Using the Avid Pathways Tool to Take Action on Your Data
Avid: More Than Just Reporting
Avid isn't just a better dashboard or reporting tool. Sure, it can do that—but it’s much more. Avid is the first-ever fundraising agency in the cloud, which means it doesn’t just show you what’s happening in your data; it helps you take action on it. One of the most powerful ways to do that is through the Pathways tool.
What Is the Pathways Tool?
Pathways allows you to create dynamic, always-updating audiences based on the data flowing into Avid and push those audiences into the platforms you use to engage with donors. Whether it’s Facebook Ads, your email platform, or another integration, Pathways ensures your data stays live and up to date—so you can take action without missing a beat.
Where to Find It
On the left-hand menu, look for the squiggly icon labeled “Pathways.” Clicking on it brings you to a page that lists:
- All the audiences you’ve created
- The platforms you can push those audiences to
- Options to export your audience as a CSV
How to Create an Audience in Pathways
Creating a new audience in Pathways is simple and powerful. Here’s how:
- Click the “+” button to open the Audience Builder.
- Choose Your Data Source
- Use the Constituent Data Blend to combine all your connected data sources.
- Or, select a specific tool if you want to pull from a single platform.
Set Your Audience Criteria
Use the tools to craft the exact audience criteria you need. Keep in mind that you can layer "and" & "or" rules to create nuances audiences that meet all your requirements.
For Example:
Let’s say you want to target donors without an email address to run an acquisition campaign.
- First, filter for donors:
- Select Giving History First Gift Amount
- Choose “is not blank” (this ensures they’ve made a gift)
- Then, filter for missing emails:
- Select Contacts Email
- Choose “is blank” (ensuring they don’t have an email address on file)
Save Your Audience
Click Save, and your audience is ready to use.
Deploying Your Audience
Once your audience is built, you can push it to a Pathway of your choice:
- Sync to an integrated platform (e.g., Facebook Ads, email tools)
- Export as a CSV for manual use in another campaign or platform.
Why Use Pathways?
- Always Up-to-Date Data: Your audiences continuously update as donor data changes, keeping your data sources as relevant as possible.
- Better Campaign Performance: Whether you’re reactivating donors or acquiring new ones, Pathways helps optimize cost per result by ensuring you’re targeting the right people at the right time.
- Multi-Channel Activation: Push your audiences seamlessly into the tools where you’re already running campaigns.
Get Started
Jump into the Pathways tool, build an audience, and start seeing how real-time data can supercharge your fundraising campaigns. The right audience, at the right time, with the right message—all powered by Avid.
Ready to Keep Learning? Check out the next article on Pathways: Creating an Audience from a Report »