Question about mail merge

[bh24524]

Hello, I am keeping track of donations given to an organization. Some of these donations are monetary and others are non-monetary things such as printers, ink cartridges or other equipment. I have a mail merge typed out in Word with a letter to send to each person or organization thanking them for their donations as well as stating what their donations are for their tax purposes. In some cases certain people or organizations have donated multiple things. An example would be "Organization A" donated $150 spread out among 3 checks for $50 each. For monetary donations, I have the amount and the check number in the spreadsheet so that it shows the person in the mail merge letter their amount and of course the check number it corresponds with. That is one scenario. "Person A" donated multiple pieces of equipment-2 printers and 2 ink cartridges. In the mail merge, it gives four letters for Person A showing one piece of equipment on each letter. the same goes for organization A, one letter per check. I want to know if it is possible when doing the mail merge to set it up so that I only get one letter per person or organization that shows everything they've donated on that letter instead of printing multiple letters for the same person or organization. Is this possible? If it helps, here is a list of my 6 column headings in order from A-F:
A---Last name
B---First/Organization name
C---Date
D---Donation
E---Donation type (ie. monetary or non-monetary)
F---Check #
I'm not sure if you needed that info about the columns but it's there just in case.

 

[alansidman]

I have never done this, but I think that with some manipulation, you could probably create a pivot table and then do a mail merge into Word. You may have to cut and paste the PT to a new sheet after creating it.

Alan

 

[bh24524]

Are there maybe any other solutions available? Would anyone know for sure?

 

[javalover]

I have done mail merges that pull lots of different data. It's a matter of setting your letter up to accomodate all the different scenerios. Set up your letter with merge fields that will accomodate the different scenerios (i.e. Money received; check number, equipment received, etc.). Perhaps you can use the upper portion of your letter as the thank you and the lower part of the letter for the description of what was donated (almost like a form). If someone just gives $, the equipment part will be left blank. You might need to add additional columns to your spreadsheet to separate the type of donation (i.e. $ donation, equipment donation). I hope this helps!