Award Letters & Templates

School staff create templates for communications about financial aid awards, including letters that indicate whether aid is granted, the amount and type of aid granted, and any terms or conditions for families. Once award amounts are entered and a budget is locked, Award and Denial Letters can be created for that budget.

For more information on Denial Letters, see Denial Letters.

From Awards, select Award Letters. A grid shows a summary of past letters sent. Select a letter to view what was sent.

Upload a logo for use on templates. Supported file types include ,png and .jpeg.

  1. Select Upload School Logo.

  2. Select Browse Image. Then select a file from your local computer.

  3. Select Save.

    Tip: To delete the logo, select Delete school logo and then Yes, delete it! to confirm the deletion.

Create a template for use in a mail merge for awards.

  1. Select Create a New Award Letter.

  2. Enter Template name and Subject that clearly describe the letter's purpose and use.

  3. Enter the content of the letter.

    • To add a merge field, select a field name from the left column. Selecting the merge field will add it into the letter template at the cursor's location.

    • Format the letter with headings (H1, H2, H3), text effects (bold, italics, underline), and lists (ordered/numbered, unordered/bulleted).

    • To start over, select Clear.

      Tip: Clear does not clear out the template entirely. It simply brings back the default template settings.

  4. Select Save.

Create a copy of an existing template for use with future letters.

  1. Select Available Award Letters and choose a template.

  2. Select Edit and enter your changes.

  3. Then enter in a new name and select Save as.

Update an existing template for use with future letters.

  1. Select Available Award Letters and choose a template.

  2. Select Edit and enter your changes.

  3. Then select Save.

Remove a template that has never been used.

  1. Select Available Award Letters and choose a template.

  2. Select Delete and confirm the change.

Use a letter template to run a mail merge to communicate with families in bulk.

  1. Select Available Award Letters and choose a template.

  2. Select the arrow icon to run.

  3. Select one or more budgets. Families in the budget will receive letters generated by this process based on the awards associated with it.

  4. Select whether to send the letter electronically or in print.

    • Electronic - Select whether to send immediately or schedule for a later time.

    • Print - Select whether to send an electronic copy of the letter to the family's Blackbaud Financial Aid Management Application Communication Center online.

  5. Select whether to indicate an award letter was sent using Update letter history.

  6. Select the student or students that should receive the letter.

  7. Select Preview and view the merged letter(s).

  8. Select OK to confirm and send the letters. A copy of each letter is saved to the student's record.