Managing Names and Addresses
Draft a Template Spreadsheet
Now that you have the forms created, it’s time to start drafting your template for keeping record of whom you’re sending packages to. A template will be your best choice so that in the future you can easily create new spreadsheets. If you are using Excel, all you need to do is start a new Excel Spreadsheet or Workbook and “Save As” an Excel template. On your template, enter the fields from your form along the top row. Like this.
| Last Name | First Name | Address 1 | Address 2 | Address 3 | APO/FPO | AA/AE/AP | Zip Code | Alternate | Alt. Email | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Once you have the template in the order you want, select “Save As” (for easiest use, leave it in the default template folder), name it and close the window. It’s that easy.
Now we want to create a new spreadsheet from a template. You can find that option under “File.” Choose the template you just saved. Start entering the information in the appropriate fields for each military member. Like this.
| Last Name | First Name | Address 1 | Address 2 | Address 3 | APO/FPO | AA/AE/AP | Zip Code | Alt. Name | Alt. Email | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Doe | John | Example Unit | FOB Example | APO | AE | 00000 | john@email | Jane Doe | jane@email |
Keeping Yourself Organized
The way your charity operates is going to practically dictate how you’re going to stay organized with addresses. For instance, if your charity supports each military member with only one care package before removing them from the list, you might want to have two spreadsheets – one for past shipments and one for future shipments. On the other hand, if your charity supports each military member with multiple care packages throughout the deployment, you might wish to have spreadsheets for each month. Since the latter is more along the lines of what SKIP did, here’s one way it could work.
Rather than sorting addresses by name or date received, sort them by redeployment date. For simplicity, let’s say you have 25 military members returning in January 2012, 25 returning in May 2012, and 25 returning in November 2012. You also have 25 returning in January 2013, 25 returning in May 2013, and 25 returning in November 2013. Clearly, you probably shouldn’t just have one spreadsheet for January, one for May and one for August because you’ll have a hard time keeping track of who’s supposed to come off each one. Instead, create one for January 2012, one for January 2013, one for May 2012, etc. While that means you’ll need to keep track of more spreadsheets, it’s actually a lot easier than you might think.
Let’s also say you send 4 shipments of care packages every year. Those shipments happen like clockwork in February, May, August and November.
Since you have military members who are returning home in January 2012, that entire spreadsheet can be filed in the charity’s historical records before your February 2012 shipment. Since you have military members returning in May 2012, that entire spreadsheet can be filed immediately following the February 2012 shipment. And since you have military members returning in November 2012, you can file that spreadsheet immediately following the August shipment.
It’s also best practice to put on or directly above the care package request web form any redeployment date requirements for the next shipment. For example, “Our next shipment is scheduled for November 2012. If you are planning to redeploy before January 2013, please do not request care packages.”
Maintaining Good Records
Record-keeping is an important part of running a charity. Creating a structured method for managing addresses will help simplify part of the record-keeping process. With a little practice, it will become second-nature and you’ll love how easy it is to stay organized. Good luck!