Change Log

347 1 October 22, 2024

The REACH development team releases new software updates on a regular basis, typically monthly. Many come directly from your input on our Feedback Forum. We communicate these updates on our monthly newsletter, which you can subscribe to by joining our mailing list, and via Facebook and Instagram.

October 2024

  • You can now generate a report on sponsorship donations made to your sponsorships marked as Biggest Need. Learn how.
  • Sponsorships Conversations updates
    • Improved folder functionality (drag and drop conversations into folders or Archive, rename and remove folders)
    • Added Places as a dropdown menu option
    • Scope by Admin Permissions – if an Admin is attached to a Place in their Admin User Settings, they will only be able to see Sponsorship Conversations associated to that Place
  • Watch our Adding and Updating Your Data Webinar
  • The Donation Details Report now features filters for Tax Deductible Range and Total Amount Range. For example, these range filters can be used to identify supporters who have made donations over $1,000 (Min: $1,000).
  • When recurring, scheduled reports are emailed, both the subject line and the email body now include the name of the report for easier identification.
  • Our parent company, Sugar Maple Interactive LLC, is excited to announce the launch of Branchcast, a new service for hosting sermon podcasts and teaching materials. Discover how Branchcast can turn your sermons into on-demand inspiration by viewing a portal demo on our website, emailing us or coming to see us at ICOM Booth 1314. 

September 2024

  • All recurring donations where supporters have selected “Yes, I’d like to help cover transaction fees” will now use the current suggested additional donation amount set by your account, regardless of when it was updated.
    • This means if you modify the amount now, all existing recurring donations with the fee will also be modified with the new amount going forward. And, if you’ve modified the amount in the past, all recurring donations with the fee will be modified to that amount as of September 2024. The suggested additional donation amount can be found under Settings > Donation Setup > Donation Form Settings tab.
  • We’ve added a “Donate on behalf of an organization” checkbox to the donation form, allowing supporters to enter their Company/Organization name instead of their First and Last Name. This option must be enabled and can be found under Settings > Donation Setup > Donation Form Settings tab.

August 2024

July 2024

  • Register for our Matching Gifts Webinar on Tuesday, August 13th at 12pm. Learn how to establish an employer matching gift strategy to amplify your donations ahead of the year-end giving season.
  • Data Import and Updates Simplified: Discover our new, streamlined process for importing and updating your data, making it easier than ever before. Learn more about the new approach. Some updates include:
    • You may now use your data files; however, we recommend our import templates for easy data matching.
    • Unicode characters are now supporters when using XLS and XLSX file formats.
    • Required and optional fields are more clearly defined.
    • Once your import file is submitted, you can easily match your columns using a few sample rows of your data prior to completing your import.
    • A new Product Orders import is available.
  • Product Updates: Explore enhanced features for optimizing your product sales within REACH. Discover more about our Products feature. Some updates include:
    • Discount Code, Discount Amount, Shipping Method and Shipping Amount are included in the Product Orders Report.
    • Supporters can now place recurring product orders (example: coffee subscription). Note: Recurring Products must be added and purchased separately from single purchase products.
    • Notify or assign a task to an admin when a product is purchased using our new Admin Automation for Product Orders.

June 2024

  • Register for our New Admin Orientation on Thursday, June 27th at 2pm EST.
  • We’ve made it easier to determine which supporters have active recurring donations. Reports > Donation Details, next to Status > Ongoing.
    • Note: The Recurring or One-Time field will return all completed recurring donations, whereas the Status: Ongoing field will return the parent recurring donations.

May 2024

April 2024

  • We recently migrated from Google’s reCAPTCHA to the independent hCaptcha as our CAPTCHA provider. When logging in to REACH, you may notice new prompts to choose various images or type in letters in an attempt to prove you are a human and not a bot. You have the option to enable hCaptcha on your donation forms, supporter login screens, registration and custom forms and skip the hCaptcha check on login for admins who have two factor authentication enabled. These options can be found under Settings > Account Rules > Security tab. Learn more about our Security Account Rules.
  • You can now opt-in to receive a notification when a supporter cancels their account. To do so, go to Settings > Admin Users, edit your Admin User > Notifications tab and check the Cancelled Supporter box and Save Changes. Learn more about Supporter Cancellation.

March 2024

February 2024

  • On February 28th, we migrated to a new file attachment library for better performance, which includes all sponsorship images. This was a system task that would have triggered an updated_at change, but did not change any of your sponsorship profile or other information.
  • For Text Messages and Text to Give, we’ve updated the preset text replies sent based on the text prompt to include the phrase, “This number is not monitored for responses.“
  • Register for our next New Admin Orientation on Thursday, February 8th at 2pm EST

January 2024

  • Read our January newsletter
  • Register for our next New Admin Orientation on Thursday, February 8th at 2pm EST
  • Register for our Getting Started with REACH Webinar on Wednesday, January 24th at 12pm EST
  • Watch a Video to learn how to customize and generate your Contribution Statements

December 2023

November 2023

  • Important Note: Due to the large volume of donations in November and December with end of the year giving, it is our policy to not transition clients to REACHpay during the last two months of the year. Short of system bugs or critical issues, we take a development and payment gateway transitioning freeze to limit any possibilities of error and help ensure a smooth giving process for our clients and their supporters. In the meantime, if you would like the REACHpay option enabled to begin your setup, please email us. Once you enter the information required, let us know and we can schedule your transition for early 2024.
  • Register for New Admin Training: Thursday, November 9th at 2:00pm EST
  • Register for November Webinar: Sponsorship Privacy Options: Wedesday, November 15th at 12:00pm EST

October 2023

  • Register for October Webinar: REACH+ Double the Donation: Wednesday, October 18th at 12:00pm EST
  • Register for New Admin Training: A group training session intended for new admins of current REACH clients: Thursday, November 9th at 2:00pm EST
  • New Notes Export: Download a spreadsheet that lists all your Notes records.
  • Increased Accepted Photo Size to 10MB
  • The Purpose field now displays Sponsorship One-Time Donation when a one-time sponsorship donation is made
  • When adding or updating banner images in Settings > Portal Setup, you can now Select Image from Media
  • Admin-Side sponsorship search now also includes any sponsorships associated to disabled Projects and a Biggest Need Filter
  • When viewing Supporters, you can now sort the Last Visited column by most and least recent
  • On individual Sponsorship records, you can now sort Sponsorship Conversations by supporter, subject and last message
  • Added a secondary search capability for Sponsorships – you can now sort by Type, then by Title
  • If a supporter or admin sets an End Giving On date for a recurring donation, this date is now included in the supporter confirmation email, in Sponsorship Details, Donations Details in Donor Portal. The liquid method of {{ donation.recurring_end_at }} has also been added for use in Email Templates.
  • Group Delete and Download All Media options are now available for Media Files
  • Managed Missions – On the Trips page, Total Supporter Donations and Total Donations to Trip are now included
  • The Head of Household permalink is now included on Exports
  • Tasks are now searchable by Admin Name or the text included in the Task

September 2023

August 2023

  • Granular Admin Permissions – We have expanded our Admin Permissions to provide additional granular access options in the areas of Donations, Supporter Payment Methods, Communications and Tasks. 
  • Register for August Webinar: All About Events: Wednesday, August 23rd at 12:00pm EST

July 2023

June 2023

  • Mid-Year Check-in: 5 Things to Do Now – Read our June newsletter to view five things you can do now to help make REACH work best for you and prepare for the rest of the year.
  • Register for July Webinar: All About Products: Wednesday, July 19th at 12:00pm EST

May 2023

  • Dashboard Numbers – The numbers displayed on the Admin Console Dashboard are now based on an Admin User’s permissions.
  • New REACH Themes are available: Quartz 2.3 and Ruby 2.3. We highly recommend you update your REACH Theme to benefit from the new features, updates and bug fixes for your REACH portal pages.
  • Products – Several updates released such as Discount Codes, Pricing Product Variants Separately, Setting Shipping Methods or Per Item Shipping, New Product Reports and more. Register for our upcoming All About Products Webinar.
  • Events – Several updates released such as Streamlined Event Registration, Ticket Type Options (Free, Pay in Full, Deposit/Pay Later, Recurring Monthly, Suggested Donation), Custom Field Forms, Customizable Confirmation Message and more. Register for our upcoming All About Events Webinar.
  • Updated Weekly Summary – more information included with links to corresponding Reports.
  • Register for May Webinar: A Developer’s Guide to REACH: Wednesday, May 17th at 12:00pm EST
  • Supporter Notifications now have a Disable option. When disabled, the notifications remain in your list, and can be enabled, but are no longer active.
  • We have increased the auto-logout period for supporters to 24-hours (previously 30 minutes). 

April 2023

March 2023

February 2023

January 2023

December 2022

November 2022

October 2022

September 2022

August 2022

July 2022

  • View July Newsletter
  • Download Recording: Getting the Most of REACH: New Features – July 20th 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST
  • Download Recording: Managing and Grouping Your Supporters – June 22nd 12:00pm – 1:00pm EST
  • New REACH Theme Version Available: Quartz 2.2 & Ruby 2.2 – Includes Live Giving Thermometer for Fundraising Campaigns. View our New Features List by REACH Theme article and how to Update your REACH Theme article.
  • Bulk Update the Cost Per Share – If you decide to increase the amount charged for a sponsorship, you can now bulk update the cost per share by sponsorship type. This will automatically update the recurring donations and tracked giving for all sponsorship supporters.
  • Automations – Automations allow for immediate admin notification when certain records are created or updated within REACH. Set up Automations to notify you when a supporter has updated their contact information, been added to the system or registered for an event, for example.
  • Zapier Integration – Interested in helping us test out our new integration with Zapier – and get early access to this new feature? Email our support team if interested. Learn more in our newsletter.

June 2022

May 2022

  • View May Newsletter
  • Webinar Series: Coming Soon! What areas do you want to learn more about? Take our Survey.
  • Supporter Notifications – Create custom emails and drip email campaigns to be automatically sent to your supporters after certain events take place in REACH. Events include: Event Registration, Offline Sponsorship Past Due, Offline Sponsorship Supporter Created, Recurring Donation Ended, Sponsorship Cancelled, Supporter Created.
  • Tags – Assign short text labels to various records within REACH. Examples uses include assigning an admin to a sponsorship, a priority level to a supporter or an on-hold label to a Project or Place.

April 2022

March 2022

  • View March Newsletter
  • When generating a Report, Quick Date Ranges of Today, This Week to Date (WTD) and This Week are now available.
  • A Change Log Widget has now been added to the Dashboard for all accounts. Admins can view a list of new software updates directly from their Admin Console.

February 2022

  • Supporters can now store multiple payment methods (any number of credit cards, checking or saving accounts) in their REACH account to be used for future donations. Admins can select from the saved payment methods should a supporter request a recurring donation use a different payment method.
  • Updated icons in the Admin Console used to contact Support.

January 2022

  • Video Messaging in Conversations among sponsors and sponsorships is now disabled by default for new accounts. Organizations can choose to enable or disable Video Messaging.
  • The Supporter Donation History table now features pagination which will display a list of 20 donations per page.  This has been added to help performance issues.
  • Supporter Started Conversations now require a Supporter to select a sponsorship for the conversation to ensure in case of multiple sponsorships, the admins knows which sponsorship the conversation is intended for.
  • Multiple Mailchimp accounts can now be linked to your REACH Account.

December 2021

  • Video Messaging in Conversations among sponsors and sponsorships (Donor Portal, Donor Mobile App & Admin Console)

November 2021

October 2021

September 2021

August 2021

July 2021

  • Added validation for Projects, Places, Campaigns, and Projects permalinks when edited
  • Added French and Spanish translations for Donor Portal and donation pages

June 2021

  • QR Codes are now available
  • Family Unit Sponsorships
  • Attachments to Conversations are now disabled by default.
  • When a new recurring donation is created, the process date is now set to the day of the month of the original donation charge.
  • Added a sponsorship filter for Biggest Need
  • The transaction fees checkbox in the admin panel donation page is no longer checked by default if there are no transaction fees.
  • Organizations can now turn off Google’s reCAPTCHA for donations and/or their sign up and sign in pages under Account Rules and Donation Setup.
  • Email Templates can now use a liquid tag to pull in the current date.
  • Event Custom Form Fields are only available for viewing and editing within the Event.

May 2021

  • Fundraising Campaign Approval – Lists Admin Who Approved

April 2021

  • Past Due Calculations Revision
  • SSL Encryption – All Domain Names Included
  • Text Messaging – Send to Active Sponsors, Send Directly to Supporters

March 2021

  • Auto-Increment Numerical Code
  • Filtered Reports – Export and Download

February 2021

  • Schedule Reports Weekly or Monthly
  • Reports – Multi-Select Dropdown
  • Reports – Customize Display on Summary Page
  • Attaching Documents for Admin-Only Viewing

January 2021

  • Contribution Statements – Share with Donors Template

November 2020

  • Create and Embed a Donation Form

October 2020

  • Donor Mobile App
  • Invisible reCaptcha
  • Mailchimp Tag Integration
  • Admin Permissions for Projects & Places
  • Canadian Contribution Statement Updates
  • Searchable Reference Number filed for Donations with Custom Payment Type

September 2020

  • Customizing REACH portal – No HTML Required
  • Donation Details Report – Grouping
  • Auto-Complete Search Function to Supporters and Sponsorships

August 2020

  • Framework Update

July 2020

  • Virtual Fundraising Options

June 2020

  • Fundraising Campaigns – Anonymous Donor and Amount
  • Embedded Donation Forms – 1 or 3 page Option
  • Sponsorship Images Import Simplification
  • General Ledger Codes

May 2020

  • Virtual Fundraising – Gala, Product Sales, Peer to Peer Challenge

April 2020

  • New Donor Portal
  • New Event Page Design
  • Products – Increased Functionality
  • File Upload Improvements

March 2020

  • Soft Supporters
  • Admins: Primary Contact

February 2020

  • Disabled Supporter Daily Digest
  • Birthday Filters: Sponsors Report, Supporter Exports

December 2019

  • Contribution Statements Updates
  • Supporter Groups Updates
  • Custom Payment Types

November 2019

  • New REACH Website
  • Admins Can Update Password for Other Admins (if permissions allow)

October 2019

  • Contribution Statements: ID, Listed as Activity, Specify Country, Customize HTML

September 2019

  • Managed Missions Integration
  • New Sponsorship Albums
  • Custom Donation Link Builder
  • Sponsorship Birthday Filters

August 2019

  • Donation Page Customization
  • Redirect 404 Page Customization

June 2019

  • Mail Merge Translation
  • Export Supporter Lists into Numbers and Google Sheets

May 2019

  • Failed Recurring Donation Email Template Customization
  • Batch Donation Email Template Customization
  • Theme Versioning

March 2019

  • Customize Admin Date Format
  • Custom Payment Types (Offline Only)
  • Pledges in Campaigns
  • Blocked Emails

February 2019

  • Setup Checklist
  • Sponsor-Only Custom Fields
  • Recording Offline Direct Deposit

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