# Build an audience

> Grouping donors into a named list so an email campaign reaches the right people.

Source: https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/build-an-audience/

**Who can do this:** Owner, Admin, Finance, Member, Viewer

An audience is a named group of donors, so you can send one email campaign to exactly the people it's meant for instead of everyone. It is either **Hand-picked**, a list you build yourself, or **Rule-based**, a group DonorCARE keeps up to date from conditions you set.

## Before you start

- For a hand-picked audience, build your donor list first, using the Donors table's filters and search, so you know who you're adding before you start.
- For a rule-based audience, decide the conditions first (tags, campaign, amount, dates or churn risk).

## Steps

1. **Open Donors → Audiences, then select Create Audience.**

   *Screenshot: the Audiences page with the Create Audience dialog open.*
2. **Give it a name and, optionally, a description.** Name it for what it's for — "Major Donors 2026" or "Ramadan appeal — lapsed" reads better later than "List 1".

3. **Under Type, choose Hand-picked or Rule-based.** Hand-picked is the default. For a rule-based audience, see [Build a rule-based audience](#build-a-rule-based-audience) below.

4. **Select Create.** A hand-picked audience appears as an empty row in the list, ready for members.

5. **Go to Donors → All Donors, filter or search for the donors you want, then select them** using the checkboxes.

   *Screenshot: the Donors table with several rows selected and the bulk-action bar visible.*
6. **Choose Add to Audience from the bulk actions, then select the audience you just created.** A confirmation shows how many donors were added. The list offers only Hand-picked audiences, because a rule-based audience takes its donors from its rule and never by hand.

7. **Repeat from a different filter to keep adding to the same audience**, or create a separate audience for a different group.

## Build a rule-based audience

A rule-based audience fills itself with the donors who match **all** of the conditions you set. It is updated when you save and once a day.

1. **In the Create Audience dialog, give it a name, then under Type choose Rule-based.** Condition fields appear below.

2. **Set at least one condition.** Create stays unavailable until you do. The fields are:
   - **Date range** — donors who made a completed gift in that range.
   - **Tags** — donors with the tags you pick.
   - **All campaigns** — change it to one fundraising campaign to reach only the donors who gave to it.
   - **Min RM** and **Max RM** — the donor's total given, not a single gift. If you set only a maximum, a note reads "Includes people with no gift yet."
   - **Any churn risk** — change it to a band such as High churn risk or Critical churn risk.

3. **Select Create.** A message reads "N donors match this rule." with the number of donors found. The audience shows **Rule-based** under Type and its current donors under Members.

A rule-based audience has no **Manage Members** action in its row menu. To change who is in it, choose **Edit** and change the rule.

### When a row says "Rule needs fixing"

This label appears when a tag or campaign the rule uses has been deleted. Emails to the audience are paused until the rule is edited. Open the row menu, choose **Edit**, remove or replace the deleted tag or campaign, and select **Save**.

### Changing the type of an audience

- A Hand-picked audience that already has members cannot be changed to Rule-based, because the rule would replace them. In **Edit**, Rule-based is unavailable and the screen says "This audience has hand-picked members. Create a new rule-based audience instead."
- A Rule-based audience can be changed to Hand-picked. The screen says "The current members are kept as a hand-picked list." and you can then manage them by hand.

## See who is in an audience

On **Donors → All Donors**, open the **All audiences** filter and choose an audience. The list shows only that audience's members, and a "Filtered view" banner reminds you the filter is on. You can combine it with the other filters, for example an audience plus a tag, and **Clear all** on the banner removes every filter at once. The **Export** menu then offers **Export filtered**, so you can download exactly that audience as a CSV. See [Find donors](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/find-donors/).

## Using an audience

Once it has members, select it as the recipient list when composing an email campaign under **Email**. A Hand-picked audience doesn't update itself as new donations come in, so revisit it and add anyone new before you send to it again. A Rule-based audience is recounted before each send, so it follows its rule. If its rule can no longer be applied, the send is refused until you fix the rule. See [Send an email campaign](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/email/send-an-email-campaign/).

## Related

- [Find donors](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/find-donors/)
- [Read a donor profile](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/understand-a-donor-profile/)
- [Send an email campaign](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/email/send-an-email-campaign/)