo/bio documents upload to ACE has begun. If access to ANDI is needed to view demo/bio or transactions documents prior to ACE launch, please contact User Experience at [email protected].

Pledge Reminders

• In Progress: Process to generate weekly files for engagement center email (due date 15, 45, 75) and printed reminders (30, 60, 90 days past due) for UTK, UTIA, UTAA, and UTM.

New Graduate Loads

• In Progress: Spring 2024 graduate level student files from UTK had to be reformatted. OIT is generating the new file. As this will be our initial load, the process will go through testing in our QAS environment. Once successful, this data will move into production.
• Completed: UTC and UTM spring 2024 graduates have been updated in ACE.

Prospect Development

• Completed: 6,000 parent records were reviewed for wealth capacity, with the information updated on the individual ACE records.
• EGA Tip of the Week: Please check the constituent compact view in ACE to make sure your donors have the correct preferred email address.

Gift Receipts

• In Progress: Gift receipts will begin sending on Monday, July 1. Donors that have experienced a receipt delay will receive an email on June 28 with information about the ACE implementation. You can read the email on our website. Donors that do not have an email address on file will receive the letter enclosed with their gift receipt(s).

Dashboards

• In Progress: The Transaction Summary dashboard is in the final round of testing. The next dashboards will be released in FY 2025.

Gift Processing

• In Progress: Currently processing fiscal year gifts.
• In Progress: There are ongoing discussions with our implementation partner to enhance the financial interface functionality for adjustments. Completing this work is a top priority, and staff will continue receiving updates as work continues.
• Completed: All backlogged adjustment and payroll sessions have been posted successfully in ACE.
• Completed: New gift/pledges received in June are up-to-date and being processed on the normal three-day turnaround timeline.
• Completed: 4H gifts are being loaded into ACE on Friday, June 28.

Alumni Engagement Data

• In Progress: Alumni engagement data will continue to be loaded as files are received. If you have data that needs to be loaded for FY24 fiscal year totals, please submit via the upload form by June 30, 2024.
• In Progress: Alumni Engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. A more exact timeline will be released in the coming months.
• In Progress: Requests that include constituent demo-bio updates will be prioritized at the start of the new fiscal year.

Scheduled Reports

• Completed: There are 140 scheduled reports at this time. If there are additional reports needed, please send in a request.
• Completed: Campuses will receive monthly acknowledgement reports for April, May and June on Friday, June 28.

Blackthorn

• In Progress: Additional Blackthorn licenses are being purchased, and staff will be notified as they are assigned. There is continued work with Blackthorn to improve their reporting solution.

Marketing Cloud

• In Progress: A process is being developed that will update email addresses in Marketing Cloud to reflect changes made in ACE on a weekly basis.
• Completed: Developed a new process for pledge reminder emails in Marketing Cloud, inserting personalization related to the donor and pledge. Several rounds of pledge reminder emails with payments processing through new pledge reminder forms in GiveCampus have been completed.

GiveCampus

• Completed: Launched the UT Knoxville Baseball College World Series Championship fundraising drive.

Documentation

• In Progress: After conversation, mapping and uploading in ACE will begin. Staff will receive a completion date after mapping starts. If access to ANDI is needed to view allocation, demo/bio or transactions documents prior to ACE launch, please contact User Experience at [email protected].

Pledge Reminders

• Completed: The Standard pledge reminder files have been completed.

New Graduate Loads

• In Progress: Spring graduate level student files from UTK and UTC have been received. As this will be our initial load, the process will go through testing in our QAS environment. Once successful, this data will move into production.
• Completed: UTM spring 2024 graduates have been updated in ACE.

ACE Update:

Dashboards

• Complete: Two new tabs have been added to the Annual Giving Dashboard: Annual Giving Source and Appeals
• Complete: Committee participation that applies to incentive compensation goals has been integrated into the Incentive Compensation Dashboard.
• Complete: UTK and UTC annual giving designations have been reviewed and updated.
• In Progress: The Transaction Summary dashboard is in the final round of testing. The next dashboards will be released in FY 2025.

Gift Processing

• Complete: Gift processing for June is up to date.
• In Progress: The processing of adjustment sessions began the week of May 27. Building the automation for this process is coming with unforeseen technical challenges, which has led to delays in completing these sessions. We are currently in discussions with our implementation partner to enhance the financial interface functionality for adjustments. Completing this work is a top priority, and staff will continue receiving updates as work continues.

Alumni Engagement Data

• Complete: All event and involvement data that was submitted through June 11 has been loaded, totaling more than 125 files.
• In Progress: Alumni engagement data will continue to be loaded as files are received. If you have data that needs to be loaded for FY24 fiscal year totals, please submit via the upload form by June 30, 2024.
• In Progress: Alumni Engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. A more exact timeline will be released in the coming months.
• In Progress: Requests that include constituent demo-bio updates will be prioritized at the start of the new fiscal year.

Scheduled Reports

• Complete: A scheduled charge-back report has been created for UTK.
• Complete: There are now nearly 120 scheduled reports in production.
• In Progress: Monthly acknowledgement reports have been delayed until our payroll deduction file has been processed. Monthly acknowledgement files will be sent to the campuses once May payroll is completed.

Constituent Records

• Complete: The Constituent Update Request form now includes options for adding social media and service indicators (solicitation controls in ANDI), and to update a constituent as deceased.
• In Progress: A 4-H ID field has been added to the constituent object and will soon begin loading data to better measure the impact of 4-H on giving and engagement.

Blackthorn

• In Progress: Additional Blackthorn licenses are being purchased, and staff will be notified as they are assigned.

Marketing Cloud

• In Progress: A process is being developed that will update email addresses in Marketing Cloud to reflect changes made in ACE on a weekly basis.

Gift Receipts

• In Progress: Daily receipts are a top priority, and testing this process is in the final stages. Test samples of the receipts will be sent to the campuses for verification and approval before implementing the new solution.

Documentation

• Complete: All documents in ANDI have been converted.
• In Progress: After conversation, mapping and uploading in ACE will begin. Staff will receive a completion date after mapping starts. If access to ANDI is needed to view allocation, demo/bio or transactions documents prior to ACE launch, please contact User Experience at [email protected].

Pledge Reminders

• In Progress: The standard pledge reminder files will be generated on Friday, June 14 and will be shared with the campuses for review and any final updates.

New Graduate Loads

• In Progress: Spring graduate level student files from UTK, UTC and UTM have been received. As this will be our initial load, the process will go through testing in our QAS environment. Once successful, this data will move into production.

Ad-Hoc Report Requests

• Completed: We are caught up with the backlog of ad-hoc data requests and are back to the standard 10-day turnaround.

ACE Update:

As we continue moving forward with the ACE implementation, please review the current updates below. These updates provide information on completed projects and a timeline of initiatives currently in production. This information is also available at utfi.org/ace-update. 

Staff are encouraged to continue utilizing their cohort for questions or take advantage of the virtual office hours listed below. 

Looking for an update not included here? Please email [email protected].  

Dashboards 

• Complete: Three dashboards have been released today, Friday, June 7: Annual Giving, Incentive Compensation and It Takes a Volunteer.  
• In Progress: Three more dashboards will be moved to production next week: Annual Giving Source, Appeals and Transaction Summary.   

Modified Transactions 

• Complete: The processing of adjustment sessions began the week of May 27. As the file was generated for processing in IRIS, several issues were encountered. It was identified that the large file size and high volume of transactions were the major cause of the issues. After reducing the volume, the adjusted transactions were successfully processed. This process will be used until all adjustments are completed. 
• In Progress: Over the weekend of June 7, 2024, payroll transactions will be processed and gifts to athletics closed out. The constituent management team is up to date on processing gifts received in June, which we will begin closing the week of June 10, 2024. Staff will be notified when all are completed. 

Alumni Engagement Data 

• Complete: Involvement and event data has been loaded into ACE, which is reflected in the Key Metrics and Alumni Engagement dashboards. Those numbers are now updated daily.  
• In Progress: Alumni Engagement scores on individual constituent records have not been updated. Alumni Engagement scores will be added to the daily load from the data warehouse in FY 2025. A more exact timeline will be released in the coming months.  

Scheduled Reports 

• Complete: Nearly 80 weekly acknowledgment reports are now being sent on Wednesdays.  
• In Progress: Beginning June 11, a consolidated acknowledgment report will also be generated for the previous month.  

Constituent Records 

• Complete: After the release of acknowledgment reports, a process was identified in ACE that removed name prefixes from some records. For example, a joint salutation might read “John and Mrs. Jane Doe” because the Mr. was dropped from John’s primary name. A short-term solution has been implemented for the reports. Please contact User Experience at [email protected] if you spot any similar issues. 

Gift Receipts 

• Complete: Donors who make a gift online or whose credit card gift is received via direct mail receive a confirmation immediately. Some donors have requested a gift receipt, which has been provided upon request.  
• Complete: Gifts in kind, as well as IRA and stock gifts have been formally receipted. 
• In Progress: Gift receipts, which are used for tax purposes, have not been sent out for gifts made online or by mail since April 15. Gift receipt testing is in the final stage, and staff will receive an update once they are live and in production.  
• In Progress: During a discussion with the vice chancellors and central leadership team on June 6, 2024, options were considered to address the gifts not receipted since April 15. Staff will receive an update once this process is finalized. 

Documentation 

• In Progress: More than 75% of the 800,000 documents in ANDI have been converted, and all documents are scheduled to be completed by June 15. After conversation, mapping and uploading in ACE will begin. Staff will receive a completion date once the mapping starts. If access to ANDI is needed to view allocation, demo/bio, or transactions documents prior to ACE launch, please contact User Experience at [email protected]. 

Pledge Reminders 

• Complete: Engagement Center pledge reminders for UTM, UTAA, UTIA and UTK will be sent to the campuses today, June 7, 2024.  
• In Progress: The standard pledge reminder process is using our Acknowledgement and Engagement Center infrastructure, and a production date will be available the week of June 10, 2024.  

New Graduate Loads 

• In Progress: Spring graduate level student files from UTK, UTC and UTM have been received. As this will be our initial load, the process will go through testing in our QAS environment. Once successful, this data will move into production. 

Ad-Hoc Report Requests 

• In Progress: There was a backlog of 102 Ad Report Requests as of May 20, 2024. As of today, there are six remaining and will be completed by June 10, 2024.   

Office Hours

Have a question or concern regarding ACE?Need training?Interested in discussing ACE with your cohort coach and colleagues?Take advantage of our regular office hours.All times are Eastern.

Terri Clark

• https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/6284474651
• Tuesday: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EDT
• Thursday: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT

Darren Hughes

• https://tennessee.zoom.us/my/darrenhughes
• Wednesday: 10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. EDT
• Friday: 2:00 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. EDT

Kathy McCoy

• https://tennessee.zoom.us/my/kmccoy23
• Tuesday: 11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. EDT
• Thursday: 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. EDT

Katie McMahon

• https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/6627332082
• Thursday: 2:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. EDT

GENERAL ACE:

We’re happy to share two significant ACE updates.

First, we’ve begun closing the remaining gift sessions that include reversals/modifications and will notify you when the project is complete. This was the final hurdle in our efforts to catch up with gift processing. Otherwise, we are back to our normal three-day turnaround.

Second, when you log into ACE, you will now see updated numbers on the Key Progress Indicators dashboard. We’re also excited to roll out two new dashboards:

• Fundraising: A dozen dashboards in one, it includes fundraising and donor overviews, transactions, and FYTD comparisons. All can be filtered by campus and school.
• Alumni Engagement: An overview of current counts, with separate views for engaged versus unengaged and alumni engagement by score. The dashboard defaults to a system view but can be filtered by campus.

All of the dashboards are accessible via the Active Dashboards block on the right side of the page when you log into ACE. Please share your feedback, and thank you for your patience.

GENERAL ACE:

Cohort coaches are available to assist with troubleshooting minor issues and help you navigate when to submit large scale issues to the feedback form. Training modules and resources are available on the Trailhead and the ACE Knowledge base.

Connect to your cohort coaches using Microsoft Teams:
· Darren Hughes
· Katie McMahon
· Kathy McCoy

Next Steps:
· As new features are released, we will be doing extensive outreach to keep you informed.

DASHBOARDS:

Access to data is one of the biggest pain points since launch and we are prioritizing self-serve tools and key metrics. The Business Intelligence team is working on rebuilding the dashboards while also responding to a high volume of ad-hoc data requests (450+ since February 1).

Complete: Key Progress Indicators, Staff Metrics and Constituent dashboards are now available on the ACE homepage.

Next Steps:
· Fundraising, Alumni Engagement and Transaction Summary Giving dashboards are in process. The goal is to have these completed by the end of next week.

· We realize there was a lack of communication when current dashboards were released. We commit to better communicating when new dashboards are launched.

REPORTS:

We recognize there is a backlog of reports and data is important as staff work towards their goals. There were hundreds of scheduled reports developed in ANDI over the last decade, and that list of reports is under review by staff throughout the Foundation. A priority list will be provided when the review is complete.

Complete: We have begun to schedule Acknowledgement Mail Merge reports for campus units across the Foundation.

Next Steps:
· We will be rolling out files for your acknowledgement mail process starting Wednesday of next week. Each campus will receive a weekly file moving forward and monthly acknowledgements will start on June 1.

GIFT PROCESSING:

The delays closing out gift batches have affected operations throughout the Foundation. We are committed to resolving issues quickly while maintaining accuracy in this vital process.

Complete: We are able to close all sessions except for those that include gifts with adjustments.

Next Steps:
· We are committed to closing all remaining sessions with reversals by EOD on May 24. We will keep you posted on any delays that may occur.

· Now that we can close gift sessions, we are turning our attention to completing the receipting processes. We will be rolling out files for your acknowledgement mail process starting Wednesday of next week. Each campus will receive a weekly file moving forward and monthly acknowledgements will start on June 1. Online gifts already receive a thank you confirmation email.

ENCOMPASS TRANSITION

MARKETING CLOUD:
More than 100 filtered data extensions are now available in Marketing Cloud. Like the saved queries in Encompass, these data extensions allow for quick segmentation by campus, chapter, region, college and department-level. In addition, after a successful two-month long IP warming campaign, email deliverability is averaging well over 99%.

We are aware that emails sent to UT domains are quarantined at larger rates than what we are experiencing for other common domains, like Gmail and Yahoo. This issue is due to measures set in place through Microsoft Enterprise Level Filters. To help mitigate this challenge, we are throttling email sends to 500 per hour and are seeing improved results.

Next steps:
· To ensure emails land in your inbox, regularly open and click UT alumni and donor emails (newsletters, appeals, event invites, etc.). If an email lands in quarantine, release it and then open and click it.

BLACKTHORN:
We are keenly aware of the difficulties and pain points experienced by our users with Blackthorn reporting and share your frustrations. We are advocating for improvements in this area, along with adjustments to conditional/dependent questions, though we do not have an immediate timeline for any Blackthorn changes.

Next Steps:
· UTFI is investigating alternatives for reporting that will more closely resemble the Encompass reports we have grown accustomed to using. We will share an update by the end of June.

GIVECAMPUS
To date, the Foundation has received more than 6,000 gifts via GiveCampus, and we have held two successful days of giving on this new platform.

Next steps:
· DSI is piloting a graduated pledge campaign this month and is beginning implementation for GC Connect, which enables the in-person acceptance of gifts via card swipe or tap.

PROSPECT DEVELOPMENT

Since launching the new Electronic Gift Agreement, we have reviewed 73 draft agreements executed 30 and sent an additional 19 for signature. We have heard your feedback about more complexity and less flexibility. We are making improvements to the application form and workflow process and continue to listen to your feedback to provide a more user-friendly process.

Complete: The workflow now allows for the selection of departments and we have added automated emails marking the completion of each step.

Next Steps:
· Continue to evaluate feedback and provide accommodations for as many variables as possible.

Have you used the new constituent dashboard?

Launched in April 2024, the constituent dashboard replaces key functions of the old GPS and combo reports in ANDI, allowing users to filter alumni constituents by campus, college, major and year. You can also filter by gender, ethnicity, lifetime commitments, years of giving and location (state, zip code, and radius). After selecting your criteria, you can generate a list view and download the results as a spreadsheet.

The constituent dashboard is a tool used for pulling alumni data. The constituent dashboard, along with staff metrics and key progress indicators are accessible via the ACE homepage. The video above is a quick overview of how it all works.

What is the status of other dashboards and scheduled reports?

The Business Intelligence team is dividing its time right now between designing and improving dashboards, rebuilding priority scheduled reports and working through a list of ad-hoc requests.

How do I request an update to a designation?

We have a new process for that! View the step-by-step Scribe.

Have you downloaded the Salesforce app yet?

Instructions are found in required training at utfi.my.trailhead.com

Have you used ACE Knowledge?

Knowledge is a searchable repository of nearly 100 articles (and counting) within ACE. Each article links to a step-by-step Scribe document or video that explains key concepts and processes. You can access Knowledge by adding the Knowledge object to your menu and selecting the Published list view or by selecting Search: Knowledge in the global search and then typing “How to” and whatever process you are looking for. (e.g., “How to manage a proposal”).

Electronic Gift Agreement

View a Scribe, which can also be found by searching for “How to create an Electronic Gift Agreement” in ACE. EGA training will soon be available at utfi.my.trailhead.com

Electronic Gift Transmittal

Gift transmittal Scribes and videos are now accessible via Knowledge in ACE:

• Accessing RTv2 via the nav bar and app launcher: Scribe
• Transmittal for an outright gift for an existing constituent or organization: Scribe | Video
• Transmittal for an outright gift for a new constituent or organization: Scribe | Video
• Transmittal for a pledge payment: Scribe | Video

Gift/Pledge Adjustment Request

The step-by-step video and Scribe are also accessible via ACE Knowledge.

Demo/Bio Update Request

This process replaces the “Update This Record” link in ANDI. The step-by-step Scribe and video are also accessible via ACE Knowledge.

Dashboards

• Key Metrics: If you don’t already see the key metrics dashboard when you log into ACE, it will appear there soon.
• Constituent Summary: Link to dashboard and demo coming soon.
• Transaction Summary: Link to dashboard and demo coming soon.
• Staff Metrics: Link to dashboard and demo coming soon.