This is a how-to step by step guide on how to accomplish the work to generate and send personalized links with smart suggested ask amounts through GC Outreach to ensure your appeals feel target to each individual in your recipient list.
Step 1: Upload your Constituent & Giving History required for our AI Model to generate Smart Ask Amounts
The first step in this process is we want to generate smart asks for your group of constituents you want to target. To do this accurately, we need some information about your constituents and their giving history uploaded through the School Level Data Importer.
If this is the first time you are sending constituent & giving data to GiveCampus, this guide will be a 2 day process. Tackle step 1 on day 1 and tackle steps 2-3 on day 2!
- Follow the step by step instructions for setting up both the constituent file and the gifts file found in this article. You can also find this linked at the top of the page in the "Import Configurations" set up if you would like to start from there in the blue banner.
- Upload your constituent file including all of the constituents that you would like to send these links to using your newly created "constituents" configuration. Hot Tip: Keep this file handy, you will use it later in this flow again.
- Upload those constituent's giving history from the last 5 years including gifts they have made in the last 6 months using your newly created "gifts" configuration
- Great job. Check your constituents tab for the data you just processed - If you just did step 1 for the first time with GiveCampus, we need some time to train our models with the new data you just gave us so we can optimize based on your data. You should tackle step 2 tomorrow. Come back here and pick up where you left off!
FAQs on Step 1:
Q: What if I upload more constituents and more people's giving history than just those I want smart asks for?
A: Totally fine to do and actually we love that! This will change your flow slightly later on so be sure that your .csv you upload in step 2 below only includes those you want smart asks for.
Q: What if I have already done this step and have constituents & giving history already in GiveCampus?
A: Awesome! Totally fine as well - you can skip through to Step 2. If there are some constituents you think you haven't updated or gifts missing that should be taken into account in our AI model, you should do a full file refresh in your existing configuration setup.
Step 2: Generate Smart Ask Amounts for your segment
Our smart ask amounts live in personalization so that you can immediately use these generated ask amounts to personalize the giving form experience for each individual constituent. Here is how you step through the generation to create these personalized links.
- Navigate through to Online Giving > Personalization > Smart Ask Amounts
- Click the "New Suggested Ask Amount Segment" button in the top right
- Upload the list of constituents that you would like smart asks generated for. If you have your appeal email list of recipients ready to go this is great to use here! If you uploaded your constituents for this already in step 1, you can use that same .csv.
Hot Tip: Any columns in the .csv that are NOT the external_id column which should have your constituent IDs will be ignored in this upload. So re-using a file from elsewhere in this process is totally fine to do as long as it's a list of all the people you want ask amounts for and you have external_id in there!
- Fill in all of your configurations including your ask amount strategy and how many ask amounts you want displayed at the top of your form for options! Check out these resources for more information on the configuration options in Smart Ask Amounts or how our AI Model works
- Wait the on-page amount of time for your smart ask amounts to be generated and ready to be reviewed & utilized! Check back here in ~30 minutes. Maybe now is the time to grab another coffee or take a walk around the block.
- Once your smart asks are ready for review they will pop to the top of the page here. Click on the name of the list item and you will be able to review all of the ask amounts generated for your constituents uploaded
An Important Note about adjustments: Our Smart Ask Amounts are powered by predictive models trained on data from 1000+ educational institutions. GiveCampus has data that highlights how our Smart Ask Amounts are highly correlated with future giving, but for certain constituents there may be extenuating circumstances that aren’t reflected in the data. Think of Smart Ask Amounts as a set of data-driven defaults that get you 95% of the way there while still enabling you to inject your own domain knowledge for the remaining 5%.
FAQs on Step 2:
Q: Can I pair this with additional personalization data on top of the suggested ask amounts and general information?
A: This is definitely possible. If you would like to add this additional data follow these step by step instructions here and come back for Step 3! This is by no means a requirement and the form feels very personalized to donors with just their suggestions & bio information you've given us from step 1
Step 3: Create and Send an email appeal from GC Outreach
Now that you have links ready to go for individual constituents personalized for what we think each person is most likely to donate, you are ready to draft your outreach and send out an email with these links!
- On the top of the Smart Asks Segment page where you were reviewing your ask amounts, click the "Create Outreach" button.
- Decide how you want to start your outreach (Scratch, a Template, or AI). If you are unsure or new to outreach try out our FYE Appeal Template for a basic appeal template to get started with.
- Adjust your subject line, merge tokens you might want, and add your branding / logo look and feel using the GC Outreach email builder
- Ensure you add your CTAs using the GC Link Builder icon 🔗 in the top editor bar. This will give you link options but select your form / campaign you want to personalize > then choose Personalization links and select the name of the smart asks segment list view you reviewed and confirmed in Step 2
- Review the Recipients tab which will be pre-populated and remove any individuals or dynamically filter out those that already donated recently.
- Back on the content page, test your email with the "Send Test Email" at the bottom of the editor. Select one of the constituents from your segment in the first type ahead box so you can test an individual's link and make sure you feel confident you know what their experience will be.
- Click "Preview and Send" once you are ready to go so you can send it out or schedule it for the future!
FAQs for Step 3:
Q: Can I add other recipients to my email list?
A: Yes - click the "add recipients" button in the top right of the recipients tab to add an additional group of people. If you have some that don't have personalized links generated with smart asks, they will still be taken to the general form to make a donation!