Playbooks: Campaigns and Programs

Playbooks is the section to use when you have decided what you want to run and would like the setup done for you. Each tile covers a complete piece of fundraising work: a pre-built audience drawn from the Dataro model that matches the goal, a recommended size, and a donor journey. Most Playbooks take a few minutes to set up.

What a Playbook is

A Playbook is a ready-to-run campaign or program. Dataro selects the model, ranks your donors, recommends how many of them to contact, and gives you a multi-touch journey to run. You choose the Playbook that matches your goal, adjust the size if your budget or channel requires it, then push the audience to your CRM or your email platform.

What you get in every Playbook

An audience built from the right model

Each Playbook is wired to the Dataro model that predicts the behavior you want, so the Save recurring givers at risk Playbook uses the churn model and Run an appeal uses the appeal model. You do not need to know which model applies, or how to translate a model into a filter set, because the Playbook has already done both.

A recommended audience size

Every Playbook opens with a recommended audience size based on your organization.

A recommended donor journey

Below the audience sits a multi-touch sequence with suggested channels, timing, and cadence.

Campaigns and programs

Campaigns run on models that use your campaign metadata, so they have a start, an end, and a cost per contact.

Playbook	What it does	Model behind it
Run an appeal	Asks your file for a gift, by mail or email	Appeal
Upgrade recurring givers	Asks existing regular givers to increase their gift	Recurring giving upgrade
Save recurring givers at risk	Intervenes before a regular giver cancels	Recurring giving churn
Reactivate recently churned recurring givers	Wins back donors whose regular gift has stopped	Recurring giving reactivation
Convert one-off donors to recurring	Turns single-gift donors into regular givers	Convert to RG

Programs run on models that rely on rank signals rather than campaign data, so they are evergreen and have no end date. You maintain a program over time rather than running it once. A program does not have to belong to a channel either: Reach donors likely to give (any channel) works whether you follow up by mail, email, phone, or in person.

Playbook	What it does
Grow your mid-level tier	Moves donors up into your mid-level giving band
Cultivate major donors	Builds and works a major gift pipeline
Reach donors likely to give (any channel)	Surfaces high-propensity donors regardless of channel

Running a Playbook

To set up and run a Playbook:

1. Open the Playbooks library and select the tile that matches your goal.
2. Review the recommended size in the header. Type over it if you need a different number, and use Clear override to return to the Dataro figure.
3. Decide whether Always maintain audience size should be on. On means Dataro backfills from the next-best donors as exclusions remove people, so you keep your planned volume.
4. Review the recommended journey.
5. Click Save Audience, then push the audience to your CRM or export it for your mail house.

Donors who rank highly on several models

A donor can rank highly on the major giving model, the mid-level model, and the appeal model at the same time. Contacting them through three Playbooks in the same month is less effective than contacting them well once. Dataro publishes a priority order to break the tie:

Priority	Model
1	Major Giving
2	Mid-Level
3	Appeal over $500
4	Convert to RG
5	Appeal Giving

The order runs from highest value per donor to highest volume. A donor who could give a major gift is better handled by a person than included in a mass appeal, because the cost of getting that one wrong is higher than the cost of leaving them out of a mailing. Volume Playbooks sit at the bottom because a donor missed there is the least expensive to reach again next quarter.

Planned giving runs alongside this order rather than competing with it. A donor being cultivated for a bequest can still receive your appeal, and in most programs we recommend that they do.

Work Playbooks do not cover

Playbooks cover the eight types of fundraising work that most organizations run most often. If your goal does not match one of them, build the audience yourself instead.

Planned giving is the common example. There is no planned giving Playbook, but you can filter for the characteristics of donors approaching a bequest decision and reach them before the inquiry arrives.

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Frequently asked questions

Should I use a Playbook or build the audience myself?

We recommend using the Playbook whenever your goal matches one of the eight tiles, because the model selection, the exclusions, and the sizing are already done. Build your own audience when the need is specific to your program, such as a regional appeal, an event invitation list, or a segment defined by something the models do not predict.

Which Playbook should I run first if I am new to Dataro?

We recommend Run an appeal, if you have one coming up. Most organizations already have a comparison point for an appeal, which makes it the fastest way to see how Dataro's ranking compares with your usual list.

My donor is top of both the major giving list and the appeal list. Do I contact them twice?

Use the priority order. Major Giving sits at the top, so that donor belongs to your major gift program first. Whether they also receive the appeal is a judgment call about your relationship with them, but the major gift conversation is the one that should lead.

Can I change the priority order for my organization?

Not today. The published order is applied consistently, which is what makes it useful for comparison across organizations. If it does not match how your teams are structured, raise it with your CSM so it is captured, and in the meantime handle it with exclusions on the lower-priority Playbook.

Can Dataro help with planned giving?

Yes, through Audience Builder rather than through a Playbook. Filter on the characteristics of donors close to a planned giving decision, such as age, region, and a long giving history, then send them information proactively. One organization used this approach to reach donors ahead of their inbound bequest inquiries.

Do I have to use the journey?

No. The audience and the journey are independent of each other. Many organizations take the audience, push it to their CRM, and run their own creative and cadence. The journey is there when you want a starting point to work from.

Does opening a Playbook commit me to anything?

No. Nothing is sent from the Playbook page, so you are only assembling an audience and a plan. Execution happens in your CRM, your email platform, or with your mail house, which means you can open every Playbook and look through it first.