Quick User Guide

Thank you for sharing your valuable time volunteering for the Brown Annual Fund. This at-a-glance guide will help you navigate the most commonly used features of the Brown Fundraising Volunteer Portal. More detailed instructions can be found in the Volunteer Portal Training section of this site.

The Portal is a tool used to access up-to-date information on your solicitation assignments and to provide the convenience of managing all of your work in one place. The Portal is secure, and sensitive donor information is confidential. Let your staff liaison know if you have any feedback or suggestions. Your personal touch is the secret to the Brown Annual Fund’s success in raising support for the amazing students and faculty on campus!

• Notify your staff liaison(s) that you're interested in utilizing the Volunteer Portal this fiscal year. In order to use the Portal, your liaisons must create an account for you. Be sure to verify your preferred email address with your staff liaison. You will receive an error message if you attempt to login without an account. 

• In order to access the Fundraising Volunteer Portal, you must have a Brown Account and have up to date contact information listed inside your profile. Use the same username and password as your myBrown account to login to the Portal. See How to Login for more details.

• Log in at: https://www.givecampus.com/schools/BrownUniversity/login using the login with shibboleth button.  All volunteers are required to sign the Advancement Confidentiality Agreement the first time they log in each fiscal year. If you experience login troubles, visit the Troubleshooting page.

• Questions? Email BrownFVP@brown.edu or your staff liaison.

• Click Search Constituents in the navigation bar.

• Enter first name, last name, or both in the search bar to search for a specific person.

• Select the Advanced Search checkbox to search by Brown activities or other identifying information, such as class year.

• Click on their name to view a limited amount of information. Be sure to look at their donor status, giving society and ask amount - this will help you identify if they have already given, if they are anonymous and their giving capacity.

• To request an assignment, click Request Assignment next to the constituent’s name in the search results, then click Yes when a confirmation window pops up. Your staff liaison will approve the request within 1 business day. Once your assignment request has been approved you will see more detailed information including their contact information.  By default, you are limited to 50 outreach assignments in the Portal. 

• To unpair from a constituent, visit the constituent’s profile and click Request Unpairing in the top right corner of the profile -- you have the option of providing a reason for your request, -- then click Send Request. 

🔺Note: Spouses are automatically assigned and will count as an additional assignment – Do not request unpairing unless instructed. 

Notes:

• A note is used to add an update on a gift conversation that does not take place via the Portal, such as responses to your emails, and phone calls.  The note is visible to you, your staff liaison, and anyone who may be assigned to solicit that constituent in the future.

• Please create a Note on a constituent’s profile when you receive information through methods like responses to your emails, texts, or phone calls, or personal interactions you’ve had about a gift or update to contact information. Staff may also add a Note to your constituent’s record to relay additional information that may be useful for your outreach. Notes stay on the constituent’s record and are visible to staff and to the next volunteer paired with that constituent.

• To add a note to a constituent’s profile, use the Add Notes button on your assignment’s snapshot or inside their constituent profile. You can access their profile by Search Constituents or your My Assignments Page. See the Planning & Tracking Outreach page for more detail.

Messages:

• You can send a private message to your staff liaison or committee Co-Chairs. To send a Message to your staff liaison, select Messages from the navigation menu.  Select the Send a Message link in the upper right corner. From the drop down menu, select the person you would like to send the message to. Use the message text box for your message.  When your staff liaison responds, you will receive an email notification. 

• Tags allow you to organize your assignment list as you wish. You can then solicit based on various affinities (sports, clubs, or personal connections). Tags are only visible to you and your staff liaison and appear alongside preset filters. You can use tags on the Email page to help identify recipients easier.  

• To add a tag, find the assignment you would like to tag and use the tag textbox inside their assignment snapshot or their constituent profile.

⭐Tip: Tag spouses and anonymous donors. Instructions on how to add a tag can be found on the Planning & Tracking Your Outreach page.

• The Email page is where you go to send emails to multiple of your assignments at once. Use the email templates that your staff liaison provided for you by looking under the heading School Templates. Email tokens let you personalize each individual email with just the click of a button. More information on Email can be found on the Conducting Outreach page.

• You can create email templates from the My Templates section by clicking Create New Template. We recommend creating templates to help you get started - it’s easier than starting from scratch each time. 

• Give the template a name (this is the requesting the title of the template, not your name), a description, a subject, and a format. Then scroll down to add the email copy. If the template is a solicitation, check the box Default as Gift Conversation, if this is a thank you, check the box Default as Thank You – this helps you track your outreach. Before saving, review the email preview for any mistakes in grammar or broken tokens. Click the Create Email Template button under the body text to save. 

• We have found the best result in using the Plain Text template & Email Tokens. More information on creating templates can be found on the Templates & Resources page. 

• Templates can be edited one-off after creating in the Email section. Make permanent edits to your templates in the My Templates section. 

• To help track donations made in response to your outreach, use the following giving link for all FY25 Portal templates and emails: https://brown.edu/go/volunteer25

• You have the option to create an email signature personalized for your outreach, such as your name with class year.  To add a signature to your emails, click My Templates in the left-hand menu. Then click Email Signature in the upper right corner of the screen. Customize your email signature in the text box. Click Update Email Signature to save. More information on creating an email signature can be found on the Templates & Resources page. 

• To aid in your outreach, your staff liaisons have provided resources in the Portal. To view them, click Resources in the left-hand menu, then click the Name of the resource you would like to view. Let your staff liaison know if you need additional resources. More information on Resources can be found on the Templates & Resources page.