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GC Outreach + Online Giving: Adding Smart Ask Amounts to Personalized Email Tokens

Updated

This step-by-step guide walks you through the new Personalization Workflow, where personalization lives right inside your segment in GC Outreach. Instead of juggling multiple uploads, you'll configure greetings, ask amounts, and designations from one place — then deliver tailored giving experiences to every donor on your list.

Before You Start

A quick checklist so personalization can do its magic:

  1. Constituent data is uploaded through the School-Level Data Importer with at least Constituent ID, First Name, Last Name, and Preferred Email mapped. Without these fields, personalization tokens can't be generated. Get started on uploading data here.
  2. A live giving form or campaign exists that you want to direct donors to with a personalized experience.
  3. A custom segment is created (via query builder or CSV upload) containing the audience you want to personalize for. More info on segment creation here.

Step 1: Open your segment and create a new personalization

Now that the prerequisites are squared away, let's bring this to life inside your segment.

  1. Navigate to GC Outreach → Segments and select your target segment.
  2. You'll see a new Personalization tab to the right of the segment list — click it.
  3. Click Create Personalization.
  4. In the modal, give it a name (e.g., "Spring Appeal 2026"), select whether you're connecting to a Campaign or Giving Form, and choose the specific live form or campaign.

Pro Tip: Name your personalization something you'll recognize later. "Spring Appeal 2026 — Major Donors" is a lot more helpful than "Test 1" when you come back to review or report on it.

FAQs on Step 1:

Q: My segment isn't showing up — what's going on?

A: Only custom segments are supported in this first phase. Smart Segments and pre-built segments aren't available yet — head to the segment builder to create a custom segment for this audience.

Q: Can I create more than one personalization on the same segment?

A: Not yet. Each segment supports one personalization in this version. If you need different versions for different sub-audiences, build separate segments.

 

Step 2: Configure your personalization

This is where you choose how each donor experiences your form. You'll set the greeting, the ask amounts, and the designation all in one place.

  1. Greeting Name — Choose how donors will be greeted (First Name, Preferred Name, Nickname, or First and Last Name). If a donor is missing the selected field, the system falls back gracefully: Preferred Name → Nickname → First Name.
  2. Greeting Message — Write a short message (up to 400 characters) that appears on the form. This is a great place to thank donors for past support or add a personal touch tied to your appeal. ⚠️ Don't include personally identifying information — personalization doesn't require donor authentication.
  3. Ask Amounts — Use a constituent's imported ask amount, or use Smart Ask Amounts, powered by GC Intelligence. Smart Ask Amount data is regenerated weekly to account for newly uploaded data, so amounts stay fresh.
  4. Designation — Auto-fill a designation for these personalization tokens. You can add up to five designations. Designations must first be created under Online Giving → School-Level Settings before they appear here.
  5. Click Update Personalization Tokens. The system applies your configuration to every eligible constituent in the segment.
  6. Click any token in the table to open the donor's personalized giving experience in a new tab. Verify the greeting name, message, and collapsed fields all look the way you want.

Pro Tip: Preview at least three to five tokens across different constituent types (first-time donors, lapsed donors, major donors) before you send. It's the fastest way to catch a missing field or an awkward greeting.

FAQs on Step 2:

Q: I want to tweak the greeting for just a handful of people — do I have to redo everything?

A: Not at all. Select the specific constituents and update their greeting name or message individually. Manually edited tokens are flagged with a tooltip and can be "locked" so future bulk changes won't overwrite them.

Q: Can I bulk-update tokens with a spreadsheet?

A: Yes. Use the .csv upload option to set unique display names, greeting messages, designations, or modified ask amounts for specific constituents in the segment. Uploading a refreshed file updates the data inside the existing personalization — so even if links have already gone out, you can still update what donors see when they click.

Q: How do I remove a personalization?

A: You can remove tokens for specific constituents, or delete the whole personalization. Donors can still reach the base form or campaign link — it just won't be personalized.

FAQ — Why do Ask Amounts show as "Not configured"?

Q: I uploaded a recipient CSV (or created a personalization) but the Ask Amounts column shows "Not configured" or is blank. Why didn't Smart Ask Amounts auto-populate?

A: Smart Ask Amounts don't auto-populate when you upload a CSV segment or create a personalization. You must enable them on the personalization's Edit screen for the system to generate and apply them.

How to configure Smart Ask Amounts

  1. Go to GC Outreach → Segments and select your segment.
  2. Click the Personalization tab and open your personalization.
  3. Click Edit Personalization to open the edit screen.
  4. In the Personalization Configuration area, locate the Ask Amounts section.
  5. Click Specify Ask Amounts to open a panel.
  6. Select Use Smart Ask Amounts and click Continue. Choose how many asks to display and the ask strategy.
  7. Click Add Asks to save your selections and close the panel.
  8. Finally, click Update Personalization Tokens to apply the configuration to all eligible constituents.

What to expect

  • After saving, the Ask Amounts field updates from Not configured to Smart Ask Amounts.
  • You can preview individual tokens to confirm that the suggested ask amount appears as expected.

If Smart Ask Amounts is unavailable

If the option is disabled, greyed out, or displays an availability message, ensure that:

  • Constituent data includes giving history with at least one gift in the last 6 months and consistent activity over the past 5 years.
  • Your account has sufficient gift data (at least 1,000 imported gifts or gifts representing 10% of constituents).
  • Required biographical fields (First Name, Last Name, and Preferred Email) are mapped in the School‑Level Data Importer.
  • Required gift data fields are mapped so that giving patterns can be analyzed.

If data was just uploaded, Smart Ask Amounts might show a processing status with the message:

"Your data is currently being processed to be applied to Smart Ask Amounts. It will be ready in 24 hours."

Wait up to 24 hours, then return to the edit screen to select Use Smart Ask Amounts and update tokens.

Troubleshooting & best practices

  • Use Use Constituent's Imported Ask only when ask amounts are in your CSV; otherwise, choose Use Smart Ask Amounts.
  • After switching ask sources, click Update Personalization Tokens to apply changes.
  • Preview several tokens for different donor types to confirm ask amounts and fallback behavior.

Direct-edit URL pattern

You can directly open the personalization edit screen using this URL pattern:

https://www.givecampus.com/schools/{urlnick}/admin/outreach/segments/{segment_id}/personalized_workflows/{workflow_id}/edit

 

Step 3: Deliver through GC Outreach or export to use elsewhere

Once your tokens look great in preview, you have two ways to get them into donors' hands.

Option A: Draft a GC Outreach email

  1. Click Draft Outreach from your personalization. The outreach is created with your segment already applied and the personalization link pre-populated.
  2. Choose how to start your outreach (Scratch, a Template, or AI). New to GC Outreach? Try the FYE Appeal Template for a solid baseline.
  3. Adjust your subject line, drop in any merge tokens, and add your branding and look-and-feel using the GC Outreach email builder.
  4. Use Send Test Email at the bottom of the editor and select a constituent from your segment to confirm their personalized experience.
  5. Click Preview and Send when you're ready — send right away or schedule for later.

A heads up on templates: If you apply a template after drafting from personalization, the personalized link won't carry over. Add it back in via the GC Link Builder icon (🔗) in the top editor bar — choose your form or campaign, then select Personalization links and pick the personalization you just configured.

Option B: Export the links

Download a CSV of all (or selected) tokens with personalized URLs. Use this for direct mail, your CRM, or any external email tool — anywhere you want a personalized donor experience outside of GC Outreach.

FAQs on Step 3:

Q: Can I add more recipients to my drafted outreach?

A: Yes. Click the "Add Recipients" button in the top right of the Recipients tab to layer in more people. Anyone without a personalized link will still be taken to the general form to make a donation.

Q: I edited a personalization after sending the email. Will donors see the new version?

A: Yes. Refreshing the personalization updates the tokens at the link level, so even if the email is already in someone's inbox, the link they click will reflect your latest changes.

FAQ — Using Outreach Personalization Tokens with Unique Tracking Links

Q: I created personalization tokens in GC Outreach and want to track performance with a Unique Tracking Link (the short givecampus.com/s/… URL). Can I combine them?

A: You can, but note that short Unique Tracking Links forward most query parameters except the appeal attribution parameter (a=). This means that appending ?token=… to a short link will pass the personalization token but lose the appeal attribution. Therefore, combining a short link with an Outreach personalization token is not reliable.

Q: What is the correct way to combine UTL attribution with the new Outreach personalization token?

A: Use the full destination URL (not the short redirect) and include both the appeal attribution (a=) and the personalization token (token=). For example, if your full destination URL is:

https://give.yourschool.edu/campaigns/{id}/donations/new?a={appeal_code}

append the token as an additional query parameter:

https://give.yourschool.edu/campaigns/{id}/donations/new?a={appeal_code}&token={token_value}

Q: How do I get the expanded URL for a short Unique Tracking Link?

A: Two options:

  • Open the short link in your browser and copy the full URL from the address bar after the redirect.
  • Locate the campaign or giving form URL in the admin, then combine it with the appeal attribution (a=) from your UTL settings and append &token={value}.

Q: Are token= and adid= the same? Can I swap them?

A: They are not interchangeable. The older personalization module uses adid=, while the new Outreach Segments workflow uses token=. Use token= for tokens created through Outreach Segments.

Q: Do I need to manually build these URLs, or is there an in-app option?

A: Avoid manual URL construction. When you click Draft Outreach from your personalization (via GC Outreach → Segments → [Your Segment] → Personalization), the email editor’s link-insertion tool automatically builds a correctly formatted link for your selected campaign or giving form.

Q: I exported tokens as a CSV for use in another tool. How should I format those links for tracking and personalization?

A: The CSV export includes a personalized_url column with the full, ready-to-use URL that embeds the personalization token. Use that column directly. If you need to construct URLs manually, use the full campaign or giving form URL with the appeal attribution (a=) and append &token={token_value}. Avoid using short links as they strip the appeal code.

Quick checklist before sending:

  • Ensure your personalization links use token= (not adid=).
  • Do not use a short givecampus.com/s/ link when you need both UTL appeal attribution (a=) and personalization (token=).
  • Use the full destination URL and include both a={appeal_code} and token={value}.
  • In GC Outreach, use the email editor’s link-insertion tool to insert personalization links.
  • When exporting, use the personalized_url column from the CSV export as it already contains the correct token.

Questions? Reach out to our team at support@givecampus.com.

 

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