How do I start creating Journeys?

Last updated: April 2, 2026

Journeys allows you to create an unlimited number of series using rules and actions to target each of your specific supporters in various use cases.

Step 1: Name and Description

To get started, create an internal name and description of your journey. The name and description will only be visible from your dashboard.

Step 2: Sending Schedule

Then create your sending schedule. Your sending schedule refers to the time frames your journeys can send emails and texts within. Your schedule will default to only sending between 9am–5pm within the donor's timezone and will exclude sending on US Holidays; however, you can customize your sending schedule here. You can set different time windows for each day of the week individually, and toggle specific days on or off (including weekends).

Step 3: Entry Rules

With journeys, you can segregate your audience into groups and customize series of communication events for your targeted audience by using entry rules. Entry rules are a set of filters that your supporter must first match to be targeted within your journey.

Entry rules consist of trigger-based and audience-based rules:

While trigger-based entry rules consist of something someone does (for example: making a payment, submitting a form, updating their consent, or creating a donor profile),

Audience-based entry rules consist of something someone is or becomes by possessing specific characteristics (for example: donation totals, donor tags, demographics, communication list membership, or date-based criteria like first donation date).

You can combine both types of entry rules together for more refined targeting.

Step 4: Build Your Series

Once you create your entry rule, you can create a series of rules and actions that your targeted audience will go through until they reach the end of the series. Rules determine who will receive the message and when, and actions determine what event will occur when someone matches the rule.

Rules control the flow and timing of your series:

  • If/Else logic — Segment supporters based on conditions and send them down different paths. For example, donors who have given over $100k could receive premium content, while others get standard content.

  • Time delays — Wait a set amount of time (minutes, hours, days, or weeks) before the next step.

  • Trigger delays — Wait for a specific event to occur (like a donation or form submission) before advancing.

Actions are the events that happen when a supporter reaches that step:

  • Send an email or text message

  • Tag or untag a donor

  • Add or remove from a communication list

  • Subscribe or unsubscribe from a communication list

  • Tag an impact story (displays on the donor portal)

  • Tag an impact number (personalized stats for the donor)

  • Send a webhook (POST request with custom headers/body for integrations)

  • Redirect to a different step in the journey

Exit Rules (Optional)

You can also enable exit rules on your journey. Exit rules allow you to automatically remove supporters from the journey when they meet certain conditions, even if they haven't reached the end of the series. This is useful for scenarios like removing a donor from a lapsed-donor journey once they make a new gift.

Additional Settings

  • One-time entry — Control whether a supporter can enter the journey more than once.

  • Daily limit — Set a cap on how many messages the journey can send per day.