How to Launch an Automated DIY Fundraising Journey
When it comes to supporter-led, or DIY, fundraising, community fundraising teams pride themselves on building genuine relationships. So when the conversation turns to “automation,” a common fear inevitably comes up: will automating communications make you lose that personal touch?
During our recent webinar, we explored this exact question with Abbey from King’s College Hospital Charity, Vicki and Caitlin from PAPYRUS, and Emma from Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation. Their collective experience proved that not only does automation preserve the personal touch — it actually enhances it.
The “Depersonalisation” Myth
Emma and Abbey openly admitted they had a conversation about the risk of depersonalising the supporter journey and losing control before they made the switch to GivePanel DIY. Once they reviewed the automated journey, however, they realised the opposite was true.
Because the team was no longer rushing to manually type out hundreds of emails, they could pack their automated communications with far more value.
“We can’t manually send really long emails and send as many as we can in an automated journey,” Emma noted. “With this, we can add in more impact stories, we can add in more links, really timely comms… and just removing that delay.”
By automating the basics, you guarantee that every supporter gets immediate, consistent, and engaging communication the moment they sign up.
Start Basic
You do not need to build a complex, 10-step email journey on day one. All three charities recommended taking a phased approach to implementation.
- Test with a specific campaign: Abbey initially tested GivePanel DIY by rolling out a simple form and stewardship journey strictly for a small pool of festive fundraisers. From there, she was able to adapt, build, and grow the programme.
- Keep the emails simple at first: Caitlin from PAPYRUS recommended starting with the absolute basics. “Even if that’s just the registration email… and a thank you, and then you can just keep building and building and make it more segmented,” she advised.
- Exclude your top fundraisers: Emma’s team went live with their registration form and Smart Match, but made a point to manually pull out engaged supporters or repeat fundraisers so they could continue giving them a personalised, 1:1 journey.
Segmenting for Sensitivity
One of the most powerful ways to maintain a personal touch is through data segmentation. By asking the right questions on your registration form, you can route supporters into specific journeys.
For example, Emma’s registration form includes a question asking if the supporter is fundraising in memory of someone. If they select “yes,” they are prompted to provide the name of their loved one.
This ensures that in-memory fundraisers are automatically segmented into a specialised, appropriate email journey, separating them from general DIY participants who might be doing a celebratory birthday fundraiser.
Progress Over Perfection
The biggest roadblock to automating a DIY programme is often the pressure to get it flawlessly right from the start. Abbey’s top piece of advice to charities sitting on the fence is to let go of that pressure.
“I was in this mindset of ‘Oh god, it has to be the best journey and the best processes,’ but actually you can get out something really good to start with and build from there,” Abbey shared. “It doesn’t have to be perfect straight away. Best to just take the first step.”
Your DIY programme is always evolving. Get the basics running, win back your time, and you’ll finally have the breathing room to refine and perfect your strategy.
To hear directly from Abbey, Vicki, Caitlin, and Emma on how they made the switch, watch the full webinar at givepanel.com/diy-fundraising-webinar/. And if you’re ready to start building your own automated journey, book a 20-minute walkthrough of GivePanel DIY at givepanel.com/demo.