Annual Giving Systems: Calendar & Segmentation
Graduate from one-off appeals to a segmented, scheduled program with lapsed-donor recovery built in.
Through the Human Services lens
Running six live segments is aspirational for a shop with one staffer and a spreadsheet instead of a database, and the module's warning that segments rot without fresh queries is the real diagnostic here: most human-services shops need the CRM-hygiene fundamentals before this module can pay off. Where it does work, the recovery sequence is disproportionately valuable, because acquisition is essentially unaffordable and every recovered donor is real money the shop cannot otherwise replace.
Continuing education
1.25 points
Securing the Gift · Leadership and Management
Learning objectives
- Define the six behavior-based segments a small shop can maintain and explain why recency, frequency, amount, and tenure predict response better than demographics.
- Pull each segment fresh from saved database queries before every send and adjust the three sentences that change between versions.
- Build a twelve-month calendar that crosses segments with seasons, runs mail and email as one wave, and sets production deadlines ahead of each ship date.
- Run a four-touch recovery sequence for recently lapsed donors, tiered by last gift, that ends with a release letter.
- Design a single-variable split test on one appeal, measure it by completed gifts and revenue rather than opens, and log the verdict.
Designed for CFRE continuing education. Not yet accepted; no CFRE points can be claimed.
Lessons
- 21 min
Video lesson
Segmentation that a small shop can run
II See · Current and Prospective Donor Research
- 25 min
Template· XLSX
The 12-month appeals calendar
IV Invite · Securing the Gift
- 18 min
Template· DOCX
Lapsed donor recovery sequence
VI Accompany · Securing the Gift
- 14 min
Field guide· PDF
A/B testing without a data team
II See · Leadership and Management
This is members-only material.
Members get every lesson, template, and worksheet in all eight tracks, plus the support to put them to work in your shop.
More in this stage
Major & Principal Gifts
Building a Major Gifts Portfolio
Move from reactive asks to a managed portfolio: qualification, moves management, and a caseload you can defend.
Donor Communications & Stewardship
The Case for Support That Writes Itself
One master case document that powers every appeal, proposal, and conversation, built from your mission's real evidence.
Annual Giving & Direct Response
Monthly Giving That Compounds
Sustainers are the closest thing to endowment a small organization has. Launch and grow a program built to last.