Overview
You can use Lapsed Donor Re-engagement in PowerWorker Engage to identify donors who have lapsed or are at risk of lapsing and support timely, personalised engagement.
PowerWorker Engage periodically checks donor giving activity and creates an outreach record for each eligible lapsed donor. An AI agent uses available giving information to prepare a personalised email draft for review by the Donor Record Owner.
Donors who are approaching the lapse threshold are included in a separate at-risk notification. This allows the Donor Record Owner to consider early, personal outreach before the donor becomes fully lapsed.
Important: Every AI-generated email must be reviewed and approved by the Donor Record Owner before it is sent. The AI agent prepares and revises drafts but cannot send an email independently.
How lapsed donor re-engagement works
Stage | What happens |
|---|---|
1. Identify | PowerWorker Engage identifies eligible donors who are at risk of lapsing or have lapsed. |
2. Check eligibility | Donors with applicable communication restrictions or active giving commitments are excluded. |
3. Prepare draft | For an eligible lapsed donor, an AI agent prepares a personalised email draft using available donor and giving information. |
4. Notify owner | The Donor Record Owner receives a daily summary when drafts are ready for review. |
5. Review | The owner reviews the donor information, suggested ask, email subject and email body. |
6. Decide | The owner approves the draft, requests edits or rejects the outreach. |
7. Send and track | Following approval, a tracked email is sent from the Donor Record Owner and the outreach record is updated. |
Lapsed and at-risk donors
A lapsed donor is a donor whose last gift is older than the configured lapse period and who does not have an active pledge or recurring commitment. The default lapse period is 12 months.
An at-risk donor is approaching the lapse threshold but has not yet fully lapsed. By default, this covers donors whose last gift was between 10 and 12 months ago.
PowerWorker Engage excludes donors who:
Are marked as deceased.
Have applicable email communication restrictions.
Have an active Donor Commitment.
Have an Active, Paused or In Progress Payment Schedule.
These controls help prevent inappropriate or unnecessary outreach.
Review pending outreach
The Drafts Awaiting My Approval worklist presents the outreach records assigned to the current Donor Record Owner.
Open PowerWorker Engage.
In the navigation pane, select My Approvals.
Open Drafts Awaiting My Approval.
Review the outreach records requiring a decision.
Open the applicable record.
The worklist is limited to the current owner’s pending records and is ordered by expiry date.
Review an outreach draft
The Lapsed Donor Outreach record contains the information required to review the proposed communication.
Review the donor and giving information.
Review the donor’s target segment, where available.
Review the Suggested Ask.
Read the Draft Subject and Draft Body.
Confirm that the message is accurate and appropriate for the donor.
In Your Decision, select the applicable decision.
Enter Approval Notes when required.
Save the record.
The donor information and draft are presented for review, while the decision and approval notes can be updated by the owner.
Record an approval decision
The Donor Record Owner can select one of the following decisions.
Approve
Select Approve when the email is accurate, appropriate and ready to send.
After approval, PowerWorker Engage:
Creates a tracked email.
Sends the email from the Donor Record Owner to the donor.
Marks the outreach record as Sent.
Records the approver and relevant decision and sent dates.
Request edits
Select Request edits when the draft requires changes.
Enter clear instructions in Approval Notes before saving the record. The AI agent uses those instructions to revise the email and returns the revised draft for another review.
Approval Notes could identify:
Information that must be corrected.
Wording that should be changed.
Information that should be removed.
A change in tone.
Additional confirmed donor context to include.
Reject
Select Reject when the proposed outreach should not proceed.
Enter a reason in Approval Notes where appropriate. PowerWorker Engage marks the outreach record as Rejected and records the decision.
Approval notifications and reminders
Donor Record Owners receive a daily approval summary when new drafts are waiting for review. The notification includes the number of pending drafts and a link to the approval worklist.
Owners can also receive reminders for records that remain awaiting approval. If a decision is not recorded within the configured approval period, the outreach record can expire and an escalation notification is sent to the configured administrator.
At-risk donor notifications
At-risk donors are included in a daily notification to the relevant Donor Record Owner. The notification allows the owner to consider early, personal engagement before the donor becomes fully lapsed.
No AI-generated email draft or approval action is created for an at-risk notification. The notification is intended as a prompt for the owner to review the donor relationship and decide whether personal follow-up is appropriate.