Dataro Help Centre

Campaign Tagging

Tagging all transactions in your database is an important step in generating the right predictions for your donors.

An important part of Dataro’s machine learning process is that all gifts and communications are labelled correctly e.g. identifying Appeals, Recurring Gifts, Events etc.

Campaign and transactional tagging is a critical step in this process to ensure Dataro can know how and why every gift made it into your system. Tagging is the single most important thing that can be done to improve model accuracy.

Dataro has a system to automatically identify or ‘tag’ every transaction and communication in your system using the information in your CRM such as the size of a campaign, when it was run, how many people gave to it, what it is called and more.

Sometimes Dataro will ask for your help to improve these tags so it is important to understand the terms and definitions. These are listed below under How can I help Dataro improve the tagging of my gifts and transactions.

Once tagging is complete we process your data and train a suite of models which predict the outcomes you are interested in and generate prediction scores for your supporters.

Below you is information on how to get started with campaign tagging and instructions on how to improve your tagging.

Campaign Tagging instructions

You're now in the process of setting up your Dataro integration. Campaign tagging is a critical part of that process. The end goal of this process is that we can know how and why every gift made it into your system. To do this, we ask you to check out 'tags' for your historical campaigns and verify or update the 'category' and 'channel' for each.

This is the single most important step to improving your predictions.

To get started, when you log into app.dataro.io you will be given the option to 'Continue Setup':

You will now be presented with a series of cards - each one represents a 'parent campaign' (an Appeal in Blackbaud or Campaign in Salesforce).

At the top-level, you will see the category and channel Dataro has 'predicted' for this item. If this is incorrect, or you wish to review or make changes at the package level, you can hit 'Show Details' to see the underlying items and update them as require, as follows:

Once you are happy with a card, you can hit 'Approve' to move on to the next. If you are unsure about a card you can 'Skip'. We recommend that you tag at least 65% of the items, but you can finish the tagging after a minimum of 30%. You can also revisit and review the tagging at any time in the future.

This part of the process can take some time, but trust us, it's worth it.

Ongoing campaign tagging

Campaign tagging is a critical part of that process. The end goal of this process is that we can know how and why every gift made it into your system. To do this, we ask you to check out 'tags' for your historical campaigns and verify or update the 'category' and 'channel' for each.

To get started, when you log into app.dataro.io navigate to the settings cog (bottom left) and click on "Continue Validation"

You will now be presented with a series of cards - each one represents a campaign.

Once you are happy with a card, you can hit 'Approve' to move on to the next. If you are unsure about a card you can 'Skip'. We recommend that you tag at least 80% of the items, but you can finish the tagging after a minimum of 50%. You can also revisit and review the tagging at any time in the future.

As you add new campaigns to your CRM, they too will need to be tagged. We recommend returning to this step every 1-2 months.

How to improve the tagging of your gifts and transactions

Tagging all transactions in your database is an important step in generating the right predictions for your donors. For instance, if somebody donated to a DM appeal, door knock, community bake sale or as part of a regular gift, it is important that we know that.

Dataro has a system to automatically identify or 'tag' every transaction and communication in your system using the information in your CRM such as the size of a campaign, when it was run, how many people gave to it, what it is called and more.

Sometimes Dataro will ask for your help in improving these tags. To do that you will firstly need to understand the different Dataro Category Tags and Dataro Channel Tags.

Dataro Category Tags

Appeal: Gifts to an appeal with a single ask (e.g.,Tax DM Appeal)
Newsletter: Gifts to a periodic newsletter (e.g., Monthly newsletter)
Acquisition: Gifts from new donors who have not given before (e.g., List swap DM Acquisition)
Event: Donations made at events (e.g. Gala Dinner)
Raffle: Donations made for the chance at a prize (e.g. "New Year New Car" Raffle)
Merchandise: Transactions for items bought via a store (eg. Online T-Shirt purchase)
Community: Gifts made to a community event to support the charity (e.g. Bake-sales)
Peer-to-Peer: Gifts made via crowdfunding (e.g. Everyday Hero)
Emergency: A special subcategory of Appeals, in which the Appeal is launched in response to a recent event relating to Emergency or Disaster relief (e.g. 2022 Ukraine Conflict).
Gifts in Will: Gifts made in a will (e.g. Bequests)
Trusts & Foundations: Gifts made on behalf of a trust or foundation
Membership: Membership payments (e.g. Sporting club membership)
RG Acquisition: A campaign for the purpose of acquiring new donors specifically for Recurring Giving
RG Upgrade: A campaign targeted at existing recurring givers to encourage them to increase their gift amount
RG Retention: A campaign to proactively prevent donors from canceling their recurring giving
RG Reactivation: A campaign to reactivate lapsed recurring givers
Convert to RG: A program that seeks to convert donors from single giving to recurring giving
Receipt: A communication that is sent to a donor as a receipt of an earlier donation. Very occasionally donors will contribute as a response to a receipt.
Workplace Giving: Regular contributions made as part of an employee’s salary
Stewardship: Stewardship activities made to potential major donors
Thank You: A thank you communication without an ask (e.g., Giving 12 months Thank You)
Petition: A sign-up through a form or signature (e.g., Facebook Save the Climate leads)
In Memory: Gifts made in memory of an individual.
Corporate: Gifts made on behalf of corporate entities
Survey: A campaign that has the purpose of collating donor attitudes to particular questions and issues.
RG Declines: A campaign undertaken to resolve RG payment issues with donors.
Administration: Communications sent for purely administrative purposes, i.e. to inform donors that their annual receipts are being prepared.
Email to Target: A communication where the intended outcome is that the donor emails a particular individual or organisation.
Services: A campaign used to to record communications and revenue for services performed by or on behalf of the organisation.
Government Funding: A campaign to record grants and other types of government funding.

If your gift or communication type is not found above, we have two "Other" types. These are:

One-off: Other single gift donations not classified above
Recurring Gift: Other Recurring Gift donations (e.g., monthly or annual gifts made as a recurring contribution)

Dataro Channel Tags

Each campaign you run will typically be sent via a particular communication channel. They are:

Phone: Telemarketing campaigns made over the phone
Mail: Direct Mail (DM) and undirected mail sent via the post
Email: Email (EDM) campaigns
SMS: Campaigns sent via SMS
Event: Campaigns made at an isolated event
Online: Campaigns made online (via a website), or other digital channels (such as Facebook)
Face-to-Face: Communications made on the street and in-person (e.g., Face to Face RG Acquisition)
Door-to-Door: Communications made in person at the supporter's residence
DRTV: A campaign where the primary communication is via Direct TV Commercials or PSAs.
Other: Any other channel not detailed above

For example: if somebody donated to "DM Tax Appeal 2020", then the campaign category is "Appeal" and the channel is "Mail".

Your organisation may not contain all these different programs and tags, that's OK. You may also have slightly different definitions and that's OK too. The important part is that the Dataro Categories and Dataro Channels are accurate based on our definitions.

When we ask for your help, we will provide you with a file that contains all your campaigns and appeals and the Dataro Category and Dataro Channel. All you have to do is look through those tags, and identify any tags you think are incorrect and update them. You can also leave a comment to explain why you made that decision.

The great news is that you will only need to do this process once!