What a journey does
It adds structure and analysis to a donor's record. A journey is a set of stages for a type of relationship, such as Regular Giving, Major Donor or Bequests. The details sit on the donor's record as attributes: their current stage, the answers recorded along the way, and dated contacts like calls and meetings.
Where the information comes from
There are two sources:
- Your existing data. Five journeys are filled in automatically every night from data you already hold, like payments, pledges and event attendance. These are New Supporter, Regular Giving, Event Donor, Community Fundraising and Capital Campaign. For example, Regular Giving sets the donor's stage, payment status, consecutive years giving and an at-risk reason. It never overwrites a value someone on your team has entered, and every change is logged.
- Your team. The other journeys, like Major Donor, Bequests and Trusts & Foundations, record things only a person can judge, such as how a conversation went. Staff enter these on forms on the contact record.
Insights and metrics
Vega then creates insights from those attributes. Individual answers carry a score, and each insight combines the relevant ones, weighted, into a single indicator for that donor. For example:
- Regular Giving: retention risk, upgrade likelihood, consecutive year giving
- Major Donor: major donor readiness, ask readiness, LAI score (Linkage, Ability, Inclination), cultivation momentum, stewardship health
- Bequests: bequest indicator score, legacy conversation readiness
Most insights show as Tier 1, 2 or 3. Some show as a trend (Warming / Stable / Cooling) or a status (On track / Monitor / At risk). The weighting is set up per insight, and the underlying scores can be seen, so it's clear how each result was reached. Scores are recalculated on a schedule rather than the moment an attribute changes.
On the contact's Journeys tab you can see the donor's current stage, what was recorded and when, and their insight scores. Because it's all attribute data, you can query, segment, export and report on it the same way you do now, including with the "Contact Journeys" preset reports.
On the contact's Journeys tab you can see the donor's current stage, what was recorded and when, and their insight scores. Because it's all attribute data, you can query, segment, export and report on it the same way you do now, including with the "Contact Journeys" preset reports.
What a journey doesn't do
It doesn't send emails or SMS, create tasks or change a donor's gift. Even the nightly automation only updates information on the donor's record. If you want communications to follow from journey information, you can use Vega's existing tools, such as a campaign built from a journey segment or an attribute-based workflow, just as you would with any other attribute.
Setting up a journey
There are two ways to start:
- Use the attributes you already have. An existing attribute group can be set up as a journey, with one of its types marked as the stage. Your current uploads, queries and forms keep working as they are, and the group appears on the Journeys tab with the reporting on top. Your attributes can also be linked to insights so they're scored.
- Import a template. Vega has ready-made journeys for the main areas of fundraising. Each comes with its stages, forms and insights already set up, and you can adjust them to suit how you work.
Either way, we can help you set it up, whether that's choosing which journeys fit your programme, configuring your existing attributes or tailoring a template.
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