This article contains tips, important distinctions, and best practices related to merge fields.
Merge Field Categories
URL
Logon
- Field that takes applicants to the logon page.
- If they've applied before, it will take them to the Dashboard. If they haven't applied before, it will take them to the Apply page.
Apply Page
- Field that takes applicants to logon page, then to the Apply page.
- Use with caution.
- If an applicant has already started a draft, and they're directed to the apply page, they could potentially start a second draft rather than editing their existing draft.
- Use with caution.
Pro Tip
Use the link option (to the right of each merge field in the URL section) when linking to another page for a cleaner looking email. This eliminates the long URL string that would otherwise be placed in the email.Funder
The funder is the name of whoever owns the site (i.e. your foundation).
- This differs from the "Organization" merge fields in that the organization is the applicant's organization.
- Funder merge fields are often used in signatures, and "thankyou for replying" to communication.
Recipient
The person who the email is going to.
- Great to use in evaluator emails.
- Recommended for follow up emails because occasionally follow ups are assigned to someone other than the applicant. (ex: if a follow up is assigned to someone else in the applicant's organization, you would want it to pull the recipients name, rather than the applicant).
- Works everywhere that applicant will work, but applicant doesn't work everywhere that recipient works.
Applicant
The applicant fields pull information from whoever the application is assigned to in the system.
- Applicant fields do not work in evaluations and follow ups if the evaluations and follow ups are not assigned to the applicant.
Request
Decision Comments
- Field that can be added to approval and denial forms. When building your email, keep in mind that this is normally a bigger text question, such as "why a request was approved or denied".
Project Name
- Field that pulls whatever the applicant enters in the field.
Project Name Label
- This is the name of the Project Name field (i.e. if you leave the field as project name, it will just say project name).
- This is included for reference, in case the project name field is changed to something else.
Submission
Form Name
- Always double check what the form name is and the sentence where it's used to make sure that the sentence structure is in logical order and reads correctly.
Organization
Primary Contact
- Person who is marked on the organization as the primary contact. The executive director is usually listed as primary contact during registration, but this can be changed at any point.
General Best Practices
- Date Merge Fields and Terms
- Use merge fields like due date, or current date, or terms like end of this quarter, end of year, etc. so you don't have to go in and update dates at the start of a new cycle.
- URL's
- Include URL's (i.e. logon URL) in emails anytime you ask an applicant to come back and do something in the system..
- Gray Fields
- If a field is grayed out, it means that field is either being used somewhere else, or that it's only available when sending an email.
- Merge Fields in the Subject Line
- Leverage email merge fields in the subject line of the email. This can be used to provide a quick snapshot of what the email actually entails, rather than just saying an organization submitted a form.
- For example you might have the following as the subject: {{Organization.Name}}, {{Submission.InitialSubmitDate}}, {{Submission.FormName}}, for {{Request.ProjectName}}.
- Quick snapshot, rather than just saying an organization submitted a form.
- Leverage email merge fields in the subject line of the email. This can be used to provide a quick snapshot of what the email actually entails, rather than just saying an organization submitted a form.