Communications

Find it: Left nav → Communications · Who can use it: Staff with donor access. Committee members are redirected away — this is a financial/ops surface.

What you'll see

The console has up to three cards: an AI weekly briefing (premium) at the top, a Segment send card (for users who can write donors), and the Message log — a table of your 100 most recent messages showing donor, subject, type, status, and date. Each row's Type is badged Thank-you, Ask, or Neutral, and AI-drafted messages carry a small AI badge.

How to email one donor

1. Open the donor's profile and find the Communicate card, then click Email [donor].
2. Choose a Type: Thank-you, Ask, or Neutral / update.
3. Write the subject and message and click Send.
4. On an Ask, if the donor isn't OK-to-ask, you'll get a warning and an Override justification (OK-to-ask) field — explain why it's appropriate now to proceed.
5. Every send logs a typed stewardship touch and updates the thank-you ratio. If email isn't configured, the message is saved as a draft and nothing is sent.

How to send to a segment

1. In the Segment send card, pick a Touch type and an Audience: All donors, Lapsed, At risk (LYBNTY), First-time, or Major (counts shown per option).
2. Add a subject and message, then click Send to segment.
3. Consent is auto-filtered, asks automatically skip donors who aren't OK-to-ask, and sends are capped at 500 recipients. A summary reports Sent, Drafted, Skipped (consent), Skipped (OK-to-ask), and Failed.

The AI Development Associate (premium)

• AI thank-you and AI ask buttons on the Communicate card draft a personalized email for you to review and edit.
• The AI won't draft an ask when OK-to-ask fails — it coaches you to thank and steward first instead.
• Generate this week's briefing produces a plan on who to thank, reactivate, and cultivate.
• AI always produces drafts a human reviews and sends — it never auto-sends.

Good to know

• Unsubscribes are honored automatically; opted-out donors are skipped and every email includes an unsubscribe link.
• Sending email requires email keys to be configured; the AI features require an AI key and a Growth or Enterprise plan (with a monthly generation cap).
• Because every send auto-logs as a typed interaction, you never have to log these touches by hand.