Set Up an Impact Story

Impact Stories let you share the real-world results of your supporters' generosity — a photo or video, a headline, and a short story — and deliver it to exactly the right people. This guide walks through every field on the Create Impact Story screen, explains how the audience rules work, and shares best practices and examples.

What is an Impact Story?

An Impact Story is a shareable post (banner image or video, a title, and a description) that you can:

• Publish to a supporter's profile in the donor portal

• Restrict to a specific, rule-defined audience of supporters

• Make completely public with a shareable link

Stories are how you close the loop with donors: instead of "thank you for giving," you can show them the school that got built, the meals that were served, or the milestone they helped reach.

Before you start

Have these ready so you can finish in one pass:

• A 16:9 banner image (JPG), or a YouTube / Vimeo link if your story is a video

• Your headline and story copy

• A clear idea of who should see it (everyone? only certain donors? a single supporter?)

Step-by-step setup

Open Impact Stories → Create Impact Story. The form is a single page with the fields below.

1. Media

Upload a story image and crop it to a 16:9 banner. Click the upload area or drag and drop a JPG. This is the hero image at the top of your story.

If your story is primarily a video, you can skip the image and use the video link field below instead — though a strong banner image still helps the story display well in lists and previews.

2. Publish on date/time

Set the date and time associated with the story's publication. This stamps when the story is published and is the date supporters see on the post. Whether the story is actually live is controlled separately by the Published toggle (see below), so set this date and then publish when you're ready.

The time picker uses your organization's time zone. Double-check AM/PM.

3. Visibility

This is one of the most important choices. There are three options, and they interact with the audience you tag (see Audience Rules below):

Rule of thumb:

• Use Private for personal, donor-specific updates ("Here's the impact of your gift").

• Use Supporters only when you want a sense of community but still want to keep it inside your logged-in supporter base.

• Use Public for stories you'll post on social media, in newsletters, or anywhere you want maximum reach.

4. YouTube or Vimeo link

Optional. Paste a full YouTube or Vimeo URL and the video will embed in the story. Use this when video is the centerpiece of your update.

5. Impact Story Title (required)

Your headline. Keep it short and outcome-focused.

💡 Type the @ symbol to insert contextual data (merge fields). This lets you personalize the title with supporter data where supported.

6. Impact Story Description (required)

The body of your story. Tell the supporter what happened and why their contribution mattered.

💡 The @ symbol works here too for contextual data.

7. Published / Save as draft

A toggle controls whether the story goes live:

• Toggle off (Save as draft): the story is saved but not published. Nothing is visible to supporters yet.

• Toggle on (Publish): the story publishes when you save. You'll be asked to confirm before it goes live.

Save as a draft while you're still writing or waiting on approval, then publish when you're ready. You can return to a draft and publish it at any time.

8. Audience Rules

This is where you define which supporters the story is tagged to — i.e., who it's delivered to and (for Private / Supporters-only stories) who is allowed to view it. This section is powerful, so it has its own detailed walkthrough below.

Audience Rules

Audience Rules let you build a precise segment of supporters using groups of rules. Once you save, matching supporters are tagged into the story, and the story appears on their supporter profile.

A live preview at the bottom — "Preview N people that are in your audience now" — recalculates as you build, so you always know how many supporters currently match.

There are two layers of logic:

1. Between groups — set at the top with Match all groups (AND) or Match any groups (OR).

2. Within a group — each group combines its own rules with AND or OR.

This two-layer structure is what lets you express things like "(is a monthly donor AND gave over $500) OR (lives in Texas)."

Each rule has three parts

1. Field — what you're segmenting on (e.g., Full Name, Total Given, Tag, or any custom field).

2. Comparator — how to compare (e.g., is, is not, contains, greater than).

3. Value — what to compare against (a name, number, tag, etc.). Some comparators need no value (e.g., is empty).

Available fields

The field list is built from three sources:

• Standard supporter fields — core donor attributes such as name, email, giving totals, and tags. (Selecting Full Name with is gives you a searchable picker so you can target one specific supporter — this is how you tag an individual.)

• Supporter Custom Fields — any custom fields your organization has defined on the donor record.

• Household Custom Fields — custom fields defined at the household level.

The available comparators depend on the field type — a text field offers options like is / is not / contains, while a number or date field offers greater than / less than / between, and so on. The form only shows comparators that make sense for the field you picked.

Combining groups: AND vs OR

• Match all groups (AND): a supporter must satisfy every group to be included. Use this to narrow — each group adds another requirement.

• Match any groups (OR): a supporter is included if they satisfy any group. Use this to combine distinct audiences — each group is its own segment.

Add Group / Add Rule / Remove

• Add Group creates a new group; the AND/OR selector between groups controls how it joins the others.

• Add Rule adds another condition inside a group.

• Remove Group deletes a group and its rules.

Rule Tinker (truth table) ⚙

The gear icon opens Rule Tinker, a sandbox for testing your logic. It shows your current rule groups and a Truth Table where you can toggle each rule on/off and Add Test Case to see how different combinations resolve to "in" or "out." Use it to sanity-check complex AND/OR setups before you publish — it's the fastest way to catch a group that's accidentally excluding everyone.

Live audience preview

As you edit, WeGive recalculates the number of unique supporters who match (you'll briefly see "Calculating audience preview…"). The count is distinct — a supporter who matches more than one group is only counted once.

⚠ A preview of 0 usually means your logic is too strict. Most often this is because you used Match all groups (AND) when you meant OR, or stacked too many AND rules inside a single group. Loosen the logic and watch the count update.

Worked examples

Example 1 — A single supporter (a personal thank-you)

• Visibility: Private

• Group 1: Full Name is "John Smith"

• Result: only John sees the story, even if he forwards the link.

Example 2 — Major donors only

• Visibility: Supporters only

• Group 1: Total Given greater than 5000

• Result: every supporter who has given more than $5,000 is tagged and can share it with other logged-in supporters.

Example 3 — Two distinct audiences (OR between groups)

• Top selector: Match any groups (OR)

• Group 1: Tag is "Monthly Donor"

• Group 2: Total Given greater than 1000

• Result: anyone who is a monthly donor or has given over $1,000 is included.

Example 4 — A narrow, high-value segment (AND between groups)

• Top selector: Match all groups (AND)

• Group 1: Tag is "Capital Campaign"

• Group 2: Total Given greater than 10000

• Result: only supporters who are tagged Capital Campaign and have given over $10,000.

Example 5 — A public story for everyone

• Visibility: Public

• Audience Rules: leave empty (or set a broad rule)

• Result: a shareable link anyone can open — ideal for newsletters and social posts.

Best practices

• Match visibility to audience. If you tag a specific person, pair it with Private so a forwarded link can't leak the story. Save Public for content you actively want spread.

• Use OR for "any of these," AND for "all of these." When in doubt, read your setup out loud as a sentence — it should match what you intend.

• Verify with Rule Tinker before publishing, especially when you mix AND and OR. A 30-second test case can save you from sending a story to the wrong list.

• Always glance at the live count before you publish. If it's 0 or wildly off, fix the logic first.

• Lead with the outcome in your title. "200 families housed this winter" beats "An update from our team."

• Draft first, publish when ready. Use Save as draft for anything awaiting copy edits or approval, then flip to Publish.

• Personalize with @ merge fields in the title and description where it adds warmth, but preview to make sure every field resolves.

• Double-check the publish date/time and AM/PM so a scheduled story goes live exactly when you expect.