Creating a Journey with WeGive

Last updated: April 15, 2026

Journeys are WeGive's automation tool for sending the right message to the right supporter at the right time. Use them to welcome new donors, follow up after an event, re-engage lapsed supporters, or nurture a recurring-gift upgrade — all on autopilot.

This guide walks you through building your first Journey in the WeGive dashboard.

Before You Start

Have these ready so you don't get stuck mid-build:

  • A goal for the journey. "Thank first-time donors" or "Follow up on abandoned checkouts" — one clear purpose per journey works best.

  • Your message content. Subject lines, body copy, and any images for each email, SMS, or letter you plan to send.

  • Your audience definition. Who should enter this journey? (e.g., donors who gave in the last 30 days, supporters with a specific tag, attendees of a specific event.)

  • A sender email verified on your WeGive account if you'll be sending email.

Step 1: Start a New Journey

  1. In the left-hand navigation, click Journeys.

  2. On the Journeys list page, click Create Journey in the top-right corner.

  3. You'll land in the Journey Builder with a blank canvas and a setup panel.

Step 2: Name and Describe Your Journey

In the setup panel, fill in:

  • Name (required) — an internal name only your team will see (e.g., "New Donor Welcome – 2026").

  • Description (required) — a short note about what this journey does and why. Future-you will thank past-you.

Both fields are required before you can save.

Step 3: Choose How Supporters Enter

Every journey needs an entry rule — the condition that puts a supporter into the journey. You have two ways to define it, and you can combine them.

Trigger-based entry

Adds a supporter the moment an action happens. Common triggers include:

  • A donation is made (one-time or recurring)

  • A form is submitted

  • A supporter registers for an event

  • A supporter is tagged

  • A recurring payment fails

  • Consent is updated

Pick a trigger event from the dropdown and, if needed, add trigger conditions (e.g., donation amount greater than $100, campaign equals "Spring Appeal").

Audience-based entry

Adds supporters who match attributes on their profile — tags, giving history, demographics, custom fields, and so on. Useful for one-time blasts to an existing segment or for layering conditions on top of a trigger.

Combining the two

If you set both, use the AND / OR operator between rule groups to control whether supporters need to match all conditions or any of them. Most welcome journeys use trigger-only. Most re-engagement journeys use audience-only.

Step 4: Configure Journey Behavior

A few settings shape how the journey runs:

  • Allow late entry — if on, supporters can join even after the journey has been active a while. Turn off for one-time campaigns where you only want a specific cohort.

  • One-time entry — prevents the same supporter from entering the journey more than once. Keep this on for welcome series; turn off for recurring prompts like annual renewals.

  • Daily message limit — caps how many journey messages a supporter can receive per day (default is 7). Protects your supporters from over-messaging if they're in multiple journeys.

  • Sending schedule — lets you restrict when messages can go out (e.g., only weekdays, 9am–5pm in the recipient's timezone). Great for SMS and letter steps.

  • Exit rules (optional) — define a condition that removes supporters from the journey early (e.g., "exit when donor is tagged 'Unsubscribed'"). If you enable exit rules, you must name the exit rule before you can save.

Step 5: Build the Flow on the Canvas

The canvas is where your journey comes to life. Add steps by dragging from the step panel or clicking the + button between existing steps.

The step types you can use:

  • Send Email (Plain) — a simple text-style email.

  • Send Email (HTML) — a designed email built in the Stripo visual editor.

  • Send SMS — a text message. Requires an SMS-enabled phone number on your account.

  • Send Letter — a physical mailed letter.

  • Wait / Trigger Delay — pause until a specific event happens or a set amount of time passes before moving on.

  • If / Else Logic — branch the journey based on a condition (e.g., "if donation was over $500, send VIP thank-you; else, send standard thank-you"). Each branch has its own set of downstream steps.

  • Redirect — jump a supporter to another step in the journey. Useful for looping or merging branches back together.

To edit any step, click it on the canvas to open the step editor on the right. Fill in subject lines, body copy, timing, and conditions, then close the editor to return to the canvas.

Tip: Use the zoom controls in the corner of the canvas to zoom in, zoom out, or re-center your view when your journey gets large.

Step 6: Save as Draft and Preview

As you build, your journey is in Draft status. Drafts are not active — no supporters are being added and no messages are going out. This is the safe space to iterate.

Before activating:

  • Walk through each step and make sure content is finalized.

  • Confirm your entry rule matches only the people you intend to enroll.

  • Check your sending schedule if time-of-day matters.

Step 7: Activate the Journey

When everything looks right, change the status from Draft to Active. From that moment on:

  • Supporters who match your entry rule start entering the journey.

  • Messages go out according to your step timing and sending schedule.

  • You can track progress from the Journeys list.

Editing a Live Journey

You can continue to edit a journey after it's active, but be aware:

  • Adding steps is safe — existing supporters continue from wherever they are.

  • Deleting a step prompts you to choose what happens to supporters currently on that step:

    • Advance — move them forward to a step you pick.

    • Remove — take them out of the journey entirely.

  • Changing entry rules affects future enrollments only, not supporters already in the journey.

For major changes, it's usually safer to duplicate the journey, edit the copy, and archive the old version.

Common Patterns to Try

  • New donor welcome — Trigger on "donation made" → wait 1 hour → thank-you email → wait 3 days → impact update email → wait 7 days → SMS asking for a story.

  • Recurring upgrade — Audience of active recurring donors with a gift over 12 months old → email suggesting an upgrade → if/else on whether they upgraded → follow-up path.

  • Event follow-up — Trigger on "event registration" → pre-event reminder → day-of SMS → post-event thank-you → survey email.