Donor relationships
Which past donors should we contact?
A nonprofit wants to invite past donors to support a new project. It starts with a file containing 12,000 donor records. Some are duplicates or incomplete. The team needs to check who can receive its email before preparing it.
01 / The situation
Prepare a new appeal to past donors.
Starting material
A donor file, previous donations and appeals, and the list of people who have asked not to be contacted again.
What the team needs
A list of people to invite to donate again. In this example, 1,842 past donors match the campaign. The team sets 412 aside to avoid contacting them too often. This leaves 1,430 contacts to check before downloading the list.
02 / The workflow
The work, step by step.
12 000 → 11 460
The file contains 300 unusable records and 240 duplicates. Removing them leaves 11,460 distinct people.
11 460 → 10 440
Next, remove 600 people who do not want to be contacted, 300 without a usable email address and 120 whose contact permission still needs checking. Each person is counted only once.
1 842 → 1 430
Of the 10,440 remaining contacts, 1,842 last gave to an emergency appeal between 4 September 2024 and 3 September 2025. The nonprofit pauses 412 because it has already contacted them three times in 21 days.
03 / Demonstration
Who can receive the message?
Explore the steps and their effects on the dossier.
01
12,000
Donor records received
The file contains 12,000 records with contact details and donation history. One person may have several records, so this does not yet mean 12,000 distinct people.
Step 1 of 5 · people and records counted separately
02
11,460
Distinct people
The team removes 300 unusable records and 240 duplicates. Calculation: 12,000 − 300 − 240 = 11,460 people.
Step 2 of 5 · people and records counted separately
03
10,440
Contacts to examine
Remove 600 people who do not want to be contacted, 300 without a usable email address and 120 whose contact permission needs checking. Each person is counted only once.
Step 3 of 5 · people and records counted separately
04
1,842
Past donors relevant to this appeal
The nonprofit selects people whose last emergency donation was between 4 September 2024 and 3 September 2025, with no more recent donation. This is 1,842 people.
Step 4 of 5 · people and records counted separately
05
1,430
Contacts to check before sending
Of these 1,842 people, 412 have already received three appeals in 21 days. The nonprofit pauses them. This leaves 1,430 contacts to check before downloading the list.
Step 5 of 5 · people and records counted separately
The demo uses a fixed reference dataset. These figures are neither customer results nor forecasts.
04 / What is handed over
A dossier ready for what comes next.
Documents ready to use
A checked contact list, the reason for each removal, a reviewed email and the name of the person who approves the next step.
What to follow up
Selecting 1,430 people does not mean receiving 1,430 donations. In this example, the nonprofit pauses people already contacted three times in 21 days. This is its own rule; each organisation needs to define its approach.
Your next campaign starts here
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