Activate intelligence on your donor base

Connect a data source, sync your donors, and Together starts scoring. Within a day or two you'll have RFM scores, behavioural segments, and per-donor ask suggestions.

The intelligence engine runs automatically once you connect a source and sync. There's no manual training, no model tuning. This tutorial walks you through what to expect on day one and where to find each output.

Before you start

You need:

• ADMIN role on your org.
• A connected data source: NationBuilder, Raisely, or donations flowing through Together's own forms / checkout links.
• The Grow tier or higher. Without it, the Intelligence pages show an upgrade prompt instead of data; the scoring itself still runs in the background so the data is ready the moment you upgrade.

Step 1: Sync your donors

Go to Settings -> Integrations and connect a source if you haven't already. After connection, the first sync runs automatically. Subsequent syncs run on a schedule (NationBuilder hourly, Raisely on webhooks plus a backstop sync).

Wait for the first sync to complete. You'll know it's done when Donors shows a populated list.

Step 2: Wait for the scoring pass

Together's intelligence pipeline runs once a day as a scheduled job that recomputes scores for every org with donors. After your first sync, you'll typically see scores by the next morning at the latest.

While you wait, the Intelligence page shows an empty state with a "Connect Data Source" prompt. Once scoring is done, it fills in with your worklist: a ranked list of the donors worth acting on, each sized by its dollar opportunity (see Step 5).

The same daily pass also writes an AI analysis of your donor base - mission fit, giving patterns, seasonality, upgrade opportunities, and lapse risks - as a plain-English brief at Intelligence -> AI Analysis. It's a starting point for orienting your fundraising, not a substitute for your own judgement. You can regenerate it any time from that page.

Step 3: Read the donor scores

Open Intelligence -> Scores. You see a table of your top 100 donors by RFM composite score.

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Each row carries seven numbers:

The donor's name links into their detail page, their suggested ask amount (if computed) shows alongside, and a Why? link in the last column opens a plain-English breakdown of how the donor scored and why that ask was chosen.

Step 4: Explore the segments

Open Intelligence -> Segments. This page shows the built-in Segment rows that Together maintains: Upgrade Candidates, At Risk of Lapsing, Reactivation, Recurring Donors, Recurring at Risk, New Donors, Champions, Major Gift Prospects, and Winback Now. Each one is a dynamic list refreshed on every scoring pass.

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These Segments are distinct from the RFM segment label on each donor's score row. The RFM label describes one donor's bucket; the Segment rows are queryable groups your team can target.

You can also build your own. Click New segment, give it a name, and add criteria - a donor joins when they match every criterion (for example "lapse risk >= 0.5" and "total given (all time) >= 1000"). Membership computes immediately and refreshes on each daily pass. Custom segments appear below the built-in list, and can be edited or deleted from the segment's page. Built-in segments are read-only.

If you use NationBuilder, each segment's page has a Sync to NationBuilder button (editors and admins). It adds that segment's own tag to its members in NationBuilder right away, so a list you just built shows up in the CRM without waiting for the overnight sync. It only adds the tag - it never removes tags a donor already has - and it works whether or not you've turned on automatic write-back (Step 6), so you can push specific segments by hand. Very large segments are better left to the automatic sync.

Step 5: Act on the worklist

Open Intelligence. The main page is your worklist: a ranked list of donors to act on, each row carrying the donor's segment, the plain-English reason they surfaced (upgrade, retain, or reactivate), the suggested ask, and the dollar opportunity. Rows are ranked by that dollar figure, so the highest-value action is at the top. The filter buttons narrow the list to a single play.

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Editors and admins see an Ask link button on each row. Click it to generate a pre-filled checkout link for that donor at the suggested ask - adjust the amount in the dialog first if you want. Once created, copy the link and share it however you like: email, SMS, or a direct message. Links generated from the worklist are tagged so the donations they bring in are attributable back to your intelligence work in the Donations list.

On Grow you generate and share each link by hand. Sending in bulk or as part of an automated sequence is a Raise capability.

Step 6: Push intelligence back to your CRM (optional)

If you use NationBuilder, an admin can have Together write each donor's segment tags and a suggested ask range back to their NationBuilder record, so your team sees which list to work and roughly how much to ask without leaving the CRM. Both are written as tags (the ask range looks like together_ask_aud_250_500), so there's no custom-field setup - just connect and switch it on. Open Intelligence -> Write-back and set the connection to Shadow to preview exactly what would be written (nothing is sent), then Live when you're happy. The exact dollar figure and the raw scores stay in Together; only the segment and the ask band go to NationBuilder. Large donor bases are written gradually in the background, so a big list can take a few hours to fully appear.

What to do next

• Read the scoring model to understand what each number actually measures: The donor scoring model.
• Read how Together decides who to ask before designing your next campaign: How scoring decides who gets asked.