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      Updating your Data Briefs

      Updating your data briefs and mailing plans is essential if you want to embed Dataro into your fundraising processes & campaigns. Your customer success manager will work with you to achieve this.

      What is a data brief / mailing plan? 


      A brief is a document prepared by the fundraising team that provides clear and detailed instructions to the data or CRM team about what supporter or donor data they need pulled or prepared for a particular purpose - usually for a fundraising campaign, mailing, or analysis. It is important because it: 

      • Prevents miscommunication between fundraising and data teams.
      • Ensures accuracy in targeting and segmentation.
      • Saves time and avoids costly mistakes (like mailing to the wrong audience).
      • Makes data pulls reproducible and auditable.

      Typical Components of a Data Brief

      Purpose / Campaign Description

      • What the data will be used for (e.g. appeal mailing, email campaign, phone calling, donor analysis).
      • Campaign goals (e.g. raise $100k, engage lapsed donors).
      • Key Dates - data deadline, mailing date, etc

      Audience Instructions

      • Who should be included 
      • Who should be excluded
      • Specific segments needed (e.g. first-time donors, lapsed donors, monthly donors).
      • What ‘panel’ each segment or group should receive. A panel typically refers to a group of recipients who receive the same version of a mailing or offer as part of a structured test or control. E.g. Panel A (Control) — the standard package, Panel B — new letter copy, Panel C — with a premium (e.g. tote bag), Panel D — higher ask amounts.

      Selection Criteria

      • Donation history (e.g. last gift date, lifetime giving, frequency).
      • Demographics (e.g. age, location, gender).
      • Engagement data (e.g. event attendance, volunteer history).
      • Channel preferences (e.g. email only, postal mail only).

      Output Requirements

      • File format (e.g. Excel, CSV).
      • Fields/columns required (e.g. name, address, email, donor ID, last gift amount).
      • Sort order (e.g. by segment, by last name).

      Counts & Quality Checks

      • Request for counts by segment for review before final pull.
      • Any deduplication or data cleansing needed.

      Timelines

      • When the data is needed by.
      • Any interim review steps.

      How to update your Data Briefs to include Dataro

      Step 1: Determine Your Goal (Define Campaign Purpose Clearly)


      E.g. for a direct mail appeal campaign. "Purpose: FY25 Spring Appeal, focus on maximizing response from most likely givers among current and lapsed donors"

      Step 2: Select the correct Dataro Model


      Goal

      Models

      Direct mail appeal gifts

      Mail Appeal

      Mail Appeal >$500

      Single giver reactivations

      24M Lapsed 

      Mid-Level Giving

      Mid-Level donor

      Major Giving

      Major donor

      Planned / Legacy Giving

      Gift-in-will (GiW)

      Recurring Giving Upgrades

      RG Upgrade

      Recurring Giving Churn Prevention

      RG Churn

      Recurring Giving reactivations

      RG Reactivation

      Convert to Recurring Giving

      Convert to RG

      Setting ask amounts / gift matrix

      Ask Amount

      Acquisition

      First Gift

      Lifetime Value planning

      Future Giving

      Step 3: Update your Audience Instructions

      • Dataro’s models are trained to find the best prospects for each fundraising goal. They should be the first criteria used in any data brief to define the universe of potential donors. 
      • Direct your data team to use the relevant Dataro model to find the best prospects for the campaign
        • E.g. Use rankings to achieve your desired list size. For a mailing to 50,000 people, you could set the criteria as “the top 50,000 donors most likely to give via direct mail using Dataro’s DM Appeal rankings”. 
        • E.g. Use scores to identify donors with a specific probability. For a mailing you could set the criteria as “all donors with a probability of giving of >1% using Dataro’s DM Appeal scores”. 
      • For any remaining segments you want to include, direct your data team to use Dataro’s scores/ranks to remove highly unlikely donors from those segments. E.g. “All donors who have given the past 24 months, but remove any donors with a chance of giving of <1% using Dataro’s DM Appeal scores.”

      Step 4: Define Exclusions Clearly

      • Be explicit so the data pull is accurate:
        • Exclude deceased
        • Exclude opt-outs
        • Exclude donors with Dataro rank/score outside your thresholds, unless you have a very good reason to include them.

      Step 5: Add Dataro Model Output Columns to Data File

      • When you create your output file, make sure you add the relevant Dataro columns. This will help you with your campaign analysis after the campaign. 

      Step 6: Quality Assurance and Review Counts

      • Request a pre-run file or counts to confirm your final volume after exclusions. 
        • How many donors in each Dataro score / ranking band?
        • How many donors after exclusions? What were the main reasons donors were excluded?
      • Top-up your list by scaling up your ranking selections if you need to contact more people. 

      Sample Data Briefs with Dataro inclusions

      Review a sample data brief here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18OJeLSO4qHeREGlMGs3hKn6MNbTAdZiQqjqLtWVQ-PE/edit?usp=sharing

      Top Tips for updating your Data Briefs

      1. Always put the correct Dataro models first in your selection criteria. This will ensure you don’t miss any of the best prospects in your campaign. 
      2. It is possible that donors will rank highly on more than one Dataro model. For example, a donor who is ‘likely to give >$500 is necessarily also likely to give any amount, so would rank highly on both the DM Appeal >$500 model and the DM Appeal model. When building an appeal using multiple Dataro models, you want donors to be included in the highest value group for which they qualify. Therefore, use the Dataro models in the following order:
        1. Major Giving
        2. Mid-Level Giving
        3. DM Appeal >$500
        4. DM Appeal
        5. 24M Lapsed Reactivation
      3. If you build your final data list in your CRM or in a different system (e.g. Excel), or if you use an agency to finalise your list, always upload the list to the Dataro Platform and save it as a new audience. This will allow you to instantly and easily track your campaign’s performance.
        1. Go to Donors & Audiences -> Saved Audiences and select the Upload option. 
      4. Ultimately, most clients find that the Dataro models allow them to significantly simplify their segmentation and remove many redundant segments.