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Creating a Cadence in GC Gift Officer

Updated

A Cadence is a repeatable outreach sequence — an intro email on Day 1, a call on Day 5, a handwritten note on Day 14 — that you build once and run for as many constituents as you like. GC GO turns every step into a task on the right day, so you can focus on the conversation instead of keeping track of who’s due for what.

This guide is for gift officers at GiveCampus University who want to build their own cadences: how to create one, how to add and order its steps, how to share it with your team, and how to get your first constituents started.

Already have a cadence running? For completing, pausing, and reassigning constituents once they’re moving through the steps, see Managing Cadences in GC GO.

Where cadences live

From the GC GO menu, click Cadences. You’ll see tabs for Active and Archived cadences (and Shared, if you have access to cadences your team has shared), plus a Search Cadences box. Each row shows the cadence’s Name, Description, # Upcoming, # Assigned, and # Completed.

Step 1: Create the cadence

  1. On the Cadences page, click New Cadence.
  2. Cadence Template (optional) — if your school has built cadence templates, pick one here. GC GO fills in the name and description for you and, once you save, creates every step from the template. You can still edit anything afterward.
  3. Cadence Name (required) — something you’ll recognize in a dropdown. “Reunion Intro — Class of 2016” beats “Cadence 4.”
  4. Cadence Description (optional) — a sentence on who this cadence is for and what it’s trying to do. It shows on the cadence page and in your cadence list.
  5. Cadence Availability — choose who can use it:
    • Individual — Only I should have access to this Cadence.
    • Shared — Others can access this Cadence. When you pick Shared, check at least one of the Gift Officer Teams the cadence should be assignable to. (Only available to managers and admins)
  6. Link to a Plan (if your school uses it) — fill in a Default Plan Name, Default Plan Type, and Default Plan Start Stage. When you later add constituents with Link Cadence to a Plan checked, GC GO creates a plan for each of them and keeps the plan’s moves in sync with the cadence steps.
  7. Click Save.

You’ll see “Cadence created successfully!” and land on the new cadence’s Cadence Steps tab, ready for steps.

Don’t see the Cadence Availability options? Creating shared cadences is a separate permission. If you only see the basic fields, your cadence will be Individual. Ask your GiveCampus admin if you need to share cadences with your team.

Step 2: Add your steps

Each step is one touchpoint. On the Cadence Steps tab, click Add Step and fill in the Add Cadence Step form:

  1. Outreach Type — what kind of touch this is:
    • Send Email
    • Call Prospect
    • Text Prospect
    • Social Media Outreach
    • Mail Note/Postcard
    • Other
  2. Step Title — what the task will say on your list. “Intro email — reunion invite” or “Follow-up call.”
  3. Due Day — how many days into the cadence this step comes due (see How timing works below).
  4. Step — this step’s position in the sequence: 1, 2, 3, and so on. Positions already in use are grayed out.
  5. Reply to an earlier step - check this box if you want this step to be a reply to a previous email from the cadence. If it is not checked, it will send as a separate email. 
  6. Template — pick a template so the step is ready to go when the task arrives:
    • For Send Email, choose an Email Template.
    • For Text Prospect, choose a Text Template (if your school uses texting).
    • For calls, notes, and everything else, choose a Contact Report Template, so logging the touch is quick.
    • Don’t have the right template yet? Choose Create New Template at the top of the dropdown.
  7. Plan Stage (if your school links cadences to plans) — the plan stage this step represents.
  8. Click Save.

Repeat for each touchpoint. The Cadence Steps tab lists them in order, with each step’s Outreach Type, Title, Constituents in Step, Due Day, and Step number.

Reply to an earlier email. An email step can be a reply to an earlier email step. Check Reply to an earlier email step and choose which one — GC GO reuses that step’s subject line and adds the new email to the same thread.

How timing works

The Due Day counts from the day a constituent starts the cadence:

  • Due Day 1 means the step is due the same day the person is added.
  • Due Day 5 means it’s due four days after that, and so on.
  • If a Due Day lands on a weekend, the task moves to the next business day.
  • A step can’t come due before the step ahead of it. If you set a step too early, GC GO tells you the earliest day you can use — for example, “Due Day must be 5 or later, because step 2 is due on day 5.”

Example: Step 1 — Send Email, Due Day 1. Step 2 — Call Prospect, Due Day 4. Step 3 — Send Email (reply to Step 1), Due Day 10. Step 4 — Mail Note/Postcard, Due Day 21. Add someone on a Monday and you’ll get the email that day, the call on Thursday, the follow-up email the next Wednesday, and the note three weeks out.

Step 3: Add constituents

Once your cadence has at least one step, the Assign Constituents button at the top of the cadence page lights up.

  1. Click Assign Constituents.
  2. Search for and select each constituent you want to add. They collect under Constituents to Add; click the delete icon next to a name to take it back off.
  3. For a shared cadence, choose who will own these constituents from Select Staff. It defaults to you.
  4. (If your school uses it) Check Link Cadence to a Plan to create a plan for each constituent alongside the cadence.
  5. Choose how to start:
    • Add to Active — start now. Step 1’s clock begins today, and tasks start arriving.
    • Add to Upcoming — queue them up without starting the clock. Start them later from the Upcoming tab with the play button.

Other ways to add constituents

  • From a constituent’s record — click Actions → Add to Cadence, pick the cadence from Select a Cadence, and click Add to Active or Add to Upcoming.
  • From a Saved List — on the Saved Lists page, click the ⋯ menu on a list and choose Add to Cadence to start everyone on that list at once.

Edit a cadence later

  • Rename it or change the description — click Edit Cadence Details at the top of the cadence page, or the pencil icon next to the cadence on your Cadences list.
  • Change a step — click the pencil next to the step on the Cadence Steps tab.
  • Remove a step — click the trash icon and confirm. A step that still has open tasks can’t be removed: “Cadences Steps with active tasks can’t be deleted.” Finish or dismiss those tasks first.
  • Switch between Individual and Shared — you can change this until someone has been added to the cadence. After that, “Cadence Type cannot be changed once assignments have been created.”

Archive a cadence you’re done with

On the Cadences page, click the trash icon next to the cadence and confirm. If anyone is still in it, GC GO warns you that they’ll be removed too — and that restoring the cadence later won’t bring them back. Archived cadences live on the Archived tab, where the restore icon brings one back.

A few tips

  • Start with three to five steps. A short cadence you actually finish beats a twelve-step one that stalls in week two.
  • Mix your channels. An email, then a call, then a handwritten note feels personal; three emails in a row feels like a newsletter.
  • Attach a template to every step. When the task shows up, the email is drafted or the contact report is half-filled, and you’re done in a minute.
  • Name steps for the task list. “Call — follow up on reunion invite” tells you exactly what to do when you see it on a busy Tuesday.
  • Use Upcoming to batch your start. Queue a group now, then start them all on the day you’re ready for the tasks to land.
  • Build it once, share it. If your teammates run the same play, make the cadence Shared so everyone’s working from the same sequence.

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